Clinical Reference Systems: Pediatric Advisor 10.0
Spanish version
Overweight: A Weight Reduction Program
Description
- Your child appears overweight.
- Your child weighs more than 20 percent over the ideal
weight for her height.
- The skin fold thickness of her upper arm's fat layer is
more than 1 inch (25 millimeters) when measured with a
special instrument.
More than 25 percent of American children are overweight.
Causes
The tendency to be overweight is usually inherited. If one
parent is overweight, probably half of the children will be
overweight. If both parents are overweight, most of their
children will be overweight. If neither parent is
overweight, the children have a 10% chance of being
overweight.
Heredity alone (without overeating) accounts for most mild
obesity, whereas moderate obesity is usually due to a
combination of heredity, overeating, and underexercising.
Some overeating is normal in our society, but only those who
have the inherited tendency to be overweight will gain
significant weight when they overeat. It is therefore not
reasonable to blame your child for being overweight.
Less than 1% of obesity has an underlying medical
cause. Your physician can easily determine whether your
child's obesity has a physical cause with a simple physical
examination.
Expected Course
Losing weight is very difficult. Keeping the weight off is
also a chore. The best time for losing weight is when a
child is over 15 years old; that is, when she becomes very
concerned with appearance. The self-motivated teenager can
follow a diet and lose weight regardless of what the family
eats. Helping children lose weight between 5 and 15 years
of age is very difficult because they have access to so many
foods outside the home and are not easily motivated to lose
weight. It is not quite as difficult to help a child less
than 5 years old to lose weight because the parents have
better control of the foods offered to the child.
How to Help Older Children and Teenagers Lose Weight
- Readiness and motivation
Teenagers can increase their motivation by joining a
weight-loss club such as TOPS or Weight Watchers.
Sometimes schools have classes for helping children lose
weight. A child's motivation often can be improved if
diet and exercise programs are undertaken by the entire
family. A cooperative parent-child weight loss program
with individual goals is usually more helpful than a
competitive program focused on who can lose weight
faster.
- Protecting your child's self-esteem
Self-esteem is more important than an ideal body weight.
If your child is overweight, he is probably already
disappointed in himself. He needs his family to support
him and accept him as he is. A child's self-esteem can
be reduced or destroyed by parents who become
overconcerned about their child's weight. Avoid the
following pitfalls:
- Don't tell your child he's fat. Don't discuss his
weight unless he brings it up.
- Never try to put your child on a strict diet. Diets
are unpleasant. Dieting should be your child's
decision.
- Never deprive your child of food if he says he is
hungry. Not letting a child eat eventually leads to
overeating.
- Don't nag your child about his weight or eating
habits.
- Setting weight-loss goals
Pick a realistic target weight dependent on your child's
bone structure and degree of obesity. The loss of
1 pound a week is an attainable goal. However, your
child will have to work quite hard to lose this much
weight every week for several weeks. Your child should
weigh himself no more than once each week; daily
weighings generate too much false hope or
disappointment. When losing weight becomes a strain,
have your child take a few weeks off from the
weight-loss program. During this time, help your child
stay at a constant weight.
Once your child has reached the target weight, the
long-range goal is to try to stay within 5 pounds of
that weight. Staying at a particular weight is possible
only through a permanent moderation in eating. Your
child will probably always have the tendency to gain
weight easily and it's important that she understand
this.
- Diet: Decreasing calorie consumption
Your child should eat three well-balanced meals a day of
average-sized portions. There are no forbidden foods;
your child can have a serving of anything family or
friends are eating. However, there are forbidden
portions. While your child is reducing, she must leave
the table a bit hungry. Your child cannot lose weight
if she eats until full (satiated). Encourage average
portions instead of large portions and discourage
seconds. Shortcuts such as fasting, crash dieting, or
diet pills rarely work and may be dangerous. Liquid
diets are safe only if they are used according to
directions.
