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Paradoxical Parenting Practice in Children's Weight Management

6-min read

Updated on 2026-8-26

Author: AIA Content Editorial Team

childhood obesity-childhood obesity prevention-parents role in childhood obesity

The Social Welfare Department's latest 2025 guidelines also point out that, after the pandemic, the situation of overweight and childhood obesity among school children has become increasingly serious. Among Primary 1 to Primary 2 students, the rate has significantly risen to about 20.2%. This shows that childhood obesity is no longer merely an individual body-shape issue, but a social health trend that requires parents to pay close attention to ¹. In the past few decades, childhood obesity has become a public health issue in most developed and developing countries across the globe. Several behavioural factors that cause obesity in children include excessive intakes of calories from food, lack of physical activity, and prolonged sedentary behaviour. Obviously, these factors are related to the family, especially the way parents manage their children's weight in the family. In addition to providing food or choosing food for their children, parents also determine their children's daily routines, including sports activities, games, break, and sleeping time. Parents can be their children's role models and authority figures and help children to develop healthy habits, attitudes and ideas on eating and exercise participation. It is worth noting that many parents often adopt some "paradoxical" practices when raising their children, and this deserves our utmost attention.

Long-Term Health Risks of Childhood Obesity: Why Early Management Is a Key Investment in Protecting the Future?

A report from the Centre for Food Safety reminds us that children who are overweight or experiencing childhood obesity have a higher tendency to remain obese into adulthood. They may face a series of chronic disease challenges at a younger age, including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and cardiovascular diseases. In addition, children with obesity may also develop respiratory problems earlier (such as sleep apnea) or musculoskeletal disorders (such as knee joint degeneration and flat feet) ².

From a risk management perspective, early childhood weight management can be viewed as a form of preventive investment in long-term health. Since chronic diseases caused by obesity may significantly increase long-term medical needs and expenses later in life, parents are advised to help their children establish healthy lifestyle habits at an early stage. When planning family protection, a child's early health indicators are key considerations in the underwriting process; maintaining a good health record generally helps secure more favorable coverage terms and premium arrangements when applying for medical protection plans or l ong-term critical illness coverage.

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Avoiding Misconceptions in Weight Management During Parenting

When parents guide children with childhood obesity to improve their habits, they often adopt some intuitive approaches that are not fully supported by scientific research. Understanding the long-term impact behind these behaviors helps optimize children's health pathways and, from the source, reduce future medical risks and related protection costs.

The Counterproductive Effect of Excessive Dietary Restriction: Avoid Triggering Desire for Unhealthy Foods

The most common parenting practice for children with weight issues is to restrict the amount of diet and unhealthy food. Parents who adopt this kind of parenting practice may think that it is good for their children's health, but scientific research does not support this view. Studies have found that restricting children's consumption of certain foods can arouse children's attention to the food, thereby increasing their desire to acquire and eat those foods ³. Therefore, in the short term, although parents restricting their children's diet can reduce the number of unhealthy foods and total calorie intake of their children, they will try their best to break through and consume these foods when they fall under the radar. Studies ⁴ have found that when children are allowed to freely choose their favourite food from dozens of choices, they would prefer a high proportion of unhealthy foods. However, when children know that their parents will monitor what food they choose, they will reduce the amount of food they preferred, or choose fewer unhealthy foods. Since the studies have proved that restricting diet may have negative effects, parents need to use this strategy with extreme caution.

Staying Away from Coercive Feeding Practices: Building a Positive Image of Healthy Foods

Coercive feeding is also a common practice adopted by parents. Such practice includes not allowing any meal leftovers or demanding children to eat certain foods. This method may indeed help increase children's intake of vegetables and fruits, but studies have shown that parents' forcing their children to eat may lead to a prolonged negative impression of certain kinds of food ⁵. For example, former US President George H. W. Bush publicly stated that he hated broccoli very much, and such an open statement had provoked the broccoli farmers and caused an uproar. He claimed, in his own words, "I hated broccoli when I was a child, but my mother forced me to eat it. Today I am the President and I will not eat it again!" Forcing a child to eat a certain food is probably not an ideal parenting strategy.

Use Food as a Reward with Caution: Safeguarding Children's Natural Perception of Fullness

Using food as a prize is another practice customarily employed by parents. However, encouraging children to behave well in this way will allow children to eat without being hungry, which will affect children's self-perception of hunger and a full stomach. Using certain foods to reward children's good performance will also reinforce their preference for that kind of food ⁶. If this measure is adopted for a long time, it may hamper children's ability to administrate their energy intake as they might become too dependent on external stimulus when deciding how much they should eat, instead of appealing to their perceptions ⁷.

Practices Parents Can Refer to for Managing Children's Weight

Master the "Food Plate" Ratio and Make High-Quality Choices

It is recommended to refer to the "food plate" concept: 50% fruits and vegetables, 25% grains and starches, and 25% protein, to provide children with a healthy and nutritious diet ¹.

In addition, parents need to pay attention to portion sizes, compare energy, fat, and sugar content, and choose products with lower levels.

* Some foods labeled as "low sugar" may still have relatively high fat content; it is recommended to review the label information carefully.

Build an Active Lifestyle and a Family Exercise Culture

It is recommended that children aged 3 to 6 engage in at least 180 minutes of physical activity per day ¹. Incorporate exercise into daily life, for example, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and doing parent-child activities at the beach or in the park on weekends ¹⁰.

effects of childhood obesity-weight management for teens-parental feeding practices

It is beyond doubt that the role modelling of parents is very important for children. Compared with children whose parents do not actively participate in sports activities, children whose parents participate actively are more likely to participate in sports activities⁸. Another study also found that those parents taking the initiative to eat fruits and vegetables regularly can motivate their children to eat more fruits and vegetables, therefore increase their nutrient intake and reduce the fat intake⁹.

After all, parents are the primary cause and the determining factor of children weight's issues. Different parenting practices will impose different effects on their children's weight and development, and these effects will often extend to their adulthood. A careless mistake may result in a great misfortune in a child's life, so parents should be extremely cautious of their decisions.

Children's Weight Management FAQ

To determine a child's body status, it is recommended to refer to professional growth indicators, rather than relying only on visual observation. Generally speaking, for boys with a height below 175 cm or girls with a height below 165 cm, it is recommended to refer to the Department of Health's "weight-for-height chart." If the weight exceeds 120% of the median in the "weight-for-height" chart, it is preliminarily defined as obesity ¹¹.

In addition, parents can refer to "BMI-for-age": for children aged 5 to 18, if the BMI value is higher than the 91st percentile of the same age group, there is a risk of being overweight or obese ¹. However, body weight numbers are only a reference. It is recommended to also observe the child's physical performance, such as muscle strength and endurance ¹⁰.

When planning family protection, maintaining healthy weight indicators usually helps to obtain more ideal underwriting results when applying for long-term medical protection plans.

The fundamental reason for children being overweight and obese lies in the imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure. Adopting the dietary principle of "low fat, low sugar, low salt, and high fiber" can effectively optimize energy management ²:

Low fat: Fat is the nutrient with the highest energy density, providing 9 kcal per gram. Reducing fat intake is a key step in controlling total calories.
Low sugar: Sugar usually only provides calories and lacks other nutritional value. Excess intake is very easily converted into fat and stored in the body. It is recommended that parents refer to nutrition labels when shopping, compare the energy and nutritional content of different products, and choose healthier options. Establishing good eating habits early not only helps maintain an ideal body weight but also reduces the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in adulthood, thereby optimizing long-term health risk management.

Children with obesity are indeed more likely to face challenges such as lower self-evaluation or being excluded by peers, which may affect their mental health and social development ¹. It is recommended that parents adopt the following suggested strategies:

Lead by example: Parents' behavioral role modeling is crucial. Parents are recommended to demonstrate an active exercise lifestyle and a balanced diet, rather than restricting children unilaterally, which helps reduce children's psychological stress.
Positive encouragement and a sense of achievement: It is recommended to encourage children to participate in physical activities they like, and through parent-child games or outdoor activities enhance children's sense of achievement and confidence, rather than focusing only on reducing the number on the scale ¹⁰.
Avoid parenting misconceptions: It is recommended to avoid using food as a reward, or forcing children to eat, so as not to interfere with children's normal perception of satiety and create negative eating psychology ¹⁰. Through an overall positive change in the family, it can help children build psychological resilience.

Social Welfare Department. Weight Management in Preschool Children [Online] Source：https://www.swd.gov.hk/storage/asset/section/346/tc/Weight%20Management-18032025.pdf
Centre for Food Safety. Childhood Obesity and Nutrition Labelling [Online] Source：https://www.cfs.gov.hk/english/programme/programme_nifl/files/Childhood_obseity_e.pd
Fisher JO, Birch LL. Restricting access to palatable foods affects children's behavioral response, food selection, and intake. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 1999;69:1264-1272 [Online] Source：https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002916522044367
Klesges RC, Stein RJ, Eck LH, Isbell TR, Klesges LM. Parental influence on food selection in young children and its relationships to childhood obesity. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 1991;53:859-864 [Online] Source：https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2008864/
Batsell WR, Brown AS, Ansfield ME, Paschall GY. "You will eat all of that!": A retrospective analysis of forced consumption episodes. Appetite. 2002;38:211-219 [Online] Source：https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12071687/
Birch LL, Zimmerman SI, Hind H. The influence of social-affective context on the formation of children's food preferences. Child Development. 1980;51:856-861 [Online] Source：https://www.jstor.org/stable/1129474
Rhee K. Childhood overweight and the relationship between parent behaviors, parenting style, and family functioning. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 2008;615:11-37[Online] Source：https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2008-01116-001
Moore LL, Lombardi DA, White MJ, Campbell JL, Oliveria SA, Ellison RC. Influence of parents' physical activity levels on activity levels of young children. The Journal of Pediatrics. 1991;118:215-219 [Online] Source：https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1993947/
Fisher JO, Mitchell DC, Wright HS, Birch LL. Parental influences on young girls' fruit and vegetable, micronutrient, and fat intakes. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 2002;102:58-64 [Online] Source：https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11794503/
Leisure and Cultural Services Department. A Guide to Body Weight Management for Children. [Online] Source：https://www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/healthy/common/download/child.pdf
Centre for Health Protection. Body Mass Index Chart. [Online] Source: https://www.chp.gov.hk/en/resources/e_health_topics/pdfwav_11012.html

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Paradoxical Parenting Practice in Children's Weight Management

Long-Term Health Risks of Childhood Obesity: Why Early Management Is a Key Investment in Protecting the Future?

Avoiding Misconceptions in Weight Management During Parenting

The Counterproductive Effect of Excessive Dietary Restriction: Avoid Triggering Desire for Unhealthy Foods

Staying Away from Coercive Feeding Practices: Building a Positive Image of Healthy Foods

Use Food as a Reward with Caution: Safeguarding Children's Natural Perception of Fullness

Practices Parents Can Refer to for Managing Children's Weight

Master the "Food Plate" Ratio and Make High-Quality Choices

Build an Active Lifestyle and a Family Exercise Culture