How can I encourage my child to make healthy choices?
When you are approaching the issue of weight with your children, you want to give your kids the tools they need to make healthy choices on their own. Pediatrician Joanna Dolgoff, MD, explains her diet strategy for overweight kids.
Transcript
We want to give them power. We want to make them feel like they're in control. We also don't want to make things too complicated.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
When you're treating an overweight child, you really want to give the child the tools that they need to make healthy changes on their own.
You don't want to tell an overweight child what they have to do because then they're going to eat to spite you
or they're going to sneak eat behind your back. We want to give them power. We want to make them feel like they're in control.
We also don't want to make things too complicated. That's why I like my red light, green light, eat right nutrition program.
It's very simple. The healthiest foods are green light food. Moderately healthy foods are yellow light foods,
and the least healthy foods are the red light foods. So there's no counting calories. There's no deprivation because they do get
to have the red light foods. And they get to choose when they have the red light foods. And parents can give up the job of food police.
So there's no nagging. There's no fighting. Really the most important thing, as I said, kids need to be in control.
Let them take control of what they're eating, and they'll start to make the right choices. [AUDIO LOGO]
weight management
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