A recent study by the National Center on Educational Statistics found that 1 in 5 four-year olds in America are obese.
I’ll say that again: 1 in 5 four-year olds are fat.
As a parent, I have two very strong emotions when I hear this.
Meet Sympathetic Darrin and Harsh Darrin
The first is sincere sadness and empathy for what those children are headed for – a series of “fat kid” jokes and likely health challenges for the rest of their lives. Let’s call this voice the “Sympathetic Darrin”.
The second is utter disgust that these parents have allowed this to happen. Let’s call this voice the “Harsh Darrin”.
Sympathic Darrin wants to offer all those parents free advice, clinics, counseling, etc. Given America’s overall obesity problem, it’s probably a likely conclusion that the parents are fat too and so I want to help the whole family learn that eating right and exercising is easy. On one level, this is a bigger issue than each parent – society has made unhealthy food cheap. And most jobs are sedentary.
Harsh Darrin wants to pistol whip each and every such parent until they confess where they’ve hidden their extra donuts and Stupid Pills.
Sympathetic Darrin wants to make excuses for them about obesity stats, by saying that the government definition of obesity is too strict. Is four pounds overweight really enough to make a 4 yr old obese? And what about growth spurts – don’t kids pack on a few pounds just before they grow?
Harsh Darrin says stop making excuses. If your kid is fat, you know it. You may not want to admit it any more than you want to admit that you yourself are fat. But you don’t need a government report to tell you. Now do something about it.
For thousands of years, up until 15 years ago, it was the rich who were fat. Now it’s the poor. (Granted, we’re talking about the “poor” within rich nations; a “poor” person in the US is still rich compared to a poor person in Sudan.) What has changed?
It Has to Be the Food
Truly healthy food is getting more expensive. And junk food is so cheap. And plentiful. We’re written about junk food many times:
- You Are Fat
- How To Quit Junk Food
- A Year Without Junk Food
- Drinking Your Way to the Top of the Fat Chain
- and a key way to increase your metabolism in F.A.T.
But all this applies to kids as well. Yes, kids are growing and so they should not (generally) go on low-fat or low-carb diets. But we’re not talking about needing any extreme remedy here. Reduce calories. Increase activity. That’s it.
Here are 8.5 extremely simple, very moderate things parents can do if they have fat kids. In fact, these are so simple you may criticize me for stating the obvious. But trust me, these are not obvious to everyone!
8.5 Extremely Simple, Very Moderate Solutions
1. Cut the amount of soda in half
2. Cut the amount of fruit drinks in half
3. Replace the soda/fruit drink liquid with water
4. For half of the snacks your kids eat, substitute in fruits or veggies; cut them into fun shapes!
5. Use half the sauces/dips; in other words, use half as much ranch dressing, ketchup, syrup, whatever
6. Keep healthy snacks in the lower cabinets/drawers (within reach) and keep the junky stuff higher (out of reach and out of mind)
7. Limit the total electronics (tv, computer, etc.) to 3 hrs a day (though some would say even that is still high); less tv/computer time translates into more activity; once they get past the “what else can I do?” boredom, they’ll do something that involves movement
8. Go for a 15 minute brisk walk with your kids every night; do bodyweight exercises with your kids once a week
8.5 Lose weight yourself and set an example! Ok, this one might not be so easy, but it’s critical. As long as your kids see you as fat, they will think it’s ok to be fat.
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April 10th, 2009 at 9:30 am
Great post Darrin and great tips!
– Caleb
April 10th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
IMHO the “car based” society of today is also part of the problem.
Ride your bike, and your children will ride theirs. More bikes = less cars = safer roads for bikers. Everybody wins.
April 10th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Just to clarify, by “bikes” I mean bicycles. Not your Honda 1500 VFR whatwhat noisemaker.
April 14th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Awesome and well said! Harsh Shauna would say that allowing your child to be obese (and I mean obese, not just 10 pounds overweight) really is a form of abuse. If your children are overweight there is a very good chance they will be as adults as well, especially if you consider the whole ‘hyperplasia of fat cells’ situation, which is way too musch to get into here. ;)
April 20th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Thanks for that great article, Darrin. I agree with Shauna that allowing your child to become obese is child abuse! But what I can’t figure out is why parents would let the most precious thing in their lives become unhealthy like that, making excuses and encouraging these bad habits.
I’m a teacher, and we have an explicit rule at our school that children’s lunches must be healthy, and that no candy or soda is allowed. And even despite a very clearly written rule, parents go running straight for the principal’s office when I take Snickers bars and chocolate-covered “granola” bars (the label stated 46% chocolate!) away from the kids. Then they go off on this rampage about how their kids should be allowed to eat what their parents allow them to eat. (Of course, the parents aren’t the ones who have to sit them down and teach them fractions when they’re all hopped up on sugar!)
The sad thing is, when I teach kids about healthy eating, they really get excited about it and they have a good understanding of it, but then as soon as Mom and Dad say it’s okay to eat a bag of M&Ms with their Nutella sandwich for lunch, that information wins out. I mean, every kid knows that their parents know best.
I think I’ll pass on some of your tips to the kids and see if they catch on…. :-) Thanks!