You are what you eat

If you have ever watched the news, then you know that obesity is a problem in the good ol' US of A. The TV camera guys seem to love going to a food court at a mall somewhere and taking shots of people from the neck down. They seem to especially love shots of fat men in profile and fat women from behind. Whatever. Denise and I are here to attest to the fact that the problem is just as much of an issue in the under-eighteen age group as it is in the rest of the population. And we mean it is an ISSUE. We frequently see kids whose body mass index (BMI) is well over 30 (the marker for obesity.) Sometimes we see kids with a BMI in the 50's. Just to give you an example of what that means, if you have a 10 year old kid who is 56 inches tall and weighs 160 pounds, that child's BMI is 36. ONE HUNDRED SIXTY POUNDS. For someone who isn't even five feet tall and is years away from junior high. And we see this ALL THE TIME. In kids who have no medical reason (endocrine- or medication-related) to be this fat.

What we don't understand is how they get this fat. A 10 year old is not going grocery shopping, and is probably not preparing his or her own meals. SOME of this can, of course, be attributed to economic factors, however, we see solidly middle class kids who are obese. And we see kids whose parents are fit who are obese. So, we don't care what excuses you want to throw at it (remember, we are both moms who work full-time outside of the home): STOP FEEDING YOUR KIDS CRAP! NO, Susie cannot eat at McDonald's. NO, Joey cannot eat a big bag of chips while playing his computer game. NO, Luis cannot eat a box of Oreos for an after-school snack. NO, Monique cannot have a king-size KitKat bar.

Being a parent requires you to be the responsible party. Sometimes, that means acting like a grown-up and having your kid hate you and saying "no." Deal with it. Because if you don't, you are killing your child: with obesity, diabetes, hypertension, reactive airways disease and, yes, with obstructive sleep apnea.

Rule #4: Watch your child's mouth!

PS This goes for those of you who may give your non-obese yet sleepless child things like chocolate and sugar at bedtime and then wonder why he or she doesn't sleep. No sugar or chocolate after 6PM. We mean it. Don't be like the mom who brought in her son (who, btw, had a diagnosis of attention deficity hyperactivity disorder) and had brought along a big bagful of candy to help "calm him down." Huh?