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Don't turn your child into an 800 pound Billy
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Hiking with our daughter in Joshua National Park Jo Levy
After watching Oprah's show on teenage obesity and the story of Billy i decided to look into this epidemic a bit more. In Billy's case his mom was a super enabler. Though Billy never blamed his mom and said he put the food in his mouth it was mom who bought him any food he wanted - junk, junk, and more junk and served him two huge hamburgers with a plate of fries as an appetizer! Well maybe not but you get the picture.
In Billy's case he has lost quite a bit of weight after surgery (300 pounds) but he still has a long way to go from his original 800 pounds. His mom is overweight so we have the role model issue staring us in the face.
In addition to inappropriate role models we have fast food chains at every corner. These chains are considered to be one of the reasons most teenagers are getting fatter.
So what can we do:
- Most importantly be a role model. My oldest daughter never had a cookie until she was 4 and a friend gave her one. I screamed at my youngest daughter's day care provider when she gave my kid a lollipop. Extreme? I don't think so.
- It is very hard to talk to kids about a lot of things from sex to food but you can talk about health risks. You can leave around books, magazines or articles that talk about high blood pressure and diabetes. Ask what you can do to help. I love contracts.
- Make exercise a part of your family's life. First you can encourage sports and walking rather than giving your child a ride (if it is safe).
- I love to bicycle and though as a family we rarely did my kids biked everywhere. It is better for the environment and great your child's health. There are wonderful bike paths all over the country.
- We did a lot of traveling by car pulling a pop-up when the kids were little. We hiked with them which is a terrific exercise as is "just a walk in the park."
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