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CHILDHOOD
OBESITY
Obesity in children and adolescents is a serious
issue with many health and social consequences
that often continue into adulthood. Implementing
prevention programs and getting a better
understanding of treatment for youngsters is
important to controlling the obesity epidemic.
Many parents are rightly concerned about their
child's weight and how it affects them. They look
for specific answers for prevention and treatment
options. Unfortunately, the state of the science
is a lot less precise than we would like. Are kids
too concerned about their weight? What are the
best strategies for prevention? What treatments
work over a long time? Researchers are trying to
answer those and many other questions. In many
cases, common sense works well.
In situations where there are serious health,
psychological or social problems, parents should
seek out the best possible advice.
Note: The term "childhood obesity" may refer to
both children and adolescents. In general, we use
the word, "children" to refer to 6 to 11 years of
age, and "adolescents" to 12 to 17 years of age.
A
measurement called percentile of Body Mass Index
(BMI) is used to identify overweight and obesity
in children and adolescents. The Centers for
Disease Control (CDC), the supplier of national
growth charts and prevalence data, avoids using
the word "obesity" for children and adolescents.
Instead, they suggest two levels of overweight: 1)
the 85th percentile, an "at risk" level, and 2)
the 95th percentile, the more severe level.
The American Obesity Association uses the 85th
percentile of BMI as a reference point for
overweight and the 95th percentile for obesity.
Causes
There are many factors that contribute to causing
child and adolescent obesity - some are modifiable
and others are not.
Modifiable causes include:
Physical Activity - Lack of regular exercise.
Sedentary behavior
Socioeconomic Status - Low family incomes and
non-working parents.
Eating Habits - Over-consumption of
high-calorie foods. Some eating patterns that have
been associated with this behavior are eating when
not hungry, eating while watching TV or doing
homework.
Environment - Some factors are over-exposure
to advertising of foods that promote high-calorie
foods and lack of recreational facilities.
Non-changeable causes
include:
Genetics - Greater risk of obesity has been
found in children of obese and overweight parents.
Prevention
Teaching healthy behaviors at a young age is
important since change becomes more difficult with
age. Behaviors involving physical activity and
nutrition are the cornerstone of preventing
obesity in children and adolescents. Families and
schools are the two most critical links in
providing the foundation for those behaviors.
Families
Parents are the most important role models for
children. Results from an American Obesity
Association survey show that:
-
The majority of
parents in the U.S. (78 percent) believe that
physical education or recess should not be reduced
or replaced with academic classes.
Almost 30 percent of parents said that they are
"somewhat" or "very" concerned about their
children's weight.
-
12 percent of parents
considered their child overweight.
Comparing their own childhood health habits to
their children's, 27 percent of parents said their
children eat less nutritiously, and 24 percent
said their children are less physically active.
-
35 percent of parents
rated their children's school programs for
teaching good patterns of eating and physical
activity to prevent obesity as "poor,"
"non-existent," or "don't know."
-
Among six choices of
what they believed to be the greatest risk to
their children's long-term health and quality of
life, 5.6 percent of parents chose "being
overweight or obese." More parents selected other
choices as the greatest risk: alcohol (6.1
percent), sexually transmitted disease (10
percent), smoking (13.3 percent), violence (20.3
percent), and illegal drugs (24 percent).
-
In terms of their own
behavior, 61 percent of parents said that it would
be either "not very difficult" or "not at all
difficult" to change their eating and/or physical
activity patterns if it would help prevent obesity
in any of their children.
Survey
results indicate that parents understand the
importance of regular physical education for their
children. Their unfamiliarity or inadequate rating
of their children's school obesity prevention
program is likely due to the lack of programs
across the nation.
Parents appear to underestimate the health risk of
excess weight to their children, and the
difficulty in achieving and maintaining behavioral
changes associated with obesity prevention.
Additional studies are needed to develop
appropriate public health programs to better
educate parents in identifying and understanding
changes in their children's weight, to incorporate
the family in prevention efforts, and to improve
school-based obesity prevention programs that
include increasing physical education classes.
Here are some ways that parents can establish a
lifetime of healthy habits for their family:
Create an Active Environment
-
Make time for the
entire family to participate in regular physical
activities that everyone enjoys. Try walking,
bicycling or rollerblading.
-
Plan special active
family-outings such as a hiking or ski trip.
-
Start an active
neighborhood program. Join together with other
families for group activities like touch-football,
basketball, tag or hide-and-seek.
-
Assign active chores
to every family member such as vacuuming, washing
the car or mowing the lawn. Rotate the schedule of
chores to avoid boredom from routine.
-
Enroll your child in a
structured activity that he or she enjoys, such as
tennis, gymnastics, martial arts, etc.
-
Instill an interest in
your child to try a new sport by joining a team at
school or in your community.
-
Limit the amount of TV
watching.
Create a Healthy Eating Environment
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Implement the same
healthy diet (rich in fruits, vegetables and
grains) for your entire family, not just for
select individuals.
-
Plan times when you
prepare foods together. Children enjoy
participating and can learn about healthy cooking
and food preparation.
-
Eat meals together at
the dinner table at regular times.
-
Avoid rushing to
finish meals. Eating too quickly does not allow
enough time to digest and to feel a sense of
fullness.
-
Avoid other activities
during mealtimes such as watching TV.
-
Avoid foods that are
high in calories, fat or sugar.
-
Have snack foods
available that are low-calorie and nutritious.
Fruit, vegetables and yogurt are some examples.
-
Avoid serving portions
that are too large.
-
Avoid forcing your
child to eat if he/she is not hungry. If your
child shows atypical signs of not eating, consult
a healthcare professional.
-
Limit the frequency of
fast-food eating to no more than once per week.
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Avoid using food as a
reward or the lack of food as punishment.
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