Treatment of childhood or adolescent obesity is primarily a healthier diet and some daily physical activity, so that fewer calories are stored, facilitating the weight loss process.
However, when despite this the child does not lose weight with these changes in diet and physical activity, it is important to check if there are other causes involved, such as hormone production problems, for example. If, after 6 months of treatment, the child continues to gain weight or is at high risk of complications, such as diabetes, the doctor can provide medications to help him or her lose weight.
- All these forms of treatment are important and should be evaluated by a pediatrician and a nutritionist.
- In each case.
- To avoid the occurrence of health complications such as diabetes.
- Hypertension and even a heart attack or stroke.
This is the most important step in reducing the amount of calories in the body and aims to help the child or teen eat healthier. Some essential steps are:
In addition, it is important to avoid having calorie-rich foods at home, such as cakes, biscuits, sweet popcorn, too much salt or bacon, candy, chocolate and packaged soft drinks or juices.
One of the biggest challenges for parents is moving from eating processed foods like cookies, burgers, ice cream, chocolates and fast food to healthier, healthier foods like fruits, vegetables, wholemeal bread and cheeses.
For this process to succeed, parents must have the patience to introduce healthy foods into their children’s diet. At first, ask the child to at least leave the salad on the breakfast plate or at least try to take the fruit to his or her mouth, for example, without loading it so that he eats all the food offered to him.
This slow process is important because a healthy diet should be the choice of child and not a cause for a dispute with parents. If fruit consumption is always accompanied by crying and promises of punishment or illness, the image of the salad will always be linked to the bad moments of the child’s life, and will automatically reject this type of food. Here are some tips for your child to eat.
Here are some tips on what to eat at each meal
For snacks, it’s important to have healthy foods available, such as skimmed milk, natural yogurt, sugar-free yogurt, nuts, bread with seeds, or toast, for example, because it’s easier to have a healthy meal when healthy foods are available. .
Snacks at school are often a challenge for parents because it’s a time when their children are in touch with other families’ eating habits, which aren’t always as good as they should be.
However, talking to the child and explaining the importance of each food placed in his lunchbox is a strategy that can be used to understand the need to eat fruit, yogurt, wholemeal biscuits and healthy sandwiches.
Watch the video below and discover 7 healthy snack tips to put in your child’s lunchbox:
Enrolling children or adolescents in classes such as karate, soccer, jiu-jitsu, swimming or ballet, for example, is very important to burn the accumulated fat and improve the development of the child, creating good habits that must be maintained in adulthood.
If your child or teen doesn’t like any activity, you can try some kind of exercise with him, such as biking, playing ball or even walking, so he or she starts to like moving and makes it easier to attend. football school, for example.
Discover other examples of the best exercises to practice in childhood.
Weight-loss medications are usually only used after age 18, however, some doctors may recommend their use after age 12, especially when treatment with changes in diet and regular physical activity does not work.
This type of remedy helps the body burn more calories, decrease appetite or decrease the absorption of nutrients, especially fats. During use, it is very important to keep care with diet and exercise.
The use of stimulants, such as thyroid hormones, amphetamines, fenfluramine, dexfenfluramine or ephedrine is completely contraindicated in children, as they can cause addiction and physical problems, such as breathing difficulties and mental problems, such as hallucinations.
Treating childhood obesity is not easy to follow because it involves changing the eating habits of the child and the whole family, so it is very important to try to prevent childhood overweight by encouraging a balanced diet in children from the earliest years of life.
There is usually no estimate of how much a child can lose weight per month, but in general, it is advisable to keep the weight only as it grows in size, which eventually causes it to go out of the overweight range. obesity and return to the right weight.
In addition to maintaining weight as a strategy, children over 5 years of age and adolescents, guided by a doctor and nutritionist, can lose between 1 and 2 kg per month without affecting their normal development and health.
Watch the video below and find other tips that can help your child lose weight: