Childhood Obesity and Picky Eaters

I am guilty: I’ve recently become addicted to adapting a healthier lifestyle for my family. Through all the reading I have done lately on the benefits of eating healthy, I’ve been reminded of how prevalent childhood obesity has become, especially in the DC area.

According to the CDC, approximately 17% of children and adolescents ages 2-19 years are obese. That equals out to 12.5 million children in the United States alone. Since 1980, childhood obesity has almost tripled.

This also means that 1 out of ever 5 children is considered obese. To put this into perspective, if we considered the 182 children in the families of the North Star Nannies’ clients, that would mean 36 children were overweight. Try that on for size. Personally, I am a bit biased, and ALL of the North Star Nannies’ kids are pretty delicious.

I am originally from North Carolina, and while I come from a very nice area, the eating habits of my hometown were staggeringly different to the eating habits of the families I have worked with in this area (both as a nanny and as an agency). When I moved here, I thought that families were CRAZY to buy organic food. I had no idea why anyone would spend any money to have food that didn’t look as good as the big, beautiful (and yes, now I know, injected with goodness knows what) peppers at the grocery store. I didn’t understand why parents withheld the cookies, soda, etc. I think this had mainly to do with the fact that my generation didn’t know too much about high fructose corn syrup, saturated fats, or MSG, but now it is all I read about.

SO, rather than rattle off some ideas for healthier eating habits, here is a link to an article that I think is fantastic. It also offers insight into how to deal with children that don’t want to eat their dinner, or are very picky eaters.

<3Katie

http://www.raisehealthyeaters.com/2012/09/10-things-you-should-never-say-to-your-child-about-food/