HEALTH TIPS: Big kid

Health Tip – Audio Version - Big kid
Health Tip – Healthy Next Step: We Can! Ways to Enhance Children’s Activity & Nutrition (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health)

It’s wonderful to watch kids grow. Every day, it seems, they get bigger.

But can Mom and Dad tell when their youngster is maybe too big?

Researcher Thomas Joiner of Florida State University had parents rate their three-year-olds – from very underweight, through the right weight, to very overweight. His study, which was supported by the National Institutes of Health, was in the International Journal of Eating Disorders.

Could the parents judge their kids’ weight right? You be the judge.

“No one categorized their kids as in the highest category of all. Based on the characteristics of this sample, some of the kids’ body mass index did meet criteria for obesity.”

To keep the weight under control, Joiner suggests parents keep the kids active, so they burn off the calories they take in.

Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last revised: August, 15 2006