[Reprinted from Get a Healthy Weight for Your Child: A Parent's Guide to Better Eating and Exercise by Dr. Brian W. McCrindle and James G. Wengle; Copyright © 2005 The Hospital for Sick Children; (Published by Robert Rose Inc.; 0-7788-0114-4.) Permission granted by Robert Rose Inc.]
DO:
- Be an Effective Role Model or a Good Example: When you are physically active, your child is more likely to be physically active. Find activities that you are comfortable participating in and have your child join you.
- Be a Fan: When your child gets praise and positive feedback while they are being active, they are much more likely to keep going with the activity. When we have fans cheering us on, we often become more energized and try harder. Offer encouragement to your child whenever they take part in any sort of activity.
- Be a Coach: Show interest in your child's activities. Help them find activities they enjoy or do extremely well at. Frequently check how they are doing and make sure they have the proper equipment. Help them to get the skills they need to take part fully. Make charts and records of their successes. Go watch them play.
- Be a Proud Parent: Show enthusiasm and give appropriate rewards. Take pictures of your child while they are being active or make signs and banners and put them on the fridge. Mention your child's successes to your friends while your child is around and able to hear.
- Be a Leader: Get involved with your child's school and/or community activity programs. Get connected with other parents at school and try to influence the school for more physical activity opportunities. Get together with neighbors and start a regular group activity plan for all the children on your street. If you see an opportunity for starting a new activity in the community, volunteer to help.
- Be a Chaperone or Chauffeur: Walk your child and other children in the neighborhood to places where they will be physically active. When necessary, provide transportation to community centers or other locations of physical activity. Share the responsibility with other parents in your neighborhood. There may be opportunities for your child to become friends with other children who are physically active.
- Be Creative: Organized sports are great, but it is just as important to help your child find ways to be active in and around the home, and by themselves. Get your children involved in weekly chores. Also, find creative ways of encouraging physical activity, such as making a room in the house the active playroom. Look for presents and rewards that encourage active play outside the home, such as skipping ropes, Frisbees, balls and racquets.
DON'T:
- Criticize: Criticizing your child about their poor eating choices or their lack of activity will often backfire and could lead them to resent healthier eating and physical activity. Instead, praise and applaud them when they make healthier food choices and when they get involved in any physical activity. Always offer healthy options to less healthy food choices and periods of inactivity, but never criticize.
- Discourage: It may seem obvious but it is easy to be unaware of how some comments can be discouraging and sometimes hurtful for children. For example, if your child overhears you telling your friend about how your child is always eating less healthy food or is lazy, it can be very upsetting. As their parent, you must support your child. Praise them and bring to everyone's attention the healthy behaviors of your child and try not to pay as much attention to the less healthy behaviors. The attention that the healthy behaviors get will go a long way toward encouraging more of the same.
- Nag: Constantly nagging your child about what they are eating or about being inactive will not help them to change. Imagine how you feel when you are nagged or harassed by others.
- Blame: Children are not directly responsible for their weight, their food choices or their activity habits. All of these things come from their environment and from their genes. Their environment is partly controlled by you and your family. Children can learn eating and activity habits from the family. The foods that they eat the most are clearly determined by which foods the family keeps in the house. The time they spend watching television and on the computer is also determined by what the family allows. The family's level of activity partly determines whether your child will be active or inactive. Because your child's eating and activity habits are most often determined by conditions they have never had any direct control over, it is never proper to blame them.
More Don'ts
