Supporting your child with weight loss

Food Discipline

Praise and reward children when they make good food choices and do healthy activities. This will encourage them to keep at it.

Do not use food as a reward or punishment. For instance, do not offer food if your child cleans their room, and do not withhold food if your child does not do their homework.

Do not punish, tease, or put down children who are not motivated in their weight-loss plan. This will not help them.

Do not force children to eat all the food on their plate. Infants, children, and teens need to learn to stop eating when they are full.

Show Them How to Do It

The best thing you can do to motivate your kids to lose weight is to lose weight yourself, if you need to. Lead the way and follow the advice you give them.

Tips to Help Along the Way

Try to eat as a family. Have meals where everyone sits down and talks about their day. Set some rules, such as no lectures or teasing allowed. Make family meals positive experiences.

Cook meals at home, and involve your children in the meal planning. If they are old enough, let them help prepare meals. Homemade meals are often healthier than fast-food or prepared foods. They can also save you money. If you are new to cooking, with a little practice homemade meals can taste better than fast food. And, if your children help decide what food to prepare, they are more likely to eat it.

Take your children with you when you go grocery shopping so they can learn how to make good food choices.

The best way to keep kids from eating junk food or other unhealthy snacks is to not have these foods in your house. But never allowing any unhealthy snacks or sweets may result in your child sneaking these foods. The key is balance. It’s OK to let your child have an unhealthy snack once in a while.

If you have foods like cookies, chips, or ice cream in your house, store them where they are hard to see or reach. Put ice cream at the back of the freezer and chips on a high shelf. Move the healthier foods to the front, at eye level.

If your family snacks while watching TV, put a portion of the food in a bowl or on a plate for each person. It's easy to overeat straight from the package.

See also: Snacks and sweetened drinks - children

What to Do at School

Schoolchildren can put pressure on each other to make poor food choices. Schools, meanwhile, often do not provide healthy food choices.

Teach your children to avoid the sugary drinks in vending machines at school. Let your children decorate and bring their own water bottle to school to encourage them to drink water.

Pack a lunch from home for your child to bring to school. Add an extra healthy snack your child can share with a friend.

Update Date: 7/1/2011

Updated by: Neil K. Kaneshiro, MD, MHA, Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.