As you are aware 1 in 4 South African children are obese. This has many implications for future health. Obese children are 50% more likely to become obese adults. Obesity also carries health and psychological risks. As far as health risks are concerned obesity can lead to high cholesterol, high blood pressure and thus heart disease. Obesity increase the risk for metabolic syndrome and Type 2 Diabetes. An ever increasing number of children are being diagnosed with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and Type 2 diabetes.

Change in lifestyle is the single most important factor in combating childhood obesity. Changing our lifestyles include three aspects, eat simple but healthy foods, move, move, move and smile, laugh and do things together as a family.

Regards,
Lee Downs 94.5Kfm
For further info please visit
www.kfm.co.za
Lee’s Healthy Kids Challenge

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Download full weekly meal plans, as well as recipes and advice. Download PDF

Download full weekly meal plans, as well as recipes and advice. Download PDF

Fruit and Veg eating guide. Download PDF

It is important to understand the 4 aspects to feeding. The first aspect is nutrition. This implies providing your child with good healthy food choices, offering a variety of foods from all the food groups; exposing your child to healthy eating by having them observe you eating healthy and making healthy food choices.

The second aspect to feeding is the social impact of feeding. In our society events, rituals and moments are all linked to food and eating in some way or another. Your baby will experience his first social eating significance on his first birthday. For some babies this will be their first experience of cake and sweets and it will be linked to having lots of people around him and being made a fuss of. Later in life your child will come to see that where there is social activity going on there is normally an appropriate food being served. You can teach your child to enjoy social eating by encouraging family meal times, picnics and tea parties.

The third aspect of feeding is emotional. As a little baby it is easy to comfort your child with feeding, however as they grow it is important to separate emotions and food. It is helpful to teach your child how to deal with his emotions in an appropriate manner. When your child is sad encourage him to cry, express his feelings and give him a big love. If he falls down and hurts himself then put on a plaster and give him a brave boy kiss. Avoid using foods, sweets or treats in these circumstances to comfort him. Teach your child that we eat when we are hungry and stop eating when we start to feel full. This is the appropriate response to feeding.

The final aspect of feeding is the sensory experience it evokes. Encourage your child to use all his senses when approaching food. Taste is just one of the many senses we have to enjoy food with. Encourage your child to touch, smell, feel and look at food. Children are more inclined to eventually taste new foods if given the opportunity to experience the new food with their other senses first.

So feeding your child responsibly means to incorporate all aspects of feeding as mentioned above in a relaxed, calm and happy environment. An environment free of stress, battles and manipulation. An environment where your child is enticed to eat. Then leave how much she eats up to her.

Source:

Faure M, Megaw K & Strachan S (2010): Feeding Sense. Metz Press, Welgemoed

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Kath: absolutely, a healthy child begins with a healthy home. Breakfast is a great place to start. We have heard over and over about the importance of breakfast to launch the day. Children who eat breakfast are able to concentrate better at school and make healthier food choices throughout the day.

Lee: But it is not so easy to get children to eat breakfast in the morning.

Kath: it is a challenge and here are a few tips that can help – children need to be properly awake to be hungry. Wake them up 15 minutes earlier and offer some warm water with a dash of lemon to get digestive juices flowing. Keep the environment calm by organizing lunchboxes, school clothes, breakfast etc the night before. Then once they are dressed sit them down for a 15 minute breakfast.

Lee: so what do you offer kids for breakfast/

Kath: Keep it simple and follow three basic principles:

1. Include a healthy starch like oats porridge, brown bread toast etc
2. have something fresh like fruit, tomatoes
3. Include a protein like milk, egg, cheese, nuts or yogurt
And if you decide on your breakfast menu the night before then half the work is done and you will enjoy a happy relaxed morning.

Lee to end

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The prevalence of obesity in children and adolescents is higher than 20 years ago in all racial-ethnic, age, and gender groups. The related disease risks include diabetes mellitus, hypertension, heart disease, stroke, gout, arthritis, and cancer. The primary causes, experts agree, are poor nutrition in the early years and low activity levels, especially in individuals with a family history of obesity. Many overweight kids end up becoming overweight adults.

Prevention Strategies for Parents • Be good role models. Show your children how important it is for all family members to make healthy food choices.
• Provide your children with healthy food choices. Provide snacks that are low in fat, sodium, and refined sugar and are high in fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
• Encourage young children to develop good eating habits and preferences for healthful foods because eating behaviors that develop during childhood tend to track into adulthood.
• Do not prohibit your children from eating unhealthy foods. The key is moderation. Limit fast food.
• Watch your children's portion sizes and make sure the diet is consistent with the recommendations of the food guide pyramid.
• Consult a dietitian to find out how much food your child should be eating if you are not sure what portion sizes are appropriate for your child
• Limit television viewing. Research suggests that increased television viewing is related to the development and maintenance of obesity. This is not surprising given the number of advertisements for unhealthy foods targeted at child consumers, the sedentary nature of watching TV, and the fact that most people eat while viewing TV.
• Encourage your children to be active,
• Involve your children in food purchasing by taking your children food shopping and allowing them to help select healthy foods. Also, involve your in the food preparation process such as washing vegetables and pouring and stirring ingredients.
• Give your children specific praise for making healthy food choices. For example, "I like how you ate all of your broccoli! It will make you very healthy and strong."
• Remember that food preferences develop over repeated exposure and time. Try to present new foods in small quantities and encourage your children to just take a bite at first. Over time, you can increase the portion size of the new food.
• Make sure your children try to eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables each day, such as 100% fruit and vegetable juices and raw, cooked, canned, or dried fruits and vegetables. Easy accessibility to fruits and vegetables is important. Have fresh fruits and vegetables such as grapes and baby carrots washed and placed in a prominent location in the refrigerator.
• Encourage healthier snacks (such as granola bars, boxes of raisins, graham crackers, and pretzels). This alternative enables the school to earn money, but not at the expense of its students’ health.

