Posted July 14, 2009
Putting your child on a diet to lose weight could lead to serious problems down the road.
Eating disorders, bone loss, inadequate nutrition and negative body image issues are among problems that can affect a child on a calorie-reduction diet.
“If you start saying, ‘OK, we’re going to put you on a diet,’ then that assumes there’s something wrong with the child,” says Peggy Staup, a registered nurse with Essential Pregnancy Services, which provides support and help to expectant and parenting families in Omaha. “If you start telling them, ‘You know what? You’re fat and you’re overweight,’ that’s not going to do any good and then you really run the risk of eating disorders.”
Rather than enforce dieting and restricting calories, parents should focus on the positive and be role models for good nutrition and exercise habits.
“You can’t expect your child to magically eat fruits and vegetables if you’ve never served them to him,” says Audra Losey, a registered dietitian with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension’s Nutrition Education Program.
Instead of isolating the child, lifestyle changes should be a family effort.
“If you can get a healthy family lifestyle going, that will transfer down to the children,” Staup says.
Like adults, Body Mass Index, or BMI, is used as a body fat indicator in children. A child’s BMI is calculated by using weight, height and age. If a child is in the 85th percentile or higher, he is considered overweight.
If a child is overweight, is it OK for him to lose weight?
“It is OK for some children to lose weight. The problem is that it is difficult for children to lose weight because as their bodies grow and mature, it is a normal process for them to gain weight with increased bone and muscle mass,” says Tamara Dolphens, a physician assistant with PREVENTive Cardiology Clinic at Children’s Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha.
If children are placed on a diet, the focus should be on healthy food choices and eating more of the right calories, not on food restriction, Dolphens says.
“The age-old equation of ‘Calories In Calories Out’ is always reinforced,” Dolphens says.
To help reinforce this equation, parents can make small changes in the home to encourage more healthful habits. For example, switch to skim milk from 2 percent milk and have fresh fruits and vegetables available in the fridge for after-school snacks, Losey says.
Instead of watching TV or playing video games after school, set a “No TV after school for an hour” rule and encourage your child to pursue an outdoor activity instead.
“We tend to sit down and we don’t get up. It’s easy to just stay there,” Losey says.
Contact the writer: 444-1006, teresa.forbes@owh.com
Date: July 10, 2009
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