Question About Fatness

Should a parent place their child(ren) in a diet, early in their childhood?

  • Yes

    Votes: 26 70.3%

  • No

    Votes: 11 29.7%
  • Total voters
    37
Yuri De Lima

Yuri De Lima

AC Members
Nov 2, 2005
336
0
0
Alexandria,VA
With it's city infested with McDonalds, Wendy's, Burger Kings and many other fast food places; America is one of the fattest country in the world. Out of every 10 people in the US, an average of 6 of them are fat. Out of 100 more than half admit to barely or never doing any kind of exercise. Teenagers and even adults, who are fat or suffer from obesity, will have problems dealing with life, not only social problems, friends making fun of them, but also health issues.

So early in their childhood (10 years or less), if a parents should see that their child has an obesity problem; perhaps a slow metabolism problem, where the child might not eat a lot but their body doesn't burn calories from the food they eat, fast enough, so the fat keeps getting stored in various parts of their body.

A parent(s) is supposed to care, guide and protect their children. In such situation, should the parent be responsible to place their child in a diet in order to get them to be better able to choose what kind of food to eat and how often, in order to keep their body health?
 
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I think the parent's job is more to choose proper foods and engage the child in exercise so that such a problem doesn't happen. If, for some reason, the child does begin to reach an unhealthy weight, the parent should definitely increase the efforts to provide healthy food and activities, but should never tell the child that he or she is overweight or being put onto a diet. that'll just make everything more difficult. however, i would be concerned about putting any overweight child on a diet without going to a doctor first. it seems like kids tend to grow in cycles. . . the kid who was chubby last year in school grew 4 inches over the summer and now looks just right. if the kid has a slow metabolism problem, he or she needs to eat breakfast and exercise more.
 
Come to think of it, I need to eat breakfast and exercise more. . . .
 
oh yeah, I definitely think parents should get more involved with their child's health.

Even though kids do tend to grow in cycles, like watuga mentioned, its never too early to teach them good exercise and eating habits.
 
wataugachicken said:
I think the parent's job is more to choose proper foods and engage the child in exercise so that such a problem doesn't happen. If, for some reason, the child does begin to reach an unhealthy weight, the parent should definitely increase the efforts to provide healthy food and activities, but should never tell the child that he or she is overweight or being put onto a diet. that'll just make everything more difficult. however, i would be concerned about putting any overweight child on a diet without going to a doctor first. it seems like kids tend to grow in cycles. . . the kid who was chubby last year in school grew 4 inches over the summer and now looks just right. if the kid has a slow metabolism problem, he or she needs to eat breakfast and exercise more.
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:iagree: I totaly 100% agree

The child shouldn't even reach the point of obiesty, It is the Parent who instills good healthy eating habbits for their child, and should no way punish the child in any way for becoming overweight, even it if is just telling the child that they need to go on a diet. Diet is a harsh word for anyone to hear, let alone a child. If infact the child does become overweight, then the whole family should accomidate eating healthier and interacting in more activity together.
 
wataugachicken said:
I think the parent's job is more to choose proper foods and engage the child in exercise so that such a problem doesn't happen. If, for some reason, the child does begin to reach an unhealthy weight, the parent should definitely increase the efforts to provide healthy food and activities, but should never tell the child that he or she is overweight or being put onto a diet. that'll just make everything more difficult. however, i would be concerned about putting any overweight child on a diet without going to a doctor first. it seems like kids tend to grow in cycles. . . the kid who was chubby last year in school grew 4 inches over the summer and now looks just right. if the kid has a slow metabolism problem, he or she needs to eat breakfast and exercise more.
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I think the first statement is key.. Choosing the proper foods. Fast food isn't it, not the pizza, not the chicken, not the burgers.. That and portion control.
 
Parents should raise their children on healthy diets and encourage active lifestyles so that when they become adults, they know how to eat right and are accustomed to a healthy diet. It's hard to make the switch to healthy eating when you've grown up on burgers, fries, and Doritos daily. I don't know that this would be considered "dieting."
 
I agree with the above comments.
My opinion:
I think 'education' and 'example' are important, the parents should provide the example and the kids will most likely follow. And I also think kids need to be taught whats good food and bad (sometimes) food is, it probably seems obvious to adults but I know some kids probably don't even know what a cucumber is. Also with exercise, I hate running etc but I love fishing, camping, sailing, hiking. So I think they have to find out what the kid likes doing, base the exercise around that and then they'll see exercise can be fun.
 
If parents introduce a healthy "diet" from the get go and do not over feed "junk" foods..then a diet should not be needed.
 
My parents have never provided the exact healthiest meals for me etc. But placing your child on a diet? No the point of diet is to lose weight, if you introduce leahty foods and you yourself show examples to your kid of yourself eating healthy foods things should be fine! I myself am overweight but I was made fun of when I was younger but I got tougher and not many kids teased me, I had many friends and none of them have teased me or talked behind my back about. I've never really had a problem being teased, I make friends easily and believe me I have noo social problems! I am the most social person you will find! But then again I am bit of rough person, but I'm really friend at the same time so people don't really mess with me but my schools have been great and in high school it was the best because everybody knows each other and we're all friends etc.
 
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