Parents are worried that talking to their child about their weight will lead to an eating disorder
Photo: Reuters
A new report has found that parents are concerned that talking to
their child about their weight will lead to an eating disorder.
This figure rises to 65% of parents who identify their child as being overweight or obese.
More than 1,000 parents with a child aged 5-16 responded to the Let's
talk about weight survey on Netmums and shared how they feel about
bringing up the topic of weight with their child.
Over a third of parents (37%) feel that talking to their child about their weight might lower their self-esteem.
Despite such concerns 42% of parents have attempted to talk to their
child about weight but almost half of parents who had an overweight or
obese child said it was an unhelpful experience for the family.
Two thirds of parents (66%) said they'd like more support in talking to their child about weight.
This increased to 85% of parents with an overweight or obese child.
Only 32% of parents found it difficult to help their child stay healthy.
Parents with an overweight or obese child (72%) said they found it difficult to help their child to stay healthy.
Most attributed this to their child's preference for foods high in fat and sugar.
Three quarters of parents often talked to their children about what
they eat but over half of these parents haven't talked to them about
their weight.
With obesity affecting a third of the UKs children, we can no longer afford for weight to be a taboo subject.
"Its crucial that we talk about obesity in a helpful way with a focus
on the positive aspects of being healthy rather than looking good.
– Dr Paul Chadwick at MEND
Every parent wants the best for their child and although initially it
may be a tough conversation to have, the family talking together and
working together to find healthier ways of eating will lead to happier
and healthier children."
– Netmums founder Siobhan FreegardThe
easiest way to check if your child is a healthy weight or not is to
measure their weight and height and then to use an online BMI calculator
www.mendcentral.org.
Daybreak speaks to Paul Sacher, Paediatric dietitian and co-founder of MEND and mother and parenting expert Liz Fraser.
Disney sets nutrition guidelines for food advertising
The Disney Company is
now the first major media company to introduce standards for food
advertising during programming that targets kids and families.
Under Disney’s new standards, by 2015 all food and beverage products
advertised, sponsored, or promoted on the Disney Channel, Disney XD,
Disney Junior, Radio Disney, or Disney-owned online destinations
oriented to families with younger children must meet Disney’s nutrition
guidelines.
Since the Disney guidelines are aligned with federal standards to
promote fruit and vegetable consumption while limiting calories and
reducing saturated fats, sodium, and sugar, this means kids should be
seeing and hearing fewer commercials for junk food.
In fight against childhood obesity, healthy choices are better than harsh rules
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by Sarah Lemanczyk
Sarah Lemanczyk, St. Paul, is a
writer and independent radio producer. She teaches radio production at
the University of Minnesota's Radio K.
It was my son's birthday. Following
21st century birthday protocol, we went to the grocery store to pick out
a non-homemade, individually wrapped, peanut- and soy-nut-free,
non-sugar snack to share with his first-grade classmates. He chose
mini-carrots. And he was excited about it.
Don't laugh. These are the rules and
he doesn't know any better. Think about it — children celebrating with
mini-carrots. As adults, are there any milestones we celebrate with raw
vegetables? Congrats on landing that dream job — this calls for some turnips!
Yes, we are fat and getting fatter,
and as a nation we're facing an obesity epidemic that puts our
children's very lives at risk. In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is responding to the threat
with a ban on the sale of large-size sugary drinks in restaurants and
movie theaters. Elsewhere, elementary schools are the first line of
defense. I know for certain only two things about this:
1. It's a serious problem,
and saddling first graders with a paunch (not to mention Type 2
Diabetes) will make both middle school and life that much tougher; and
2. I should have bought stock in a mini-carrot farm years ago.
Let's go back in time: I am in first
grade at Sauk Trail Elementary School, and we celebrate everything with
sugary treats. I'm talking birthdays, Christmas, Halloween, Easter and
National Dairy Month (it was Wisconsin). I know, you can't look back.
