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How kids can take control of their health after COVID ruined it

Study after study has confirmed what parents across the country long suspected: the coronavirus pandemic — not just the disease itself, but the lockdowns and restrictions that governments enforced to combat it — has had a devastating impact on children’s physical and mental health.

“Now we’re seeing the fallout,” pediatrician Dr. Nina L. Shapiro told The Post. “And I don’t feel like it’s over by any stretch.”

A study of more than 400,000 children and teens released by the Centers for Disease Control in September found a “substantial and alarming” increase in obesity since March 2020, when schools and businesses were shuttered to slow the spread of COVID-19. Kids aged 5 to 11 saw the worst of the weight gain, another group of researchers found…