Observing and Interacting With Families of the Children in Your Setting

 

 

 

Observing and Interacting With Families of the Children in Your Setting

                                          Childhood Obesity

 

 

On February 15, 2013 I interacted with a parent of a student in my classroom. The parent was there to have lunch with his child and I took the opportunity to talk with him.   This parent always comes to the center to eat lunch with his daughter or help in the classroom so he and I have a good parent-teacher relationship. I know that he spends two days a week with his child in the classroom and I know that he have her every week-end. I told him that I wanted to get his in-put about how he feels about healthy eating habits and overweight children.  I started by asking him what kind of food that he and his daughter eat on the week-end. He said that he does not cook and when she is at his house, they mostly eat out every meal. He said that on Friday night he order pizza and make sure that she have plenty of juice to drink and snacks to eat. He said that on Saturday morning they go to McDonald’s for breakfast. He said that she normally get a sausage biscuit meal with orange juice. He stated that for lunch, he either heat up the left over pizza, takes her to Wendy’s or back to McDonald which ever she chooses. I asked him what do she drink with her lunch? “He said juice, coke, or sprite”. He then said that she snacks a lot. I asked him what do she eat for snack? ‘He said chips, cookies, popcorn, and candy”. I then asked him what do she have for dinner?  “He said most of the time she eats Popeye’s chicken or Kentucky fried chicken. I asked him what she eats before he takes her home on Sunday and he said he repeat the eating pattern. He was quiet for a moment and he said wow that’s not good is it. He said at that moment that he realized that the food that he gives her is not healthy at all. He stated that he had never thought about it before. I asked him did he think that she is overweight. He said no, but if I keep this up she is going to be. I asked him what kind of food he thought was healthy eating? He said vegetables, fruit, water, and probably baked food. He said that just thinking about it made him feel bad. I told him not to feel bad because it was something that he never thought about. He said that he had notice the food that we served them for lunch was kind of weird, but he never thought about it. I told him that we serve our children at the center healthy food because we want them to be healthy and prevent them from becoming overweight. He said that he is going to do things different after this conversation. He said he can’t cook but he is going to change their week-end eating habits. I told him that if he needed help just asks. I told him that he could talk to the cook in the kitchen if he wanted to. I told him that she will help him as much as she can. He stated that he know her because he grew up with her boys. I also told him that he could go on- line to find out information about healthy eating habits. I told him that I didn’t ask him these questions to make him feel bad; I had to get this information for a class that I was taking. He said, oh Ms. Brenda, I am glad that we had this conversation; I wish we could of have had it sooner. He said I am going to the store when I pick her up and I am going to get some oranges, apples, peaches, plums, chicken, bottled water, and some can vegetable’s. I can’t cook that good, but I can throw some chicken on the grill. We will not be eating out this week-end. I thanked him for his time and told him that if he needed anything or help with something just asks. I told him that if I don’t know that answers, I will find someone that can help him.  He told me that I was welcome and anytime I need to talk just asks.

 

       I interacted with the second person on February 19, 2013. The second person that I interacted with was a co-worker that was hired about four weeks ago that has an issue with her fifteen old weight. She has talked about this issue with several teachers during break.  I went to her classroom and asked her if she would talk to me about her daughter weight situation. She agreed to talk with me during our break. When we meet she stated that she is doing everything that she can to help her daughter with her eating habits. I ask her if she think her daughter is overweight or obese. She said that the doctor told her that her daughter was obese at this point. I asked her if she can remember when she notices her daughter getting overweight. She said that it started back when her husband got orders to go overseas for the first time. She said that her daughter were about twelve at the time. She said that she had a night job and her sister was taking care of her daughter. She said that her sister love to eat out and eat snack all the time but that was the only help that she had. She said that she notice her daughter picking up weight in a three months’ time. She said that at first she didn’t think too much of it because she was dealing with her husband being away. She said that she then got a day job and were able to be home with her daughter at night. She said that it was a difficult time because her duties at that time were very overwhelming. She said that when her husband returned home the first thing that he notice was their daughter weight gain. He questions her about it and told her that she needed to help their daughter cut back on eating out and eating so much junk food. She said she tried to help her cut back on the cokes, junk food, and fast food but her daughter got really upset about it. She said she started fixing healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinner but her daughter didn’t eat what she cooked. She said her daughter continues to eat food that wasn’t good for her and the weight kept coming. She said that her daughter and her start having problems with their relationship because of the help she was trying to give her. Her daughter kept eating and the weight kept coming and before she knew it her daughter was very overweight. She said that she had to work on their relationship and try to build it back up and approach it another way. She said when her daughter turn fourteen she asked her daughter to go on a diet and told her that she would go on a diet with her. She told her that they could do it together but her daughter refused. She said she realized that the weight was out of control. She took her daughter to the doctor and the doctor told to her daughter and suggested that she cut back because a weight problem can cause a lot of health issues. After the doctor visit her daughter really didn’t want to talk about it anymore and she became rebellious. Her daughter is now fifteen and weighs about 289lbs and does not care what she eats or how she looks. She said that she is going to continue to talk to her daughter and be there for her in the time of need. She said that at this point she does not know what to do. She said that she hopes that her daughter realize that she is overweight and unhealthy and let someone help her even if it’s not her. She said that the situation is very stressful because she loves her child so much .I told her that I hope everything work out for her and her family.  I told her that I would be thinking of her and her daughter and that I would keep them in my prayers. I thanked her for sharing her time and story with me.

 My learning experiences and insights that I have gained is how important it is to watch what our children eat. The parents have to make sure that they are keeping up with their child’s eating habit and weight gain. I am glad that I choose childhood obesity because there is much work that needs to be to done to help our children.

 One insight that I have gained from my observation is parents need to be aware of what and how their children are eating from the start. I know that there are many things going on in the home but we need to take the time to make sure that our children is eating the right type of food and getting plenty of water and good exercise.

 

     Another insight that I have gain from my observation is sometime parents are unaware of the food that they feed their children. Sometimes parents don’t know what to do or where to turn to make sure their child is getting the proper nutrition that they need. Talking to the parent and my co-worker made me realize how important it is that we do everything that we can to help our children learn how to eat the right kinds of food and stay healthy.