Top tips on preventing obesity in toddlers who overeat

Dr Gill Harris, Consultant Paediatric Clinical Psychologist

Following his recent recovery from coronavirus, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has publicly blamed excess weight for his need for intensive care. He has subsequently declared a war on the UK’s obesity crisis and is planning a post-pandemic public health drive to battle the growing problem.

Today, almost a quarter (25%) of children aged 4-5 and around 35% of 10-11-year olds are overweight or obese.¹ We know that obese children are more likely to become obese adults,² and that a child’s risk of becoming obese in later life can be pre-determined by the age of six.³ This could lead to ever-growing rates of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, and spiralling numbers of strokes and heart attacks.⁴ Alarmingly, recent reports have suggested that the imposed coronavirus lockdown is also negatively impacting childhood obesity rates and worsening the crisis due to a lack of exercise and changes to sleeping and eating habits.⁵

Whilst most toddlers stop eating when they sense they are full, some children are very responsive to the sight of food, they do not realise that they are full and will carry on eating all the food that is on their plate and may then ask for more. They will also eat when they are bored, upset or distressed and tend to eat very quickly. This poor energy regulation is usually due to genetic factors, or may have developed due to factors present during pregnancy.

If your child always seems to be eating and always seems to want food, and if they are slightly or very overweight, then there are things that you can do to prevent further excess weight gain. Just because a food responsive child asks for food it does not always mean that they need it. Unfortunately, because these children respond so well to food and can often get upset easily, parents tend to use food to change their child’s mood, this too can lead to overeating and overweight.

So what can you do? Even though overeating is genetically determined, there are various ways to manage children who tend to overeat and help prevent obesity. Here are some of our top tips:

1. Offer fruit and vegetables from the beginning of weaning and continue to offer them at all meals. Babies will learn to like them by seeing, touching and tasting them
2. Be your child’s role model by including your child in family meals and eating the foods you would like them to eat. They will learn by copying you and others that eat with them
3. Allow your child to stop eating when they have had enough – avoid coaxing or bribing them to eat more than they want. Avoid giving pudding as a reward for eating the first savoury course
4. Limit portion sizes to suitable amounts for your child, you can even use smaller plates
5. Encourage your child to chew and eat more slowly – you could use a smaller spoon. Social and interactive mealtimes as a family will also tend to be slower than when children eat alone
6. When giving high sugar, high fat foods occasionally at the end of a meal avoid labelling them as ‘naughty but nice’ or describing them as a reward or treat, describe them instead as ‘sometimes’ foods
7. Develop a meal routine and only give food at three meals and 2-3 planned snacks, keeping high calorie food out of sight as children may ask for food when not hungry
8. Hug or cuddle your child or distract them to cheer them up rather than using food to comfort them or keep them quiet
9. Always offer fruit and vegetables at meals and snacks and offer high fibre and high protein foods that require chewing
10. To make it really easy to know you are giving the right amount of food, why not try our new resource, the Toddler Menu Planner, a meal planner which helps take the guesswork out of toddler meals and set up healthy habits for life

These steps will help your child control their eating and reduce the amount of unhealthy foods they consume. If you found this helpful, why not share with your friends or family?

References

¹ National Child Measurement Programme 2018 – https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/ncmp-and-child-obesity-profile-academic-year-2017-to-2018-update
² World Health Organisation – https://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/childhood_consequences/en/
³ New England Journal of Medicine – acceleration of BMI in early childhood and risk of sustained obesity
⁴ Health and Social Care Information Centre (2015) Health Survey for England 2014 – October 2018
⁵ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/oby.22861