Obesity and How to Talk About It

The following is a quick, summarized version of Weigh In- Talking to your Children About Weight and Health, designed by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation and STOP: Strategies To Overcome and Prevent Obesity. You can find the full version here.

Obesity is a difficult subject to discuss with kids. There are so many emotional connections to our weight in this country, that any mention of it could elicit a huge emotional response. If that is the case, how are we supposed to talk about it, especially with kids? There are many roadblocks in talking about "weight" with our kids:

- Lack of knowledge of medical terminology or understanding of BMI

- Body Image (Am I going to cause my child to have a eating disorder, poor self-esteem etc?)

- Bullying (Weight-based bullying is more common than teasing for sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, physical disability or religion.)

- Cultural Differences (Various cultures value size and weight differently.)

- Inter-family Weight Differences (Child number one is super athletic and in a healthy weight range, but child number two isn't)

- Parental Obesity (Who am I to encourage my child to lose weight, if I'm struggling too?)

- Weight Bias (Everyone has a bias against weight. Period. It's the society we've grown up in. With constant images of “beautiful” people shown to us from a very young age, it feels only natural to scrutinize your own body and judge those around you.)

So what do we do to get over these hurdles?

1) Focus on obesity and being over-weight as a health issue. Just like some kids have asthma, or trouble concentrating in school, carrying around extra weight is a problem that needs to be addressed in order to stay healthy. Saying things like, "you'll fit into this size when you lose weight" or "you look so good now that you've lost some weight" can cause children to make even stronger connections to weight and self-esteem. It's a health issue, plain and simple.

2) Come up with a plan that your family can work on together. Try some of these ideas: increase the number of minutes you spend outdoors or playing, limit the number of sweets you eat or drink during the week, increase the amount of fruits and vegetables you eat a week, and reduce the time you spend in front of "the screen."

3) Keep the dialogue flowing. It's always a good time to talk about wellness and what we can do to make our bodies healthier!

4) Learn about the nutrients our bodies need and from where you can get them.

5) Don't stigmatize food. We need carbs and fat to survive. Telling you children directly or indirectly, that one group of nutrients is "evil" causes much bigger problems.

No one is saying it's easy to deal with all these issues and magically adopt their solutions, especially me. I have dealt with weight issues on and off forever. Who hasn't?! According to the Boston Medical Center, 45 million people "diet" each year. I worked in a gym for five years surrounded by people who were extremely concerned with their "weight," whether it was took much or too little. Ironically, I decided that environment wasn't a healthy one to be in and chose to work with kids instead, hopefully, helping ingrain healthy habits from the very beginning.

Let’s work together to talk to our students about healthy choices and the importance of a healthy lifestyle. With small steps in the healthier direction, we can change the well-being of our nation’s children.