Mother's Day is Nigh...

image found at EastTwin WestTwin

I'm not a mother myself, which is probably for the best.

Workout DVDs for kids? Also, Grammar Nazis

I know Crabby already covered the topic of children using kiddy treadmills. The trend of treating children as if they were adults has also drifted into the land of the workout video.

The title says it all: "Dance Workout with Barbie!" Yes, it's an exercise workout with an animated Barbie doll. For children 5 and up, this is apparently a serious workout video. (According to one source, Jennifer Love Hewitt is one of the backup dancers in this video. Since it was made over a decade ago, I don't feel bad about not recognizing her.) Take them to a park and let them play, fer Pete's sake!



I keep trying to see this from the point of view of the parent whose child's school no longer offers PE. Yes, gym was often heinous, especially if you were, like moi, uncoordinated. (Did you know that uncoordinated children are more likely to grow up to be obese? Seems to me what they could be teaching in schools is some form of exercise that's fun. Even if you're uncoordinated, if you can build up some confidence it would help.)



All the same, the idea of a workout video for 5-year old children really depresses me.

What do the parents out there think? Is this sort of thing teaching children to be cranky about fitness at way too early an age, or is it a necessary evil? (I'm sorry if that last term offends all the Barbie lovers out there, but that animated Barbie strikes me as the epitome of the poorly dressed and highly creepy low-life trailer-trash doll.)

Also, I had to include this video clip. The Onion News Network debates whether violent video games really prepare today's children for life in a post-apocalyptic world:



In honor of National Grammar Day (which was yesterday), I stole leveraged this video clip from the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar:



[Text for the video-impaired: Hitler rails about Grammar Nazis and the importance of spelling correctly on a job application. Some bad language, at least in the subtitles. But it's grammatically correct bad language.]

What do Grammar Nazis have to do with fitness, you ask? To celebrate National Grammar Day, even a day late, it is suggested that you hold a party featuring nutritional, high-fiber foods. Because they're good for the colon.

(No word yet on whether low-fiber Krispy Kreme doughnuts are good for the semicolon, or for the comma, exclamation point, or M-dash, but I'm thinking of conducting a study to research the matter.)

How to Deal With Picky Eaters

(OK, so I wouldn't eat it either.)
photo: Failblog

I am not a parent. And it has been many, many decades since I was a child.

So I really have no business even addressing the topic of kids who are picky eaters and how to handle them.

But of course that won't stop me! So, just a warning: this post may well offend some of you parents. I'm afraid I'm just an old fuddy-duddy and need some help in understanding the issues involved. Things seem to have changed quite a bit since I was a youngster.

In a nutrition column in the SF Chronicle, a reader recently asked expert Marion Nestle this question:

"I am very concerned about my 6-year-old grandson's diet. I don't believe he has ever eaten fruit or veggies or regular food. He loves chocolate and candy and frosting, and at dinner time has his special foods. His pediatrician says not to worry, but his parents are worried and afraid of making eating an issue. What to do?"

Before we get to the answer, and some actual helpful tips for the parents of picky eaters, can I just tell you how this question struck me? It was as though this poor grandparent had written:

"I am very concerned about my 6-year-old grandson's recreational activities. I don't think he's ever played with a ball or ridden a bike. He loves his assault rifles and bourbon and cocaine and hardcore porn magazines. His parole officer says not to worry, but his parents are worried and afraid to make his hobbies an issue. What to do?"

OK, so it's not quite the same thing... but does anyone else wonder if parental deference to kids' preferences sometimes goes too far?

Most Parents Do a Great Job!

I just want to note that most parents I know handle these issues really well. And I'm sure regular readers at Cranky Fitness are flexible and compassionate, while still managing to get their kids to eat something besides candy and frosting. (In fact, I hope some of you have advice from the trenches you can help us out with in the comments). It must be so frustrating to have a kid go through a phase where he or she hates most normal food. Dinnertime as battleground? I can see how that would be really unpleasant.


