Dear Dr. Rain:
We have a 4-year-old daughter who is perfect in every way.
She has a great appetite, is active and eats most of what we put on the table for her. I saw in the news about how obese children are eating too many snacks. Now I am confused.
We always give her the three meals plus a morning and afternoon snack, and sometimes an after dinner snack.
Are we supposed to just feed her three big meals a day?
Signed,
Doing Fine
Dear Doing Fine:
As most people in American know, we have a health crisis in our nation tied to obesity.
The research is clear that obesity can shorten lives and create health disorders such as Type 2 Diabetes, joint problems, cardiac problems, many cancers and the list goes on.
The reasons for this are complex and I will not summarize them here. Suffice it to say that our children are no longer immune to obesity. We see the rise in Type 2 Diabetes just as we have seen a rise in childhood obesity.
In an attempt to understand and prevent obesity in our nation’s children, there has been research and professional conjecture presented in our media that can confuse and mislead parents.
For example, in an attempt to reduce “fat” in their children, some parents put their children on a very low fat diet, not realizing that children need more fat in their diet than do parents. It is not the “fat” per se in food that is causing the obesity. In simplistic terms, it is the high number of calories, excess carbohydrates compared to protein, and processed foods that contains high amounts of sugars, as well as other nutritional nightmares, not to mention a sedentary lifestyle.
A good rule of thumb is to serve your child the amount of food the size of her (not your) fist for the three basic meals. If she is still hungry, offer seconds. Be sure she is getting enough protein.
If a meal is high in carbohydrates and low in protein, your child will be immediately hungry again, despite the high caloric value of the meal. Schedule these meals at about the same time each day. Be sure to serve these meals with milk. Serve dinner very early to increase the chance your child will eat. Preschoolers often will not eat if they are tired at the end of the day.
In addition, do indeed add snack times. I think the key is what the snack is. For example, peanut butter or cheese on crackers is a better way to satisfy your child’s hunger than a chocolate bar or bag of chips.
This does not mean you cannot serve these “fun” snacks such as cookies and ice cream to your child. Just be sure you do not make this one of her main food sources in snacks.
For obese preschoolers, snack time is still important. The parents, however, need to monitor the size of the snack and the quality of the food. A nice rule of thumb is to serve food that looks like food, rather than like a toy. Serve “real” food, not food made in a laboratory.
For example, serve a cup of yogurt with fresh fruit (and a touch of honey if necessary) rather than the lab concoction of “GoGurt.” If a food has any ingredients that do not occur in nature, perhaps you can refrain from serving it. Serve food your great grandmother would have recognized as real food.
While it’s nice to be informed, remember that sometimes the research that is picked up by the national media is not comprehensive research. Sometimes it is even based upon “junk” science. Use your intuition as a parent to make decisions unless your intuition does not seem to be producing good results. From your letter, it sounds like you are doing fine!
