Tips to Avoid Diabetes in Children
Did you know that our children and our grand children have a 1 in 3 risk of developing diabetes?
My children have been going through a phase of not wanting to eat the things they should, you know.. those things called fruits and vegetables?
While I know this is normal throughout toddlerhood I can’t help but think about the future and how our children will be affected.
Becoming overweight brings risks of becoming diabetic, there are other factors that are involved as well, however being overweight is one factor that I can control.
There are a few changes that I am making in my children’s life to help them avoid their chance of becoming diabetic:
- Limit the juices, when my firstborn was little we did give him juice. We have since then removed juice from my older one’s diet and for the most part they both drink water and milk.
- Include a fruit or veggie in every meal, even if it means chopping up a veggie and sneaking it into his chicken nuggets.
- Speaking of chicken nuggets, we are changing how we cook in our home by slowly getting rid of processed foods.
- Bringing in more activity! Exercise is so important and one of the major factors in keeping our children from becoming diabetic and in controlling diabetes.
You are so on with this one. If children have juice it should be at a 2 parts water 1 part juice ratio. Lots of things that children eat today are known to cause weight gain or future habits that cause weight gain. Fruits are good but veggies are much better. Fresh, frozen or steamed. Meat as is without the added sauces, gravies, cheese, coating is good (fish, chicken, lean beef.) Far too many parents still aren’t recognizing this yet. I sadly see children and parents picking up big containers of juice boxes (not even juice) and pop tarts, cakes and cookies, ice cream. Please America, help our future educate yourself on this topic especially if your sitting at the computer anyway!
Gladys P
These are great tips! It is so hard to get kids to eat a balanced diet when other kids are drinking soda and eating junk. I am diabetic (type 1) so this is a big concern for me.
1 in 3?? Good heavens! I had no idea…
It’s funny because I”m so much more consious of what my little one eats than what I do. But now that she’s old enough to watch me and beg for what I’m having it’s changing my eating habits also. And having Gestational Diabetes was actually good thing to teach me how to live without sugar in my diet. Great reminder, thanks for this post.
Thanks for the tips. So far we are lucky my son loves fruits and vegetables. Hope it keeps up.
I’m glad to see you addressing this. The numbers of adults with diabetes in today’s world is astounding and if we as parents can teach our children effective and healthy eating habits when they’re young that will go a long way toward warding off this horrible disease when they’re older.
Wow, I didn’t realize it was a 1 in 3 chance! I definitely try to include a fruit or veggie in every meal for my grandson.
That’s a HUGE risk. I’ve been trying to give my kids less sugar. We go to the Y regularly.
hmm, we give our toddler son half water, half juice. I figured its better than kool-aid because at least it has vitamin C in it. I didn’t know that kool-aid was better than apple or orange juice. Interesting.
This is a very scary statistic. If we all do things like you are describing hopefully we can change this statistic and make sure our families are healthy.
Great tips! I try to apply the same in my house haven’t got rid of the juice :/
That is an amazing statistic. Like your tips to help change their diet. Kids can be really picky eaters!