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

The Childhood Obesity Prevention Demonstration Project of Watauga County (NC) has spent seven months promoting healthy living. This month it is celebrating the accomplishments of all its participants by hosting Family FunFest. The fest is scheduled for Saturday, May 30, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., at Boone Mall:

Family FunFest will feature a number of activities for participants of all ages including inflatables  a giant rock wall, giant slide, obstacle course, moon walk, and a hula hoop contest. There will also be free food samples from our Healthy Cooking Contest finalists, as well as budget-friendly cooking tips. (Source: High Country Press)

The Obesity Project partnered with the Eat Smart, Move More N.C. program, which encourages communities, schools and businesses to promote healthy eating and physical activity.

Families who are looking for additional ways to improve their children's eating and exercise habits may also want to consider the many benefits of a healthy weight loss summer camp.

Labels: childhood_obesity, prevention, families

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A study from the Netherlands found that family involvement is a key factor in helping overweight teens and children lose weight.

 

Hiltje O. Luttikhuis of the University Medical Center in Groningen, the Netherlands, studied whether changes in lifestyle, family involvement, surgery, or drugs were effective in helping young people lose weight.

Family lifestyle interventions that included behavioral therapy and changes in diet and exercise worked better than self-help programs. Teens and children on drug therapy suffered some adverse effects.

"While there is limited quality data to recommend one treatment program over another, this review shows that combined behavioral lifestyle interventions compared to standard care or self-help can produce a significant and clinically meaningful reduction in overweight in children and adolescents," the study's authors wrote in the journal Cochrane Review.

Labels: weight_loss, families, involvement

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A new study from the Netherlands found that family involvement is a key factor in helping overweight teens and children lose weight.

Hiltje O. Luttikhuis of the University Medical Center in Groningen, the Netherlands, studied whether changes in lifestyle, family involvement, surgery, or drugs were effective in helping young people lose weight.

Family lifestyle interventions that included behavioral therapy and changes in diet and exercise worked better than self-help programs. Teens and children on drug therapy suffered some adverse effects.

"While there is limited quality data to recommend one treatment program over another, this review shows that combined behavioral lifestyle interventions compared to standard care or self-help can produce a significant and clinically meaningful reduction in overweight in children and adolescents," the study's authors wrote in the journal Cochrane Review.

Labels: weight_loss, families, involvement

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Having obese grandparents increases the likelihood that a child will be overweight, even if his parents are normal weight. However, if both parents are obese, a child has double the risk for overweight, regardless of the weight of his grandparents.

Researchers examined data from 2,591 children ages 5 to 19 years old and from their parents and grandparents - the first study to do so. They concluded that overweight patterns are cross-generational.

"Primary care physicians should engage families in discussions about generational patterns of weight as both a window on the children's risk of overweight and an opportunity to discuss familial patterns of diet and physical activity that can affect the health of multiple generations," according to the report published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Practice.

Labels: genetics, families, predictors

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Overweight teenagers have overweight friends and parents, who in turn may influence them to remain heavy, according to a new study from RTI International.

Teens and their friends were likely to be close to the same weights, regardless of their socio-economic status, smoking status, and household characteristics. Overweight girls, in particular, were more likely to have overweight friends. The researchers used data on children in the seventh to 12th grades that had been collected during the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.

Dr. Justin Trogdon, the author of the study, said the results help to explain why so many more teenagers remain overweight.

This study appears in the Journal of Health Economics.

Labels: families, influences, peers

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As concerns over childhood obesity continue to build, parents and caregivers have the unenviable responsibility of helping children learn how to make healthy choices about their food and level of physical activity. A contributing writer at About.com offered ten tips for getting kids to eat good food.

"1. Prepare healthy meals together. Engaging children in the preparation of kid-friendly healthy dishes is so fun and so very messy, but children are more likely to eat something that they've helped to prepare."

