Most of us realize that we gain weight as a result of taking in more calories than we expend, and many of us as parents are concerned about raising children who can make healthy decisions. Yet, statistics show that fewer children every year are able to maintain a healthy weight and be as active as they should.

The Centers for Disease Control reports that childhood obesity has more than tripled nationally in the past 30 years, rising from below seven percent to almost 20 percent for children age 6 to 11, and from five percent to more than 18 percent for teens. Studies by Idaho Health and Welfare show that nearly a third of Idaho students from first grade through high school are overweight or obese and that significantly more boys are overweight than girls. The Centers for Disease Control differentiates between “overweight” and “obese” utilizing a childhood body mass index (BMI) calculator specific to children and teens to define ranges of weight that are greater than what is generally considered healthy for a given height. For more information and a BMI calculator, visit http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/defining.html.

Excess weight puts children at risk for cardiovascular disease, hypertension, bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and other health problems. Overweight children are more likely to be overweight as adults and suffer from social stigmatization and poor self-esteem throughout their lives.

Understanding the forces behind the declining health of our children is a critical step in addressing them, as are implementing measures to counteract them. Fortunately, while parents are still the front line in assuring the health of their children, they are not alone.

Screen time, an oft-cited culprit in the decline of the fitness of our children, may be more of a threat than we realize.

Children thirty years ago had vastly fewer choices for screen entertainment than children do today. Cartoons were a special Saturday morning treat. Videogames and computers didn’t compete for our attention. When I was ten, my dad brought home an Atari videogame player. While entertaining, the game of Pong could hardly hold my attention if the opportunity presented itself to play a neighborhood-wide game of tag.

The fact that today’s children live a vastly different life, with exponentially more opportunities for screen time, isn’t lost on their parents. The extent to which screen time competes for attention may be.   A 2010 Kaiser Family Foundation study shows that today’s eight-to 18-year olds spend an average of more than 7.5 hours per day over a typical week using entertainment media. When one factors in kids using more than one medium at a time, this 7.5 hours per day constitutes almost 11 hours of media content.

Agencies and organizations collaborate to promote the need for physical activity and making healthy choices.

Idaho adults are even more likely to be overweight than children. One in four is obese, while two-thirds are overweight. An effective program aimed at getting children to be more active and make better nutritional choices also takes into account the role adults play in modeling healthy behavior, but with today’s lifestyles and the need for convenience, sometimes making those choices, even for knowledgeable adults, is difficult.

“I think people know they should be more active, but it’s hard to make changes when their environment is not conducive to activity,” says Jamie Harding, program manager for the Idaho Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN) program of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

Harding and her colleagues are working to help people make changes in their lives to increase fitness and lead healthier lives. They’re collaborating with other agencies and individuals to educate and inform. Parents who make healthy choices, Harding says, are more likely to encourage their own children to make healthy choices.

One of their specific messages is the importance of daily activity. The IPAN 30/60 program focuses on the number of minutes, respectively, that adults and children should seek to engage in moderate to vigorous activity each day in order to remain healthy.

It’s easier than it may seem to some, Harding says.

“Being active at a healthy level doesn’t mean always going to the gym,” she says. “It can also mean consistently making choices to move more—parking further away from the store or taking the stairs instead of the elevator.”

IPAN is also promoting Be Outside Idaho, a program of the national Children in Nature Network. Children today spend less than half the time outdoors as they did two decades ago. The organization’s website, beoutsideidaho.org, offers a list of outdoor activities that children and their parents might enjoy together.

Schools, recognizing the critical role they play, are stepping up efforts to encourage healthy eating.

Heidi Martin is a dietitian who coordinates the Child Nutrition Program for the Idaho Department of Education. One of the biggest accomplishments of her program, she says, is changing statewide nutrition standards for school meals. Her dietitians review school lunch menus statewide for adherence to USDA nutrition requirements. They’ve added 15 new requirements to the USDA standards, adding more whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, and limiting the amount of sugar and sodium, as well as limiting the number of pre-fried foods schools serve, such as chicken nuggets.