But if I did look back just once more, I'd tell you that there were 23
of us lined up next to Mrs. Nelson in that 1978 class photo, smiling
back in orange, brown or orange and brown stripes.
In 2012, that same photo has 30
kids, each one clad in an even more ironic Gen X product-placement
T-shirt. (Assuming about 10 mini-carrots per kid, that's 300 carrots per
birthday, times 30 birthdays — damn investing hindsight!) But, assuming
that these seven additional kids have only one birthday each per year,
it's hard to believe the argument that today's larger classes and their
seven extra cupcakes put our schools at risk for a full-scale pastry
invasion.
But we need an obesity scapegoat. Birthday sugar-treats, you're it.
So, as 100-percent fruit juice,
cupcakes and candy corn form an axis of evil, we muster a coalition of
raisins, mini-carrots and water to battle against it. Listen, I know
cupcakes have consequences. But merely branding foods as good or bad
isn't going to teach our children about self-control, moderation or
health.
I struggled with anorexia for a
decade, and I can assure you that attaching a set of cascading moral
values to food is not a good idea. Yes, my permanently weakened bones
are a result of the opposite problem. But fetishizing foods and
eliminating choices: These are not the hallmarks of a balanced diet.
This I know.
Cupcakes are out there; we need to
teach our children how to handle them. We need to give them the tools
they need to build a balanced diet. We need to teach them to respect the
food they're putting in their bodies, not fear it. Cupcakes have their
place in a healthy diet — particularly a child's healthy diet.
They're turning 7 — just this once, let them eat cake.
Centegra HealthBridge is
helping combat childhood obesity in McHenry County by lowering its
fitness center membership age to 12 years old and continuing its Kids in
Motion program.
“Illinois has the fourth-highest childhood obesity rate in the
country,” said Matt Carlen, vice president of health and wellness with
Centegra Health System. “This new membership aligns with Centegra Health
System’s mission to promote wellness in greater McHenry County.”
Statistics show 1 in 5 children in the state struggle with obesity. Centegra’s fitness centers
lowered the membership age from 14 to 12 last month with encouragement
from families and physicians concerned about childhood obesity, said Kim
Piraino, sales and marketing manager for the Health Bridge fitness
center. read more from source
Research from the UVa
Children’s Hospital is on display as doctors and students share their
latest work in the efforts to keep kids healthy.
Some of the projects included treating kids with
deadly food allergies, finding better ways to manage asthma, recognizing
illness in infants, and studies on how to reduce obesity rates among
kids. The chair of the Pediatrics Department at UVa Children’s Hospital,
Dr. Jim Nataro, says prevention is the key.
“The most important thing we do
is keep kids healthy. We want to keep them at home and keep them in
school. We want to keep them out of the doctor’s office when we can and
we want to keep them out of the hospitals. The key is preventive
medicine and understanding what we can do to make sure kids don’t get
into trouble,” said Dr. Nataro.
In all, about 50 research projects were on display.
All of the research on display was done over the last year by doctors
and residents at the UVa Children’s Hospital.
The topic dominating this research symposium on Children's health was how to deal with childhood obesity.
"There's been an overall increase in prevalence of
obesity across the nation in the last ten to twenty years," said Dr.
Stephanie Grice, Pediatrics Resident.
That's an issue that's growing. According to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2008, more than one third
of American children and teens were overweight or obese. In the past 30
years, childhood obesity has more than tripled and it's health crisis
doctors say is tough when it comes to treating. read more from source
EMC Editorial - Recently, the provincial government announced an
ambitious goal of reducing child obesity rates by 20 per cent over the
next five years. Many commentators on the issue, including Kate Hammer
and Tamara Baluja in the May 23 Globe and Mail article "War on child
obesity: out of the cafeteria and onto the playground", focus heavily on
the role of schools as a means of meeting this goal, and debate whether
improving cafeteria meals or increasing physical activity in schools is
a more effective means of doing so.
While a school's culture can
certainly play a large role in influencing kids to live healthier
lifestyles, we believe that medical professionals and parents should
also be encouraged to do more in the struggle against child obesity.