But WTF is Up With Kids Being Totally in Charge?

This is more than just a picky food issue. I am frequently surprised to see how parents and children interact these days--all that begging and pleading and whining and pouting! Seriously, parents, it's just not dignified when you do that.

When I was a kid, we also had discussions and negotiations--after all, I was part of the spoiled baby boomer generation. (Before that, I believe kids were supposed to be "seen and not heard.") However, when we discussed stuff with our parents, it was understood that parents had the final say. Kids were expected to understand reasonable adult explanations, like, "because I said so that's why," and not put up a fuss.

Here is some more historical perspective:


How Parents Dealt With Picky Eating In the Really Olden Days:

This is before my time, but I'm pretty sure that kids in the olden days who did not want to eat what was offered did not eat, period. If kids took it too far and accidentally perished, the parents simply made more kids.

Candy and sweets must not have even existed, because kids got all excited when they got one crappy little orange in their Christmas stocking.

Oh, yeah, and parents used to make kids drink cod liver oil for no reason at all except, apparently, sadism.


How Picky Eating Was Dealt With In My Generation:

It varied from family to family, but I don't think my experience was unusual:

Junky foods like ice cream and potato chips and hamburgers and candy were treats, not staples. They were often used as rewards and could be taken away if we were bratty. As kids, trying to demand any of these foods would have been useless, unless our goal was to spend the rest of the day exiled to our rooms.

Dinners were eaten as a family and we all ate the same thing. Kids had to try at least a small portion of everything on our plate or we wouldn't get dessert. No matter how vile a vegetable was, we generally managed to choke down a few bites in order to get something sweet afterward.

Note: these mealtime tactics are now considered akin to child abuse, as they are supposed to give kids eating disorders and traumatize them etc. Oddly enough, these primitive methods worked pretty well for me. Having choked down vegetables repeatedly for all the wrong reasons, I got used to the way they tasted and then even grew to like them. (By contrast, the Lobster grew up in a household where no one much liked vegetables, so she didn't have to eat them. And guess what? She still hates most of them to this day.)


What The Experts Are Now Saying You Should Do

Between the Chronicle "fussy eater" article above, a USDA page on preschool picky eaters and a Mayo Clinic list of tips for children's nutrition, here is a big ol' list of suggestions. Some of these seem really smart! Others, well, I'll be curious to see what actual parents think of them.

• Model healthy eating habits by eating healthy food yourself.
• By the time kids are 2 years old, they generally can and should eat what adults eat.
• With small kids, you can cut or mash the foods, serve smaller portions and don't add sugar or salt.
• Involve kids in shopping and cooking. "Take the foods home and let kids peel fruit, pare vegetables, mix, mash and measure. Let them taste everything. Teach kids to cook."
• Kids do not need sodas or candy. You can postpone these indefinitely or reserve them for occasional treats.
• Once babies can handle solid foods, you can offer a new food once a week. If the child tolerates it, move on to the next.
• A child's willingness to accept an unfamiliar food depends on how frequently the food is offered. You might have to offer a food at 20 meals before a child will taste it.
• Start by presenting tiny portions of everything served at family meals, give the child time to play with and taste the foods, and remove anything not eaten after a short while.
• Have plenty of healthful foods available - and offer nothing else. Do not make substitutions.
• Try to make meals a stress-free time. Talk about fun and happy things.
• Offer ultimatums choices. Rather than ask "Do you want broccoli for dinner?" ask “Which would you like for dinner: broccoli or cauliflower?”
• Offer a variety of foods and let your child choose how much of these foods to eat.
• Offer the same foods for the whole family. Don’t make a different meal for your preschooler. Your child will be okay even if they don’t eat a meal now and then.
• Respect your child's hunger — or lack of hunger. If your child isn't hungry, don't force a meal or snack.
• Stay calm. If your child senses that you're unhappy with his or her eating habits, it may become a battle of wills. Threats and punishments only reinforce the power struggle.
• No juice or snacks for at least one hour before meals.
• Don't expect too much. A few bites may be all it takes for your child to feel full.
• Limit liquid calories. If your child fills up on milk or juice, he or she may have no room for meals or snacks.
• Don't force your child to clean his or her plate.
• Don't mention taste. Talk about a food's color, shape, aroma and texture — not whether it tastes good.
• Eat breakfast for dinner. Who says cereal or pancakes are only for breakfast? The distinction between breakfast, lunch and dinner foods may be lost on your child.
• Make it fun. Serve broccoli and other veggies with a favorite dip or sauce. (Really, this is supposed to be fun for kids? Now using the veggies to catapult the dip against the wall--that sounds like fun!) Or, cut foods into various shapes with cookie cutters.
• Be sneaky. Add chopped broccoli or green peppers to spaghetti sauce, top cereal with fruit slices, or mix grated zucchini and carrots into casseroles and soups.
• If your child doesn't like ingredients thrown together,"unmix" the food. Place sandwich fixings outside the bread, or serve the ingredients of a salad, casserole or stir-fry separately.
• Be consistent: serve meals and snacks at about the same time every day, and "close" the kitchen at other times.
• Consult your child's doctor if you're concerned that picky eating is compromising your child's growth and development or if certain foods seem to make your child ill.
• Minimize distractions. Turn off the television during meals, and don't allow books or toys at the table.
• And finally, (and the suggestion I liked the least): Don't offer dessert as a reward. This sends the message that dessert is the best food.

