Childhood Obesity - Do you have an overweight child? We offer tips to help your child lose weight and get fit!

The My Overweight Child blog will help you keep informed about the latest research, findings, and resources available to parents of overweight or obese kids. There are many knowledgeable people working on the increasingly dire problem of childhood obesity - and we want to give parents a place where they can check in regularly to see the latest studies and tips available to help you help your child lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

We invite you to add your comments - if you have feedback for the blog, would like some specific topics covered, or you just want to share your experience as a parent dealing with childhood obesity.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

How to Curb Emotional Eating

Do you use food to deal with your emotions? If you're not sure, keep a food diary for a few days. Every time you eat something, record your emotions at the time. Are you happy or excited, sad, bored, angry, stressed or anxious, lonely - or neutral? If you see a pattern of eating when you have certain emotions, you may be an emotional eater.

What can you do about emotional eating? The first step is to recognize which emotions trigger you to reach for a brownie. Then, replace the food with another activity that will help to defuse the emotion. For example, turn on some loud music and dance to relieve stress or anger, take a walk in the woods to alleviate boredom, call a friend and make a date if you're lonely. Choose a funny movie if you're sad.

Learning how to substitute healthy activities for raiding the refrigerator will help you to stick to a healthy eating plan.

Posted By: Lori S

Comments:

glenda on 7/31/2010
My gr.daughter eats constantly. she is only 5 yo. I have found that if she doesn't get her way or something she wants or no one is playing with her then she wants to eat. And even after she has had say a popsicle then she just keeps wanting more and more. And when she eats dinner she always has her face down in her bowl or plate like she is starving. I feel like maybe she is stressed because of her mother and fathers absences in her life. Mom works odd shifts and dad lives in another state but sees her every other weekend. So she basically lives with her grandparents.