Get a Healthy Weight for Your Child

Do's and Don'ts for Parents

DON'TS (cont'd)

• Tease: Teasing doesn't just come from other children, but can come from adults and family members as well. Teasing will not make your child more interested in healthy behavior. Teasing from other family members or children at school should not be tolerated.
  
  
• Restrict: Research shows that completely restricting foods only increases their appeal and the likelihood that your child will want to have the restricted foods, particularly when you are not around. Instead of strictly limiting some foods, focus on decreasing the amount of those foods that are available to be eaten. You may choose to limit the types of foods you keep in your house, and instead make special trips or create special occasions for eating those foods outside the house. Restricting physical activity, unfortunately, does not have the same effect of increasing its appeal, and only results in decreasing further the amount of energy your child uses up in the day. Punishments should not involve limiting opportunities for physical activity or particular foods.
  
  
• Use Food as a Reward: Food is all too commonly used as a reward these days, especially less healthy foods. Parents soothe their children with sweet snacks, they limit dessert until dinner is eaten and the plate is clean, and they use treats as presents. In these cases, children can begin to see the less healthy snacks as more pleasing and healthy foods as less tasty and less attractive. It can be very difficult for families to change their habit of using food as a reward because most of us grew up viewing some foods in this way. Food has been a way that some parents express love and caring. In some cases, parents feel guilty that they have less time to spend with their children because they work long hours. When you wish to give your children more than praise for their accomplishments, or just to show that you are thinking about them, choose non-food rewards, such as toys, sports equipment, stickers, or tickets to some event.
  
  
• Be Inconsistent: Children need boundaries and limits. This also applies to their behavior around food and activity. Stick to whatever boundaries and limits you set. If you decide as a family that the television should not be turned on during dinner, be consistent with this decision. Limits and boundaries should also be set equally for all members of the family, including parents. Sometimes there may be a legitimate excuse for a difference, but a healthy weight is not an excuse for siblings or parents to eat less healthy and be less active.
  
  
• Show Favoritism: You may have already found yourself treating your overweight child differently than their siblings. This can cause your child to feel guilty and responsible for their less healthy body weight. Try not to single out one child while making changes to the food available for everyone. For example, it is not okay to feed your family chocolate cake for dessert but not allow one child to have any.
  
  
• Do as I Say, Not as I Do: Asking your child to eat healthier and be more active is far less successful if you yourself don't do so. Your children will find it much easier to change their habits if others in the family are making the same attempts. Be sure that you are trying to improve your own nutrition and physical activity levels at the same time as your child.
  
  
• Lie or Trick: These are always poor approaches with children. Children can often tell when we are lying or tricking them, and when they do figure it out, we lose all trustworthiness. We encourage you to be creative in finding helpful ways of encouraging healthy behavior, without resorting to tricking or deceiving your children.
  
  
• Punish: Don't use punishment (or threats of punishment) to try and change your child's eating and activity habits. Punishing children for less healthy eating or lack of physical activity is not a successful strategy for teaching anyone to enjoy eating nutritiously or being physically active. Threatening to take away dessert because your child is misbehaving teachers the same improper relationship to food as does rewarding them with food, and makes those less healthy foods more wanted. Threatening to increase the amount or types of physical activity your child performs as a punishment will make those activities seem like punishment at other times and make them less enjoyable.

• 1
• 2