Healthy Eating: Weight Loss For Kids - How To Help Your Children To Lose Weight

Are you worried your kids are overweight? Achieve weight loss for kids - here's how.ADVERTISEMENT

Child obesity is a huge problem, and it's not just a worry while kids are young.

The more excess weight children carry during childhood, the likelier they are to develop serious, sometimes life-threatening diseases such as diabetes, some types of cancer and coronary artery disease.

These illnesses could turn our kids into sick adults and even shorten their lifespan - it's a terrible prospect.

That's why weight loss for kids is so important. Here's how to do it.

Bottle-fed babies are more likely to turn into overweight children than breastfed babies. If you can't breastfeed, take extra care to wean your baby healthily.When you start weaning, offer healthy foods right from the start. Don't give your little ones potato crisps, tacos, chocolate bars, biscuits and cake or other unhealthy junk food - even when these foods are marketed as being suitable for children. Many so-called healthy foods contain high levels of sugar and salt. Learn about understanding a food label and always check labels.Start all meals with a savoury main course, like pureed vegetables. If your baby turns away, don't offer sweet foods instead. Take the child down from the table, and offer savoury food again at the next meal time.Be persistent if baby doesn't like a food first time round. It can take several tastes before a baby decides to accept a food, to keep on trying.Even a healthy baby can be plump and chubby, so get your child's weight checked by the professionals if you're concerned she may be overweight.It's never too early to start exercising. Give your baby lots of chances to roll, crawl, stretch and play.Never make a big issue out of healthy foods. Toddlers love to say 'No!', especially if they know you want them to do something! Offer those fruit and veg every day, but be very casual about the way you do it.Are you eating healthily? The whole family needs a healthy diet, so clean up your own act if you rely heavily on fast foods and takeaways. If you struggle with your weight, learn more about eating healthy to lose weight.Avoid orange-coated, shaped foods aimed at children. They're often made from inferior cuts of meat and are additive-packed. Give your child homemade food whenever you can, and serve the same meals to adults and children to discourage fussy eaters.Don't describe foods as 'good' and 'bad'. Let kids enjoy sweets, chocolate, fries etc now and again, but ration these foods, and don't put them on the menu daily.Never give food as a reward. If you do give a child a treat, give choose healthy snacks for kids, like a little bunch of grapes or a pack of raisins.Keep on with the opportunities to exercise. Let littl'un out of the buggy whenever you can, and go to the park or playground regularly - or simply into the garden.Limit the amount of time children spend in front of the tv or computer to a maximum of 1 hour a day. Start now, and it'll be easier to keep this rule in place over the years to come.What kind of meals does your child's school provide? If you're not satisfied that there's enough healthy food on offer, send her off with a healthy kids' lunch box. These healthy soup recipes are sustaining and can help with weight loss.Limit your child's pocket money, and have rules about how much they can spend on sweets and snacks.Be careful about portion control. Don't pile plates high. Add more vegetables, a soup or fresh fruit to help fill them up.Encourage physical activity, and keep on rationing computer and tv time. Turn screens off for 2 hours a day to encourage kids to get active.Walk children to school rather than driving them.Worried your child's getting fat? Ask your doctor to check Body Mass Index (BMI).Only allow your child to eat when she's hungry. If she asks for an unhealthy snack and says she's 'starving', offer a healthy food like a banana or wholewheat toast with peanut butter. Even if you think your kid needs to lose weight, don't put him on and off different slimming diets, and don't diet obsessively yourself. Constant dieting ultimately leads to more weight gain, and kids who diet are more likely to be obese as adults. Get a healthy eating plan for all the family from your doctor, and up the amount of exercise you do.By this age, kids can understand why it's important to stay slender. Talk to them about why a healthy diet is important, but don't turn it into a lecture or get angry if they still want unhealthy foods. Stay calm, but don't give up.Teens can turn into couch potatoes, so do anything you can to get them up and active. Ration screen time - turn off TVs, computers and laptops, game devices for a couple of hours a day. Suggest sports, streetdance, an aerobics class - anything they might find cool enough to consider.Keep on with your own healthy diet, and make sure you still eat as a family and have healthy food together.If you have an overweight teen, be gentle and offer her any help and support she'll accept. There are lots of easy healthy weight loss tips that can help.

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