10 Ways You're Making Your Kid Fat

iVillage.com: Surprising Ways You're Making Your Kid Fat

Kids today are fatter than ever before. About 1 in 3 of all children and adolescents in the U.S. are either overweight or obese. That's triple the obesity rate in the 1960s, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Yet parents often don't realize that they play a surprisingly big role in their child's growing waistline. Read on to find out how we're making our kids fat -- and what you can do to stop it.

Parents in Denial
Love is blind: Fewer than 13 percent of parents to overweight kids acknowledge that their child is currently overweight, according to a 2008 study from the University of Washington and the University of Minnesota. "Parents, who are often overweight themselves, can have a hard time recognizing their own child's weight issue," says pediatrician Ari Brown, M.D., author of Baby 411. Even if mom and dad do see the problem, they're often too scared to talk about it.

"Many parents fear that they'll cause their child to be weight-obsessed or develop an eating disorder, so parents ignore the problem," adds Joanna Dolgoff, M.D., a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. "But studies suggest that teaching healthy nutrition to overweight children decreases the incidence of eating disorders."

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Skimping on Slee...

With dinner times getting pushed back to the end of a parent's work day and an increasing amount of screen time, it's easy to let a child's bedtime slide later and later so that it meshes with your work schedule. But when babies and preschoolers clock less than 10 hours of sleep per night, they're at a significantly higher risk for future obesity, according to a report in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Not getting enough Zzs can affect brain regions that regulate metabolism -- something that even a nap in the afternoon can't help.

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Ignoring Out-of-...

You may not feed your child Cheetos and fruit punch at home, but they could easily be acquiring a taste for it when you’re not around. About 12 million kids spend their days in childcare outside the home, but not all states use licensing regulations to ensure that daycare centers encourage healthful eating and physical activity. If your child is in daycare or family care, find out what she's eating when you're not around. If you don't like what you learn, see if other parents want to join together and take turns providing healthy snacks, such as fresh fruit and whole-grain snacks.

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Pouring on the J...

"As a pediatrician, I’m constantly asked at what age a child should be introduced to juice. A child should be introduced to juice in the same way he or she is introduced to chocolate -- as late as possible, in small doses and as a treat," says Joanna Dolgoff, M.D., a child obesity specialist and author of Red Light, Green Light, Eat Right. "Juice is loaded with calories and sugar and it's certainly not as healthy as a piece of fruit." Moreover, daily juice-drinking sets your little one up to crave sweet drinks like soda -- and research has linked regular soda consumption to an increased Body Mass Index. Stick to the recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics: less than 6 ounces of juice a day for children under age 6.

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Serving Super-Si...

Many parents misunderstand what a serving looks like -- and then insist their children finish that too-big serving. The ideal dinner should be half fruits and veggies, one-quarter carbs and one-quarter meat. As for portion sizes, here's one easy way to think about it: A child's portion of meat, fish or poultry should be about the size of her palm while a serving of fruits, veggies or low-fat dairy should be the size of her fist. (This trick will continue to work even as your child grows.)

More specifically, kids should eat the following serving sizes for each food group per day, according to the USDA recommendations on ChooseMyPlate.gov.

Fruit: 1 cups ages 2 to 3; 1 to 1 1/2 cups ages 4 to 8
Vegetable: 1 cups ages 2 to 3; 1 1/2 cups ages 4 to 8
Grains: 3 ounces for ages 2 to 3; 5 ounces ages 4 to 8
Protein: 2 ounces for ages 2 to 3; 4 ounces ages 4 to 8
Dairy: 2 cups ages 2 to 3; 2 1/2 cups ages 4 to 8

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Not Watching You...

It can be so hard to keep weight gain in check when you're pregnant, but it's important for your baby's health. "Overweight women can actually program obesity in the womb for their babies," Dr. Brown says. A 2007 Harvard Medical School study found that the greater weight gain by a woman during pregnancy was associated with a heavier child at age three. Moms-to-be who packed on over 35 pounds had four times the risk of their baby being overweight by toddlerhood than women who gained less.

And new research suggests that heavy Dads are more likely to have overweight children than heavy moms are. The study authors suspect that it may have to do with Dad's importance as a role model. "Both parents need to model healthy eating habits, says Dr. Dolgoff. "You can’t eat chips and then expect your child not to. They’re watching and learning from you." The same goes for exercise and outdoor activity -- Dr. Dolgoff encourages parents to put down the iPad, the phone or the remote control and run around with their kids.

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Ordering Off the...

"Fifty years ago, kids ate what their parents ate. There were no separate meals at dinner. And kids menus just meant smaller portions of what the adults were eating," says Beth Bader, co-author of The Cleaner Plate Club: More Than 100 Recipes for Real Food Your Kids Will Love. But somewhere along the way, we got sold the idea that our kids needed a separate cuisine and we caved into letting them eat a steady diet of mac and cheese, pizza, chicken nuggets, cheeseburgers and, of course, fries. "The kid's menu is often a formulation of refined grain, meat and high-fructose corn syrup with added flavors and colors," says Bader. "It's unhealthy -- and fattening."

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Formula Feeding

Short maternity leaves and lack of support in the workplace lead many women to stop breastfeeding their babies too soon. And that has real health implications when it comes to weight: The odds of becoming overweight are 20 to 30 percent lower in children who were breastfed, says Dr. Dolgoff. "While it's not clear why breastfed babies are thinner, perhaps it's because they're more apt to stop feeding when they're full. Formula-fed babies often get a few extra swallows pushed on them at the end of a feed."

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Hanging on to th...

Parents can be as much of the problem as kids are when it comes to ditching the bottle. Whether you love the closeness of snuggling with your toddler as he drifts off to sleep with his baba or he's the one resistant to giving it up, it's important to make the leap. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies should be off the bottle at age one because bottle drinkers tend to consume an excess of milk and not enough protein- and iron-rich foods, which they need for development. And gulping a bottle beyond babyhood also encourages children to slurp down too many calories. In fact, children who were still using a bottle at 24 months were about 30 percent more likely to be obese by 5 1/2 years old, even after accounting for mom’s weight, the child's birth weight, and infancy feeding practices, according to a study in the Journal of Pediatrics.

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Shopping at the ...

Several studies have shown a reduced risk of obesity among people with more supermarkets in their neighborhood, while the risk is increased when there's easy access to convenience stores instead. If your neighborhood doesn't have a supermarket, try to plan meals ahead of time so you make a weekly trip to stock up on healthy fresh foods and those that will last longer as well, like frozen veggies and whole wheat pasta. Then check out these budget-priced meals that you can make with pantry staples

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