Helping Your Overweight Child: A Family Guide [Paperback]

Caroline J. Cederquist (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 5, 2002

Overweight children can be helped to a healthier, more satisfying life through practical lifestyle changes made by the entire family. Caroline J. Cederquist, M.D., has drawn on her medical experience in successful weight management for this commonsense guide, Helping Your Overweight Child: A Family Guide. Through it, family members can better understand why a child has a weight problem, and the facts about nutrition and good eating and exercise habits. The information can be used to develop healthy habits for all adults and children in the family. Dr. Cederquist provides sample sheets for goals and for "eating," "exercise" and "emotions" journals. Overweight children learn how to set reasonable goals and to make healthy decisions. The appendix includes valuable comparisons of the nutritional value and fat content of many brand-name food products and meals found in fast-food restaurants. She also provides recipes from her family kitchen that are nutritionally sound and kid-pleasers.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Dr. Cederquist's advice provides practical solutions to everyday challenges of raising healthy children." Lynette Perkins, R.D. -- Book Review, Dec. 2001

"I recommend this book for any family wanting to learn about leading a healthy lifestyle." -- Gregory Holmes, M.D. -- Book Review, Dec. 2001

"This book makes simple suggestions and recommendations that even a busy family can implement with success." -- Mary Piegallini, M.D. -- Book Review, Dec. 5, 2001

About the Author

Caroline J. Cedequist, M.D., is board certified by the American Board Family Practice and the American Board of Bariatric Physicians. She is a graduate of the University of Miami, the University of Miami School of Medicine, and the Medical College of Virginia Family Practice Residency, where she was chief resident. She is a contributing medical editor for the NBC "Today" show in Fort Myers, Florida, and the host of "Diet Doctor," a program about long-term weight management. She is a national speaker on weight management and is quoted as an expert in a number of magazines, including Parent. She has a private practice, specializing in weight management in Naples, Florida.

Product Details

• Paperback: 153 pages
• Publisher: Advance Medical Press; 1 edition (January 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971416400
• ISBN-13: 978-0971416406
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,880,383 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Helping Kids When It Counts the Most, April 21, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Helping Your Overweight Child: A Family Guide (Paperback)

FearlessBooks.com. - -
The first step in helping an overweight child is not the introduction of a new diet, says Dr. Caroline J. Cederquist, a family physician and national spokesperson on weight management. Instead, tell your child that she is okay, no matter what she weighs. Say it loud and often. . . . Let [your child] know that children come in many shapes and sizes, and none of them is inherently wrong. Your child is more important than what she weighs!

Solid emotional support is a crucial foundation, says the author of Helping Your Overweight Child, because the psychological and emotional stresses of obesity can be just as tough on kids as the physiological consequences. Thats why she recommends that kids old enough to write should be urged to start keeping a journal, so that they can become aware of how they may use food inappropriately to deal with stress while they are still young. After all, our excuses and rationalizations get more sophisticated as we grow older!

While providing a concise and basic overview of all the health fundamentals, including a survey of Nutrition 101 and the obvious arguments for displacing TV-watching with exercise, Dr. Cederquist revisits psychological concerns often  including the dynamics of family communication and suggestions for coping with an overweight childs tendency to binge or relapse along the path to better health. Along the way she dispenses helpful tips on environmental factors, such as restricting dining areas to a well-kept dining room or kitchen out of earshot of televisions and video games, and serving food from the stovetop in single portions so that second helpings are always farther than an arms reach.

And while the author provides about twenty pages of healthy recipes for kids favorites prepared in the home, she also faces the modern reality of childhood eats in America by providing complete nutritional breakdowns of all the foods served at junk food palaces like McDonalds, Wendys, and Dennys, as well as standard grocery-store offerings. In each case, she lines up her better choices (1 serving of Annies Shells and Cheddar: 280 calories, 4 grams of fat) as compared to the usual, unhealthier suspects (1 serving of Kraft Deluxe Macaroni and Cheese: 300 calories, 10 grams of fat).

At a concise 158 pages, this is a guide that will not overwhelm concerned parents with too much information while providing them with a serious but not overly stern guide to changing childhood eating habits. Since those habits are very likely to be rooted in psychological and environmental factors that influence the whole family, what proves to be healthy for the overweight child will likely benefit his or her siblings and parents as well.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Healthier Eating Choices.... for Healthier Children, July 9, 2003

By 

I. Seligman - See all my reviews

This review is from: Helping Your Overweight Child: A Family Guide (Paperback)

This is a well written book.. written by a Doctor who is a specialist in the field of weight problems, who has appeared on TV regularly. More importantly she has helped people I know to lose weight and, far more telling, to keep the weight off with a common sense diet plan that works!

This book is written in everyday language for adults and children. In a country with obesity and anorexia so common, it's refreshing to have a down-to-earth explanation of what stresses a teenager (or pre-teen) faces, and a kind approach to working with some of these challenges.

One doesn't suddenly start eating a "perfect diet". We are, at times, fast food consumers, and Dr. Cederquist understands this, and opens your eyes to the healthier choices available at McDonalds, Arbies, Burger King, KFC, etc. She give concrete examples of healthy choices for many items from the grocery store, in selecting cereals, pizza, fish, desserts, lunch meats, potato chips etc., so one doesn't go into withdrawal!

Start, gradually, by following a more balanced diet in a day with less fats and sugars, and portion control. Read the food labels. Learn the calories in foods, with your children, then make healthy choices! Perhaps keep journals on food, often overlooked emotions, excercise, when helpful, and see the progress, and occasional fall backs. If the less healthy food's out of the home, it's not eaten!

When you and your child learn and actually use these facts and hints, it's easier to plan for success, avoid binges, eating out of boredom or from worry, etc., and still enjoy eating, only it's now with a healthier approach.

Today, start long lasting healthier habits, one page at a time, one simple day at a time.

Help your child eat wisely, live longer, (and perhaps get teased less), with this book's easy-to-follow directions.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended reading for concerned parents., March 22, 2002

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Helping Your Overweight Child: A Family Guide (Paperback)

Helping Your Overweight Child: A Family Guide is a straightforward guide written for parents, to help the family better understand the causes of weight problems in children, basic facts about good nutritional and exercise habits, and serious, practical lifestyle changes that the entire family can make for the improved health of all members. Written by an experienced professional doctor board certified by the American Board Family Practice and the American Board of Bariatric Physicians, Helping Your Overweight Child presents professional expertise for the lay reader not only the form of information, but also in hands-on useful material such as sample sheets for eating and exercising goals, emotion journals, comparisons of nutritional value/fat content in many brand-name food products and kid-friendly nutritional recipies. Helping Your Overweight Child is very highly recommended to conscerned parents and care providers seeking to assist overweight or obese children toward a more age and height appropriate and healthy weight.