Dr. Scott Wooding

It seems that every year a new study emerges that shows that our children are getting heavier and heavier. The latest is from the American Academy of Pediatrics, who recommend that children have yearly body-mass index (BMI) checks done to identify and prevent obesity. The BMI is a height to weight ratio that appears to work better as a measure of obesity than standard height/weight tables. The data accumulated by this group indicate that about 15 percent of children (6 through 19) are obese, as opposed to just overweight. Other studies indicate that this rate may be as high as 24% in females and 26% in males. This rate has doubled in the last 20 years. These figures are apparently the result of a combination of relatively poor nutrition and the more sedentary lifestyles of today’s children. Here are some facts on the lifestyles of todays children:

• students watch an average of 26 hours of TV a week
• only 6% of children aged 10-19 are active on a regular basis
• on the average, children today are up to 40% less active than they were 30 years ago

Given these disturbing facts, what should parents be doing for their children. The American Academy of Pediatrics has several excellent suggestions. They include:

• encourage and model a lifestyle of fitness and limit TV and/or video viewing to no more than 2 hours daily (I think even this is too generous)
• promote healthy eating
• encourage breast feeding (this one is a bit of a surprise) since studies have shown that it may reduce children’s risk of becoming overweight
• actively promote anti-obesity programs in the communities, especially the schools. Encourage daily phys-ed programs that focus on personal fitness rather than team sports.

To these suggestions I would add:

• eat meals as a family so that the nutritional content can be monitored
• avoid eating out except as a very rare treat
• take the kids hiking, biking, swimming or cross country skiing as often as possible.

Parents must wake up to the fact that their children are not nearly as active as they should be and take steps to promote a healthy lifestyle. Otherwise the pediatricians are predicting a huge upswing in obesity related diseases, including diabetes and heart disease as these inactive kids become adults.

For most parents June was a hectic month. There were dance recitals, graduations, soccer games and field trips as the school year wound down and extracurricular activities ended for the summer. While parents may have been with their kids often during this period, the actual communication time with them was limited due to all the frantic activity.

That’s why the summer is so important for families. Now is the time for parents to plan activites where communication with their children can actually take place. These are relaxed activites, mainly with just the family members, such as hiking, picnicing, biking and camping. Activites where you have the opportunity to listen to your kids’ ideas and plans and enjoy their company.

If you have teenagers in the family, they should be included in the planning of these activities as otherwise they may make plans on their own which might clash with proposed parental outings. Teens do want to spend time with their parents, they just need to have some say in the destinations and the timing of the events so that they feel that they are participating members of the family and are not just being treated like little children.

The summer can be a wonderful time for families if the time is used wisely. Otherise the two months will scoot by and the hectic pace will start all over again.

It probably is a good idea to start my blogging career with an introduction. For the past 30+ years I have been a school psychologist, junior high counselor, high school counselor and a psychologist in private practice. Most of this time my work has been with teenagers. I even spent a year in Norway working in an adolescent psychiatric hospital.

Over the years I have been collecting teen’s ideas on what makes a good parent. Much to my amazement, they corresponded well to what most experts think on this subject. The result was my first book “Hear Me, Hug Me, Trust Me” which basically teaches parents how to successfully parent their teenagers. This book is mainly a manual for parents of young teens who find their behavior puzzling and need help to parent more effectively and to take the frustration out of the process. In May, 2003, I published my new parenting manual “Rage, Rebellion and Rudeness: Parenting Teenagers in the New Millennium.” This book is more of a troubleshooting manual for parents who are having specific problems with their teenager.

I will be using this space to post my thoughts on some of the problems that are facing parents of teens in this new millennium and how best to deal with them.

Stay tuned for my weekly postings.