Healthy Habits Weight Gain for Kids in COVID-19 (S3:E52)

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The COVID-19 Pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges to maintaining healthy habits and healthy weight for our patients and families. We know that kids tend to loose structure and gain excess weight in the summer – we saw this prior to COVID-19 and we are now facing the most stressful and unpredictable summer of our lifetime. In this our 12th COVID-19 podcast, we will discuss healthy routines for pediatricians to discuss with patients and parents in their practice to help protect and preserve healthy habits and weight.  

Today we are fortunate to be joined by Matt Haemer, MD and Richard Boles, PhD of our Clinical Nutrition Team at Children’s Hospital Colorado.

Dr. Haemer helps to lead the nutrition team at Children’s Hospital Colorado and is Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Nutrition at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Dr. Boles is psychologist with the Clinical Nutrition Team at Children’s and Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Nutrition at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Key Points

• The habits that help kids maintain healthy weight during the COVID19 pandemic are the same habits that help with mental health, good school performance, and healthy peer relationships. By focusing on the healthy routines we’ll talk about today, pediatricians can support parents as they help their children achieve all these goals. Lifestyle Medicine Psychologist Richard Boles PhD offers practical advice that pediatricians can share with families to help maintain healthy habits during this very challenging time.

• Pediatricians play a critical role in helping parents to promote healthy habits. They can help parents realize when a child’s weight gain is unhealthy, offer brief follow-up counseling to help families set goals for lifestyle change, refer families for extra help when needed, and share  resources like those below. 

• A primary care provider can make a single referral to Children’s Hospital Colorado’s Lifestyle Medicine Program to address any and all medical problems from excess weight that a child may have, or to help children prevent these medical problems at any age. You can reach any of the Lifestyle Medicine team for consult or referral via OneCall, 720-777-3999.

Fitness:

Children's Hospital Colorado's Lifestyle Medicine Exercise Physiologist, Michael Witten MS has compiled a variety of fitness videos that kids of different ages and fitness levels can do at home, maybe with their parents! Subscribe to the CHCO Wellness Center gym Youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpuAXaEwLGbpvi_sqs9ZdhUJchqVGInP2

 

Nutrition and Food Resources 

The Food Bank of the Rockies has an updated list of all the food banks and food distribution sites: https://www.foodbankrockies.org/emergency-assistance/

Our dietitians recommend families try kid-friendly healthy recipes from the CHOP CHOP website: https://www.chopchopfamily.org/recipes/ 

Food preparation videos from the professional society of Registered Dietitians: https://www.eatright.org/food/planning-and-prep/cooking-tips-and-trends/basics-of-meal-prepping

Shopping and meal preparation tips to save money on healthy food from Cooking Matters, an organization dedicated to reducing food insecurity for families with kids: http://cookingmatters.org/tips

Psychology and Mental health:

American Psychological Association: tips on learning at home, supporting play, and parenting in the era of COVID-19:  https://www.apa.org/topics/covid-19/parenting-caregiving

Children’s Hospital Colorado has recommendations to help pediatricians and parents talk with children about the pandemic: https://www.childrenscolorado.org/conditions-and-advice/coronavirus-covid19-resources-updates/ 

Do you have thoughts about today's episode or suggestions for a future topic? Write to us, chartingpediatrics@childrenscolorado.org