Should You Put Your Kid on a Diet? New Info on Overweight Kids

Should You Put Your Kid on a Diet?

We all want to think our children are perfect in every way, but a startling new study shows that parents are turning a blind eye to their children’s unhealthy weight gain, which can put their little ones at risk for serious life-long health issues including heart disease, bone and joint issues, and even cancer.

According to the NYU Langone Medical Center study, a whopping 95 percent of parents said the size of their overweight children was “just right,” while nearly 80 percent of parents of obese children said the same. I can fully understand and support the desire to make your kids feel confident with who they are and how they look, but it’s one thing to instill self-confidence and quite another to ignore a very serious health issue in your child. Childhood obesity is at an epidemic level in our country. As of 2012, more than one in three children were classified as overweight or obese. That number has risen dramatically since the 1980s and seems to only keep climbing.

What’s the answer? We, as parents, need to adopt, model, and implement healthy lifestyles in our families. I’m a fan of a good chocolate chip cookie and wouldn’t want to deprive my kids of sweets once in a while, but those are once in a while treats. Not every day go-to munchies. Some might say scaling back on junk food and sugary drinks in favor of whole fruits and veggies is akin to putting your kids on a “diet,” depriving them of “kid food,” and making them feel bad about their bodies. But I don’t think it has to be that way.

Yes, if your little ones are used to potato chips or drive-thru on a regular basis, it will take some time to get them used to healthy eating habits, but they’ll soon grow to love eating real foods (frozen grapes in the summer are a hit in my house!)—and you won’t have to worry that what you’re putting on their plates will lead to medical troubles later on.

The important thing is to be in touch with your pediatrician and to ask about healthy solutions to help your child maintain a healthy weight. Are you concerned about the weight of a child in your life? Do you think it’s always bad to put a child on a diet of sorts? Let’s get talking in the comments.