Childhood Obesity Can Be Avoided With Good Parenting

 
  If your children are born healthy, it’s your responsibility as a parent to ensure they stay that way. Some things, of course, are unpreventable, but childhood obesity is definitely something that is avoidable. It takes good parenting on your part to teach your children how to prevent childhood obesity, to teach them childhood obesity facts and to teach them good food and exercise habits. It’s not difficult to prevent childhood obesity. As long as you set the foundation early, your child will grow up to be a healthy adult with a healthy body weight and a great outlook on life.

Why Prevent Childhood Obesity?

We live in a society where obesity is a growing problem, no pun intended. Obesity is steadily rising with children as well; and it’s no wonder why. Just walking into your local supermarket will make it painfully obvious. There are rows and rows of sugary cereals and other sugary junk foods that are all marketed for children. Then there are the fast food restaurants that also add to the problem. Childhood obesity increases your child’s risk for acquiring diabetes as well as other diseases, it can lead to bullying at school and shunning from their peers and it can lead to depression as well as low self esteem. These are just some of the reasons why you, as a parent, should teach your child to make good choices as far as their diet and exercise are concerned. So now that you know why you should prevent childhood obesity, you may be wondering how to prevent it.

Teach Your Child Good Habits

Preventing child obesity all comes down to teaching your child good diet and exercise habits. This starts at home. Eat as many meals with your child as possible. Teach them that sugary foods and junk foods are not good for them. They don’t have to refrain from eating these types of foods but they should be taught that these foods are treats. Treats should be just that, they should not be the main staple of their diets. Teach them the importance of including fruits, vegetables, whole grains and protein in their diets. Encourage your kids to exercise. Get them involved in sports and other extra curricular activities and limit the time they spend indoors, as well as the time they spend lounging around watching TV. If you spend teach them these good habits and give them encouraging words as far as how good they’re going, you’ll avoid childhood obesity and they’ll carry these good habits well into their adult lives.

Related articles

• 40% of Kids' Calories are from Junk Food (fooducate.com)
• How to Prevent Childhood Obesity in Your Family (brighthub.com)
• Disney gets behind US child obesity campaign (alternet.org)

Actress Mayim Bialik, currently guest starring on the hit comedy Big Bang Theory, chatted about her parenting, her simplistic lifestyle, and her upcoming book!

Actress Mayim Bialik, who is currently guest starring on the hit comedy Big Bang Theory,  chatted about her parenting, her simplistic lifestyle, and her upcoming book!

“[It's] about this style of parenting that we do (attachment parenting), which I think is a big part of what my life is really about”

Mayim shares why she and her husband choose not to have any babysitters or nannies:

[It's] not because we think we’re better than anyone else, but it’s just a personal decision that we want to be the caregivers for our kids. So we’re making it work that way, because that’s what we feel is best for our children, and everything else fits in around that. To us, nothing is more important than being with our children at any given point of the day.

The couple enjoys a very simple lifestyle:

“We don’t spend a lot of money. We don’t go on extravagant vacations. We keep our life really simple, and that allows us to make the time to bake two loaves of bread, like this morning, at 6:00 a.m. With two children at my feet,” she laughs.

 continued at Mayim Bialik

Related articles

• Do Any Celebs Quit Hollywood For Real Jobs? (eonline.com)
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Is it selfish to want to have children?

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Last night I visited a small gallery in Burbank, Ca to view black & white photos from local photographers. It was a wonderful experience. Some of the photos were terrific and I had a chance to catch up with some old friends and met a bunch of new ones. This was like facebook - but for real. With flesh and blood humans - not their digital avatars.

One conversation that crept up, started by two old friends that knew each other for a long time - but that I had just met - was about having kids. 

 

By coincidence, this morning, I found an article by Eric Steinman on care2.com. I thought it was worth sharing.

 

A portion of Eric's article follows - as does a link to the full version....

There was a report earlier this summer, which claimed that, for parents, personal happiness and satisfaction levels tend to drop once children arrive upon the scene. Now anyone consciously, and abidingly, heading into the realm of parenthood knows the job of parent is both psychologically intensive, as well as labor intensive. So it comes as little surprise, to some of us, that for many parents (not all), the rigors of parenting would lead to a drop off in a sense of independence and personal satisfaction (MSN Money calculated that if a mother were compensated for all of the elements of the job of parenting, the salary would be around $138,000 annually – sadly this set wage is not written into the parenting contract). And grab any parent off the street, and ask them about their children, and you will either get a flood of unmitigated praise, or a litany of complaints (likely a bit of both).

