Is Your Child On The Road to Obesity? 4 Mistakes You Can Fix Now

Whether you live on the west coast or the east coast, the silent killer called obesity is aggressively moving through our communities. More than likely, if you are not directly affected, the chances are that you have friends or family members who are loosing control of their weight.

For some people, this is tied to genetics - there are several genetic triggers that, when we lived hand to mouth as a species, were survival traits. Being able to store fat in prosperous times was an insurance of survival in the winter. Also in that calculus lies the fact that we have, as a population, become more sedentary as technology has progressed.

We must not allow our children to become victims of an over active appetite. If you pay close attention to the dietary counselors, you'll discover that a slightly overweight child soon becomes an overweight teen. As you may have already guessed, this teen now becomes an obese adult. Unfortunately, abnormal weight gain is the least of the problem. The major issues center around the many diseases associated with childhood obesity, including asthma, diabetes and some cancers.

Preteens, tweens and teenagers are also prone to body image dysmorphia, driven by peer pressure, social imaging and just the changes their body is going through. Being a teenager is hard enough as it is; it's even worse when you're carrying 40 or 60 extra pounds of body weight and alarmingly, the fastest growing market segment for diet products like SlimFast and MediFast are teenaged and younger girls.

Fortunately, this can be prevented. And it can be prevented easily and early on, and the solution is surprisingly retro:

Remember when you were a kid? You know, before video games like the Nintendo Wii. You actually had friends who played outside with you. You had energy and used it.

If you felt tired or felt dehydrated, you immediately reached for a glass of water or milk. Sweets were a treat for good behavior rather than your main course. Snacks did not come prepackaged but rather apples, oranges and bananas were your choice.

This same attitude can be instilled in your kids, but you have to be strict about it. Keep your kids on the smallest amount of soda you can. If you do give your kids soda, give them diet soda, or a mixture of diet and regular; the key here is that you don't want to give them a sugar addiction early on. Humans are evolved to prefer sweet as a flavor, and the amount of sugar in a can of non diet soda has increased 30% since 1970.

When they have snacks, give them fruits and vegetables, or baked goods that are also low in sugar. Make sure that you have a dedicated family meal every evening, where everyone talks about what they did during the day - these reinforce that meal times are an important social occasion, not a pit stop between bouts with the Game Cube or Wii.

Staying physically active is an absolute necessity. Children are usually mirror images of their parents. If you as a parent live a sedentary life, the chances of your child duplicating your example are very high. If you have little league teams in your town, encourage your children to participate. Not all kids are athletic but all kids need to be active. In addition, set aside at least one day in the week where the entire family is physically active together. It could be a walk in the park or playing tag in the backyard.

The key to providing life long health for your kids is inculcating these habits early in life, so they become habits. Explain why you're doing it when they ask, but don't preach. Your kids will adopt the behaviors they see you doing - you're their parent, their role model, and these are the habits they'll stick with as they get older.