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.
