School
holidays – 2 or 3 weeks in which working parents juggle the demands of their
career with child care and keeping busy, energetic children stimulated for an
extra 6-8 hours a day. For some this will mean extra child care, or time off
work and then there are the growing number of grandparents who are taking the
role of secondary caregivers for more and more busy, working parents. While
this may appear the perfect scenario for families, recent research published by
the University of Helsinki has found that children who are cared for my
grandparents are more likely to be overweight than children cared for by
parents.
The
study which was published in the journal Evolutionary Psychology examined the
weight status of 9000 children living in the UK and found that on average 23%
of children were overweight and 26% of children cared for by grandparents were
overweight. Researchers concluded that the benefits associated with
grandparents caring for children from a historical perspective may not hold in
modern life in which sedentary entertainment, high calorie food choices and
long working hours tend to dominate family life.
And
every single day, we see this. Children spending hours if not days sitting in
front of screens, food treats a regular daily occurrence and schedules being
based on the child’s wants, interests and desires – long gone of the days where
Michael spent the day pottering with Nan in the garden and a treat was a glass
of milk and a homemade biscuit.
So
what does this mean for parents and grandparents who naturally want to do the
best by their children, at least from a health perspective long term? It means
that we need to start saying no – no to purchasing food away from the home; no
to the TV, video games and i-pad’s and no to spending more and more money on
entertainment in place of simple activities such as playing in the park or
heaven forbid in the garden with friends. Not only does saying no help to
empower any caregiver to be in charge of the child rather than the other way
round, it basically helps to control calorie intake and increase activity to
help prevent excessive weight gain.
You
only have to spend a little time in a shopping centre or local kids entertainment
centre to see fat kids. In Australia at least 1 in 4 kids has a significant
weight issue and no parent or grandparent really wants this.
School
Holiday Healthy Family Tips
1)
Limit treats to at most 1 extra food item such as a small ice cream once a day.
2)
Limit screen time to 2 hours a day, this includes ipads and DVDs.
3)
Arrange play dates with other children.
4)
Avoid all sweet drinks and choose only water.
5)
Pack lunches where possible.
6)
Allow children to choose their treat each day; for example, do you want an ice
cream now or a sushi later?
7)
Avoid shopping centres where overconsumption is encouraged.
8)
Never take a child out of the house hungry.
9)
Choose kids sized portions of everything including milkshakes, cakes and
drinks.
10)
Avoid ‘all you can places’ such as sushi trains and smorgasbords.
Susie
Burrell is a paediatric dietitian who has worked in the area of childhood
obesity for more than 10 years – www.susieburrell.com.au.