Healthy Living & Eating
Recreational and school sports are a way for kids to practice and grow their talents while learning important physical and social skills. Sports are not an environment for bickering parents, bullying opponents, profanity, and referees that do not receive the respect that sports demand. But yet, this type of behavior is all too common. As parents, there are steps you can take to ensure that your child has a positive experience while playing sports.
As an adult, you may find it perfectly comfortable to talk about it with a person you meet in the grocery store - but yet, the very idea of sitting down one on one with your own child to have "the talk" can be extremely uncomfortable, or even absolutely mortifying. The reality is, it's not even a talk - it's an ongoing conversation that will need to happen more than once!
Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating are very serious eating disorders that affect increasing numbers of children and adolescents. The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that between 5-10 million girls and 1 million boys suffer from eating disorders, while as many as 15 percent of young women adopt unhealthy attitudes and behaviors about food. Struggling with a child's eating disorder, and the accompanying feelings of frustration and helplessness, can be very difficult for you as a concerned parent.
Take your child shopping for clothes, out to eat, or watch as your child tries to play with the other kids on the playground or at sports - you realize that excessive weight causes "outside" problems.
"Inside" your child is likely to be feeling shame, humiliation, sadness and depression.
