Advice for Parents

All parents are concerned about the health and well being of their children. However, unfortunately many don't recognise their child is overweight or obese?  Statistics shows that 70% of parents with overweight children think their children are normalweight, whilst 30%of parents with obese kids would define their child as "just right."  Therefore awareness is an issue, go to our BMI calculator to work out where your child is.

According to the World Health Organization an estimated 17.6 million children under 5 are estimated to be overweight worldwide. If your child is overweight or obese it is important to address this health issue when they are young in order to prevent future health problems.


We are always being told that the best way to lose weight is to eat healthier and to exercise more. However, it is not always as simple as this but as parents you can play an important role to help your child do both. Many parents are unsure how to provide support for their child to help them through their necessary lifestyle changes. We offer the following advice to help get you started.

Parent Top Tips

• Everyone in the family can benefit from choosing a healthier lifestyle not just your overweight child – get the entire family involved!

• Make some changes to your own lifestyle, we find many parents underestimate how strong a role model they are.

• Don’t coerce or hassle your child, this just brings about tension and conflict.

• Instead set rules that everyone is expected to live by.  Sticking to the rules is key.

• Stabilise your families eating patterns, make sure you eat breakfast

• Improve the quality of your families diet (buy fresh produce / plan meals for the week)

• Limit or control high-fat and high-calorie food in the home

• Have plenty of tasty, low fat, low calorie foods available

• Focus on the positives - Reduce negative attention

• Provide positive incentives for your child (lots of praise and inexpensive rewards)

• Initiate activities in the evening and on the weekend.

• Make sure you plan for special events such as parties and how to make healthy choices at restaurants

• Be prepared for major and minor setbacks – they’re inevitable! see them as a blip and get back on track ASAP

Many families seek outside support and expertise but unfortunately there are not many services or programmes at the moment that are designed specifically for overweight children. It is important that if you are looking to enrol your child in an effective weight management programme you should ask the following:

• Is the programme designed by credentialed health professionals?

• Are credentialed health professionals the delivery staff on the programme?

• Does the curriculum address food, physical activity and behaviour change strategies?

• Are there follow-up programmes and information?

• How are families involved?

• Are published results of programme available?
  

Of course the answer to these questions is YES for Carnegie Weight Management.  However, if you require any further information then please contact us below.