PARENTS HAVE ROLE IN CHILD'S WEIGHT CONTROL

Children's weight-control programs often overlook their parents.

When teaching children to make healthy food and lifestyle choices, it's important to include the people who buy the groceries and plan the meals, say weight-control specialists Marsha Holloway and Amy Hutson.

"The parent is the primary grocery shopper," said Holloway, a health promotion specialist at St. Francis Medical Center. "If Mom doesn't do it, how do you expect the kid to?"

Some 50 to 60 percent of U.S. children are overweight.

If one parent is overweight, there's a 20 percent chance the children will be. If both parents are overweight, the odds grow to 40 percent.

Holloway blames the tendency of children to be overweight on America's fast-food lifestyle.

With both parents working "we're constantly fast-fooding everything and we super-size it while we're at it," she said.

Holloway and Hutson, a dietitian at St. Francis, say changing people's behavior is the key to The Body Shop, a new weight-control program for children ages 8 to 18. The program starts Oct. 16 at the hospital and will continue every Monday night through Dec. 18. At least one parent must accompany a child to the sessions.

The program is not a child-sized diet, Hutson said, because "we don't really try to teach them to lose weight."

Children could have a growth spurt during the program, so maintaining their weight could actually be a weight loss.

"We want them to learn to lose some fat, learn healthy eating habits and learn some wellness," Hutson said.

That means children need to learn to choose fruits and vegetables more often than junk food, and parents need to make healthy foods available.

Children must also increase their activity levels, Holloway said, adding that each week, children and parents will participate in nutrition and exercise programs, with the children keeping logs of what they've eaten and what activities they've done.

That doesn't mean children must sign up for aerobics. Playing basketball, rollerblading and biking are all examples of activities to help parents and children lose weight.

"If you keep having fun, you're going to keep doing it," Holloway said.

In addition, parents and children will meet in support groups to discuss their concerns. Children can learn to set goals and see themselves as more than their body size, Holloway said.

Overweight children face a lot of emotional and psychological stress, Holloway said, adding that their weight problems can also lead to serious health problems, such as heart disease, hypertension and diabetes.

For more information, call 339-6938.