Well, sorry Mayo clinic, but dessert IS the best food!!! If we could blame our adult love of sweets on our parents using them as bribes, isn't that a pretty easy problem to fix? Parents, from now on, just say: "Sweetie, you know you have to finish your tater tots or you won't get any broccoli after dinner." Voila, problem solved!

So obviously I have NO idea about how to deal with this issue in real life. Do you folks have any thoughts/opinions/war stories on the Picky Eater issue?

Children and Body Image: Uh Oh.

Image courtesy of: chicks57

Since I don't have kids myself, I am sometimes naive about how things have changed since I was a little tyke.

I was gobsmacked to find out, via Sagan of Living Healthy in the Real World, that doctors are discovering that not just adolescents, but children as young as five, are binging and purging.

I hope this is just one of those "get people all riled up" articles, like the reports about little girls taking pole dancing classes. You know, where rare cases are made to seem like a shocking new trend we need to worry about, so that experts can get their names in the paper and we bloggers can all climb up on our soapboxes and scream: "How Terrible!"

Sadly though, it sounds like it's more than a few isolated kids. The researchers are only just starting to look into how prevalent the problem is. But it blew me away that this was even happening in Canada, where I always imagined things were more sane and reasonable than in the United States.

Little Canadian kids are gorging themselves on french fries and doughnuts poutine and timbits and then barfing it back up so they won't be seen as fat?

Holy hell, things are worse than I thought.

Not freaked out yet? Well, another recent study of kids and eating disorders followed kids 9-15 years old and found that more than ten percent of the girls were binging or purging at least weekly. And purging was more common than binging.


Is it just me, or is anyone else shocked by this?

Part of my naivete has to do with my own upbringing. I don't think I even had a "body image" as a kid. Okay, I knew I was short. But it didn't bother me.

I got lots of exercise, because when I was little it was called "playing" and it was fun and there was plenty of time for it. (I went on an extended rant about this, in full turbo-charged Grumpy Old Fart mode, when writing about Elliptical Trainers for kids.)

There was no obesity epidemic yet, and getting fat was a fate that befell an unlucky few. It wasn't on the radar for "normal" kids. As far as I remember, it wasn't until high school that some girls started dieting.

So for me, it seems shocking that children in elementary school are already worried about what their bodies look like enough to have actual eating disorders. But I'm sure some of you who struggled early with your own weight--who grew up in a different climate, or with a genetic propensity to put on pounds easily--are not nearly as shocked.

