Doesn’t make sense right? Old people have heart attacks not children. However obesity and overweight are strongly linked to CVD, by nearly 60 percent if they are overweight. So by preventing too much weight gain in children you can reduce their CVD risk factors and ultimately CVD as they become adults.

Observing your child’s growth pattern is the first step in helping your child. Did you know that most parents don’t recognize obesity in their children. So because you are here, and reading this means that you have broken through one of the biggest barriers in the obesity epidemic—you see your child’s weight gain. You, a parent, has noticed that your child is growing too fast.

Denial runs deep in some families about what is a healthy weight. Sometimes parents are not able to recognize that their preteen or teenager is obese, often dismissing the issue with ‘their big boned” or “she’s a little on the heavy side.”

Let’s start by being clear about what shame is and how it develops— it is a painful feeling arising from the consciousness of something dishonorable, improper, ridiculous, etc., done by oneself or another.

A recent study reported that children who are obese feel emotionally worse than children who are not, worse even than children who are undergoing chemotherapy for cancer.

Compassion for yourself is about respecting, accepting, and choosing joy for yourself and your child. Compassion for yourself and your child is easier to act on when we understand what it is not.