Many reasons exist why it is important to evaluate if your child or teenager is overweight or even clinically obese. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of children who are far beyond their healthy weight range in this country and the health consequences are becoming more and more chronic and emotionally damaging. The consequences include diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease, sleep apnea, and the list goes on and on. Because of this, as parents we have the ultimate responsibility for taking the initiative in solving the problem if our children our overweight. So before you send your child to a weight loss boot camp, follow these instructions to evaluate if your child is overweight.
When a child is classified as being overweight, it means they have a Body Mass Index (or BMI) in excess of 25. You can determine your child s BMI by knowing what the current height and weight of your child. You can input these numbers into any BMI calculator on the Internet or you can visit or phone your child s physician to know what the BMI number is. Keep in mind that some children are going to have a naturally high BMI number due to athletics or muscle weight.
If you determine that your child is indeed clinically overweight, your next step is to consider your child s history. Is this additional weight relatively new or has your child always had weight issues? You can look at past medical records if you have them to calculate their BMI from past years. Many kids follow a growth curve that is healthy but is either higher or lower than other kids their age. Looking at your child s past can assist here. If they have followed a healthy growth path without any big jumps, they may be just fine. However, if a recent weight gain (or one several years ago) was bigger than usual for your kid, you likely have a problem that needs to be addresses. These large weight gains are commonly associated with prolonged periods of inactivity.
There are many reasons as to why your child is overweight including any emotional disturbances, an unhealthy diet, and lack of physical activity. Usually, if you ask someone how to get your kid to lose weight they suggest a diet, but in reality there isn?t really a kid out there who loves going on diets. Instead you might consider a summer fitness camp to get your kid to naturally become more active.
Don t do this when you re irrational about your child s weight. Even if it seems that everyone else is thin and your child is more round in the middle, it doesn t mean your child is fat. A medical professional should do an evaluation like this. The reason this is so important is because parents, who mean well, can do a lot of harm when they enforce a strict exercise and diet routine. That s why a weight loss summer camp is so beneficial to both the parents and the child. Children are closely watched by the weight loss camp counselors to ensure that they are losing weight in a healthy way; while at the same time they have fun.
Author Resource:
Joe Busch is a freelance author that writes articles about healthy weight loss for kids and teens. Learn more at http://www.newimagecamp.com
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