Ann Pleshette Murphy » Health and Nutrition

Helping your overweight teen

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:35:01 +0000

From curfews to cliques, the teen years are fraught with power struggles. But for the millions of overweight and obese teens in America today, the battle for a better weight can follow them well into adulthood, often with disastrous consequences. In addition to medical risks like heart disease and diabetes, teens with weight problems are more likely to be depressed and to have low self-esteem and poor grades.

Mom and Dad’s encouragement can mean the difference between gaining an edge on obesity and losing the motivation to do so. How can you get your teen on track if he or she is in denial or unmotivated? Here are a few Dos and Donts:

DO:

Talk to him like a friend, not a disciplinarian.
Put your teen in charge of how, and when, he wants to lose.
Get rid of the junk food and be sure to stock up on healthy options.
Create a healthy environment for the whole family
Model healthy eating and exercise. Buy a family gym membership or find a sport you can enjoy as a family.

DON’T:

Tell him his weight is okay. That minimizes the problem.
Criticize or try to coerce your teen into losing weight.
Be a food cop: comments like “You’ve had enough,” will backfire.
Single out the overweight teen in your household.

5 rules every parent should follow

admin — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:31:45 +0000

Whether your child is 10 months old or 10 years old, it’s never too late to brush up on parenting basics. For this reason, I’ve listed five principles that I consider to be the foundation of great parenting.

Laugh a lot. Laughter increases feel-good endorphins and lowers stress levels. Research also shows that when we see someone laughing, our brain responds by preparing our facial muscles to smile. This response encourages groups of people (like your family!) to laugh together, which in turn builds relationships.

Get the family moving. Find what works for your clan — it might be anything from yoga to rock climbing to basketball games in the driveway. Enlist the kids’ help in picking a physical activity everyone can enjoy. Getting your children active will go a long way toward lifelong good health.

Avoid labels. Childhood pigeonholes (like “soccer star” or “math whiz”) can stick around well into adulthood and send the insidious message that your child should stick to what he or she is good at — and not challenge him- or herself to try something new or difficult. Even worse, a negative label (like "all thumbs" or "scaredy cat") can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Read to kids every night. Even a few minutes can make a huge difference in developing language skills, especially if you are interactive when you read with your kids, according to research. Kids with a variety of reading materials at home score higher on standardized tests, so be sure to stock up on audio books, magazines, word games — anything that will help to exercise their reading muscles.

Catch kids being good. If you pay attention and verbally compliment good behavior every day, you probably will see less of the bad. Another upside to positive reinforcement: It cuts down on sibling rivalry. More often than not, kids fight as a way of getting Mom or Dad to pay attention, not about who controls the remote for the TV.

Home for the holidays with a picky eater

admin — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:37:44 +0000

Ah, the holidays. A time for celebration, festivities with loved ones, beautiful decorations…and trying to convince your child to eat alien foods in front of an audience of judgmental family members. Parenting a finicky eater this time of year can be especially challenging, but there are ways to make your family’s food struggle a little easier to digest. Click here for my advice.

“I have to pee” is not a national emergency

admin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:28:11 +0000

This tip and other excellent toilet teaching advice.

When it comes to potty training, the bottom line (no pun intended) is that the process is full of triumphs and challenges. For every successful flush, you can expect an accident or two. And with so many tips, techniques, and promises (“Diaper free in less than a day!”), it can be a struggle for Mom and Dad to navigate the toilet teaching terrain. Which is why I recently interviewed Beth Grosshans, Ph.D., child psychologist and the author of Beyond Time-Out: From Chaos to Calm, to see what she believes are the most important steps on the way to reaching this child development milestone. She offered the following helpful advice:

Children are generally ready for potty training between the ages of two to three-and-a-half. When your child turns two, pick up a few books that talk about bodily functions in a matter-of-fact way, like Everyone Poops by Taro Gomi. Keep your expectations in check, however; actually using the potty still might be a ways off.

Success depends much less on which method you choose than the attitude you adopt. The more relaxed you can be, the more you’ll help your child learn. Teach the basics by talking, reading books, setting out a potty, even modeling how it’s done. But it’s your child’s job — and hers alone — to learn how.

Look for these signs of readiness: can stay dry for two hours, shows a willingness to cooperate, can follow simple instructions, has regularity of bowel function, can pull pants down independently.

Don’t be intimidated by peer pressure! Your child needs his own internal motivation for toileting to really work. “Believe, me,” says Dr. Gosshans. “Your neighbor’s child’s success will have zero consequence on your son’s or daughter’s progress.”

For more salient potty tips, check out my interview with Dr. Grosshans below: