Saturday, January 14, 2012
CHILDHOOD OBESITY
One of the current public health issues affecting children that most concerns me is childhood obesity. Obesity in our country has become an epidemic, but it is even scary to me that obesity is now presenting in children as young as infants. The lifestyle of families in United States is causing entire families to be overweight. American families most of the time skip breakfast, have a very light and quick lunch, and it is not until dinner time that some of the families get to sit down and enjoy a pleasant meal. Due to this by the time families are sitting to eat dinner they are so hungry and tired that they tend to over eat. In addition to these many families are buying their dinner meals from fast food restaurant which triple the calories and fats. Also, children are not participating in physical activities in a daily basis. Also, some of the states and counties due to funding cuts have removed Physical Education classes from their requisite courses. Children are spending hundreds of hours a year in front of the T.V., computers, and video games. As a consequence of all these facts, American children are becoming sick and developing serious diseases as diabetes, heart problems, high blood pressure, etc. This situation is very sad; children are the future of our country and we all need to make an effort to fight the obesity epidemic in the country. Families need to be educated on this topic and nutrition. Parents need to learn to cook healthy meals. Also, parents need to be more involved in the education of their children and encourage them to participate in physical activities at least for 60 minutes a day. The best way to do this is setting up an example for the children. As early childhood educators, there is a lot we can do; we can start educating the parents about health and nutrition, introduce healthy choices during breakfast, lunch and snack and making sure that, in our curriculum and lesson plans, we allowed 60 minutes of physical activity. The 60 minutes of physical activity do not have to be all in once it can be done throughout the day.
Childhood Obesity is not only a problem of United States. In Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean is now a growing concern. In the last 50 years, food availability has increased in Latin America and the Caribbean, making a wider range of food easily accessible. Unfortunately, some of this food has very poor nutritional value (high in fat and sugar). Also, recently childhood obesity has been recognized in Europe. More than ever we have to emphasize in educating children and families of all races and ethnicities on this global health problem.
Childhood Obesity Resources:
http://student.purduecal.edu/~lu65/Researches/Childhood%20Obesity.pdf
http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/reports/child_obesity/
http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2FPHN%2FPHN4_1a%2FS1368980001000179a.pdf&code=09d8e7c5723605c3e6bbfbf916a408e1
http://tc.iaea.org/tcweb/news_archive/childhood_obesity/default.asp
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Marta,
ReplyDeleteYes childhood obesity affects the world not just the U.S. Childhood obesity is a large problem in all age groups. We as adults have to get involved more with our children so that they are not just sitting in front of the TV. We need to have more sit down meals with our children teaching them portion and not always stopping by McDonald's, Taco Bell, Wendy's etc. Our children are our future but if we don't instill healthy living in them now we will continue to lose them to worldly things.
Dear Marta,
ReplyDeleteIt seems like obesity is becoming an epidemic. I know here in the UAE for instance it is a great concern and according to some researches "Obesity was 2.3-fold higher among UAE males at 14 years compared to international standards" ((Al-Haddad, Little & Abdul Ghafoor, 2005)). The same figure is applicable to the UAE females. Lack of physical activities, fast food, unscheduled sleep routines, computer and arcade games instead of games that involves physical movement are among the causes of obesity in the UAE. As you mentioned it is our job as educators to create an awareness among children and families about the physical and emotional complications the obese children will have to go through. At school we have created a policy that prevents children from brining chocolate, sweets, and junk food. We have provided parents with a list of healthy food and snacks in oder to promote healthy eating habits from early ages. Thanks for your post
Reference:
Al-Haddad, F. H., Little, B. B., & Abdul Ghafoor, A. G. PubMed, US National Library of medicine& National Institute ofhealth. (2005). Childhood obesity in united arab emirates schoolchildren: a national study. Retrieved from NCBI website: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15788356
Maryam
I think fighting childhood obesity begins at home. We need to educate families on healthy eating and encourage fitness as well. Modeling in the classroom, encouraging participation of students, and healthy meals at school is a great way for kids to experience healthy habits. Kids are great resources for getting information home. When they enjoy participating in fun activities, they'll talk about it when they get home!
ReplyDeleteMarta,
ReplyDeleteOur parents often mistake their action of over doing as acts of love. The break down is that they do not have the resources available to see the harm in what they do. I really believe that they begin to over feed their babies because they are not aware of the different cries children have based on their needs so that feed them. After a while the child stomach stretch and begin to want to be feed all the time. Habits are hard to break. We must find a way to educate as many parents as we can. So that we can not only fight obesity but prevent it.
Marta,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this information with us. Obesity is such a touchy topic to talk about because there are so many different dynamics that are associated with this topic. Eating healthy does typically cost more but there are a lot of healthy options that do not cost a lot, the public just needs to have the resources available to them so they can learn how to cook healthy on a budget. When parents eat unhealthy the kids are going to eat unhealthy because it is all they know. I hope through the school system children get the information they need to help make better choices.