I come from a place where the only way to demonstrate love was through food. My mother never hugged us or said ‘I love you’ or tucked us into bed with a story and a goodnight kiss. My mother cooked. From elaborate breakfasts to chaats, homemade papadams and chaklis, jams and ketchup… we had our world of home-made I-love-yous. So, while I did weave in the hugs and the bedtime tucking in, as a mother it was in-built in me to be gratified when my child eats.

1. Dealing with Childhood Obesity
I come from a place where the only way to demonstrate love was through food. My mother never
hugged us or said ‘I love you’ or tucked us into bed with a story and a goodnight kiss. My mother
cooked. From elaborate breakfasts to chaats, homemade papadams and chaklis, jams and
ketchup… we had our world of home-made I-love-yous. So, while I did weave in the hugs and
the bedtime tucking in, as a mother it was in-built in me to be gratified when my child eats.
I panicked when my infant daughter threw up, and chuckled with great pride when my younger
child had a voracious appetite. A fat baby was the only sign of certified good parenting. Me, a
working mom—educated, intelligent—still required worldly authentications and endorsements.
I wrestled with the food issue for a bit, always worrying about my scrawny daughter despite the
fact that she was physically fit and despite the doc telling me that coughs and colds and diarrhea
were part of the immunity strengthening process each child goes through and despite knowin g
about it inside my head. I still needed the fat baby.
I don’t know where it turned but my daughter started putting on weight and I sighed in relief. And
then without my noticing she just kept on adding the kilos. A few months ago, my 10-year-old
daughter, 64 kilos in weight, was diagnosed with insulin resistance. Well, her mother should have
been diagnosed with fact-resistance.
The price for wishing for fat babies is the fact that childhood obesity is a worldwide phenomenon.
The Journal of Current Opinion in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Obesity reports that excess fat
that accompanies obesity has a snowball effect. Fat affects posture and how bones grow. It
causes lifelong diseases (renal, pulmonary, endocrinal, cardio-vascular) that can be
handicapping, if not debilitating. One of the indicators that many children today are way above
the recommended weight is the fact that paediatric medication is no longer indicated as per age
but as per weight.
Obesity in children and adolescents has now become an overwhelming concern; a fact only
authenticated by the statistic from the last two decades which show an increase in health care
costs. It has been estimated that worldwide over 22 million children under the age of five are
obese, and one in 10 children is overweight.
Childhood obesity is an outcome of many factors. It starts with our obsession with baby weight,
moves on to weaning kids off home foods faster than usual, excess consumption packaged

2. processed food such as chocolates, chips, cakes, cookies and colas and the lack of physical
activity—due to urban housing designs, lack of safety and the introduction of modern technology
and new gadgets.
What is worrisome is that most parents do not even know what their child’s ideal weight should
be in the context to the child’s height. Doctors and healthcare people share that when they talk to
parents about the child’s weight or ask if they are aware how much the child should weigh, the
answers range from being vague to being defensive. Insulin resistance, bone deterioration and
respiratory disorders are just the tip of the obesity iceberg. Obese kids will not only suffer from
lifestyle disorders, but also go on to develop stress, sadness, and low self-esteem.
And, overweight children are at high risk of becoming overweight adolescents and adults.
My pediatrician urged me to put my daughter through intense exercise and also consult a
dietician. “Immediately,” he added. Of course I didn’t head to a dietician. Whoever took children
to dieticians? “Don’t tell me your child needs to be dieting now”, a voice in my head shrieked.
Children do not diet. Kids should eat as much as they want. We’ve grown up knowing this.
Dieting-shieting is what adults do when they over-indulge. So I didn’t. I would cut her intake of
sugary food and would cut her cheese and potato consumption. Matter sorted.
So here I am, with a child who has a high chance of getting type 1 diabetes if I don’t do
something about it really quickly. I am trying to coax a child (whom I had force-fed), to cut her
food intake and to up her exercise. What tangled webs we weave.
But I am still dietician-resistant. It takes a friend to tell me what I already know. My daughter will
not be visiting the dietician to be put on a diet and/or to end up with an eating disorder, as I had
imagined. She will visit a dietician so that we as a family can be steered into eating right for life.
Children’s feelings about themselves are based on how people around them—their family
especially—feels about them.
Therefore discussing the weight issue and creating a supportive atmosphere at home is all that is
needed. Enforcing a meal regime is the surest way of getting your child to resent it and want to
break it. My daughter and I, we run together. We eat the same food. We’ve all started eating
healthy. We’ve added more outdoors to our lives. We pay attention to the things we already
knew. Challenges come. One just needs to figure them out. Also see more info @
http://www.parentedge.in