April has been designated as National Stress Awareness Month, and while many of the stories will be focused on the impact on adults, children are also at risk and highly susceptible to feeding off households stress. While toddlers tend to mirror their parents' emotional state, older children might withdraw or act out in other ways but one stress symptom that seems to impact all groups is emotional eating.
A recent study by Iowa State University showed that children were almost 50 percent more likely to be overweight or obese in household where mothers were excessively stressed.
Even if parents do connect weight gain with stress, they often feel at a loss about what to do - over monitoring food can also be detrimental, leading to eating disorders in later life.
Dr. Denise Lamothe, a clinical psychologist, emotional eating expert, professional speaker, founder of Emotional Overeating Awareness Month, and author of the popular book, The Taming of the Chew, offers practical advice on how to help parents and children overcome the desire to overeat and implement practical and emotional support for a life-long healthy attitude toward food.
Below are her tips:
Help your child improve their self-esteem and help them de-stress, which is at the core of food control issues, by offering creative and physical activities that can also burn calories. Investigate alternative remedies to help children’s confidence or relax them such as Bach Kids Confidence Remedy and Bach Kids Rescue Remedy.
Do not use food to reward or punish your child. Rewards should be things like extra time with you, a hug, a little later bedtime or a special outing.
Be aware that food and mood are intertwined. If a child is eating sugars and refined carbohydrates and not getting enough protein, they will likely be depressed, lethargic and angry.
Also know that we all need healthy fats every day – (olive oil, a bit of real butter). These will not add pounds but, if you do not get some healthy fat, your body will think it is starving and you will make up for that with craving more carbohydrates and sugars. Help your child to understand that they really do need a protein at each meal.
Talk directly with your children. Have weekly family meetings. Discuss how you’re doing as you work on improving your health and ask them how they are doing. Introduce changes gradually and don’t get into power struggles about it.