If your child is overweight or obese, it is time you intervene to avoid myriad health complications as he grows up. Childhood obesity can cause several other ailments but can be tackled with ease. Listed below are 21 simple remedies to help you help your child combat obesity. Try them today.
Is your child hugged by everyone he meets just because he’s fat and cuddly? Is he called Tubby? Does this bother you? It should, after all your child is obese for his age, gender and height. It’s obvious that he eats much more than the calories he burns up with physical activity. So, the unused calories are stored in his body as fat, and usually settles on his waist and hips.
Your child needs to go out and play and be more active. Don’t keep him watching TV for hours when he should be out in the playground kicking a ball, playing cricket, tennis or any other game.
Read More: Childhood Obesity: Symptoms, Causes, Natural Treatment
Home Remedies of Childhood Obesity
Here are 21 options to treat your child of childhood obesity:
1. Tomatoes and green leafy vegetables
Give your child a salad every day of tomatoes, dark green leafy vegetables and carrots as these are high in fibre and will keep him feeling full for long, negating the need for any more food. This is one step to reducing his overall food intake.
2. Honey and lemon juice
Add one teaspoon of honey to lemon juice in a glass of warm water. Mix well and give this liquid to your child every day to drink on an empty stomach.
3. Green tea
Green tea is well-known for weight loss, so a cup or two of this every day can be good for your child’s obesity. He must drink it every day without a break for visible results. Two or three cups of green tea every day can give him good results soon.
4. Apple cider vinegar
Here’s a remedy that can help break down body fats. Your obese child can slim down by mixing a teaspoon of this vinegar with an equal quantity of lemon juice to a glass of warm water. While the apple cider vinegar boosts your child’s metabolism, the water will keep him hydrated and the lemon juice improves the overall taste of the drink. Give your child this drink every day on an empty stomach for three months and see the difference. Alternatively, give him a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar at bedtime so that his body fats burn while he sleeps.
5. Mint leaves
Peppermint is a member of the mint family, renowned for being a digestive aid. Besides the role it plays in digestion, mint also aids weight loss. Make a cup of peppermint tea for your child and let him have it once or twice a day for good results.
6. Cayenne pepper
Eating spicy food can also help lose weight since it contains capsaicin, a substance that stimulates the body to burn more calories and limit his intake. Make a mix of cayenne pepper, mustard seeds, ginger, black pepper and use it in your cooking. However, give only a measured amount of this to your child since he may not be able to tolerate a lot of spice at his age.
7. Warm water
As a parent, it’s time you inculcate the habit of drinking warm water rather than cold, in order to lose weight. If your child begins to drink warm water, he will surely lose weight. Warm water gets rid of all the fats from containers from which they are drunk, so ensure that your child drinks warm water 30 minutes after a meal.
During the day, he should definitely drink eight to 10 glasses of warm water so that he remains hydrated. The warm water he drinks will help shed all the extra fat in his body by burning extra calories many times during the day, ending up in weight loss.
8. Fennel seeds
Fennel seeds help treat childhood obesity by reducing food cravings and staving off hunger. The seeds also have better absorption of nutrients and reduce the storage of body fats. So, give your child a cup of fennel seeds every day to achieve weight loss.
9. Vinegar water
Get the benefit of vinegar by adding a teaspoon of it to a bottle of water and refrigerate it. When cooled, let your kid sip on it through the day.
10. Spice powders
Mix long pepper, blackpepper and ginger root powder in lukewarm water and let your child drink it every day.
11. Lime, honey and black pepper
Make a mix of these three ingredients with warm water and let your child have this drink twice a day on an empty stomach.
12. Weight maintenance
Children over two years of age and above whose weight is defined as overweight can be put on a weight-maintenance program to retard the pace of weight gain. Through such strategies, obese children can add inches to their height but not kilos, so that their BMI falls to a healthy figure.
13. Say no to convenience foods
When you’re at the store buying food, don’t choose crackers, prepared meals and cookies that are rich in sugar, calories and fat. Instead, opt for healthy snacks which will help your child.
14. Limit sweetened drinks
Fruit juices in cartons are highly sweetened, so don’t let your kid drink them, if he’s trying to lose weight. They are high in calories and are therefore detrimental to your child’s attempts to lose weight.
15. Make dinner with the family an event
Make every dinner an event to remember. Share news, opinions, jokes and much more so that your kid is no longer attracted by TV or playing on his phone while eating. Besides, eating while watching TV is bad for your kid as he will not be aware of the amount he eats since more than half his mind is on the TV programme.
16. Serve restricted portions
Children don’t eat as much as adults do. Let your child eat as much as he can, in fact as much as he has on his plate. Anyway, you serve him a little lesser than he used to eat, so by eating less, he will store less fat on his hips.
17. Your teen isn’t a couch potato
The amount of screen time your child spends watching TV, playing games or using a tablet can reduce his physical movements. Instead of having a couch potato at home, make your child do a series of physical activities that will reduce his time before a TV.
18. E is not for exercise
Children groan at the idea of exercising, so don’t push your child to exercise every day. Instead, let him do free play activity instead of something structured. So, to get him to move as much as possible, let him play in the garden, jump rope or go cycling–all perfect for burning up those extra calories.
19. Introduce your child to a range of activities
Open your child’s mind to a range of diverse activities so that he can choose the ones he likes. Perhaps, he likes to go on a Nature hike looking for rocks and leaves, or he could like climbing walls or getting on to a jungle gym. Biking, walking, swimming are some other pursuits he might enjoy too.
Read More: 11 Home Remedies to Fight Obesity in Children
Conclusion
Don’t believe that a fat child will always remain so, there are ways of making him shed unnecessary weight. People will also not become the butt of jokes related to his obesity. It’s up to you to get him to lose all the weight that’s bad for him.
Read More: 7 Facts About Obesity And Pregnancy You Must Know
Resources:
http://www.medindia.net/homeremedies/obesity.asp
