The myth: "It is just baby fat he will grow out of it."" According to Melinda Sothern, author of Trim Kids, this usually doesn't hold true in times like these. If we look back 50 years, kids spent time outside, playing; they didn't have 500-channel satellite TV, Nintendo or the Internet to keep them inside all day. Dinner consisted of wholesome home cooked meals at the dinner table with family, not getting a hamburger from the nearest drive through and eating dinner with Homer Simpson as there only company, (Sothern, 2001).
Today 25% of American children are overweight or obese. Trim Kids, is a 12 week program, developed over 15 years that offers concrete guidelines for nutrition, exercise, positive reinforcement and feedback. They give you week-by-week menus, recipes and suggested grocery lists to help the whole family eat better, that way the overweight child doesn't feel like he is being treated differently. Included in the diet book are charts to help parent keep track of progress and that help keep the child motivated.
In conjunction with nutrition and exercise the child must learn to have a healthy self-esteem level. Like adults children often use food to comfort themselves after a bad day at school. They come home after being teased and eat, then feel guilty, then eat more because they feel bad for eating so much the first time. It is a vicious cycle. The child must changed the way they look at food, it should be for nutrition alone, not something they see as a comfort or a reward for a good deed they have done (Tamborlane, 1997).
Healthy eating, exercise and the building of a healthy self-esteem are all needed for this diet to be a success. If both parent and child follow all the advice in Trim Kids, it should be effective and give the child a blueprint for good nutrition to last a lifetime (Sothern, 2001).
II. TYPICAL DAYS DIET.
The author of Trim Kids, gives many examples of what should be eaten at every meal.