Changing Parental Behavior May Help Obese Kids Lose Weight

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Changing Parental Behavior May Help Obese Kids Lose Weight

By Jenifer Goodwin

HealthDay Reporter by Jenifer Goodwin

healthday Reporter – 17 mins ago

TUESDAY, Jan. 25 (HealthDay News) -- It's hard to help overweight children lose

weight, and keeping it off over the long-term is even tougher. But obese

children whose parents took classes on the importance of healthy eating and

exercise lost weight and kept it off for the next two years, according to a new

Australian study.

Researchers said the study shows that targeting parents -- rather than the

children -- can help stave off weight gain in children aged 5 to 9.

" We believe it makes developmental sense to involve only parents, " said lead

study author Anthea Magarey, a senior research associate of nutrition and

dietetics, at Flinders University School of Medicine in Adelaide, Australia,

where the study took place. " It takes the stigma away from the child and

supports a whole family approach. "

The study findings were released online in advance of publication in the

February issue of Pediatrics.

For young children, parents play a huge role in their eating and exercise

habits, Magarey explained. The kids are still spending most of their time at

home and eating most meals at home. Parents buy and prepare food, and decide

what and how much kids can eat. They are responsible for providing opportunities

for children to be active and can set rules for TV and video game use.

The researchers enrolled mostly mothers of 169 moderately obese or overweight

children aged 5 to 9 years in a six-month " healthy lifestyle " course, in which

parents were taught about portion size and reading nutrition labels, being a

good role model for their children and setting limits. (Half of the parents also

took a parenting course, although the study authors found little difference

between the two groups).

At the end of six months, children's body mass index (a measurement that takes

into account weight and height) dropped an average of 10 percent, as did their

waist circumference. Eighteen months later, the children had kept the weight

off, the investigators found.

In the United States, about 17 percent of children and adolescents aged 2 to 19

years are obese, a number that has been increasing since the 1970s, according to

the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 24 percent of U.S. children aged 2 to 5 are overweight, meaning they have

a BMI in the 85th percentile or above for their height and age. That number

rises to 33 percent among children aged 6 to 11, according to the CDC.

After the healthy lifestyle sessions, parents said they felt more comfortable

saying " no " to their children's demands, setting limits on the type of food the

children could eat, limiting the amount of time they spent watching TV or

playing video games, and establishing consequences for breaking the rules.

Parents assessed their own current eating patterns and set their own goals for

change, such as limiting TV to no more than two hours a day, doing more active

family activities and making small dietary changes that can go a long way, such

as eating more fruit and vegetables, using reduced-fat dairy products and

drinking fewer sweetened beverages such as sodas.

Kathy Kolasa, a professor of nutrition services and patient education at East

Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., said she does not believe children have

to be excluded from obesity prevention programs because of the risk of

stigmatizing them.

But making sure parents know about nutrition, portion size and how to make sure

their children are getting enough physical activity is critical.

" In my experience, there are plenty of parents who tell me they know what to

feed their kids and that they are eating healthy, " Kolasa said. " When we analyze

their diet, they are surprised that they are not following or providing

age-appropriate portions and healthy foods for their kids. "

As for the parents included in the study, their weight did not change over the

two years.