They’re also offering workshops to teach school cooks to use whole grains and fresh, local produce, and cut down on sodium and sugar. They provide educational information to teachers and posters for school cafeterias displaying nutrition facts and activities that connect kids to the Idaho agricultural industry and the foods they eat.

“If you can let students know how a certain food is grown, maybe have a farmer talk to them, they’re so much more likely to like to eat that food,” Martin says.

Martin is also working on implementing the national Farm to School program that connects K–12 schools and local farms to improve student nutrition and support local agriculture. The Boise School District is one of five pilot sites to implement a comprehensive version of the program. The district has gone beyond the parameters of the program, serving a locally grown food in every school in the district on every day in September when a lot of fresh, local produce was available.

Martin says the Meridian School District, while not part of the pilot, is also working to consistently offer local foods as part of the school lunch program. Martin adds the changes implemented a year and a half ago have generated results that have attracted the notice of the USDA and other states. Martin says her department is now called upon to help those states to implement similar changes.

The school lunch program can account for a large percentage of the calories a child consumes in a day, and Martin notes there are plenty of opportunities for parents to collaborate and play an active role in the nutrition they receive there. She says each school has a written wellness policy that parents can ask to review. Food items available in vending machines are not part of the school nutrition program, but parent organizations can help dictate what kinds of items are available through such machines or in school stores.

Mom leads the charge in her child’s school to make a healthy change.

Kerry Elder, a Boise parent, is a member of her children’s school parent-teacher association and is helping make changes in the school to improve children’s health.

“It’s been so exciting to see the progress,” she says of her three-year effort to change the mid-day recess so that it occurs before lunch instead of after lunch.

Elder cites studies that show kids typically rush through lunch because they’re excited to go out and play afterwards. This leads them to make less nourishing food choices at the time and think less about eating foods that will sustain them through the rest of the day. They then come home from school hungry, cranky, and ready to raid the cupboards for even more unhealthy but convenient snacks.

Elder is tracking the project results for her master’s degree and working with the school to gather control data they’ll compare with data after the change is made in January. She says they’re currently seeing a tremendous amount of food waste at lunch, as well as many children who end up in the nurse’s office with stomachaches or headaches in the afternoon as a result of having rushed through lunch.

Elder is active in the local chapter of Action for Healthy Kids that is working to fight childhood obesity and undernourishment. The group provides educational resources to parents and schools, and will publish the results of Elder’s lunch recess study online once it’s complete. For more information on the organization, go to actionforhealthykids.org.

Guide your children to a healthier lifestyle by making incremental changes in your own behavior, enlisting their collaboration.

Regardless of the various forces at play in their environment, children still tend to model their parents’ behavior. When helping your child make healthy choices, look first to your own behavior, and engage your children in making decisions that positively affect their own health:

Consistently offer your children a variety of healthy foods, and be patient when they won’t try them at first. Consider varying the way a food is prepared. Remind kids that their taste will change over time and trying new foods can be rewarding.

Involve your kids in menu planning and cooking whenever possible. Make sure they understand what a well-balanced meal looks like. Let them choose a vegetable or side dish to have with dinner.

Schedule family activities together that are away from the screen. One family I know implemented a weekly TV-Free Night, where they play board games or read.

Be active together. Take the dog for a walk as a family. Introduce your children to a sport you love, like skiing, bowling, or hiking.

Join your child for lunch at school once a quarter or even more often. Know what choices they have available to them and point out how they can build a healthy meal for themselves from what’s offered.

Resources

www.beoutsideidaho.org – includes lists of kid friendly activities

www.actionforhealthykids.org – with resources listed by state and opportunities to volunteer

www.farmtoschool.org/index.php - with resources and information about local programs

www.jlboise.com/boise/index.jsp - Information on Junior League of Boise programs such as Kids in the Kitchen and Especially Me self-esteem program for young women

Beth Markley is a Boise-area freelance writer and consultant for nonprofit organizations. She and her husband have two boys in elementary school.