Is Your Child a Healthy Weight?

About one in three American kids is either overweight or obese, according to the American Heart Association. Obesity rates in children has more than tripled between 1971 and 2011. We’re now at a stage where obesity is the number one health concern among parents – and rightfully so.

But what exactly is a healthy weight for children? That can be a difficult question for parents to answer. Conflicting messages from doctors and the media can leave parents scratching their heads. After all, every body is different, right? A healthy weight for one child may not be healthy for another.

Using BMI to Determine if Your Child is a Healthy Weight

Measuring the child’s body fat level is a better way to determine whether he or she is at a healthy weight. We can do this by measuring a child’s BMI.

What is BMI?

BMI stands for body mass index, and it assesses your child’s weight to height ratio. It’s not a 100% accurate way to determine body fat, but there is evidence that BMI correlates to direct measurement.

Some of you may already be familiar with BMI calculators, and you may have even used one to see if you’re a healthy weight. But BMI is measured differently in children, so it’s crucial to use the right calculator to get accurate results.

How to Calculate BMI in Children

The easiest way to calculate your child’s BMI is to use an online calculator, like the one offered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The calculator will ask you the following questions:

• Birth date
• Sex
• Date of measurement
• Weight, rounded to the nearest 1/4 pound
• Height, rounded to the nearest 1/8 inch

Once you’ve entered this information, the calculator will determine your child’s BMI.

• Underweight: < 5th percentile
• Close to being overweight: 85th-95th percentile
• Overweight: > 95th percentile

If you use the CDC’s calculator, the results page will let you know whether your child is a healthy weight, overweight or underweight.

When measuring your child’s height and weight, make sure that you remove shoes, bulky clothing and any other items that may add weight or height.

Helping Your Child Maintain a Healthy Weight

No matter whether your child is overweight or a healthy weight, it’s important to encourage healthy habits. Keeping kids active now when they’re young will help instill good habits that last a lifetime.

How can you help your child maintain a healthy weight?

Get Outdoors and Get Moving

Staying physically active is the best way to help a child maintain a healthy lifestyle and weight. Help your child find an activity they love, and encourage them to engage in that activity on a regular basis.

Playing at the park, riding a bike, running, playing sports and even dancing can get a child moving and burning calories.

Exercise will help your child maintain a healthy weight and a healthy mental state, too.

For example just 30 minutes of exercise on a rowing machine is shown to raise serotonin levels.

Limit Screen Time

More kids are spending time indoors and on their phones than ever before. Whether they’re playing games or updating their Snapchat, children are glued to their screens.

Parents can encourage kids to stay physically active by limiting screen time to just a few hours a day – unless more time is needed for school work.

Apps are available to help parents log and keep track of their child’s screen time.

Stay Hydrated

Providing healthy food options is an obvious way to keep your child at a healthy weight, but many parents overlook the importance of water.

Sports drinks, sodas and even fruit juice contain high amounts of sugar, which translates to more calories. Encourage your child to drink water instead of sugary drinks.

 

Save

Getting Your Kids Eat Healthy School Lunches

With regards to nutrition, there might be trouble when your kid goes to school and takes her lunch there. Although they have shown much improvement through the years, most menus for school lunches do not exactly have the most ideal foods for your growing child.

 

There might be a couple of solutions to your problem. One, is packing your child’s school lunch to ensure she gets the right nutritional food combination (Some schools don’t allow this.) or some people choose the food for their kids at the counter (a tricky proposition from your child’s point of view and that of the school).

 

The best solution is getting your kid be thoroughly informed about food and nutrition. They would then know which food is right for them. All of these, of course, starts at home.

 

 

Food Values

 

Contrary to what most people think, eating is not intuitive. Actually, eating is considered as another learned behavior. What children learned to eat at home will be what they will prefer as adults. Habits stick.

 

However, we are now presently assaulted with so much advertising from corporate food makers. Without developed proper eating habits (which includes the right foods), we succumb to these barrage from all media.

 

These, too, affects our children as well, including the very important decisions in the choice of their food. School lunches are only part of the total media saturation currently in place for sodas, processed food, and many other unhealthy food choices.

 

New Food Habits

 

Starting your kids, the habit of knowing and choosing the right food will take some time. It will also take some work from you. Kids are kids, and they are always inclined to try new things.

 

Working on that premise, you can begin by introducing your growing child to new dishes that are healthy alongside those foods that are familiar to them. You can introduce soups and salads and some fruits they know but are not used to eating.

 

Click Here for Healthy Lunch Ideas for Kids.

 

By Example

 

The best part of the educational process is consuming these foods yourself. Seeing adults do it will not need a big push to get the child to try it themselves. Unconsciously, especially seeing you and other adults enjoying them, your child will do so themselves.

 

Of course, you need to tell them that such and such food is good for getting the energy to play, some foods are for strength and building the muscles and some are fantastic brain food and the like.

 

The emphasis is letting them know those are the reasons why you eat them. Those that you avoid (sugar-laden confectioneries, processed food items, etc) will need the same explanation. Children might need to try the new food several times before they can decide to like them.

 

Negatives And No-No’s

 

Being a food police is not acceptable for kids. Forcing them to eat things they hate will foster rebellion and frustration. With only wholesome food choices stocked in your fridge or pantry, you can ensure good choices from your child.

 

Associating the sugary stuff from a birthday party fare with their stomach ache can be of help. Associating healthy food with being “energized” or “happy” is another. Getting your kid to eat healthy should go beyond school lunches.