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.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Multi-Level Approach the Best Solution

Childhood obesity was a hot topic at the 55th annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine. The symposium was chaired by Bryan K. Smith, Ph.D., who said that, to date, few of the "solutions" to childhood obesity are actually working.

"Smith noted that while numerous programs show short-term weight loss or increased physical activity among children, little work is being done to look at the long-range impact of the programs in terms of their effectiveness in actually reducing obesity rates."

Smith went on to say that the most promising programs are those that use a multidisciplinary approach. These approaches don't only encourage physical activity; they also promote healthy eating and emphasize minimizing the time kids spend in front of television screens and computers monitors. Source: Medical News Today

Labels: cures, effectiveness, solutions

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Breakfasts with a Variety of Foods Improve Teens' Moods and Behavior

An Australian study found that teens that eat a balanced breakfast with a variety of nutrients from different food groups show improved moods and behaviors.

Each time a child added a new choice from a different food group, he or she would score higher on tests for mood and behaviors on questionnaires completed by their parents, regardless of family income or the child's weight or exercise routine.

"It didn't matter what they added, just that they added something different like a banana to their cereal to make that meal more complete with vitamins and minerals," said lead researcher Therese O'Sullivan of the Telethon Institute for Child Health in Perth.

She and her colleagues analyzed breakfasts of more than 800 14-year-olds over a three-day period. Many skipped breakfast completely, and the vast majority ate from only one or two food groups.

Labels: breakfast, nutrition, variety

Monday, June 23, 2008

Parents Need to Count Calories

Susannah Locketti is a working mother of two who is often sought out by other moms for nutrition advice. How, they want to know, can they make sure their kids eat healthy when life is so hectic that fast foods and pre-packaged meals seem to be the only options.

"Phase one of the plan consists of switching out every white flour product in the house with a whole grain alternative... I remember the first day my kids ate 'brown bread', as they called it. It was 100 percent whole wheat and they refused it for three days... They eventually caved and whole wheat bread is a staple in my school lunches."

Parents can also switch to whole grain cereals, and replace chips and cookies with yogurt and string cheese. Source: The Kingston Observer

Labels: healthy_eating, nutrition, parenting

Friday, June 20, 2008

Actions Speak Louder than Words

In an effort to help combat the continued problem of childhood obesity, the University of Minnesota recently reviewed the techniques schools and parents use in dealing with overweight children. They found that most of the current techniques don't work.

"University of Minnesota researchers who study adolescent health found that parents who correctly perceived their kids as overweight tended to use only one strategy - advising them to diet. But five years later, those kids were far more likely to still be too heavy than were overweight kids whose parents had no idea they were fat and did nothing."

The findings have prompted researchers to suggest that parents encourage their children by modeling a healthy lifestyle. As a family, go for walks, take bike rides, or even work out together. And try to cook healthy, nutritious meals at home together, too. Source: The Truth Newspaper - Elkhart, Colorado.

Labels: encouragment, enviroment, parents

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Forget Fad Diets

If you want to lose weight, there's no shortage of "experts" offering the latest "breakthrough" in dieting and weight loss. The problem is that few fad diets actually work. Ginny Graves from Allure magazine spent some time with real diet and nutrition experts to find out what they recommend.

"Weight loss happens in two stages that require two different approaches. First, there's the losing stage. That's all about food restriction. There's no particular diet that seems to be more effective than another one; it has to do with individual preference - what you can stick with long-term. The weight-loss stage lasts an average of three to six months."

The second stage is maintenance. Exercise is more beneficial during this stage to help maintain weight loss. Experts also say that if weight loss can be maintained for three years, people are usually "safe," and have developed a healthy lifestyle that will keep them from regaining the weight. Source: MSNBC

Labels: experts, fad_diets

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Does Feeding Style Affect Weight?

Research that was recently presented at the BC Dairy Foundation Milk & Cookies Event shows that a parent's feeding style can influence a child's weight and attitude toward food. Force feeding, offering rewards (like dessert), restricting foods, or restricting nothing at all are methods that, though well-intentioned, can backfire.

"Children are more sensitive to the satiety cues than adults and know when to stop eating. When you force feed, you disrupt your child's natural satiety cues, which may lead to overeating later. You also create a lifelong aversion or dislike for the foods you force your child eat. Force feeding can also be associated with negative behaviors such as sneak eating."

If there are foods that you'd like to restrict, make sure your child knows that even though you're choosing not to have those foods in your house, other houses will have them and they're okay to eat. Also, lead by example by eating the foods you want your child to eat. Source: CNW Group

Labels: attitudes, feeding_style, influences

Friday, June 13, 2008

Low-status Monkeys Tend to Overeat

Does your social status affect your weight? If you're a monkey, it might.

