Published on December 11, 2016
(c) Zhenyakot www.fotosearch.com – k41789432
I think it’s safe to say that most parents are dedicated to their child’s oral, visual and physical well-being and diligently schedule annual check-ups at the dentist, eye doctor and pediatrician. Why is it, then, that so many of those same parents do NOT put the same emphasis on their kids’ eating habits? After all, what kids eat greatly affects their oral, visual, physical and emotional health over the course of their lives. Why do so many parents refuse to notice that a child is overweight? Why do they believe their kid “just has baby fat” and talk themselves into believing that the fat will “balance out” as their child gets taller “and grows out of it?” Here’s why.
To bring a child to a medical professional is to rely on the efforts and expertise of someone else. There’s almost no effort required, other than making a phone call and paying a bill. Easy. To acknowledge that a child is fat, however, requires a parent to acknowledge and deal with the reality that they are at fault for their child’s physical condition . . . much harder to do. To acknowledge that their child’s diet and eating habits are lousy, requires a parent to acknowledge that they themselves do not practice good, healthy eating habits, and to change their own bad habits requires more effort than many parents care to put forth. For a parent to stop kidding themselves and honestly acknowledge that ‘baby fat’ is just not applicable to their adolescent or teen is to admit their guilt at not having prevented it thus far in their child’s life. Parents who do not make it a priority to instill good eating habits in their children must come to terms with the fact their kids will most probably be overweight, unhappy adults who will go on to continue the cycle within their own kids.
Many parents also do not want to acknowledge how their child’s physical appearance affects their child emotionally and psychologically. Rejection because of body size is real . . . it hurts . . . and it lasts a lifetime. The stigma of rejection that your child feels never goes away. But, there’s another victim of your overweight child — you!
No matter how cruel, unfair or misplaced the blame may be, parents of overweight children are judged harshly (albeit in quiet whispers) by their friends, neighbors and relatives. People see your child’s weight problem as evidence of your inattention to your child’s dietary needs and health. Like it or not, true or not, others blame you for feeding your child too much, for condoning an inactive life style, for letting your child sit in front of the TV for too long, for having never-ending bags of potato chips in the house, etc.
Childhood obesity is a result of adult behavior. Share on X
The health ramifications for overweight kids are significant: The number of overweight and obese children who take meds for chronic diseases has jumped dramatically. Doctors see greater increases in prescriptions for high cholesterol, high blood pressure and hypertension. And, remember when Type 2 diabetes was known as “adult-onset?” Well that’s changed too. Kids as young as 5 years old are being treated with prescription diabetes drugs. If all that isn’t enough, most of the increases in drugs for diabetes has been seen in overweight and obese girls — a contributing factor to more overweight and obese girls having erratic menstrual cycles, leading to hormonal disturbances, more diagnoses of PCOS, which itself leads to a whole slew of medical issues, including infertility problems. Additionally, let’s not forget the mental ramifications of being overweight. There is also an increase in prescription drugs for depression among overweight and obese girls.
All parents want their kids to be resourceful, to be able to find within themselves the strength they need to meet life’s challenges, and to be able to ask for help from others when they need it. To set a good example for them, parents need to be able to do this in their own lives — maybe not perfectly and maybe not with great success first time every time, but enough so that their children learn to tap their inner strengths for the challenges they are sure to face. If you are an overweight parent, you must find the strength within yourself to deal with that reality and to face the challenge of a healthy lifestyle change for yourself and, more importantly, for your children. YOU are responsible for their proper mental programming to give them the best opportunity to grow to be mentally healthy, socially acceptable, happy, secure and confident adults.
Would you give your children cancer? Absolutely not.
Would you give your children diabetes? No.
Would you give your children heart disease, hypertension, high cholesterol? No, no, of course not.
Well, obesity is a contributing cause of all those medical issues so . . . don’t GIVE your children obesity.
Slimcerely yours℠,
