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Childhood Obesity
There was some good news last week on this front - childhood obesity appears to be leveling off. Still there are a lot of kids at risk for pretty serious diseases.
My daughter has always been on the thin side. She's only 3 too. But I've still been very concerned with what's she's eating and we stay pretty healthy at home. (Unless it's related to potty training) she doesn't get candy, other treats, fried or processed foods on a regular basis. I definitely don't mention it to her because I don't want to scare her or screw up her body image.
I still worry. I wasn't a thin child myself and I don't want her to go through that.
Anyone had to struggle with this issue? Anyone else thinking about it?
Comments
I'd say keep the family eating healthy and exercising on a regular basis. If the kids see you exercise, then they'll want to be active, too! I always kept my weight down through exercise and I grew up with a very healthy body image thanks to my mom being French. As a French woman, she always bought the freshest ingredients, cooked everything from scratch and never talked bad about her body or made comments about mine (until I hit 14 or so and then I just exercised more). I also never knew that it was a "bad" thing to have a lot of food on your plate or to go for seconds (very Scarlett O'Hara). I was surprised that my college friends had so many complexes about food that I didn't have.
Alice Osborn, MA
www.aliceosborn.com