Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, April 12, 2017: Family Medical Practice (FMP), in collaboration with Anne Hill International School, co-hosted a new workshop on nutrition, healthy eating and avoiding feeding problems in children in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday.

Led by the clinic’s Head of Pediatrics, Doctor Jonathan Halevy, the session was attended by parents from around the city. During his presentation, Dr. Halevy said: “About 25% of children have feeding disorders caused by improper feeding behavior that causes a child to dislike food and avoid the unpleasant feeding experience.”

Many parents in Vietnam and Asia believe that a fat baby is a healthy baby, which is sadly untrue. This belief causes parents to push their child to eat larger amounts than he should, to eat when he doesn’t feel hungry, and sometimes force the child to eat when he refuses. This behavior leads to feeding disorders and childhood obesity, which we see more and more of in Vietnam. Vietnam’s National Institute of Nutrition has reported a four-fold increase in obesity rates in Ho Chi Minh City over the past seven years. With kids under five, this rate was an alarming nine-fold.

Parents need to pay attention to the signs children give when they don’t want to eat: Children will often turn away, close their mouths, spit out food or refuse to swallow—indicators that it may be time to put the spoon away.

Dr. Halevy outlined several “golden rules” for parents to improve their children’s dietary habits. These include creating a pleasant eating experience at mealtimes to encourage good eating, avoid pushing, distracting or bribing a child to eat, and allowing children to determine how much they should eat to ensure that they do not overeat. Parents should avoid substituting proper meals with milk or giving a child his favorite food when he refuses eating, as this will encourage the child to keep refusing the food.

FMP’s dietitian, Jill Tuong Truong, provided parents in attendance with an array of useful information about nutritional issues for children in order to limit the possibility of early obesity and other diseases. In addition, Jill also offered advice on how to set children’s daily menus, such as using the American MyPlate® guidelines—packaged into five food ingredients (fruits, vegetables, grains, protein and dairy products) to help better balance diets—and recommended that parents consult a dietitian and medical professional for dietary advice on their children’s development. Jill also covered the benefits of each food group and having a variety of food groups in one meal to enhance overall healthy eating. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is also an important factor in preventing complicated health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.

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Family Medical Practice, the first foreign-operated, multi-disciplinary primary medical health care provider in Vietnam, opened in Hanoi in 1994 and owns and operates five modern clinics based in Hanoi, Danang and HCMC. FMP is the only private medical provider in Vietnam with such national coverage. All Family Medical Practice clinics have fully-equipped ambulances described as “state-of-the-art emergency medical units” on standby 24 hours a day.

For more information, please contact:

Ms. Susan Wu on susan.wu@vietnammedicalpractice.com

Ms. Nhu Dang on marketing@ vietnammedicalpractice.com

Ms. Giang Vu on mktg.assistant@vietnammedicalpractice.com