Is Your Kid Getting Fat From Drinking Juice?

If your kid is getting fat it might be what he is drinking. One of the first steps to losing weight no matter how old you are is to try and figure out where extra calories are coming from. Many parents would be surprised to learn that their kid is getting an extra 500 – 1000 calories a day by drinking fruit drinks, milk and soda. If your child is under five then this means that what they take in as fluids could equal half of the calories they need to intake in a day. 

Not sure which beverage is the culprit? It is time to keep a food diary and record of the calories consumed.  I was shocked to find out that milk or juice could be the culprit.

Like you I was raised to believe these beverages were health and nourishing but not fattening. For instance when it comes to your child's milk intake The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that —  Children who are one to three years of age  get about 2 servings of milk (low fat milk after age 2 years) a day.Children who are three to seven ears old get about 3 servings of low fat milk Kids who are eight to eighteen years old get about 4 servings of low fat milk  

As far as juice goes, the American Academy of Pediatrics  has even more severer recommendations – Infants should not have any fruit juice because it is too much sugarBe sure the juice that you give your kid is 100% pasteurized and not from concentrate or a fruit drinkYounger children aged 1 to 6 years should have only 4-6 ounces of juice a day.

Older children should be limited to 8-12 ounces of juice a day Diluting your kid's juice with water is  also a good idea.

So if juice is off limits how does your fatter kid get his or vitamins? The answer is supplementation or to encourage your kids to eat whole fruits. If your child gets dehydrated or thirsty the best thing to do is give him or her water.

Gatorade however is not a bad choice if your kid is dehydrated or overheated. The idea is to get your four-year-old child to drink only three servings of 2% milk and six ounces of 100% fruit juice. This equals about 460 calories which is reasonable. If you want to make a four year old kid fat try giving him or her three servings of chocolate milk at 720 calories each, two juice servings at 200 calories each and one can of soda at 150 calories.  This is 1070 calories which is twice what he or she should have and even worse the kid is getting 50% of all the calories that he or she needs. 

Keep in mind these liquid calories are in addition to all of the other things a kid can eat in a day!  Now wonder it is so easy for our kids to get way too fat and no wonder childhood obesity is becoming an epidemic.

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The Six A’s of Parenting

I ran across an interesting audiotape the other day called the six A's of parenting. These suggestions are from The Six A's of Relational Parenting by Josh McDowell (available as an audio only.) The Six A's are as follows –

 A – Affirmation. This stands for affirming your child's feelings. It means listening carefully when your child is trying to tell why he is happy or sad.  An important component of this is to not ever downplay your child's feelings. For instance if the child says he is disappointed in someone you are never to say something like 'Oh, get over it.' You are also not to belittle an upset child by saying something like 'Oh, you are a big boy now and big boy's don't cry!' 

A – Acceptance.  This principle is conceived on the premise that in order for your kid to be emotionally health that he or she must know that you will always accept and love him or her no matter what he or she does. The child needs to know that you love him or her because you are the mom. Love and affection should not be based on achievement, good grades and whether or not a person has good or bad behavior. 

A – Appreciation.  To develop a healthy sense of self-esteem your child needs to know when he or she is good. He or she also needs to be appreciated 'just because.'  However approval from mom is a powerful motivation for a child to do the right thing all of the time. 

A – Availability. One genius thing that Josh McDowell brings up is 'Children spell the word Love – T-I-M-E.  If you are not available to your child he or she will not feel loved by you.  Time is also worth more to a kid then all of the gifts in the world. 

A – Affection.  Children that feel like they are loved are more likely to be motivated to please you. A parent that is critical or abusive does not motivate them. If they don't get love from you they will try and get it from somewhere else. 

A – Accountability.  Children need to know when they are responsible if a mistake is made. Even if no punishment is in order they need to know when they have stepped over the line. This creates a context for rules and boundaries and teaches a child the disciplines of responsibility and self-control. Of course the above is just a very short summary of what The Six A's of Relational Parenting is about and the tape goes into much more detail.

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