I remember going to school as a child and how overweight kids were treated. For the most part, they were subjected to a large amount of teasing and scrutiny from some of their peers. At times, taunting and making fun on the playground was even ignored by teachers because the teachers were somewhat ignorant of the overweight kids’ situation. Fitness camps were referred to as “fat camp.” Of course, this was in the days where one or two kids in each class had some weight issues and stood out from the rest of the class.

Not so in today’s schools. Childhood obesity rates have climbed at increasing rates year over year to the point that nearly half of the kids in a given classroom today are living above their healthy weight range. It’s almost tough to say what an “average” weight for a child is at a given age and height due to the increasing numbers of kids that are overweight. Perhaps in part due to the rise in childhood obesity, we’re also beginning to see more and more parents become too obessed with keeping their kids from becoming overweight that they’re too skinny.

So where am I going with all of this? Well, for parents of overweight children, there may be some comfort in the fact that their kids likely aren’t being teased nearly as much as the “fat kids” did when they were growing up. On the other hand, there is a huge risk here as well. With with so many overweight kids these days, there’s almost a “comfort in numbers” effect that might make those same parents and kids feel like there’s no need to lose weight, when in fact there is.

So, in the end, it comes down to parents needing to take a healthy and self-empowering approach to childhood obesity, like you find at the successful teen weight loss camps. Professional counselors and dieticians can help kids learn how to make the kinds of healthy living choices (on their own), without having to be begged by their parents. Further, empowering the kids to make these decisions on their own builds self confidence and gives them the ability to make those good decisions in the face of peer pressure.

Sure, it’s probably better that overweight kids aren’t teased as much today as they used to be, it is most certainly not a good thing that there are more overweight kids today than ever before. As good parents, it is important to keep an eye on what is really important – their health – not their popularity at school.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 26th, 2009 at 3:37 pm and is filed under Childrens Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.