Polish children need to be slimmed down. How to do it? Explains the dietitian

Polish children gain weight the fastest in Europe. The pandemic has further kicked off this dangerous trend. What to do if your child is already overweight or is going obese? Monika Nowicka, a clinical dietitian, explains in an interview with Medonet.

1. Polish children have been at the forefront of rankings for many years when it comes to extra kilos
2. In our society there are still myths that the child will “grow up”, and the best form of a gift or consolation is a sweet candy bar
3. – There is still a belief that sweets are a symbol of a happy childhood, and children should be pampered with them. There are many other forms of showing care and love – says Monika Nowicka
4. More current information can be found on the Onet homepage.

Agnieszka Mazur-Puchała, Medonet: The fact that adult Poles gained weight during the pandemic is being said all the time. And how has the situation of children who have been sitting at home in front of the computer for almost a year changed?

Monika Nowicka, clinical dietitian: In the second half of 2020, Be Diet Catering, on the initiative of Ewa Chodakowska, conducted a study on the activity and nutrition of children and adolescents during the pandemic. 20 percent of the mums surveyed indicated that children’s eating habits changed with the lockdown, half of which indicated a change consisting in an increase in the number of meals and their size. The deterioration of the diet occurred in 68 percent. of them. Children eagerly reached for unhealthy snacks – chips, sweets, jelly beans.

Analyzes showed that in the 9-13 age group already 61 percent. children are overweight or obese, and as many as 89 percent. children between 14 and 18 years of age has an overweight weight. These results have been confirmed by WHO research, which clearly shows that for years Polish children have been at the forefront of obesity rankings. In the long run, excess kilograms lead to many diseases, which may shorten life by up to 15 years and significantly deteriorate its quality.

Was it better before the pandemic?

The problem is very complex. The reasons include the change in the quality of food in recent years and the change in the lifestyle of children compared to previous generations. Children are less likely to play outdoors, and in return spend much more time motionless – in front of a computer, TV, phone in hand. Unfortunately, the problem was further aggravated by the pandemic and the necessary remote learning, which chained both toddlers and teenagers to computers for long hours.

It is not worth pointing out who is guilty, and no one cares about making children complex – quite the opposite. You can grow out of excess weight, but only if you change your eating habits and introduce physical activity. The parents and guardians are now facing a huge challenge, which is why it is so important to broadly educate and provide them with tools that will allow them to take care of the health of their youngest.

What can we adults do about it?

It’s worth starting with observation. Let’s check if the child’s diet is regular and well structured. If your baby eats spontaneously and at different times with long breaks, it is important to pay attention to this as this can cause sugar levels in the body to fluctuate and overeating, which in turn leads to weight gain. Let us also pay attention to the variety of the child’s diet. Only varied meals, prepared from high-quality products, will be able to provide the growing organism with all the necessary nutrients without increasing weight.

What should a proper child’s diet look like?

A child’s diet must be rich in a variety of vegetables and fruits. But be careful about buying fruit juices and sweetened drinks. They may seem healthy, but they contain a lot of sugar and are a real calorie bomb that also makes you hungry quickly. It is still very popular to buy flavored water for kids with the feeling that it is a healthy alternative to soda. Research by Be Diet Catering shows that every tenth parent uses such a solution. It happens that children are specially sweetened with sugar to make it taste better. This is not a good solution. If children are reluctant to drink water, I recommend adding a mint leaf, a slice of orange or a cucumber to it. In this form, both adults and children who are reluctant to drink clean water may like it. However, if a child likes fruit juices very much and we want to please our toddler from time to time, a good solution is to give the child a juice prepared at home.

An example from above that starts with the parents is very important. It is also important to involve the rest of the community – grandparents or aunts – and adopt a single system of rules. Parents often admit that their children demand sweets after visiting their grandparents. There is still such a belief that sweets are a symbol of a happy childhood, and children need to be pampered with them. There are many other forms of showing care and love. I think that when we are adults, we remember better and appreciate more, for example, cooking together with grandma or the dishes prepared by her, than pampering with purchased sweets.

On the other hand, how to refuse a child who even begs for a candy bar while shopping?

It is indeed a big challenge for parents or grandparents. Children, seeing various types of advertisements and observing what others are eating, make demands when shopping for specific products. The GfK Polonia report “Junior Shopper 2018” showed that 85 percent. When shopping, parents persuade their children and buy the products or parts of them indicated by them. Remember, however, that as parents or guardians, we have an influence on whether these products end up in the basket.

Kindergartens and schools also play an important role in building eating habits. Let’s check if the facility attended by our child supports nutritional education. Parents in the Be Diet Catering study repeatedly presented this as a weak point. Children at school afternoon tea get sweets, sweet rolls, sandwiches with chocolate cream. Cooperation is needed here – after all, the goal is common – to take care of the health of the youngest.

Do you have any way to encourage your children to eat a healthy diet? Adults understand that fast food is harmful and that sweets make you fat. Children ignore such arguments, so it is difficult to really influence their diet.

One of the most important elements of encouraging a child to a healthy diet is the example of parents and their immediate environment. If parents eat healthy and enjoy it, children will also be more likely to eat healthy meals. This was also confirmed by our study – in families where at least one parent took care of their diet and the right amount of exercise, the child had a more positive approach to sports and healthy products. We often do not realize how much the children see. Which mother has not been “exposed” by children while eating candy in secret? Although these are often funny situations, this is where we put our arguments out of our hands. Let us try to be for the child not a controller, but an inspirer.

Eating meals together in a positive atmosphere also plays an important role. In order to encourage a child to try new flavors, it is worth taking care of not only the qualities, but also the aesthetics of the serving. Healthy dishes can be colorful and bring pleasure to your child. A variety of accessories can also help in this, for example colorful plates, cutlery and cups, e.g. with your favorite fairy tale theme. We can encourage older children to eat healthy also by shopping and preparing meals together. This helps you learn about new products and shape good eating habits. At the same time, let’s remember that consistency and patience are very important. Sometimes it takes a few or a dozen approaches for a child to start to like healthy products, so let’s not give up and let’s work on making the child’s diet healthy and varied.

We encourage you to listen to the latest episode of the RESET podcast. This time we devote it to the problems of the perineum – a part of the body just like any other. And although it concerns all of us, it is still a taboo subject that we are often ashamed to talk about. What do hormonal changes and natural births change? How not to harm the pelvic floor muscles and how to care for them? How do we talk about perineal problems with our daughters? About this and many other aspects of the problem in a new episode of the podcast.

Also read:

1. Ewa Chodakowska: The situation is dramatic. Polish children gain weight the fastest in Europe
2. How to lose weight? Rules, diet and exercise [WE EXPLAIN]
3. 12 benefits of eating silage
4. A new, green version of the Mediterranean diet. It is even healthier
5. Thermogenics help you burn fat. It’s worth including them in your diet