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Chubby Cheeks
Baby Fat or a Health Hazard?
By Belinda Mooney
"While I was giving my children too much fruit juice, I know they're not lacking in the exercise department," Waller says. "After dinner each night, weather permitting, we take a walk around the neighborhood as a family. We all feel better after we get back home, and we've usually had some very interesting talks along the way as well!"
If you live in an area where it may not be safe to walk or play in, you will need to come up with alternatives. Walk at the mall, use TV time to watch children's exercise videos and work out with them or get together with other moms and dads for group play.
Being active combined with a healthy nutritional lifestyle started early in life is the way to prevent overweight tikes. Preventing the problem is a whole lot easier than curing it. Often it is never cured – approximately one-third of overweight children will be overweight adults.
Obesity in younger children is not something we can ignore as parents. We need to aggressively address the problem. The health risks alone are major – diabetes, stroke, heart trouble – and can be prevented. We need to make sure our children eat right from birth and get plenty of exercise. We need to do these things in our own lives as well. Being a good example of the right things is often the best cure of all.
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