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it happy; but, it can help add on the pounds and make you unhappy.

4) Food is NOT love. This is something I am sure we are all guilty of at one point or another if we are parents or even just taking care of a child. When a child is crying, we feed them. Scraped your knee, have a cookie. Feeling sad, have some ice cream and tell me all about it. Get a good grade or win a game; let's go out for pizza. Get a bad grade on a hard test or lose a game; let's go out for pizza it will make you feel better.

It is no wonder that children start associating food with love and feeling better. Even adults have a problem disassociating the two. A box of chocolates and going out for dinner and drinks is the way to a girl's heart. How many dates do NOT have food involved?

Scraped your knee let me kiss it and make it better. Unhappy, let me put my arms around you while you tell me all about it. Believe it or not, we need to start separating food from love; so we do not "love" our children into early obesity, diabetes, and a grave.

5) Lack of exercise - This is a big one. Many schools no longer have physical education (phys ed) programs for children or the programs are very limited. When I went to school we had phys ed every year from K- 12 and it was a minimum of two to three times a week. Now, most schools have phys ed once a week and only in lower grades. By the time my son started high school he was only required to have one semester of phys ed for his entire four years of high school.

It is no longer safe in many areas to allow children to go to the playground themselves or even play outside by themselves. With our own busy lives and with many families needing to have both parents in the workforce; there is not a lot of time to oversee physical activity ourselves. So, we need to try to schedule physical activity into our children's lives. Sign them up for after school sports; classes in martial arts, gymnastics, and dance; try to schedule at least one physical activity as a family each week - take a walk, go swimming, play ball, etc.

If you do not teach them about ways to enjoy being active and getting exercise; all they will learn is video games, TV, and the Internet.

So, if we are to address childhood obesity, we must look at the causes of obesity as they apply to ourselves and our children and start making changes.

Learn more about this author, Ginger Kazay.
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