Is your child overweight or underweight? Here are the facts which you need to know about your child’s weight to help him or her maintain a healthy weight.In today’s world obesity is becoming rapidly prevalent a consumption of junk food and processed sugar has increased. The National Health Survey shows that more than 40% of children in middle class and upper middle class homes are obese and prone to premature development of thyroid problems, high blood pressure, cholesterol and premature cardiac problems. There are a lot of things that parents should know about the ideal weight of their children and about the factors influencing the weight. Here are some guidelines that will help you in supervising the weight management of your kids.
There are doctors, health care staff and medical professionals who can check and comment on whether a particular
child is overweight<> or is suffering from obesity by measuring the weight and height and calculating the Body Mass Index or BMI. This measure actually pertains to the relationship between the height and weight of the child and whether the ratio is in an acceptable range.
Nutritionists and child care specialists say that the
BMI of a child is not analyzed according to the parameters of an adult. There are specific growth charts which are used as a reference to show how the BMI of a child is comparable with the age, ethnicity and sex of other children. However, whether the BMI of your child is within the acceptable range or not should only be deduced by a medical professional. Generally a BMI of over 30 is considered to be an indicator of obesity.
Growth and Weight during Childhood and Puberty
The first thing that you should understand as a parent is that you should never calculate what weight and height is appropriate for your children based on the growth pattern of another child. The
growth patterns of all children are different and two children of the same age can easily have different bone structure and variable metabolic rates resulting in totally different weights. Every child has a different pattern of growth but the spurt in growth begins to happen around puberty. Development of secondary sexual characters like breast enlargement in girls and development of the testicles in boys also happens around puberty. The average child experiencing puberty should at least achieve 10 cm of growth every year during puberty.
Weight and Genetics
Scientific Research proves that high body weight and obesity runs in certain families as it is somewhat like a genetic trait. It is found that about 50% of kids whose parents are obese will grow up to become obese and if both parents of a particular child are obese then there is more than 80% chance that the child will become obese. This situation generally arises because children learn from the
eating habits of their parents. It is further found that the hormones that control appetite and therefore the gain of weight are hereditarily controlled in humans. This basically means that over eating runs in certain families as a genetic trait and therefore the tendency of weight gain also runs in families.
As a parent you should realize that if you are overweight your child also suffers from an increased tendency to become over weight. In this situation it is advisable to become even more cautious about proper meal planning, incorporation of a healthy life style, exercising regularly and taking other steps to ensure that a healthy weight is maintained. As children learn from example it is best that you as a parent take up these measures and maintain a healthy weight yourself as this will automatically inspire your child.
How to help children in weight management? How to find out if a child is overweight or underweight? How to prevent weight related issues in children? Discuss here. 