And I suspect that many of you parents, particularly parents of girls, are saddened but not that surprised. You're in the trenches with your kids and are hip to what they see and hear and read. Accck! I don't know how you grapple with this, and am hoping some of you will share what you've learned in the comments.

So I could go off on another rant about the media images we see constantly of impossibly skinny women, right next to ads for triple-bacon-cheeseburgers and Blizzards and Double-stuffed Oreos. But you guys already know that we live in a profoundly screwed-up culture when it comes to food and fat and fitness and body image. And it's not a surprise that kids soak up all that poison just like we do.

Instead, I want to ask: how do we fight this?

There's a Web MD article on children and body image that has some basic advice for parents (of girls), for what it's worth:


Look for signs of an unhealthy body image:

• Does your child view herself only in terms of her physical appearance?
• What language does she use to describe herself and her physical development and attractiveness?
• Is there excessive dieting?
• Are there frequent comments about the weight of other girls?
• Does she worry about sexual attractiveness?
• Does she suffer depression or low self-esteem?

Help boost a poor body image by:

• Helping children understand that their bodies will change and grow and that there is not one "ideal" body shape;
• Watching what they say about their own bodies or other people's bodies;
• Avoiding stereotypes, prejudices, and words like "ugly" or "fat";
• Helping children focus on their abilities and personalities rather than physical appearance;
• Promoting physical activity and exercise;
• Discouraging children from weighing themselves.

Watch for symptoms of anorexia which may include:

• Losing lots of weight;
• Denying feeling hungry;
• Exercising excessively;
• Saying that she "feels fat";
• Withdrawing from social activities;

Or symptoms of bulimia which may include:

• Making excuses to go to the bathroom immediately after meals;
• Eating huge amounts of food without weight gain;
• Using laxatives or diuretics;
• Withdrawing from social activities.

But How Do You Encourage Healthy Behavior?

So how do you remain sensitive to a kid's body image while still encouraging healthy eating and exercise?

I can't imagine how modern parents manage to balance this. In my day, these weren't such loaded concepts. A parent could say "Go outside and play!" or, "No cookies for dessert until you finish your cauliflower!" There wasn't quite the same danger it would be construed as: "whatever you do, don't get fat or no one will ever love you!"

Some Hope for Eating Disorders: A recent study of eating disorders and psychotherapy showed that a specific, more enhanced version of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can be extremely helpful in working with eating disorders. (Though the study was of adults, not kids). In any event, if your child is showing signs of an eating disorder, seeking help seems a much better strategy than pretending it isn't happening.



So what do you parents do to try to keep your kids from hating their bodies while at the same time encouraging healthy habits? What can the rest of us do to help? And was anyone else as shocked as I was to see how early these problems start?

Coping with Halloween: Tricks for Treats

Photo: Daveynin

It's a conspiracy, I tell you

Among the vast conspiracies & cabals that dominate our world (Who decides whether hemlines should be up or down? Who decided capri pants were fashionable? Who on earth thought up the idea of going to work on a Monday, anyway?), there's a small group concerned with deciding how many small scary costumed rugrats will show up at my door demanding candy.

I mean, some years I'm swamped, run out of chocolate early, and have to spend the rest of the night with the lights turned off, pretending that I'm not at home. Other years, I'll end up with 3 or 4 unopened packages of candy -- calling to me, tempting me, luring me to fall into evil ways. And somehow, I can never simply Throw Chocolate Away -- it's wasteful! Yes, I know eating the stuff is waist-ful, but I can't just throw it out.

The ideal would be to run out of candy with the very last child who shows up at my door. Probably there are people who pre-determine who the last child will be, even if that means they give 345 pieces of chocolate to a child and then spend the rest of the night hiding. (Hiding for Halloween! The latest adult coping strategy!)

Another problem with Halloween is that it encourages kids (and, um, adults) to eat 'bad' food. Used to be you could give a child an apple or something like that. Now it has to be something in a package. It makes me irked, irked I tell you!

