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SALT LAKE CITY — September is Child Obesity Awareness Month, but what if you already know your child is not at a healthy weight? It is a sensitive issue that one Utah family is learning to navigate in a healthy way.
Elizabeth Shultz said that in order to help her child reach a healthy weight level, she decided to include the entire family in eating healthier and becoming more active.
"We didn't want to target one person in the family and have it be one person's problem and we took a look at all of us and noticed we could all use some help with that," Shultz said.
The Shutlz family enrolled in the Intemountain Healthcare LiVe Well program nine months ago and Shultz said that she has already seen positive changes.
"Just more stamina, the ability to not be out of breath so fast walking up stairs," she said.
Along with involving the entire family, the LiVe Well program focused on creating healthy habits for kids.
"We're not trying to get them to lose weight, but they're in a time when they're actually growing from a height standpoint, so we're trying to maintain and hold them at a weight so that they can grow into the appropriate weight for themselves as well," Dr. Tamara Sheffield said.
Another step for the family was to not "demonize" certain foods.
"There are healthier foods and less healthy foods, and so what we try to do is help them talk about good choices that will help them feel better, feel healthier, and not just look at them on the short term," Sheffield said.
Shultz said the program has helped her to hone in on healthy eating choices like vegetables.
"I try and shoot for half of our dinner plate being vegetables," she said. "And that's a big change because I used to make, I would make spaghetti for dinner, we didn't have sides with it or anything else. So adding the vegetables has actually been a big step for our family."
The LiVe Well program is open for all families and residents.
