Doctor says child obesity is a family problem
Q: My 17-year-old son is severely overweight and has started an exercise program. He is enjoying the program but I’m wondering what we could be doing as a family to help him achieve his weight-loss goals.
A: Leonard H. Epstein, Ph.D., a leading authority on childhood obesity and professor of pediatrics, offers this practical advice.
“Get the whole family involved in the treatment and prevention of obesity,” he said.
“It’s the best strategy for the long term,” says Epstein, who’s been studying childhood obesity since the late 1970s.
“Parents need to be active participants in their child’s weight loss.”
Epstein’s research has shown that obese children achieve the best weight-loss results when the entire family changes the behaviors that are the chief cause of childhood obesity: inactivity and poor eating habits.
According to Epstein, when parents make healthy eating and being more physically active a family priority, they don’t treat their overweight children differently than the rest of the family by placing them on diets or exercise programs outside of the regular family routine – a strategy that typically produces only minimal, short-term results.
“It is very hard to eat healthy and be active if other family members are eating potato chips and ice cream and watching a lot of TV,” Epstein says.
“Including all of the family in the behavior-change effort will benefit the health of all family members, even if they are not obese,” he adds.
“Everyone in the family can benefit from being more active and eating more fruits and vegetables and more low-fat dairy products,” he continued.
The first step in developing a healthy family lifestyle, according to Epstein, is for parents to examine their own behavior and recognize how it influences their children.
“Children closely model their parents,” Epstein says. “It does no good to tell a child, ‘You can’t sit around the house and eat potato chips, but I can.’ “
(Send your questions to Steve Infanti, A Fit Life Column, 801e BAB, University Park, Pa. 16802 or via e-mail to SCInfanti@compuserve.com.)