Childhood obesity rates in America continue to climb every year. While genetics play a role in some cases, most of the time an overweight kid is the result of a poor diet and not enough exercise. As a responsible and caring parent, you no doubt want a healthy child that grows in to a healthy adult. Thus, you need to do your part to ensure your child develops healthy eating and exercise habits. Before thinking about what used to be called fat camp, consider the following ideas.

You’re probably wondering how you can tell if you have child with a weight problem or just a kid with some leftover “baby fat.” The truth is that baby fat is excess weight, so either way, you have an overweight kid. “Baby fat” stays on a body as “pre-teen” fat which then sticks around and becomes adult fat. Research shows that elementary school kids with weight problems are the most likely to have weight issues at age 12 and later on in life. In other words, this problem is best addressed early as it will not go away on its own.

Certain factors that contribute to weight gain are genetic and beyond our control. However, most factors, such as diet and exercise, are well within our control. Parents that are concerned about their child’s weight should begin to encourage their children to eat better and exercise more. A great way to initiate this process is to do these things, such as exercising or eating healthy foods, with them versus telling them to do it while you sit down to watch with a candy bar and a bag of chips.

It is also important that you take your child to the doctor regularly. A doctor will be able to monitor and additional health concerns that come from being overweight and can provide advice and guidance in helping your kid shed some pounds. Your doctor can help you set achievable goals based on healthy weights for children at a particular age.

If you determine that your child does need to lose some weight, make sure you get started right away. The goal is to put an end to the unhealthy habits at an early age so that your child does not have to live with them, and their consequences, for their entire lives. The longer a bad habit is allowed to stick around, the harder it will become to break it. The first step is to get your kid more active. This is often challenging, but you need to identify some activities they can do that they enjoy. Having fun is key here. If your kid doesn’t have fun, they won’t do the activity for very long. If one activity doesn’t work, keep trying others until your child finds something that they enjoy. Provide encouragement and participate when you can.

Next, you’ll want to start working on their diet. Here are a few tips for how to do that:

* Get excited about new, healthy foods and try to get your kids excited as well. Give them a variety of new foods to choose from and experiment with.

* Be careful to not make large, abrupt changes to their diet. Introduce more and more new foods over time instead of all at once.

* Teach them how to choose healthy foods by reading labels and get them involved in your grocery shopping.

* Start replacing junk food with healthier snack alternatives, but don’t forget that a cookie every now and then won’t kill anyone.

* Make sure that the portions you serve are appropriately sized.

* Begin eating your dinner at the table instead of in front of the TV.

Keep in mind that, despite how hard this may sound, it is much easier to do now and prevent further problems than it is to deal with those problems down the road. Do your part to help prevent your kid from gaining too much weight by increasing their activity level and improving their diet. If you get in over your head, know that there are programs out there, such as teen weight loss camps, that can help your kid get started on the right path. However, you have to understand that as a parent, you are ultimately responsible for the health of your child.