Resources Center for Disease Control. (2003). National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Available: www. cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes.htm

Dietz, W. H., & Stern, L. (1999). The official complete home reference guide to your child’s nutrition. Elk Grove Village, IL: American Academy of Pediatrics. Available: 888-227-1770.

Shield, J., & Mullen, M. C. (2002). The American Dietetic Association guide to healthy eating for kids: How your children can eat smart from five to twelve. New York: Wiley. ISBN: 0471441449.

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Kath: well next to breakfast an important mealtime to get right is school lunch boxes. A lot of children are at school for most of the day and they rely on their lunchbox food to not only sustain them through a busy school morning but also through a busy afternoon of extra murals.

However we know this but our kids often have different priorities like playing at break time vs eating. So here are some tips to help you pack a successful lunchbox.

1. Make sure that the end product will look appetizing a few hours later - a cut up apple is not always pearly white by first break. Actually fruit especially in the summer is often not ideal lunchbox food unless you can keep it cool. Use fruit as an afternoon snack rather.
2. Include some protein like biltong, cheese, nuts, chicken slices, hummus, chickpeas, yogurt
3. A healthy starch like crackers, low Gi breads,
4. Include fresh water - fruit juice is high in sugar and water goes a longer way to quench thirst.
5. Food should be bite size and quick to eat.

Lastly involve your child in preparing lunchboxes the night before and in that way make them accountable. It is also something fun to do together and you can teach them about healthy food as you prepare it!

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1. Keep it simple - for most kids break time = playtime and they don't want to be bothered with complicated food, like spreading cheese on crackers or cutting up fruit.
RULE 1: Ensure that everything that goes into the lunchbox is ready to eat.

2. Stick to food your child likes - don't use lunchbox time as an opportunity to introduce your child to new and challenging foods. You are competing with 'play' so you need to ensure the food is enticing. RULE 2: Stick to tried and tested food.

3. Keep choices to a minimum - although variety is important, too many choices can be overwhelming and actually result in less being eaten. RULE 3: Stick to a maximum of 3 - 4 different foods per lunchbox meal.

4. Include a healthy fat in your child’s lunch box in the form of butter, peanut butter, nuts, seeds, avocado etc.
Include a lean protein in the form of a hard boiled egg, palm size piece of chicken, 2 slices of cold meat, 1 TBSP peanut butter, 1/3 cup chickpeas, 3 chipolata sausages, ¼ cup biltong slices. Include 1 – 2 healthy starches eg 1 - 2 slices low GI bread, 2 – 4 Crackers, 3 - 6 provita, 2 - 4 rice cakes. Include a fruit or a veg like an apple, nectarine, bunch of grapes or peach. You can also include some cut up watermelon, carrot and cucumber sticks. RULE 4: Include 1 food from each food group per lunchbox.

5. Water is the most important liquid for your child and you need to send water with to school. Too much fruit juice just fills children up on empty calories and damages the teeth. Leave fruit juice for days when your children are doing sport and offer a max of 250ml per day! RULE 5: Include water as your children’s school liquid.

6. Finally add a personal touch, write a little note or stick a sticker on a sandwich wrapper, occasionally include a small novelty instead of a sweet or fast food. RULE 6: Add something unique and special on an ad hoc basis!

Good luck and enjoy making fun, enticing yet simple!
Kath Megaw RD(SA)
Clinical Dietitian
www.nutripaeds.co.za

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Exercise – it is so important to move and keep active!!! What are things that can keep us from moving and being active – too much computer, ipads, play stations, phones, tv, safety So what type of things can we do for exercise? We can take part in school sports and activities Over the weekend you can go walking with your family, go run down on the beach, do a mountain walk with your parents, play active games during break time.

All food groups the food groups include 5 food groups: energy foods, muscle building foods, healthy bones food, immune boosting foods, water

Lunchbox – you need all the food groups in the lunch box – a sandwich with some peanut butter and jam. A fresh apple and some popcorn

Treats – these are important to include in your diet but need to be managed – what treats are there? Snack treats like biltong, chedders, nuts, rice cakes, pretzels, crackers, yogurt, cheese and junk fruit
Sweet treats – choc, chips, sweets, take aways, fizzy cooldrinks
Snack treats can be eaten daily
Sweet treats can be eaten 2 x weekly

Happy heart - if you hurt get a plaster or bandage speak when you feel sad, ask for a hug when you feel alone, phone a friend when you feel lonely, send an email, letter or sms if you need to get in touch, punch your pillow if you feel angry, dance and sing if you are full of joy!!! All feelings can be met through appropriate means and don’t need food Download PDF

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