Would you like your child to go through school overweight or obese? For most parents the answer is obvious, but through bad eating and lifestyle habits, more children are becoming overweight, which causes a lifetime of problems. It's time we faced the issue and made positive changes towards creating healthier and happier lives.

The first step is to be aware of the problem. Completing the lifestyle quiz (below) will help many parents determine if they fall into a risk category. If you're scoring low marks on many of the questions, it may be worth asking your GP to calculate your child's body mass index (BMI).

'Recognising a child is overweight is a big step for many parents,' explains Joey Marc, co-author of Please Mum, Don't Supersize Me! (Rockpool Publishing, $24.95).

This new book helps parents create a healthy life for the whole family. Joey has identified three main reasons kids gain weight:

• Family factors - sedentary lifestyle, overeating.
• Eating habits - fast foods and large portions.
• Technological influences - the time a child spends on the computer or watching TV versus active time.

The onus is on the parents to adopt a lifestyle that will prevent the obesity epidemic from being passed on to the next generation. Here are practical ways to improve your family's lifestyle:

• Reduce the time spent in front of the TV, video games or computer.
• Resist pester power - establish healthy routines from a young age.
• Increase the amount of exercise - in addition to energetic activity, increase your incidental exercise, such as walking to the shops or taking the stairs.

But how active should kids be? For preschool kids, Joey recommends at least 60 minutes a day of exercise that makes them 'huff and puff'. For school-age kids it's 60 minutes of planned physical activity (organised sports) and 60 minutes of active movement (playing outside at school or at home).

Children love to play games and spend time with their parents. Exercising together could be as simple as taking a walk after dinner, jumping on a trampoline, tennis, bike riding or handball. When it comes to ways you can spend active time together, the list is endless.

The health lifestyle quiz

This quiz gives an indication as to whether or not your children are leading healthy lifestyles. Tick only one response to each question and add up your points at the end.

1. My child eats fast food such as hot chips, hamburgers, anything fried in oil...

• three or more times per week (1)
• one to two times per week  (2)
• less than once per week  (3)

2. My child eats vegetables...

• less than one serving a day  (1)
• two to three servings per day (2)
• four or more servings a day (3)

3. My child consumes fruit...

• every second day (1)
• at least once per day (2) 
• twice per day  (3)

4. My child has soft drink, concentrated fruit juices, sports drinks or cordial...

• more than four times per week  (1)
• two to three times per week  (2)
• less than twice per week  (3)

5. My child eats breakfast...

• only on occasions  (1)
• most mornings  (2)
• every morning without fail  (3)

6. Foods found in the kitchen include...

• chips, chocolate, ice-cream, lollies, biscuits,
  cordial, sugary cereal  (1)
• fruit, bread, low-fat milk  (2)
• a mixture of all of the above (3)

7. My child regularly plays a sporting game that makes her/him breathe and work harder than just regular walking, such as tennis, netball, basketball...

• less than one hour per week  (1)
• one to two hours per week  (2)
• more than three hours per week (3) 

8. During school lunchtime, my child...

• always sits down  (1)
• walks around or plays a game (2)
• is always actively playing outside (3) 

9. After school, my child watches TV, plays video games or spends time on the net...

• for more than four hours  (1)
• for two to four hours  (2)
• for less than two hours (3)

10. My child's weekend is usually spent being sedentary for...

• three quarters to all of the time (1)
• one to three quarters of the time  (2)
• one quarter or less of the time  (3)

How you scored:

27 and more: healthy lifestyle

Congratulations! Your child is well on the way to living a healthy lifestyle.

16 to 26: reasonably healthy lifestyle

Your child is in an acceptable range, but introduce more healthy choices.

15 and less: unhealthy lifestyle

Start making lifestyle changes right away, particularly in the areas where you scored the least points.

Stay on it:

Every four to six weeks take the quiz again. If you have implemented healthier changes, the score should be higher. It is the little changes that you make which will play a major part in your child's healthy lifestyle. To keep your momentum going, sign up for a free thought of the week by visiting
www.pleasemumdontsupersizeme.com and entering your name and email address.

For more great parenting advice from Antonia, check out the latest issue of New Idea - on sale now!