The precautions you can take so that your child isn’t part of the growing (and worrying!) statistics on childhood obesity start during pregnancy, you know?
Childhood obesity is a worrying disease. According to data from the National Study on Childhood Food and Nutrition (Enani), released by the Ministry of Health, 7% of Brazilian children under 5 are overweight and 3% are obese. It is a growing epidemic that leads to many other ailments, as the disease is associated with problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, among others. And what can you do to keep your child from being part of those sad numbers? Take care of food and habits, not only hers, but yours too! That’s right: attention on this issue should start with the parents, even before the baby is born.
To help families know what to do to take care of their children’s nutrition and health, child nutritionist Camila Garcia (SP) provides 10 important tips. Watch:
1. Eat healthy, from the belly
From the moment the pregnancy test is positive – or even before! – make sure your diet is healthy, complete and varied. Avoid industrialized products and products rich in sugar and invest in foods that contain the nutrients necessary for the proper functioning of the body. The mother’s diet during pregnancy greatly affects the future eating habits of the baby because it is at this time that the baby’s taste buds begin to form. If the mother consumes a lot of processed foods, high in fat and sugar, the baby is already born with a predisposition to this too – which can change weight gain and lead to childhood obesity.
2. Exercises in pregnancy also prevent childhood obesity!
If you are physically active before and during pregnancy, your child will be more likely to be at a healthy weight and enjoy exercise as well. When a woman exercises (of course, with medical advice) over the course of nine months, she already decreases, for example, her risk of having gestational diabetes, a condition that can cause a variety of problems, including exacerbated weight gain . child – also hindering the chances of a normal birth. In addition, the risks of hypertension and associated chronic diseases for both mother and child are also reduced.
Not to mention the example: if the little girl is born into a family where the parents have a habit of practicing physical exercises, it is probable that she too will acquire this habit – and she does it with pleasure.
3. Complete dish in lactation
While breastfeeding, eat a healthy, balanced and unrestricted diet if not necessary. Food should be removed from the diet only in the case of a true diagnosis of any food allergy or intolerance in the child or mother. Some mothers stop eating food because they think it hurts or makes the baby colicky. This attitude is not recommended because the child needs to receive as many nutrients as possible.
If you remove broccoli, for example, from your diet, the baby will not come into contact with this vegetable. Through the mother’s milk, the baby also feels some flavors of the food consumed by the mother. This means that she will not have contact with this flavor and, therefore, it may be more difficult for him to accept this food later, in the introduction of the food. This, in turn, can disturb your taste for healthy foods, making you more likely to eat industrialized and ultra-processed foods and, therefore, gain weight.
4. Introduction of food at the right time
Take it easy and don’t start the food introduction ahead of time. Offer food at the baby’s pace when it’s ready. A 4-month-old, for example, still can’t sit up straight. If you start introducing food at this stage, you will need to offer more liquid foods, which have drawbacks (read below).
Wait for readiness signals, which are: baby may sit up with virtually no support, have stiffer neck, bring objects to mouth, be interested in bringing food to mouth with hand, decreased tongue protrusion reflex ( when the child is younger, he has the reflex to stick his tongue out and make it soft). All of this happens around six months of age, but it’s not a rule. It varies from child to child. In some, these changes occur a little earlier and in others a little later. It is not necessary to start introducing food exactly from the sixth month. Just watch and see if it’s ready to eat.
5. Whole food
When introducing food, prefer to offer the food in chunks, as in the BLW method, or bruised with a fork. Do not offer baby food or liquefied juices, because this way, it is more difficult for the child to know the taste of the food, since everything is confused and he will not be able to identify what is what. The possibility of accepting these foods in advance, therefore, is much less. Also, since liquid food is very easy for your child to eat, they may end up consuming much more than they need, which hinders the notion of satiety.
Even chewing is not stimulated and this can even influence the development of speech, as the two activities use the same muscle. Juices are not recommended before 1 year. They offer a very quick way to ingest a large amount of fructose, the sugar found in fruit. This causes a glycemic peak, helps the palate get used to the sweet taste and takes away space for solid foods and breast milk in the baby’s stomach. All of this is related to childhood obesity.
6. Real food
It sounds obvious, but trust me, not everyone follows this recommendation. Offer your baby real food and vary the options. Thus, the child gets acquainted with different types of food and gradually expands his repertoire: vegetables, greens, meat, rice, beans. Give a little of everything. No to industrialized, sugary and ultra-processed products.
7. Processed products and sugar: villains of childhood obesity
It’s no secret that industrialized and ultra-processed foods are totally correlated with childhood obesity. During pregnancy and the first two years of life, the baby’s sense of taste develops. So if it is not good to consume this type of product at any stage of life, in the first 24 months, this can be even more harmful.
Sugar works like a drug, activating the brain’s reward mechanisms: the more we consume, the more we want to consume. If this happens to an adult, imagine with a child, who has a developing palate. The child learns to eat. If you focus on the sugar, that’s what he’ll want to eat. Then, you’ll start to find real food bland, tasteless. This can play an important role in the development of obesity. Avoid! If you’re going to give it, wait until your child is at least 2 years old, and even then, in moderation.
8. Honey can wait
Many people have the idea that honey can always be offered because it is a natural and therefore healthy food. However, that’s not the case. Honey before 1 year should not be given to infants at all, due to the increased risk of botulism, a neuropathological disease caused by a toxin, which may be present in this food. Another reason is that, being sweet, honey can also interfere with taste formation and favor the preference for sugary foods.
9. Quality not quantity
“My child doesn’t eat everything!”, “My child doesn’t scrape the plate”, “It’s ‘bad’ to eat”. How many times do we say and hear phrases like this? Indeed, it is more important to worry about the quality than the quantity that the child ingests. Many parents are desperate because their child eats little and give other foods (other than real ones) just to see that the child is eating something. It doesn’t matter how many spoons your child eats, it matters what’s on that spoon.
10. No distractions: Screens promote childhood obesity
When your child doesn’t eat, do you usually distract him with your cell phone or television? If you answered “yes”, know that it’s time to stop this habit. Time to eat is time to eat and not to watch television, tablet or mobile phone. When your child eats distractedly, he may end up eating more than necessary because he’s not paying attention to what he’s doing. This is an easy road to obesity.
The child is born with the notion of satiety. Even a newborn baby, placed on the breast, knows when to stop, because he feels when he is satisfied. This notion can be lost for life if the child forms a habit of eating while performing other activities, without paying attention to his or her sensations. This is what happens to many obese adults. Throughout their lives these people lose the sense of satiety because they eat more than necessary, distracted, compulsively, they eat to cope with some emotion…
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Benjamin Smith is a fashion journalist and author at Gossipify, known for his coverage of the latest fashion trends and industry insights. He writes about clothing, shoes, accessories, and runway shows, providing in-depth analysis and unique perspectives. He’s respected for his ability to spot emerging designers and trends, and for providing practical fashion advice to readers.
