Grow Up Strong -- Maintain a Healthy Weight
Childhood is the perfect time to develop lifelong healthy eating patterns and prevent weight problems. Overall, you want to help your child learn how to gauge her internal hunger cues and manage her food intake accordingly.
Teaching her to follow the rule of "eat when you're hungry, and stop when you're full" is a surprisingly simple way to help her maintain a healthy weight and a healthy relationship with food.
Also, you can help your child avoid gaining excess weight with these healthy strategies:
- Offer well-balanced meals that are low in fat and sugar. Fat should make up no more than 30% of daily calories after age 2.
- Keep an eye on portions. Serving larger than recommended portion sizes encourages overeating.
- Set specific snack times. This helps discourage constant munching. The more snacks kids are given, the more calories they eat in one day.
- Limit sugar-filled juices, drinks and sodas. Each extra can or cup per day boosts your child's risk of obesity.
- Be active on weekends and vacations. Help your child find physical activities that are geared to her interests and personality.
- Limit TV watching to an hour or two each day.
- Practice what you preach. If you eat well and stay physically active, your child is more likely to do the same.
By maintaining a healthy body mass index (BMI), your child can reduce her risk of developing several chronic health conditions in adulthood, especially when she also makes smart food choices and exercises regularly.
However, eating too many high-calorie, nutrient-poor foods and failing to get enough physical activity can lead to child obesity. Unless controlled with a healthier diet and exercise, weight problems can continue into adulthood, increasing the risk of physical problems later in life due to excess strain on the joints, heart, and lungs. If not properly treated, obesity can lead to type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, sleep apnea, and certain types of cancer.
RealAge Projection: Getting into the habit of eating a diverse diet and being physically active will help kids maintain a healthy weight. If they maintain their weight and body mass index at desirable levels as adults, their RealAge could be more like 34 when they're really 40.
