ediatric overweight and obesity are considered to have reached epidemic proportions, and their treatment is a high public-health priority. Pediatric obesity poses significant risk for development into adult obesity, with potential medical, psychological and social problems.

As with eating disorders, there is no single known cause for obesity in youths, which likely arises from a complex interaction of genetic, behavioral and environmental factors. Parents are in a unique position to shape their children’s home environment in ways that increase the likelihood of healthy eating and regular physical activity, and decrease sedentary behaviors like television viewing.

The home can serve as a potent buffer from the larger, powerfully “toxic environment,” in which lifestyle-based exercise is limited by time constraints, safety concerns, budgetary restrictions (e.g., gym cuts in schools), and in which high-fat, densely caloric foods are relatively inexpensive and readily available, especially in poorer neighborhoods. No child should be left alone to contend with an environment that promotes, rather than protects against obesity, without the help of his or her parents.

Parents can also function as powerful positive models for their children with regard to healthy eating and behaviors. However, they must take care to equally buffer their families from other aspects of the environment, namely the thin-as-ideal aesthetic, with corresponding extreme dieting. For example, rendering all “junk” food and desserts as completely forbidden — as opposed to teaching children to consume these in controlled, limited quantities at appropriate times against the backdrop of a healthy lifestyle — can backfire in the form of sneak eating or even binge eating. When implemented correctly, weight treatments do not make youth more vulnerable to developing eating disorders. Parents should also avoid using food as reward or punishment, and make an effort to implement regular family meals in which healthy food is served and attention is directed to family discussion (as opposed to watching television or checking phone texts and e-mails).

As with eating disorders, family-based treatments offer great promise to help obese adolescents, and prior studies have pointed to this working for younger children. The key again is to recognize that parents and children are not to be blamed and that parents have the primary responsibility to effect change while respecting the developmental needs of their offspring.

With pediatric eating and weight disorders, parents should feel empowered to identify problems, maintain open communication with their children and intervene as necessary. Doing so the right way may transform or even save a child’s life.

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No child should be
left alone to
contend with an
environment that
promotes, rather
than protects
against,
obesity without the
help of his or her
parents.

 

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