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Home › Articles › Your Children › Carrying the Weight

Carrying the Weight

Helping Your Overweight Child

By Carma Haley Shoemaker

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"My daughter is 10 and is about 10 to 15 pounds overweight," says Rhonda Hensler, a caterer from Nevada City, Calif. "Since birth her weight has been a topic of yearly doctors visits. The standard advice that's given is always the same: 'Exercise more. Eat less. Encourage vegetables.' At my house I try to model eating vegetables, fruits and whole grains. I try to exercise three times a week as an example. As I remain overweight, maybe my behavior and actions are a better model then my appearance."

family In addition to diet changes, physical activity and realistic goals are also important to help a child lose weight and regain proper health. The activity or exercise a child takes part in should be fun and not be offered as a chore, otherwise resistance will occur. "No amount of nutritional counseling will help without daily exercise," says Dr. Wright. "I work with parents to identify a fun source of physical activity for their child." Also, when setting goals regarding weight loss, the goals should be realistic and easily obtainable. Replace the larger goals, such as losing a total of 30 pounds, with smaller, step-by-step goals. "For some children, simply not gaining any more weight is a sufficient goal. For others, a weight loss of one-half to one pound a week may be recommended. This is healthy and sustainable. Faster weight loss can be dangerous, and usually results in rebound weight gain."


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