Other tips included: Take Children Grocery Shopping, Plan a Family Taste Test, and Show Kids How to Grow Food. Habits developed during childhood often stay with a person throughout his or her life, so setting a healthy example is important. Source: About.com

Learn more about healthy eating and exercise at Weight Loss Central.

Labels: healthy_eating, families, having_fun

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The program TrimKids was created 18 years ago by an exercise physiology professor who wanted to encourage entire families to get fit together. The program has been implemented into several New Orleans-area YMCAs.

"Through weekly meetings, nutrition lessons, exercise sessions and visits with behavior counselors, children learn how to control their weight and make healthy choices."

Louisiana's obesity rate is currently higher than the national average. A trend it's hoping to change through programs like TrimKids. Source: The Times - Picayune

Labels: nutrition, exercise, families

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The best role models kids can have for physical activity and healthy eating are their parents. Studies have shown that overweight parents are far more likely to have overweight children. With spring right around corner, there are lots of things the family can do to increase physical activity.

"Limit the amount of time you watch television. By doing this, you will find it easier to limit the amount of time your child watches TV and movies, or plays video and computer games. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a maximum of two hours of viewing time for children each day."

Pick some favorite family outdoor activities like playing Frisbee, hiking, or gardening. Modeling a healthy lifestyle while kids are young will go a long way toward ensuring they become healthy adults. Read more at SeattlePI.com.

Wellspring offers a family camp geared to getting families on the road to a healthy lifestyle. Learn more at WellspringFamilyCamp.com.

Labels: fitness, families, role_models

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ABC News posted ways for parents to help their children in the battle of the bulge. By using simple planning strategies provided by the American Obesity Association, families can incorporate healthy eating habits and exercise into their lives. Some of the tips include:

"'Create a family activity that involves fitness, such as walks, bike rides or Rollerblading' and 'Find other families in your neighborhood and schedule time for basketball, hide and seek and other active games.'"

Read more tips to get and stay healthy online.

Labels: healthy_living, families, tips

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Researchers have established a link between childhood obesity and family violence.

If a child's mother is being abused by her partner, that child is more likely to be obese at age five years old, according to a new study from Boston University School of Medicine.

• Renee Boynton-Jarrett studied 1595 children born between 1998 and 2000.
• She tested them at birth and at ages one, three and five-years-old. About half lived in households where their mothers were being abused by their partners.
• After factoring out other issues such as the hours spent watching television, maternal depression, and smoking during pregnancy,
• Dr. Boynton-Jarrett found a higher incidence of obesity among five year-olds whose mothers were being abused.

"Intimate partner violence may influence maternal responsiveness to the socio-emotional needs of the child," according to the report published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. "Witnessing family violence may be associated with emotional distress, and emotion-focused coping using food to self-soothe and address negative emotions."
 

Labels: families, violence, abuse

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Families whose children are overweight do not behave differently or have different attitudes toward food compared to families whose children are of normal weight, according to a study from the Food Marketing Institute.

• Researchers looked at five factors such as how much the children influence food purchases, how often the children go shopping for food with their parents, how often children play outside, and how important it was to parents that their children stay slim.
• There were few differences between families with overweight children and families with normal weight children.
• One was that the overweight group tended to make children "clean their plates" and have more rules around eating.
• A slightly higher percentage of normal weight children play outside more often than the overweight group.
   

Labels: families

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A new study conducted by the IBM Corporation found that employers are in a powerful position to positively affect the health not only of employees, but employees’ families.

“In 2008, IBM launched an Internet-based ‘children’s rebate program’ that let employees and their families choose from a selection of goals revolving around healthy eating, group physical activity, reduced ‘screen time’ and positive parental role-modeling. A $150 check was offered as incentive to complete the 12-week program.” - Source: Reuters

Of the more than 22,000 employees who signed up for the program, about 12,000 completed it. On average, children whose families participated in the program increased their physical activity by 16 percent. Screen time was reduced by 6 percent – not a lot, but an improvement none-the-less. IBM believes its model could be just as successful in other corporations, both large and small.

 

Labels: wellness, families

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