Health Quick Tips – Health Tips For Common Ailments

The United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 25% of children in the US are overweight, and 11% are obese. As with the child obesity epidemic, there has also been a great rise in adult obesity. Obesity means too much body fat. While it may be a crisis in this country, it’s not, however, a problem without a solution.

Just as with adults, there are a variety of potential causes for children being overweight; most of which are preventable or reversible. Only in rare cases is being overweight cause by a medical condition such as a hormone problem. Obesity begins at home; and it doesn’t happen overnight. It starts with what children eat. It is the fault of the parents–not the child. Children are not taking themselves to the fast food restaurants, buying groceries or preparing their own meals.

Childhood obesity affects both the physical and psychosocial health of children. The physical effects put obese children at a greater risk for medical problems that were once associated with middle-aged adults, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, asthma, bone trouble, fatty liver, sleep apnea, and gallstone formation.

But often more dangerous than the physical risks of child obesity, experts say, is the emotional pain children feel when they are teased and excluded because they are “fat.” Fat children are not happy children. They are less likely than other children to receive “best friend” ratings from their classmates. When shown silhouettes of fat and thin males and females, nine-year-old children rated the fat figures as having significantly fewer friends, being less liked by their parents, doing less well at school, being less content with their appearance and wanting to be thin. Overweight children are also more likely to be victims or perpetrators of bullying than are their normal-weight peers.

The real causes of child obesity are very obvious but no one wants to change their way of living. The blame is placed squarely on the parents shoulders because they dictate or control the lifestyle of their child. If you’re a parent and are concerned about your child’s weight, there are several steps you can take to prevent them from being included within these disturbing child statistics.

Eating habits must be changed. Parents must cook nutritionally balanced meals, virtually eliminate snacks high in fat and sugar, teach portion control, pack healthy lunches, avoid fast food and help their children increase levels of physical activity. Parents must teach by doing, which means parents must, themselves, also follow a nutritional and exercise plan that leads to a healthy weight.