For
instance, if the medical community spent half the time and energy
encouraging parents to feed children a balanced, properly portioned diet
as they spend stressing the health benefits of breastfeeding babies,
perhaps more parents would think twice before taking their families to
fast food restaurants multiple times a week.
Furthermore,
children are in the care of their parents far more than they are the
school system. More parents need to recognize the importance of getting
their children involved in sports, or even simply taking them to the
park on a weekend afternoon instead of letting them sit in front of the
TV all day. read more from source
Healthcare professionals have been calling childhood obesity a national epidemic for years, but only recently has the extent of the problem become a part of the national conversation. Some statistics just can't be ignored. 15 percent of American children, ages 6 to 11, are considered seriously overweight, a number that has tripled over the past thirty years. Obesity puts children at high risk for health problems including type II diabetes, hypertension and heart disease and for becoming obese adults.
There is another harmful aspect to this problem that is less discussed - the emotional toll obesity takes on children.
Dr. Ben Michaelis, a therapist who specializes in helping patients achieve mental health and well-being through creative expression, says that "overweight children are prone to low self-esteem, negative body image, depression and anxiety. These children are often ignored or ostracized by their peers and turn to more food for comfort." The unhealthy pattern of isolation and poor eating habits can lead to devastating long-term physical and emotional problems.
"Although it is natural to self-isolate when one is feeling sad or depressed, this behavior only exacerbates existing problems. In addition to eating more, overweight kids exercise less and become less involved in the world around them. This pattern perpetuates feelings of shame, hopelessness, and helplessness that can develop into full-blown clinical depression if untreated."
Dr. Michaelis believes that to break this negative cycle it is important to introduce these children to the joys of using their creativity as an alternative to overeating and isolation. "Guiding children to use their imagination and natural creativity will provide them with the tools to express their feelings and emotions in healthy and productive ways. I call this process The Creative Imperative."
Using creativity helps eradicate feelings of emptiness and depression while creating positive change. For obese children this is especially important because how they see themselves and others at this point in their development will leave a lasting imprint on how they live the rest of their lives.
Dr. Michaelis suggests:
Find your child's creative language - Every person has a natural way of expressing him or herself. As a parent you have to find your child's creative language. Is your child more of a painter? A writer? Does he or she like to take pictures? Does she build models or plant flowers? Encourage your child to use that language to develop a project and then share this creation with others. This form of self-expression allows children to share their feelings in a safe and positive way, especially if talking about low self-esteem directly is too difficult for them.
Share a creative project - by sharing what they create, children learn to express themselves without the immediate gratification of consuming empty calories. This can improve self-esteem and self-awareness and creates pathways for establishing relationships with others.
Getting kids to follow their natural creative instincts is not hard. Giving kids the tools to develop their own creative language will give their self-esteem a boost and make them far more resilient when life throws them the inevitable curve ball. Kids that have active imaginations build the skills to turn their dreams into action and will be far less likely to feel stuck with their negative feelings
To read the full article click here. To watch Dr. Michaelis on the nationally syndicated television show, Daytime, click here.
Dr. Ben Michaelis is a clinical psychologist who specializes in helping patients achieve mental health and well being through creative expression. His clients include New York Times bestselling authors, musicians, and a wide range of artists and professionals. He is an adjunct professor of psychology at Columbia University and on the medical faculty at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. Dr. Michaelis is the co-founder of the Downtown Clinicians Collective, one of New York City's largest networking organizations for mental health professionals. The author of numerous scholarly articles and studies, he has been featured as an expert on creativity and relationships in articles on SheKnows.com Salon.com, and in Parenting ,Entertainment Weekly, and The New York Times. He has been a guest on Martha Steward Living Radio on Sirius/XM and on the nationally syndicated television program, Daytime. Dr. Michaelis lives and creates with his wife and two children in New York City.
For more information or questions for Dr. Michaelis, email him at Ben(at)DrBenMichaelis(dot)com and visit him at www.DrBenMichaelis.com
