Childhood Obesity

My son had a well child check up today and it was determined that he is healthy but in the obese range for his body mass index or BMI for his height and weight. He is 45 pounds solid muscle with about 5% body fat all thanks to pediasure.

It seems that I have passed on my genetics to my son. I'm not unhealthy but I'm considered morbidly obese based on my height and weight.

I'm not an enforcer of putting a myself on a diet but I monitor my intake. It will be a cold day in he before I put my 4 year old son on a diet. To be quite honest I should take some pointers from him. He is highly active and therefore I shouldn't start putting a negative emphasis on his body image of himself. As long as he stays healthy and active I have nothing to worry about and neither do any other parents in the same predicament.

Science has been and can be wrong. Body types and images are not one-size-fits-all. My suggestion (after a doctors advice) do fun vigorous activities that you and your kids love. That's the best way to keep everyone healthy and happy.

The feeling of loss

Kids internalize pain differently than adults. I believe that this is so because as we get older we become desensitized to the feeling of the loss of a loved one. As we get older we soon begin to understand that people don't live forever.

Take for instance, 4 year old son and his way of coping with sickness. His grandpa gets sick and we go to visit him in the hospital. For the first time in my son's early life he sees his grandpa hooked up to all types of machines. You can tell he understands the situation somewhat. His grandpa tries to give him a couple of high-fives to reassure my son that he is ok but my son says "no pop pop, I don't want to hurt your hand."

Let's fast forward a few months. My son has created a game that he plays at night as he is fling asleep. A game in which he uses his bear and some cars to save his grandpa. The following is some of the playtime that I overheard:

Grandpa: help me, help me !
Cars: I will save you. Ka-chow!!!!!
Bear: I will kill you!
Grandpa: save me!
Cars: I will beat you up forever. Let's get out of here grandpa. Ka-chow!

To him whether imagination or not, my son has incorporated his play time into a way to cope with reality. I think that if we were to watch how our children played more often we would realize that their reality is just as real and important as ours.

So when it comes to the future I hope I don't drop the ball in helping my kids find a positive outlet for dealing with a loss of a loved one. That by far, will be a greater task than a regular doctors visit.

Teeth

My kid has another tooth loose. It is hanging out of her head by the thread of the remaining gum skin. It is as if this gum skin is hanging on to the last little bit of a childhood dream that could remain in the development of this little human. With that being said, it's crunch time. To cram the last little bit of innocence in the next year of this child's life. After all those baby teeth are gone, so is any chance getting that child back....enter adolescence.

Bike riding

Tomorrow I'm going to experiment with my kids by allowing them to ride their bikes. These two youngsters should get a kick out of riding a bike at the park. That will give them time outside with frsh air and in the sun as well as some time just to be kids.

Sometimes I believe that as parents we sometimes rush our kids to get older and we miss out on some good times. I grew up playing outside as a child and now as a parent I find that my kids don't seem to get out enough to enjoy being a kid, getting dirty, getting wet, playing in dirt, sand and grass. I think it kills me to know that my children won't have the same opportunities as their growth in nature because I live in a city.

I know that now is as good of a time as any to let the kids get some gross motor skills because I feel that once they get out of the baby-curiosity stage that whatever world that didn't get to discover will be lost.

So I will try to dedicate this summer to exploration.

Sleep

I have come to realize that no matter how good sleep is, kids just don't like doing it right away.
My son is a night owl like myself and we always end up watching movies all night. Granted he gets his needed rest but he sleeps most of the morning away. He will play with his cars 24/7 if he could.

Now my niece on the other hand is just wild for no reason. It takes sheer energy to get her to sleep because it takes her a while to settle down no matter what is going on. She could be plain old tired but still won't rest.

Although neither child has the perfect schedule, sharing a room is out of the question when it comes to trying to give two children bed times. So in this house we do staggered bed times and we also do different rooms. My son goes to my room or a couch to start his rest time and my niece has to go to sleep first since she has to get up the earliest for school. So far it works, but it will work better when they each have their own private wind-down space.

I have come up with some things that work for getting children ready for bed:

Drinking a warm liquid like milk, decaf tea( with chamomile), hot apple cider, or hot chocolate; right before bed helps sooth the body.

A warm bath with bubbles and calming smells like lavender

Soothing bed time music like ocean and nature sounds to play while the child is sleeping. I would not suggest the tv as a background noise because the child's brain becomes more active with the tv sounds and signals for awake mode not sleep mode.

A child's favorite toy or book is good to have at night.

And last but not least, A routine...if a child gets used to going to sleep at a certain time (even adults) then their body will normally and naturally start going into sleep mode automatically.

SLEEPY TIMES

Laughter

I hate to shut down a kids laughter but it sometimes there needs to be come control.
Sometimes things aren't that funny. But as an adult we sometimes lose sight of the simple things that make us happy in life.

As my two kids were laughing in the background I wanted to turn around and say shut up but I could not because even their simple little laughter brightened my spirit. I couldn't find it in my heart to say CUT OUT ALL THAT LAUGHING because I could not have seen or experienced what they may have found funny. I could have easily asked the 4 and 6 year old what was funny but I'm pretty sure their brains could not have found the correct words to express what it was that I wanted to hear from them.

So the lesson for today: Let your children laugh, let them laugh long and hard because not all the days of one's life are filled with laughter. So it's best to let them create these memories of laughter to carry them through the rest of their days.

A book

I decided that I was going to write a book about my children because their experiences should be used as documentation for blackmail in the future, during their high school years.