I sometimes wish we could outlaw Halloween, but I'd miss all the cute outfits.

Dogzilla!

Healthy Halloween?

Does anyone have any 'healthy' treats that they give?

- iVillage put up a short list of healthy halloween candy, but that's all stuff that you make and put into baggies.

Not to sound paranoid, but if people are afraid of razor blades in apples, wouldn't they also be leery of any homemade treats? I hate to go to all the trouble of making something and then have it thrown out by an understandably cautious parent. (Actually, I'd hate to go to the trouble of making something, period. Queen of Laziness, moi.)

- WebMD tries to avoid the problem of adult-snacking by suggesting you go out and make healthy stuff for you to eat, so that you're not tempted by the chocolate lying around.

It's well-meant advice, but I gotta tell you -- if chocolate is calling, it tends to have a louder voice than cheese-and-olives-on-crackers (which is actually quite soft-spoken). And it would be nice to give children something that's not going to contribute to the rise in childhood obesity.

- Thriftyfun suggests little boxes of raisins or peanuts.

That might actually be the best bet. Some children (and adults) are allergic to peanuts, but if so I'm sure that they (or their parents) are into reading labels of the treats that they get. And dogs should not eat raisins, but really dogs shouldn't eat chocolate either, so if you're worried about Phydeaux you might want to encourage the children to eat the treats quickly. (Yeah, like they need the urging.)

- Reader's Digest adds pumpkin seeds to the list of healthy treats.

I kinda like this one, since pumpkins are associated with Halloween anyway. But I'm not sure how I'd feel about receiving pumpkin seeds if I were a child. Any children out there who can respond? Would you feel gypped?

- The American Dietetic Association suggests giving stickers.

Again, this sounds like something that might or might not be appealing to a child. (Sounds like fun, but is it a treat?)

The race is starting up again...

Halloween is the first hurdle in the race (or waddle) toward the holidays. I plan to get off to a good start this year, however I finish up. Raisins and peanuts and stuff like that. That way, if there are any leftovers, at least they're vaguely sorta kinda healthy leftovers.

Anyone else have any good ideas for healthy treats to give?




Whoops... how did that picture of Saddle Mountain get in here? Well, it is scary in a way. The scary part of this picture is ... that peak you see there? That's not the high point of the hike.

Ask Cranky Fitness: Soccer Moms & Annoying Teenagers

[By Merry]

Dear Cranky Fitness,

Now that I've finally gotten the little rug rats back in school, I thought I'd have time to exercise. (For some reason, chasing after them all summer didn't do anything for my aerobic conditioning.) But somehow in addition to working all day, I've gotten locked into the job of unpaid chauffeuse: to school, from school, soccer practice for Becky and football training for Ezekiel, everyone's going to different schools at different times, and there's no time for me to get some exercise. Would my kids disown me if I joined in their after-school programs? At this rate I'm going to need something larger than just a mini-van.

Signed,
Ever-Expanding Mom

Dear E-E M,

We hear your pain. Don't have to deal with rug rats ourselves, but it sure does sound problematic.

However, having gone through a few biology classes, it is possible to deduce that there might be another parent around who could help ferry the little ones to their after-school activities. Can you trade off? Failing that, are there other expanding moms who would be willing to create a carpool? Yes, of course you want to be there to watch the practice, but is it so very selfish to also want a little time for your own workout? I think not. If it takes a village to raise a child, why shouldn't it take a carpool to deal with soccer practice?


