Self Image of Health
One way of combating the problem of childhood obesity or for that matter, overweight children is to help them to cultivate a better self image of themselves and their level of health.
Often, overweight kids will have a low self esteem, often brought about by bullying or taunting that can happen most often at school or in the school playground.
Children can be very cruel to one another without giving it a second thought, so while there may not be much you can do about bullies, there is something you can do about your child.
Praise Them!
It starts by helping them to see themselves as a good person with lots of good qualities. Often a child's entire self-image can be vastly improved when a parent stops criticizing them for the things they do wrong and starts praising them often for the things they do right!
Teachers can help in this area too, although it's not always easy to get a teacher who has maybe been teaching from a critical standpoint for most of their career to change to a praising standpoint. Most will see any interference in their way of working as a challenge to their authority and may resist any kind of change.
Again, there is not much you as a parent can do to change a stubborn teacher who is set in their ways, but you can try suggesting that more praise be attributed to those kids who try hard and who do things right and back off the critical assessments of those kids who get things wrong.
Praise is known to raise the motivation of people (and that includes kids) to greater levels and that leads to them striving to achieve ever better results in all areas of life.
Don't Condemn
It is another well known fact that a child that grows up with criticism and condemnation for the things they get wrong becomes a withdrawn, shy adult, lacking in self confidence and self esteem, whereas a child that is raised with praise for all the things they get right becomes a confident, outgoing adult who is highly motivated to succeed and rises to great heights in all areas of their life.
This is also often reflected in the way in which a child eats. When any person lacks self confidence and self esteem, they often compensate by eating more than they need, or relying on a high carbohydrate based diet of comfort foods. On the other hand, when a person is very confident, self reliant and has a high self esteem, they generally eat a healthy diet because they are confident enough not to need to use food as a crutch.
Molding Behavior
Adult behavior starts in childhood and it is during these formative years that character and habits are formed. That means habits and behavior can be molded into the best ones that can be had.
Make these years the best for your child by giving them the best start in life by praising and showing your appreciation for the things they do well or get right and try not to criticize things they do wrong. If a child makes a mistake, it is better to help them to see where they made the mistake and to help them to correct it in a positive way. You do that by showing them that it is not wrong to make mistakes; it's just part of the learning process of growing up!
Mistakes are stepping stones to knowledge and success because they show us where we are going wrong in time to make the necessary corrections to get it right. Remember, it is human to err but divine to forgive!
You can read more about the many ways in which you can help your child as well as yourself to gain a greater personal image of health and self esteem by visiting this website: Health Image.