Diet Plans for Children and Toddlers

Obesity has reached alarming heights in this country. Right now approximately 2/3 of all adult Americans are overweight or obese. Many parents make the mistake of thinking that their children will simply outgrow their weight problems, but the statistics simply don’t support this. Studies show that 50% of obese school-aged children will grow up to become obese adults, and if your child is overweight by their teen age years they have an 80% chance of becoming overweight as an adult. Obesity increases our chances for developing health problems such as diabetes and heart disease. As parents it is our responsibility first to recognize the problem and second to help our children. The eating and exercise patterns that we learn as children can be hard for us to change as adults. How many of us were brought up with the “eat everything that is on your plate” way of thinking? It can be hard to get that message out of our heads and replace it with, the healthier message of eating until we are full.

With the rise of video/computer games and TV children have become much more sedentary than they were years ago, and this has had an impact on the number of overweight and obese children in this country. In order to loose weight frequent exercise and healthy eating habits must become a part of your life. This is difficult for most adults to do, so just imagine how tough it is for children, who don’t realize the long-term consequences of being overweight.

How can I help my child to loose weight?

As always, talk to your pediatrician before beginning any type of exercise or weight loss program.

The most important thing that we, as parents, can do for our children is to set the example for them. It will be much easier for them to be successful in losing weight if we are eating healthy and exercising with them, so involve the whole family instead of singling out the child or children who are overweight.

Diet

Don’t make your child count calories or worry about carbohydrates and fat grams. Just keep it simple and teach them to exercise often and choose healthy meals and snacks. It’s also a good idea to tell your child to only eat until they are full. Don’t make them eat everything on their plate.

If your child is already overweight and needs to loose a few pounds, a good way to start is to think about the way that your child eats right now. Think about the types of foods and drinks that your child typically consumes in a day. Are they healthy foods? How much is your child eating at a time? Are the portions too big for him/her? How often does he/she snack during the day? After answering these questions, you should notice some unhealthy patterns. This will help you figure out what areas to work on. Some simple changes can help a lot, such as cutting out bedtime snacks, not super-sizing his/her portions, eliminating soda, or switching to low-fat milk.

Another important first step is to help your child stop gaining any more weight. If your child is only moderately overweight and hasn’t completed puberty, this might be enough because as he/she grows taller they might grow into their weight. To do this, simply cut back on the number of calories that your child takes in each day.

However, for many kids, simply maintaining their weight will not be enough. Once your child has reached a stable weight and is no longer gaining, you can calculate the number of calories that you need to cut in order to help them reach a healthy weight. If your child needs to loose 5 pounds a year, cut his/her diet by 50 calories each day. For 10 pounds, cut it by 100 calories, etc. For children who are continuing to gain weight, more calories will need to be eliminated. For instance, if your child is gaining an extra 6 pounds every year and already needs to loose 9 pounds, this is a total of 15 pounds. 150 calories will need to be cut from his/her daily intake.

Exercise

Exercise is another great way to help a child both stop gaining and start losing weight. Exercise helps to burn additional calories. This can be paired with healthy eating to help eliminate the extra calories in your child’s diet. So, if your child needs to eliminate 80 calories per day from their diet to reach a healthy weight, they can either eat 80 calories less or they can exercise to burn 80 calories a day. Your child could also do a mixture of both to eliminate the extra calories. By spending 30-60 minutes each day doing an activity that your child likes they can burn 50-100 calories a day. These activities could be walking, roller blading, playing baseball, basketball, soccer, swimming, etc.

Weight loss is difficult for adults and children alike. Never make fun of your child for being overweight. This will only make them feel badly about themselves. Instead talk to them about why they need to make changes in their diet and activity level, make it a lifestyle change for the whole family, and praise them for their efforts. You can do it together!