VIJAYAWADA: The eating patterns of kids are often similar to that of their parents during childhood, said clinical nutritionist and dietician Sushma Gumma. Childhood obesity was one of the current global challenges. Anti-Obesity Day is observed on November 26 to promote awareness, she said.
Mothers were excessively anxious about nutritional supplements and often overzealous causing childhood obesity themselves. Parents had a big role in children developing the correct relationship with food, Dr. Sushma said. Overweight and obese children tend to get obese in their adulthood and were prone to developing diabetes and cardiovascular diseases at a much younger age.
‘Two culprits’
Apart from the underlying medical issues and hormonal imbalances, the two recent culprits of childhood obesity were found to be ‘junk food’ and ‘sedentary lifestyle,’ she said.
Recalling the case of a four-year-old girl weighing 30 kg, Dr. Sushma said that the child was indulging in junk food with absolutely no physical activity. Since it was not possible to completely change the child’s food habits all of a sudden, the cutting down of sugar was prescribed. This meant no-added sugar and no fruit juices, soft drinks, sweets, chocolates and bakery products. In the next phase the child’s junk food was replaced with some healthy home-made snacks made out of millets. The home-made snacks included ragi dosa, ragi parantha stuffed with vegetables, pancakes made with jowar flour and upma with bajra rava, among others.
“All this requires tremendous support from parents because just simply preaching to the child without the parents practising does not have a lasting effect. The child subsequently lost 2 kg weight and has gone back to her dancing classes that would make her more active and lose more weight,” Dr. Sushma said.
