How to Prevent Childhood Obesity

The only way in which you can really help to prevent your child falling victim to childhood obesity is to teach them about healthy behaviours.

A lot of parents are concerned with their child’s weight and the negative effect that schools are having on it. Some schools are proposing to remove or reduce recess and don’t teach children about childhood obesity. A small percentage of parents said that they feel that childhood obesity is the greatest risk to their long term health.

In order to help prevent childhood obesity at home you should create an active environment with little TV and a lot of physical activity. The physical activity is only effective if it is something that the children are interested in doing. Swimming, tennis or karate are good examples of this.

You also need to create a healthy eating environment. Serve low in calories and fat meals when your child is at home. Don’t do any other activity while eating dinner sit down as a family and all eat the same meal at the same time. Most schools do provide a good nutrition lunch for your child so you do not need to worry about this too much.

Reference American Obesity Association-http://www.obesity.org/subs/childhood/