Overweight Kids: Spiritual, Behavioral and Preventative Solutions [ILLUSTRATED] (Hardcover)

by Dr. Linda Mintle (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Parents hurt along with their children when their kids struggle with weight issues. This positive, practical and inspirational guide will help parents find spiritual and behavioral solutions for their children in the areas of:

-Healthy body image -Physically active lifestyle -Overcoming hurtful teasing -Nutritional lifetime eating habits -Feeling loved -Making good food choices

A specialist in this field, Dr. Mintle gives parents the information and encouragement they need to help their children be healthy and happy.

About the Author
Dr. Linda Mintle is a nationally recognized writer, speaker and licensed clinical social worker who has been in general clinical practice for the past 20 years. She specializes in marriage and family therapy and eating disorders. In addition to her practice, Dr. Mintle is the resident expert for ABC Family Channel's Living the Life, with Terry Meeuwsen and Louise Duart. She is a regular contributor to several Christian magazines. She and her husband live in Virginia Beach with their two children.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (May 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159145283X
• ISBN-13: 978-1591452836
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,390,999 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally! A wholistic approach to helping kids, June 2, 2005

By	Clara "Happy Parent" (Carol Stream, IL.) - See all my reviews

I was thinking about sending my daughter to one of those weight camps and now I am not going to do it. Instead, we are trying to do the things Dr. Linda suggests. So far, it's working. My son doesn't like the limit on video games but I now realize, I'm in charge and doing what's best for him. This book got me thinking about lifestyle changes, not just weight.
The wholistic approach makes more sense than faddish diets.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Looks at the Physical and the Emotional ! , February 10, 2008

By	Anthony Centore Ph.D. "Anthony Centore Ph.D." (www.ThriveBoston.com (Cambridge, MA)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Overweight Kids (Paperback)

A double cheeseburger, large fries, and a chocolate shake adorn the cover of Dr. Linda Mintle's new book. Leading some more impulsive readers to make poor food choices before opening to the first page, on what was a perfect day for Frisbee golf, I took the book, a value meal, and sat down at my desk to read about obese kids.

The first chapter, titled, "Is my Child Overweight?" sets a precedent for solid content that is maintained throughout the text. Using vignettes, bulleted points, question-answer, letters from concerned parents, chapter quizzes, and sections of well-written prose, Mintle writes coherently and creatively about important, though potentially complex, measures--such as calculating the Body Mass Index (BMI)--and simplifies ideas for the casual reader, without ruining the material's integrity.

The Problem

When introducing the issues, Mintle encourages parents who struggle with weight themselves, "Leave shame, guilt, and rejection behind--they won't move us forward."1 And she elaborates, "If you are struggling with your own weight and feel it is hypocritical to feed your child differently in the hopes of helping him grow into his weight, it's not. Now would be a good time to get help to overcome your weight issues while working on establishing a healthy eating environment for your child and family."2

Dispelling harmful myth, Mintle debunks sleazy talk shows that blame parents for their severely-obese children, as well as bias headlines such as "Three-Year-Old Dies from Obesity", which have appeared in mainline news.3 Accordingly, with many of these extreme situations there are extenuating medical conditions, and still--dying from childhood obesity is unlikely.

However, childhood obesity is a problem, according to Mintle. Currently, 30% of our nations kids are overweight or at risk of being so.4 Moreover, 60% of children between the ages of 5 and 10 are already at risk for heart disease. Other risk factors of childhood obesity include asthma, diabetes, hypertension, orthopedic complications, sleep apnea, hyperlipidaemia, constipation, and polycystic ovary syndrome (in females).
Mintle identifies a myriad of factors that can lead to weight problems and presents them with cohesion. They are (1) too many calorie empty foods, (2) too little movement, (3) genetics, (4) emotional eating, (5) lifestyle and community changes, (6) family patterns, (7) the school scene, (8) advertisements and media, (9) a quick-fix mentality, and (10) poor spiritual equipping.

The Solution

Moving from problems to solutions, Mintle suggests a set of rules to ensure body weight is not a lifelong battle for kids. The first one: no diets (in the conventional sense of the term)! Other guidelines include never becoming the "food police", making good food choices and healthy living a family affair (i.e., don't treat differently one family member who struggles with weight), and setting a personal example of moderation and balance.

The book is uncommonly content rich, each chapter providing useful guidance to the reader. The text addresses more issues that can be listed (a look at the table of contents doesn't do the book justice), but a few areas of note are:

-How to talk to kids about health without scarring them for life
-Setting new eating and lifestyle habits that will improve well-being
-What and when to feed infants and toddlers of different ages
-Information on fat, trans-fat, carbohydrates, and protein nutrition
-Helping kids of varying ages keep healthy (diet and activity)
-Instilling good self-esteem and a healthy identity in kids.
-Setting up good motivations (e.g., rewards, contracts, etc.)
-Dealing with sedentary kids
-Satisfying food cravings
-Getting away from emotional eating
-Emotional growth and emotional self-regulation
-Coping with childhood peer-teasing
-Countering body image stereotypes from the media
-Spiritual health and growth
-Knowing when to seek professional assistance

Is there support for the claims states in the book? Though not all Mintle's statements reference a research study, the citations are ample-about 150 throughout the 232 pages of content.

Summary

Dr. Linda Mintle's book does what books like this should. It dispels common myth, and makes complex content both comprehendible and applicable to the reader. And it does this without compromising the integrity of the message. Moreover, in setting out to address physical health, Mintle takes a genuine "whole-person approach" for spiritual, relational and emotional health are present areas of concern throughout the book.

Additionally, this book outplays its recent competition on nearly every level. Linda Mintle sets out to address the issue of health among children. And she succeeds.

Final note: Telephone and Online Counseling might be a good way to help struggling parents. Learn to provide telephone and online counseling with this exceptional book: The Therapist's Clinical Guide to Online Counseling and Telephone Counseling: The Definitive Training Guide for Clinical Practice

3.0 out of 5 stars Overweight Kids, February 14, 2009

By	Richard A. Rasor (Grass Valley, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Overweight Kids: Spiritual, Behavioral and Preventive solutions for : Making good food choices, Nutritional lifetime eating habits, Healthy body Image, Physically acti (Audio CD)

This is a good book to read about how to turn-around unhealthy eating habits that cause excessive weight in kids. Of course, the same principles also apply to adults, so this book need not be restricted to teens. Dr. Mintle has had many years of experience treating overweight kids, but the book is not a psychotherapy regimen for professionals. It is a self-help, step-by-step approach that anyone can apply. My only objection is that Dr. Mintle inserts her religious beliefs here and there, and while not excessive, can turn off people not so inclined.