Dear Cranky Fitness,

Help! I'm at my wits' end. I know this question doesn't have much to do with fitness, but mental health is important too, and I'm about ready to lose it. My eldest boy is just hitting the teenage years, and he's a slob. His bedroom could be certified as a danger to public health by any sane health inspector. Nothing I do seems to make an impression, short of going in there and cleaning it myself. I'm not sure I can survive until he leaves for college. What can I do?

signed,
Mom in Chaos

Dear M.i.C.,

Invite girls over. - Merry
Oh right, like that's not going to cause other problems. - Crabby.
What? She isn't asking about other problems. Maybe having to chase girls away from the house will make her appreciate a son who has questionable home decorating skills. - Merry
Are you trying to get us sued? - Crabby

[ahem]
Dear M.i.C., our advice is that you try bribery bartering. For every square foot of floor that you can see in his room, he gets to spend one hour using his computer. Put a basketball hoop above the laundry basket and encourage him to dunk his laundry. Any science projects (strange fungi growing in coffee cups, etc.) must have written authorization by a biology teacher or he can't borrow the car on Saturday night.


Does anyone have any questions to which we might be able to give helpful insightful um... original answers? Or is there someone out there who's had to deal with problems like these and has good, helpful, or at least more plausible answers to give?

More Friday Randomness

So as Crabby heads off for a long weekend with the intrepid Lobster, she thought she'd leave behind the usual assortment of weird research that didn't fit in anywhere else during the week.

She also wants to remind you to email her your Great Hikes and pictures if you've got them. And, it's looking like the "Reader Recommendations" for Cool Books and Other Health Products could probably use some updating too. So if you've recently stumbled upon something you Highly Recommend, or if you suddenly recall an old favorite you think others might enjoy, please leave your suggestions in the comments or email the Crab about them.

Lets do the Bad Cancer News first and get it out of the way:

Adding extra fruits and veggies to your diet, though good for you in many other ways, doesn't appear to help prevent breast cancer recurrence. Crabby would have bet otherwise, and she doesn't like this result, so she'll just wait for some other study to come out soon and say the opposite.

Also weight cycling, or "yo-yo" dieting, appears to increase the risk of kidney cancer. This also seems like frustrating news for the many who are trying their damndest but keep putting the weight back on--now another thing to worry about.

And children and young adults living near nuclear plants show a higher incidence of leukemia. This one looked a little complicated, though, so anyone who actually lives near one may want to give it a more careful combing over before panicking about what it might mean for your kids.

Okay, yuck. That's enough of that!

There's good news however, if you have a lot of moles. You may have a slightly greater risk of melanoma, but you may live longer nonetheless. For some reason, having more moles seems related to having longer telomeres, which scientists assure us is a very good thing. It has something to do with shoelaces. Crabby, being lazy, would rather have you read about the mole study yourself than try to figure out and explain exactly what a telomere is and what shoelaces have to do with it.

And as for exercise, there's another study saying that walking is good for you, and high intensity walking is even better. You knew that already, but it's always nice to see Science on Our Side.

But here's one you may not have known: for your cardio workouts, breaking up an hour long session into two chunks with a 20 minute rest in between may actually help you burn more fat. (Crabby wonders, however, what the heck you're supposed to do for that twenty minutes, especially if you're at the gym and it already feels like you spend half the freakin' day there? But maybe you could go do some stretchy stuff, or meditate, or go flirt with the bored-looking person handing out towels.)

So this was supposed to just be a short post today, to make up these long-ass rambly things that somehow keep appearing in the blog. Crabby swears they're only a couple of paragraphs when she hits "Publish," but gremlins of some sort seem to be cramming them full of nonsense.

Have a great weekend, everyone! Crabby will probably be back Monday; Tuesday at the latest.

Saturday Grab Bag

It's a random research day here at Cranky Fitness--where weekends mean sloppy laid-back blogging! Featuring: no transitions, weird stuff Crabby has collected but doesn't have anything sensible to say about, and assorted observations about things that have nothing to do with health and fitness.

Will Sunday's entry be any better? Is there any chance tomorrow will have carefully researched health news and nuanced discussion of Important Health Issues?

Not at all! Tomorrow is all about Adsense and Amazon and other bloggy things. Serious health and fitness readers are advised, as usual, to hit the archives or go explore other fine health and fitness blogs. Like, for instance, Diet King or Blogging While Fat. Both feature thoughtful, witty posts about weight loss.