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/parenting-is-it-selfish-to-want-to-have-children.html#ixzz12drIUcaw

Related articles

• Nature (distractible.org)
• In defence of parenting (thepunch.com.au)
• The Legitimacy of Fast-track Parenting (Part 1) (socyberty.com)
• Do You Get The Best Or The Worst? (mamasbagoftricks.blogspot.com)
• How to Choose a Parenting Style That's Right for You (helpingpsychology.com)
• Love and Logic Provides Solutions for Parents (prweb.com)

Bullying: Facts for Schools and Parents

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The exponential growth in bullying across the country has brought the problem forward on a national scale. We know many parents are concerned and looking for guidance on how to prevent bullies from affecting their own children. We found this article by Andrea Cohn & Andrea Canter, Ph.D., NCSP at the National Association of School Psychologists website and thought we would share it with you.

Bullying is a widespread problem in our schools and communities. The behavior encompasses physical aggression, threats, teasing, and harassment. Although it can lead to violence, bullying typically is not categorized with more serious forms of school violence involving weapons, vandalism, or physical harm.  It is, however, an unacceptable anti-social behavior that is learned through influences in the environment, e.g., home, school, peer groups, even the media.  As such, it also can be unlearned or, better yet, prevented.
A bully is someone who directs physical, verbal, or psychological aggression or harassment toward others, with the goal of gaining power over or dominating another individual.  Research indicates that bullying is more prevalent in boys than girls, though this difference decreases when considering indirect aggression (such as verbal threats).
A victim is someone who repeatedly is exposed to aggression from peers in the form of physical attacks, verbal assaults, or psychological abuse. Victims are more likely to be boys and to be physically weaker than peers. They generally do not have many, if any, good friends and may display poor social skills and academic difficulties in school.

Facts About Bullying

• Bullying is the most common form of violence in our society; between 15% and 30% of students are bullies or victims.
• A recent report from the American Medical Association on a study of over 15,000 6th-10th graders estimates that approximately 3.7 million youths engage in, and more than 3.2 million are victims of, moderate or serious bullying each year.
• Between 1994 and 1999, there were 253 violent deaths in school, 51 casualties were the result of multiple death events.  Bullying is often a factor in school related deaths.
• Membership in either bully or victim groups is associated with school drop out, poor psychosocial adjustment, criminal activity and other negative long-term consequences.
• Direct, physical bullying increases in elementary school, peaks in middle school and declines in high school.  Verbal abuse, on the other hand, remains constant.  The U.S. Department of Justice reports that younger students are more likely to be bullied than older students.
• Over two-thirds of students believe that schools respond poorly to bullying, with a high percentage of students believing that adult help is infrequent and ineffective.
• 25% of teachers see nothing wrong with bullying or putdowns and consequently intervene in only 4% of bullying incidents.

The complete article can be found at: Bullying: Facts 

Related articles

• We Need to Stop Bullying (socyberty.com)
• Bullying in School- Does Anyone Want to Step Up? (chicagonow.com)
• Why Does a Kid Become Bully? (abcnews.go.com)
• 'Bullied To Death': Resources, More Information (abcnews.go.com)

Back to Basics: Parenting With A Plan

This is an interesting article written by Carrie of The Parenting Passageway

We are continuing with our back to basics series this month by remembering to look at our parenting as part of a bigger picture and an overall plan. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result!

Many families have told me that having a family mission statement is helpful to them. Here is a bit of a post from May 2010 in which I addressed mission statements, and a little about life and homeschooling:

You are the architect, you are the designer, you are the artist of your life and the lives of your children. If things are overwhelming right now,it is okay to say no to things. It is okay to set boundaries. It is okay to be real and authentic and honest about what you can and cannot handle!

One thing that always helps me is to go back to our Family Mission Statement. Here is a back post about writing a family mission statement, you can see that here: http://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/05/08/creating-a-family-mission-statement/ Once you have this piece of paper, please do make sure to review it, use it, keep it in your mind as you make decisions. It should be like a guiding compass for your family and the things you choose to do as a family.

The complete article can be found at
the parenting passageway