What's New?

The problem of childhood obesity in the United States has grown considerably in recent years. Between 16 and 33 percent of children and adolescents are obese.
 American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

 

Children Obesity

 

This is a tough one for me; I was a pretty heavy kid when I was young. So as you can guess, I went through the ropes with the funny looks, the nasty jokes and the isolation that comes with it. It weighed heavy on me for years and it was really hard to shake.
 
It’s a know fact that our children are getting heavier with all the junk food lying around and the bad eating habits they acquire.

I know !

You’re going to tell me all sorts of reasons why children are overweight; like I can’t afford the right dietary foods or I work all day and I’m not home to fix meals etc. Trust me I heard them all and if it’s a medical reason, seek a doctor or a professional to help your child. It’s in his best interest and as a parent, it’s your duty.
 
If you can nip obesity in the butt, do it. As you know, it raises a lot of health issues and not to mention, psychological ones too. In my opinion if left untreated as a child, it will become a source of battle for him or her as an adult. So why not help your child now.
 
I wish someone would have told me what being overweight was like as an adult. Trust me! I would have been careful. Today it’s something I battle with every day. Give your children choices, sports, activities etc. If you have a weight problem wouldn’t you want to avoid it for your child? I would.
 
In today’s society, we have all the resources at our disposal to avoid or help the problem, so please be pro active on the matter. Read, inform yourselves and give it your best. A child can’t make those choices because he doesn’t know the consequences in the long run; it’s up to us to make a difference.
 

 

Causes

 

As with adult-onset obesity, childhood obesity has multiple causes centering around an imbalance between energy in (calories obtained from food) and energy out (calories expended in the basal metabolic rate and physical activity). Childhood obesity most likely results from an interaction of nutritional, psychological, familial, and physiological factors.

 
The Family   The risk of becoming obese is greatest among children who have two obese parents (Dietz, 1983). This may be due to powerful genetic factors or to parental modeling of both eating and exercise behaviors, indirectly affecting the child's energy balance. One half of parents of elementary school children never exercise vigorously (Ross & Pate, 1987).
     
Low-energy Expenditure   The average American child spends several hours each day watching television; time which in previous years might have been devoted to physical pursuits. Obesity is greater among children and adolescents who frequently watch television (Dietz & Gortmaker, 1985), not only because little energy is expended while viewing but also because of concurrent consumption of high-calorie snacks. Only about one-third of elementary children have daily physical education, and fewer than one-fifth have extracurricular physical activity programs at their schools (Ross & Pate, 1987).
     
Heredity   Since not all children who eat non-nutritious foods, watch several hours of television daily, and are relatively inactive develop obesity, the search continues for alternative causes. Heredity has recently been shown to influence fatness, regional fat distribution, and response to overfeeding (Bouchard et al., 1990). In addition, infants born to overweight mothers have been found to be less active and to gain more weight by age three months when compared with infants of normal weight mothers, suggesting a possible inborn drive to conserve energy (Roberts, Savage, Coward, Chew, & Lucas, 1988).


KidSource.com

Products Spotlight



Custom Search



Links