Two of my patients, who are siblings, came into the office recently with their parent for checkups. I was a bit late coming into see them, so I started off with the all too familiar apology. Then we chatted about the weather, summer books, movies, and camps. I asked what questions they had, and they asked if they needed shots \u2013 one did, one didn\u2019t. (It\u2019s always awkward to explain that!)<\/p>\n
All the while I realized I was stalling, dancing around the issue at hand \u2013 both children have weight problems. Technically speaking, their body mass\u00a0indexes or BMIs\u00a0are well out of the normal range, or as we physicians rather horribly term \u201cobese.\u201d<\/p>\n
BMI in children is based on their height, weight, and age. There\u2019s a wide range (from 5% to 85%) of what\u2019s considered normal because people have different body types and muscle mass. A person with a BMI over 85%, is considered medically overweight and has an increased risk of diseases, including high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, some cancers, and diabetes. We discuss BMI with all patients \u2013 even children \u2013 to help them prevent getting these diseases.<\/p>\n
Both of my patients are happy and smart. One is artistic, and one is quite funny. They like each other, and are respectful and caring. How on earth was I to find the words to tell them they\u2019re dangerously overweight without wounding their youthful confidence? Without alienating their parent?<\/p>\n
I breathed in and began with the usual questions and followed with a display of their growth charts. It turned out the family had already been discussing making some healthy changes. They\u2019d started walking each night. They were trying new veggies and thinking about serving sizes. I asked what they thought I wanted them to drink?<\/p>\n
Water! Their honesty gave me a chance to focus on an important issue \u2013 sugary drinks. I offered the rule of thumb that one 8-ounce cup of juice<\/a> a day has enough calories to cause a 15-pound weight gain over a year. But their parent looked at me and said with an exhale,<\/p>\n But, it\u2019s just so hard to say no.<\/em><\/p>\n I get it. My teen son has a close friend who I adore. They\u2019ve known each other since preschool. I\u2019ve watched him move from playing in the sandbox to becoming a stellar athlete,\u00a0through cowboy costumes to awkward gangsta-style hats, and now to a rather stunning, clean cut young man.<\/p>\n He\u2019s at my house often, and when he arrives, he heads straight for the kitchen and opens the refrigerator. Spoon in one hand, he heads to the boy-den in the garage with his bounty. It makes me happy every time. My refrigerator staples are rather boring from a kid\u2019s perspective, but there\u2019s something that he wanted! Cool.<\/p>\n We get such joy out of feeding our children. I cook well, and my kids eat well and usually healthy. But every now and then I\u2019ll head off to the store and come home with some treats. Watching the glee that comes as the kids root around and find these is fun. But after a bit, I get a bad taste in my mouth (and it\u2019s not from the chips or ice cream).<\/p>\n In fact, doing the right thing by our children means being a bit tough. Don’t buy the juice. Definitely skip the soda. Cut up the apples and put them in a central location. Skip the chips. You’ll never know what they learn to like. My son\u2019s friend the cowboy-gangsta-lacrosse star? He devours container after container, case by case, of high-protein, low-sugar Greek yogurt. And, go figure, all this time\u00a0I thought I needed to bribe them with junk.<\/p>\n My Doctor Online: Two of my patients, who are siblings, came into the office recently with their parent for checkups. I was a bit late coming into see them, so I started off with the all too familiar apology. Then we chatted about the weather, summer books, movies, and camps. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":851,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[74,267,673],"class_list":["post-839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthy-eating","tag-child-nutritional-tips","tag-nutrition","tag-obesity-prevention","ages-all-school-ages"],"metadata":{"_edit_lock":["1691581373:8"],"_edit_last":["8"],"slide_template":[""],"video_format_choose":["youtube"],"_wpb_vc_js_status":["false"],"_custom_body_class":[""],"_yoast_wpseo_content_score":["90"],"qode_animate-page-title":["no"],"qode_show-page-title-text":["no"],"qode_show-page-title-image":["no"],"qode_show-sidebar":["2"],"qode_hide-featured-image":["no"],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":[""],"_thumbnail_id":["851"],"wpfp_favorites":["3"],"ase_map_component_start_point":["a:2:{s:3:\"lat\";d:29.760000000000002;s:3:\"lng\";d:-95.379999999999995;}"],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_ages":["293"],"_yoast_indexnow_last_ping":["1691581372"]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":841,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions\/841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/em>And what do you drink?
\n<\/em>Juice! Apple and orange!<\/em><\/p>\nResources for your family<\/h3>\n
\nEat Well, Be Active, Live Better
\n<\/a>The Truth about Juice and Other Sugary Drinks<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"