Ask any parent what they want for their kids and you tend to get the same answer. Healthy. Confident. Happy. September is Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, which makes it a good moment to talk about something that affects millions of American homes.
Here is where we stand. About 1 in 5 U.S. children and adolescents has obesity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the 1971 to 1974 national survey, that number was 1 in 20. That is an alarming increase. The percentage climbs as kids get older, reaching more than 22 percent among teenagers ages 12 to 19.
Those numbers matter, because carrying extra weight in childhood can raise the risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes and joint problems. However, there is an important distinction. Helping our kids get healthier should never turn into criticizing their bodies or making them feel ashamed of a number.
So let us take the scale out of the conversation and put the focus where it actually belongs — on the whole family. Children watch us far more carefully than they listen to us. If we want them to eat fruits and vegetables, drink water and move their bodies, it helps enormously when they see us doing the same thing.
Make the good stuff easy to get. Wash the grapes. Put the berries at eye level in the refrigerator instead of burying them behind the leftovers. Keep yogurt, cut vegetables, cheese and whole grains where small hands can reach them. Kids, like the rest of us, eat whatever requires the least effort. If the apples are on the counter and the chips are on a high shelf, the apples win more often than you would think.
None of this means cookies, chips and ice cream get banished forever. Completely forbidding a food often makes it even more tempting. Healthy eating is about what we do most of the time, not what we do at a birthday party in September.
Movement is vital to keeping our kids healthy. Getting kids to be active does not require a team uniform. Not every child wants to play soccer, basketball or baseball, and that is perfectly fine. Walking the dog, riding a bike, swimming, shooting hoops in the driveway or racing a sibling to the end of the block all count. Make it a fun part of your regular routine.
Kids and teens ages 6 through 17 are encouraged to get at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day. That may sound like a lot until you realize it does not have to happen in one stretch. Ten minutes here, twenty minutes there, and suddenly you are at an hour without anyone calling it exercise.
One of the biggest differences between our childhood and theirs is the sheer amount of sitting kids do today. Phones, video games, computers and streaming entertainment are part of their world, and they are not going anywhere. The goal does not have to be eliminating screens, which would be a losing battle anyway. It can simply be creating more balance. A walk after dinner, a trip to the park, or turning the music up and dancing around the kitchen while the pasta water boils. No formal workout required.
Sleep deserves a spot on this list, too. Kids who are running short on sleep can have a harder time regulating appetite, energy and mood, which most of us can confirm from personal experience. A regular bedtime routine helps, and keeping electronics out of the bedroom when possible, helps even more.
Here is the part I would underline twice. The comments we make about weight, whether about their bodies, our own bodies or somebody else’s at the beach, tend to stick around for decades. Kids absorb all of it, including the offhand remark we make in front of the mirror. Compliment children for being strong, energetic, kind, capable and persistent, not the number on the scale.
If you are worried about your child’s growth or weight, talk to your pediatrician. Children grow at very different rates, and a health professional can look at the whole picture instead of one number on a scale.
We cannot control every influence our kids encounter, but we can make our homes places where nourishing food, movement, sleep and a healthy attitude toward our bodies are simply part of everyday life. Living well starts young, but healthy habits can begin at any age. When the whole family gets healthier together, everyone benefits, including the grown-ups.
Robin Stoloff is an award-winning health reporter in South Jersey. A former TV reporter, she now hosts Living Well with Robin Stoloff, Sunday mornings at 10 am on Lite 96.9 WFPG.
