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Press Release
Published in The Courier Post
The Diet Doc Column
6-16-09
By: Dr. Joe Klemczewski
Healthy Weight Loss for Kids
Part I
I’m very heartened with the efforts I see at many levels of society to decrease the rapid increase in childhood obesity, but still just cautiously optimistic. Cartoons and public service commercials are blending in healthy food messages, fast-food restaurants are providing better options, and schools are working toward improvement, but is it enough? Adolescents are the fastest-growing demographic sliding into worsening cultural weight gain and as a parent, it frankly saddens me. Last week I was at a week-long Boy Scout camp with my sons and at every merit badge class/activity, every troop formation, and at every open swim/aquatic activity, I found almost a perfect one-third rule. One third of the kids were slim and healthy appearing, one third had very noticeable beginnings of excess flabbiness, and one third were obese or very close to it. Knowing that experts agree that around 10% of children do have genetic/metabolic reasons pushing them toward a heavier body type, why the other almost-60%?
The psychological, sociological, functional, and health implications to the kids themselves are immense. “Kids are resilient,” right? When it comes to the impact I’m talking about, research suggests not so much. Irreversible health damage and personality/behavioral change can be severe. When the Surgeon General issued the Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity in 2001, multiple health agencies collaborated to produce one of the greatest summaries I believe ever presented to Congress. Of the 10 critical facets colliding with our children, marketing, schools, public environment, and even the restaurant industry aren’t number one. We are. Parents are. Over 35% of food is now consumed outside the home, close to 80% of families are either single-parent or both-parents-working, and we live in a new era. When I was a boy my mom had to hunt for us to come in for lunch after we ran out the door in the morning. She had to call neighbors when it was dark to figure out where we were. Today we have to pull kids away from cell phones, computers, cable TV, and video games while picking up empty bags of potato chips and snacks.
Blame Nabisco, Bill Gates…Ronald McDonald?
Think of all the variables that influence your children’s eating and activity. The only thing that loops them all together is you; the parent. You are the only person standing between your child and health doom and possible deteriorating mental health and aptitude. If you want a game plan and you’re willing to be the coach, I’ll be looking for you in a couple of weeks!
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7-17-08
Healthy Weight Loss for Kids
Part II
May I give you my opinion on the correct action to help children manage their weight and health? I’ve had my share of parents who come in with a fix-my-kid attitude; some incredibly lovingly, yet feeling helpless. Think age-appropriateness. Younger children won’t necessarily have the desire for big change, but mid-adolescents may. Older teens may be ready for structure and a goal of weight loss while younger kids may not have enough control over their own food environment and schedule to be successful. Kids at all levels need to be assessed in terms of their maturity level to determine how much structure will help and how much may harm. I believe that children under 11 to 12 years old should not be made to diet. Please don’t misinterpret that as “not made to eat healthy.” A parent or physician should not say, “You’re now on a diet; you can’t eat this and you can only eat that…” The mid-teen years may bring an incredible desire for some kids to control and change their body – puberty tends to do that! Still, too much structure and they feel like they’re imprisoned and they’ll feel like they’re failing when they can’t be “perfect.”
Here’s the key: parental modeling. Ahhhh!! I knew he was going to say that! He’s putting it all back on me! Let’s skip right past the obvious. The obvious being, how can a parent ask a child to diet if the parent is 40 pounds overweight? Move to the constructive, positive side of this coin. “So, Honey, you’re not happy with how you look? You know what? I’ve wanted to shed a few pounds too. How about starting a little program together? We can both learn some cool recipes (spending time with your kids sound like a good idea?), we encourage each other, we can go on bike rides, we can….”
I asked if I could give you my opinion; now let me tell you something that I will not back down on – it is a fact. If you pressure your kids to lose weight, they will interpret it as “I’m not good enough.” You will exponentially increase the likelihood of not only eating disorders, but social/behavioral scars that may never heal. You must be careful how you approach this. Stay positive, understand that you control their environment to a large degree, and that monkey-see-monkey-do, though not in the book of Proverbs, is true.
I’ll carry this topic one more week for a Part III and give you some practical tips my wife and I use with our own four children.
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8-17-08
Healthy Weight Loss for Kids
Part III
Finishing a small series on childhood nutrition, I want to give a handful of suggestions to help parents help their kids. Recall from the first two articles that parent modeling, age-appropriateness, and being positive are all critical elements. It may be a good reminder that the world of a child reaches about as far as the mirror. Studies show that almost every child’s greatest concern already revolves around self image and if they receive any attention that may confirm their self-doubt, it may as well have been shouted through a megaphone by a million people.
Here’s a checklist to get you started:
1) Information/education
2) Family participation
3) Planning
4) Fun rules/boundaries
5) Praise/confirmation
Choose to help educate yourself and your children as you would on any other subject. Get a book, watch Supersize Me, point out health articles, and fortify the child’s goal with reason. “Look at this…isn’t it great that we’ve started working on our health? This is why it’s so important…”
I hope by my repetition, you hear the parental modeling issue screaming off the page. Monkey-see-monkey-do. Kids pick up on hypocrisy and inconsistency like it’s their job.
Tangible planning helps anyone. If you have good food and healthy snacks available and the junk food is scarce, you’re setting up a successful environment. If you don’t plan ahead, you’re likely to fall back on old habits inside or outside the home. Spend some time learning, thinking ahead, and preparing.
It becomes tougher when other children in the family may not need to lose weight, but health is just as important as weight loss. Telling one child he can only eat fruit while his big brother pounds down a bag of Doritos isn’t plan-A. Rules such as healthy meals have to be eaten before a snack is a no-brainer. First-round snacks should be healthy: yogurt, fruit, veggies with dip, string cheese, trail mix, a fruit smoothie…get them filled up on good meals, good snacks, then a sugary snack may be doled out with some accountability and infrequency. Soda and junk food in general need boundaries such as not having it in the house, but allowing it at special occasions. Though you need to have options and flexibility, teach kids that like other things in life, there are reasons some foods aren’t for daily occurrence, but are worth waiting for. Delayed gratification, restraint, and discipline….hmmm….seems like we may do well to bring these old-fashioned principles back into societal norm.
The opposite of tip-toeing around the delicacies of childhood psyche to make sure we’re not adding harm, is to lavish them with affirmation. “I’m so proud of you for working as hard as you have! I can really tell you’re getting leaner! It is so awesome how disciplined I’ve seen you being!” Love your kids just as they are, but help them become healthy and happy. If you don’t, who will?
Dr. Joe (Klemczewski, PhD) is the founder of The Diet Doc in Evansville and together with Dr. Uloth, MD, has coauthored The Diet Docs’ Guide to Permanent Weight Loss.