Calorie counting is helpful for some people, but it is
usually too time-consuming. Consider the following
guidelines on what to eat and drink:
- Fluids: Mainly use low-calorie drinks such as skim
milk, fruit juice diluted in half with water, diet
drinks, or flavored mineral water. Because milk has
lots of calories, your child should drink no more
than 16 ounces of skim, 1%, or 2% milk each day. He
should drink no more than 8 ounces of fruit juice a
day. All other drinks should be either water or diet
drinks. Encourage your child to drink six glasses of
water each day.
- Meals: Serve fewer fatty foods (for example, eggs,
bacon, sausage, and butter). A portion of fat has
twice as many calories as the same portion of protein
or carbohydrate. Trim the fat off meats. Serve more
baked, broiled, boiled, or steamed foods and fewer
fried foods. Serve more fruits, vegetables, salads,
and grains.
- Desserts: Encourage smaller-than-average portions of
desserts. Encourage more Jell-O and fresh fruits as
desserts. Avoid rich desserts. Do not serve second
helpings.
- Snacks: For snacks serve only low-calorie foods such
as raw vegetables (carrot sticks, celery sticks, raw
potato sticks, pickles, etc.), raw fruits (apples,
oranges, cantaloupe, etc.), popcorn, or diet soft
drinks. Your child should have no more than two
snacks a day.
- Vitamins: Give your child one multivitamin tablet
daily during the weight-loss program.
- Eating habits
To counteract the tendency to gain weight, your
youngster must be taught eating habits that will last
for a lifetime. You can help your child lose and keep
off unwanted pounds by doing the following:
- Discourage skipping any of the three basic meals.
- Encourage drinking a glass of water before meals.
- Serve smaller portions.
- Suggest chewing the food slowly.
- Offer second servings only if your child has waited
for 10 minutes after finishing the first serving.
- Don't purchase high-calorie snack foods such as
potato chips, candy, or regular soft drinks.
- Do purchase and keep available diet soft drinks,
fresh fruits, and vegetables.
- Leave only low-calorie snacks out on the
counter--fruit, for example. Put away the cookie
jar.
- Store food only in the kitchen. Keep it out of other
rooms.
- Offer no more than two snacks each day. Discourage
your child from continual snacking ("grazing")
throughout the day.
- Allow eating in your home only at the kitchen or
dining-room table. Discourage eating while watching
TV, studying, riding in a car, or shopping in a
store. Once eating becomes associated with these
activities, the body learns to expect it.
- Discourage eating alone.
- Help your child reward herself for hard work or
studying with a movie, TV, music, or a book instead
of food.
- If your child approves, have him post some reminder
cards on the refrigerator and bathroom mirror that
state "EAT LESS" or "STICK TO THE PROGRAM."
- Exercise: Increasing calorie expenditure
Daily exercise can increase the rate of weight loss as
well as the sense of physical well-being. The
combination of diet and exercise is the most effective
way to lose weight. Try the following forms of
exercise:
- Walking or riding a bicycle instead of riding in a
car.
- Using stairs instead of elevators.
- Learning new sports. Swimming and jogging are the
sports that burn the most calories. Your child's
school may have an aerobics class.
- Taking the dog for a long walk.
- Spending 30 minutes a day exercising or dancing to
records or music on TV.
- Using an exercise bike or Hula Hoop while watching
TV. (Limit TV sitting time to 2 hours or less each
day.)
- Social activities: Keeping the mind off food
The more outside activities your child participates in,
the easier it will be for her to lose weight. Spare
time fosters nibbling. Most snacking occurs between 3
and 6 PM. Help your child fill after-school time with
activities such as music, drama, sports, or scouts. A
part-time job after school may help. If nothing else,
encourage your child to call or visit friends. An
active social life almost always leads to weight
reduction.
Call Your Child's Physician During Office Hours If:
- Your child has not improved his eating and exercise
habits after trying this program for 2 months.
- Your child is a compulsive overeater.
- You find yourself frequently nagging your child about his
eating habits.
- Your child is trying to lose weight and doesn't need to.
- You think your child is depressed.
- Your child has no close friends.
- You have other questions or concerns.
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