Motivating Your Overweight Child

Motivating your overweight child may be difficult for you for several reasons. One of the top reasons is that you don’t have control. Seriously, you do not have control over what your child puts in their mouths all day. You may think you do and you may want to but you don’t. So get past it.

Next, nagging doesn’t work. It never has and never will. Nagging is negative and not many people respond to negative enforcement. You don’t like it when people nag at you and your kids feel the same way.

But it turns out that motivating your overweight child to eat a healthier diet doesn’t have to be all that tricky. Children look to their parents as role models in most of life’s situations. They watch what their parents eat, how they exercise, whether the parent enjoys reading, if the parent values relationships and how the parents act when they are angry. Everything the parent does is watched carefully by the child.

So the first initial step in motivating your overweight child is to motivate yourself to model good dietary and exercise habits. Parents have to set a good example. Schools no longer have the funding to stress physical education and in some school systems recess time is being cut as well. If the child isn’t involved in a youth sport in the school then physical activity falls to the parent.

Children also model their parents attitudes about exercise and weight loss. At least one parent must participate in the weight loss effort for any hope of long term success for the child. Results from a published study from 1996 in the International Journal of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders pointed to the importance of adult attitudes to the success of children’s weight loss programs.

Another reason to get the whole family involved is that obesity ‘runs in the family’. What really happens is that exercise and nutritional habits run in the family. Obese parents tend to have overweight children. In another report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2004 reported that 16% of American children between 6-19 were overweight which is up from 11% reported in 1994. (1)

Never before has motivating your overweight child been more important. And never before has it taken as much effort since parents are a significant part of the equation for success. Parents must first change their own behaviors, attitudes and habits before they’ll find a change in those factors of their children. Motivating your overweight child might not be tricky but it does require energy, time and commitment on the part of the parent.

Part of any weight loss program is an exercise regimen. When adults incorporate a workout program into their day they think about aerobics, gym time, jogging or a taped exercise program. The requirements for children are a bit different. Exercise programs must be safe and fun for kids so they continue to remain active.

Some criteria for exercise for children include finding the right exercise for the child’s size, age and physical development. What is fun for a high school student may not be appropriate for elementary school. Set healthy goals with the child that are achievable and when they meet the small goals use rewards. As with all physical activity your child should first get a medical clearance to start a program if it is vigorous.

But even better than getting the kids involved in school sports is getting the family involved in activity together. Use family games, biking, hiking, walking, snow shoveling, flying a kite, swimming, paper carrier, lawn service. What ever the child may find inviting. And not just one activity which will get boring, but many activities that the child and family can participate in every week.

Former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher reports that this generation is “the most overweight, obese generation of children in our history.” These obese children are the overweight adults of tomorrow who will be at a higher risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, kidney disease and immune mediated diseases such as arthritis. Life expectancy is lower for people who are overweight. This is the future of our country.

References:

(1) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Obesity and Overweight

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/overwt.htm

Resources:

CNN Health: Girl Loses 65 Pounds in Fight Against Childhood Obesity

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/04/health/child-weight-loss-bond/

Surgeon General: Overweight in Children and Adolescents

http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/calls/obesity/factsheet06.pdf.pdf

Berkeley Parents Network: Overweight Kids

http://parents.berkeley.edu/advice/schoolaged/overweight.html

Kids in Balance: Need Motivation to Lose Weight

http://www.kidsinbalance.net/motivation-to-lose-weight.html