Obesity is the most prevalent--and the most preventable--health affliction children face today. With one out of four young people already overweight or at risk of becoming overweight, there is clearly a need to develop both prevention and treatment strategies.Today, children are raised in an environment full of choices--a fully stocked refrigerator, a multichannel television set-- choices that multiply once kids reach school age, gain independence and venture out on their own. Choice is important, but how can we help our children learn to make smart choices about nutrition and engage in sufficient physical activity to maintain a healthy weight? In the book, Our Overweight Children: What Parents, Schools and Communities Can Do to Control the Fatness Epidemic (University of California Press, 2004), Sharron Dalton offers six recommendations to help parents educate their children and exercise an appropriate level of control over their eating habits.
1. Become an "authoritative" parent.
Authoritative parenting is the middle ground between permissive and authoritarian styles. Whereas permissive parents might have abundant high-calorie snacks always and easily available, and authoritarian parents might strictly forbid such snacks, authoritative parents have a firm but flexible structure for when and how to enjoy a variety of foods as snacks. Parents who set limits are doing the right thing because they are showing kids how to make decisions about eating and activities. Children need limits and guidance, but the evidence is quite strong that strictly prohibiting foods usually backfires later on when kids have more independence. Even so, being overly permissive and serving unlimited portions also leads to overeating. Young children generally stop eating when they feel full, while older children--above age six or so--will eat beyond fullness when consistently exposed to large portions. Overeating will expand children's bodies and their stomach capacity as they override their satiety signals until eating too much becomes habitual.
