Childhood Obesity

This is a topic that is just plain ridiculous to me.

I was talking to a friend today. She was telling me about how on Dr. Phil, they had children who are obese. A five year old who is 40 lbs obese. COME ON PARENTS! SERIOUSLY! Keeping a child from becoming obese as long as you are in charge of their diet is sooooo easy it's not even funny!

First of all, give them attention so they don't have to self medicate with food.

Second, put you foot down. They want ice cream for breakfast? Say "No!" and give them some reasonably healthy cereal, toast, eggs, pancakes or a waffle(without them dripping in syrup), some fruit, or yogurt. If you only give them sweets occasionally, then every once in a while, they can have some extra without you having to monitor them. And if they ask for seconds, give them something HEALTHY. Not cookies,etc. They may really still be hungry. But you can give them fruit snacks, a PBJ sandwich, a cup of juice. They don't have to have second and third helpings of fried chicken. (figurative of course)

Most 4 year olds I know, you have to coerce into eating all of their food. To have a 5 year old who is obese is ridiculous.

I've even heard of a parent using the excuse "Well, we said "no," but she kept whining, and we didn't want to hear it." Too BAD! You are the parent. If you cave that easily, you don't stand a chance on the big things. Your Daughter says "Mom, I want to ....." You say "No." She says, "But MOM!" And you cave????? Who's the Parent???? She won't respect you, and is set on a self destruct course because she's not READY to handle grown up decisions. That's why she's got you!

I just read the other day that Girls are hitting puberty at 8 and 9 now. And one of the contributing factors is BMI. The fatter they are, the earlier they hit puberty. No 7 year old should have to deal with that! If we can keep our Little Girls LITTLE a couple of years longer by keeping their weight down, we'd be stupid not to. My Babies will grow up soon enough. I don't need them starting their periods at 8 and having to deal with raging hormones that they don't understand because I couldn't put my foot down, or get up and fix them a healthy meal.

Not to mention the fact that being obese when your an adult is such an epidemic. Let's give them their Childhood before they have to worry about that. They will have enough stress over their bodies when they become Teenagers and Adults.