Researchers at Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, found that female rhesus monkeys that were lowest in status tended to choose high-calorie foods when offered them. Socially dominant females did not.

Dr. Mark Wilson, chief of the Division of Psychobiology, believes that low-status females may be using high-calorie foods to relieve stress. Their eating choices resulted in weight gain and the increased production of hormones such as cortisol. They also developed more belly fat, which is associated with type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome in humans.

Labels: overeating, pressures, society

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Study Offers 'First Encouraging Finding'

After 25 years of steady increases, 2005-2006 saw the first leveling off of obesity rates among U.S. children. The rate is still high, at 32 percent, but remained the same as 2003-2004.

"Some experts said that if the leveling-off is real, it could be because more schools and parents are emphasizing better eating habits and more exercise."

Experts also warn that it's too early to celebrate. The next few years will be good indicators as to whether the leveling off is genuine or was simply an anomaly. Source: The Associated Press

Labels: encouragment, obesity_rates, statistics

Monday, June 09, 2008

Parents Who Ignore Weight Issues do Better than Those Who Push Diets

Telling your overweight child to diet may backfire, according to a new study from the University of Minnesota.

Professor Dianne Neumark-Sztainer wanted to find out if sending parents "obesity report cards" from school did any good in helping overweight children win the battle of the bulge. Such reports are required by law in certain states.

Prof. Neumark-Sztainer used data on 300 overweight middle and high school students that had been collected by Project EAT. Sixty percent of the boys' parents and 46 percent of the girls' parents wrongly believed that their children were at their ideal weight. Of the rest of the parents who knew their children were overweight, 60 percent encouraged dieting.

Five years later Prof. Neumark-Sztainer reassessed the children. The ones who were encouraged to diet were more likely to still be overweight. The figures were 75 percent of boys whose parents encouraged dieting compared to 52 percent whose parents ignored the issue. Among girls, the figures were 66 percent compared to 44 percent.

Prof. Neumark-Sztainer believes the important thing for parents to do is to set a good example of healthy eating and appropriate exercise. She also indicated that "school obesity report cards" might be counterproductive.

Her study appears in Pediatrics.

Labels: advice, diet, parents

Friday, June 06, 2008

Blaming Doesn't Work

Over the past 10 years, cigarette use has dropped dramatically in the U.S. Many people cite not only an increased awareness of the dangers, but also an increased social stigma - smoking just isn't cool anymore. Many of these same people, however, warn that trying to create a similar social stigma around obesity won't work.

"[Kelly] Brownell authored a 2006 study showing that when overweight people feel stigmatized because of their weight, they respond by eating more and giving up on diets. 'Obese people are under such enormous pressure to lose weight,' he says... 'To think that you could add much more to that pressure is wishful thinking.' The stress may make them turn to food for comfort or, as one researcher hypothesizes, might even contribute to the physiological processes of obesity..."

Instead, experts encourage an emphasis on healthy lifestyle choices like exercise and nutritious food. Stressing the importance of these factors rather than the numbers on the scale is likely to have better long-term results. Source: U.S. News

Labels: rejection, responsibility, society

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Not Just an American Issue

The problem of childhood obesity stretches far and wide, reaching all the way to China. The Chinese National Task Force on Childhood Obesity has found that one in five Chinese children are overweight, and more than 7 percent are obese.

"The Chinese experts looked at 80,000 children from 11 major cities, and found an increase of 156 percent in the numbers of obese children between 1996 and 2006. Meanwhile, the number of overweight children grew 52 percent."

Unfortunately, an encroaching Western lifestyle is partially to blame for the increase. Since the country opened economically in the 1970s, people have begun making more money, buying more high-fat foods, and becoming more sedentary. Source: The Age

Labels: chinese, global, lifestyle

Monday, June 02, 2008

Farmers Pressure Lawmakers

Farmers have begun pressuring New York State lawmakers to set higher nutritional standards for public schools. Higher standards would not only help combat childhood obesity, but could potentially create a lot of business for New York farmers.

"Components of a healthy-schools bill include requiring the state to set nutritional and dietary standards for school meals and snacks, with an emphasis on unsweetened fruits, vegetables, whole grains and other nutritional foods."

The farmers make a strong case for the higher standards by reminding lawmakers that produce and other items shipped from farms in upstate New York will be cost-effective because packing and shipping costs will be reduced. Both the Assembly and Senate passed their own versions of healthy-schools bills, but they couldn't reach a compromise before the session ended. Source: Press Connects

Labels: farmers, legislation, schools