Overweight and Underweight
Underweight, to the point of impaired
physical well-being, is not an important problem among American teen-agers.
Many tend to be thin, but relatively few are so underweight that they are
unusually subject to serious illness. The average, healthy teen-ager,
especially when going through a period of rapid growth, has a rangy, spare
appearance despite the fact that he eats large quantities. Overweight, however,
is a more serious problem, physically and emotionally, and may have long-range
consequences. The overweight adult quite often was an overweight adolescent.
The potentially harmful effects of obesity
on health are becoming better known. In addition, obese boys and girls are
often teased by playmates or left out because they are unattractive. This may
lead them to eat still more to console themselves, creating a vicious cycle
that becomes difficult to break. Getting young people to gain or lose weight
requires tact. Each parent has to consider the individual child. However, we
can make several general suggestions-which, incidentally, apply not only to
health matters but to others in which the parents must exert authority.
Don't use ridicule; prevent others in the
family from doing so if you possibly can. Ridicule is cruel; adolescents are
especially sensitive to and affected detrimentally by it. Don't nag. This
defeats its purpose, especially with adolescents who are usually impatient.
Give the problem special consideration from the standpoint of the particular
child. Consider the suggestions on gaining and losing weight made elsewhere in
this book (see Index) and evaluates them from the standpoint of which is most
likely to work best for him or her. Use an authority your child will recognize.
Teen-agers often are inclined to think
their parents know less than they actually do, just as they were inclined, as
children, to think their parents knew everything. The word of a doctor or
health authority is useful reinforcement.
