The topic of overweight children and in particular obesity, recently came up when my son, Jay, came home and told us that one of his classmates is only as couple of kilograms lighter than me. Now to put this in perspective, I’m an average height adult male (just under 6 feet tall) and at the high end of the average weight range for my height. The boy on the other hand is around 7 or 8 years old. I haven’t done the math but I reckon he’d be classified as obese.
The thing is, here in Singapore they have a system set up to help deal with weight problems in children. They didn’t do this in Australia when I was a boy, but hopefully they’re doing something similar now. And I’m pretty sure there are other countries that do have similar programs to Singapore, especially with the obesity problems being faced in many countries these days.
Anyway, as I was saying, here in Singapore all children have a health check-up at school (in public schools, not sure about the private/international schools) where the kids have their height and weight measured. They also have eye and teeth checks, but that’s another story.
After the health check, if the child is found to be overweight, they are sent to see a nutritionist and have to attend an extra class at school where they will learn more about health and nutrition and do extra physical exercises. In Jay’s school they have the extra half hour class before school, Monday to Friday, and most sessions involved physical exercise.
How do I know this? Jay was determined to be a bit overweight last year when he was in grade 1. He doesn’t have to go to the extra sessions any more but he’s still a couple of kilos over his ideal weight. Unlike grown adults who would need to lose the extra weight, we’ve been advised to maintain his weight as he grows so that he’ll gain height and get to the ideal height/weight ratio without actually losing any of his weight.
Since he’s not going to the extra classes any more, we have to do more with him at home. During the week this is a bit of a problem since the evenings are taken up by dinner, schoolwork, and then getting ready for bed. On the weekends though, we try to go out and do some physical activity. Our most common activities are bike riding, running, swimming and tennis. Fortunately Jay loves doing all of them and sees them as fun things to do, and not just something he has to do because of his weight.
As far as his diet goes, it hasn’t changed that much. Instead of white rice (we eat rice practically every day), we now use brown rice. We limit the amount of milk he drinks. And are more careful about his portion sizes, and how much meat and vegetables he eats. What about junk food? I hear you ask. Funnily enough, that’s never been a problem. Jay rarely ate it anyway. If he got chocolates or sweets as a gift he’d try one and then leave the rest, which usually meant I’d eat them. Which just goes to show, even when a child only eats healthy food, they can still end up with a weight problem. It’s also about how much you eat, and not just what you eat.
What about that other boy? Well, from what we know it seems his parents don’t care. Jay doesn’t know if he’s been to see the nutritionist, but he knows that the boy has never gone to the extra classes, even when Jay was attending them. And over the last year, the boys weight has continued to climb. It’s a troubling thing, and the government has put in place a system to help with these weight problems, but if the parents don’t care or can’t be bothered to do anything, we’re going to continue to see these problems in young children.
As for Jay, he’s doing well with his weight, maintaining it and continuing to grow taller (he’s going to be taller than me eventually).