I know several cases of mothers really worried about the weight of their children. They leave the doctor with the "diagnosis": your child is overweight or obese and they go home with a heavy heart, thinking that they have done it fatally and without tools to solve this problem, which is very serious and has to be stopped from different fronts: not only as a family, but also as a society.
Precisely with this approach in Amsterdam they have launched a series of measures to lower the number of overweight and obese children who are functioning.
The key is to work in a team
Lowering the rate of obese and overweight children in the city by 12% in the last five years has been possible thanks to the involvement of parents, schools, teachers, doctors, administrations and, of course, children.
The system works like this: the little ones, normally referred from the schools to their health center, are valued by the nurse in charge of the program, which offers families an aid package that includes dietary advice, in addition to gymnastics classes and the visit weekly of a volunteer to his house to follow the evolution of the child.
Instead of blaming parents, they are invited to reflect on what their children's lives are like and what to do to change unhealthy habits. This is how Janice, one of the mothers who participates in the program, tells about her experience:
"My son's problem is that he spent the afternoon eating unhealthy snacks and playing video games after school, before I returned home from work. I am very happy because I see that it is really working."
Voluntary work
One of the fundamental pillars of this new program, which is totally free, is the visit to the homes of the participating families by volunteers who advise them individually. Volunteers like Kristel, who In addition to giving nutritional advice, you can take the children to the supermarket to make a healthy purchase or propose active amusements after school:
"By now, everyone knows that eating a lot of sugar or junk food is wrong. It is more important to reach families and speak to them in a language that both parents and children understand."
Home visits are especially important because the problem of childhood obesity in Amsterdam is concentrated in the poorest areas of the city, among the immigrant communities of North Africa, Turkey and Suriname. That is why closeness and direct treatment with families is essential.
A committed city
These new measures are added to the city's commitment to the fight against obesity. In Amsterdam they have been carrying out measures to end this scourge for several years now. Some of them are:
- Children can only take to school water or milk
- The industrial bakery is not allowed in schools, only homemade sweets and, above all, fruit.
- It is encouraged to get children They sleep the necessary hours.
- Fast food companies or soft drinks cannot sponsor sports events.
- In some McDonalds of the city it is only allowed to sell apples to children who are not accompanied by their parents.
- All children have, thanks to an EU grant, a piece of Fruit or vegetables three times a week.
When is this in Spain?
In our country, we are at the forefront of Europe in childhood obesity but at the tail of public policies to combat it. It is true that the ultimate perpetrators of what their children eat are the parents, but are they really going to keep leaving us alone in the face of the flood of unhealthy food advertising? Is accessibility to products not recommended in schools? Impossible schedules that prevent us from being with our children to monitor what they eat?
Measures to combat childhood obesity in Amsterdam They should serve as inspiration for our governments and it doesn't even cost too much, the program has cost less than six million euros. Public policies now.