Or you could always go look at cool offbeat architecture. Whenever Crabby goes there she lusts after dwellings that are not her own. It's house porn!

Another fine diversion, especially if you have a blog: go visit our good friend Geosomin at The Supposed Golden Path, and find out what your blog is rated! (Cranky Fitness is rated PG, for mentioning both Drugs (2) and Death (1)!)

On a more humanitarian note, you could help Deb Shed Pounds for Primates!

But if you're stubborn and would still like a few random health and fitness tidbits, Cranky Fitness style, here they are.

From a study of 92 patients over three years at an Irish hospital, here are some interesting observations about human bite wounds:

1. Men are 12 times more likely than women to sustain severe human bite injuries;

2. Alcohol was involved in 86% of the injuries; illicit drugs in 12%.

3. Seventy per cent of incidents occurred during the weekend or on a public holiday.

4. Seven out of ten bites were to the face.

And so remember how Crabby said no transitions? She meant it! Next up, a depressing survey of 3500 eleven year olds on the use of doping agents. The results:

More than one percent of them admitted to using performance enhancing drugs to do better in sports. The proportion increased from 1.2 to 3 percent by the age of 15. "While 62% of eleven years olds used doping agents less than once per month, at 15 the same proportion were using them at least every week and 24 per cent daily."

Yikes.

And here's some information on the health status of college students, based on a survey of more than 800 undergraduates:

1. At least one-third were overweight or obese;

3. Sixty percent of men had high blood pressure;

4. More than two-thirds of women were not meeting their nutritional needs for iron, calcium or folate; and,

5. Eight percent of men had "metabolic syndrome." This means a combination of high blood pressure, excess abdominal fat, high blood glucose, high triglycerides, and low “good” cholesterol. Sixty-six percent of men had at least one risk factor, as did fifty percent of the women. Metabolic syndrome often predicts future development of heart disease and diabetes.

Oh yes, and remember that discussion we had about Vitamin D and Cancer Prevention, and how you could take supplements but maybe you didn't have to worry if you got plenty of sunshine?

Well, sorry! New info just in: You can live in Hawaii, foolishly go out without sunscreen for hours a day, and yet still be deficient in Vitamin D!

Depressed yet? Research is fun! Maybe next time, Crabby will find a more uplifting group of random studies. Enjoy your weekend!

Childhood Obesity: Is Honesty the Best Policy?

So yet another strange headline caught Crabby's attention the other day: "Expert panel says to call kids obese.'"

Really? It seemed odd advice, even from Experts. Crabby should just walk up to an extremely overweight child and say "Hey kid, you're obese?"

Well, no. This was more about changing the language in the guidelines the Center for Disease Control uses in defining childhood obesity. The Experts aren't really recommending we walk up to kids and start calling them names.

(Actually, you may want to take a look at the article itself, because with her tiny Crab brain, it was hard for Crabby to understand what they meant by all this. She wasn't entirely clear on who the experts were, what the guidelines do, and how this would impact actual doctor/patient/family conversations). But apparently the guidelines "refer to children many would consider too fat as being 'at risk for overweight,' and use 'overweight' for those others would consider obese."

This sounds like a difficult issue for pediatricians, and Crabby doesn't envy them the alternatives: spare the family's feelings and the kid's self esteem by normalizing excessive weight gain? Or be more blunt and possibly alienate the family and make the fat kid feel like crap?

And what if it's one of those families where there's a strong genetic component to the obesity? How do you handle the issue if the family feels they're already doing what they can to encourage healthy eating?

Crabby has no kids herself, and she's never had to deal with the social stigma or the health risks of obesity. She's all questions here, not answers.

What do you folks think about this? Should pediatricians be more honest with kids and families about obesity?

UPDATE: This is one of those posts where all the insightful observations and great suggestions are happening down in the Comments section. If you don't usually click on the Comments to these posts, today is a good day to find out what goes on down there! Crabby is off for a bit this afternoon, but she shall return later to see what other sensible and/or brilliant things you folks have written. She's way impressed so far.