Childhood Obesity: Physical and Heart Problems - Research Paper Example

Childhood Obesity Introduction Obesity is present when total body weight is more than 25 percent fat in boys and more than 32 percentfat in girls. Between 5-25 percent of children and teenagers in the United States are obese. As with adults, the prevalence of obesity in the young varies by ethnic group. It is estimated that 5-7 percent of White and Black children are obese, while 12 percent of Hispanic boys and 19 percent of Hispanic girls are obese (Childhood Obesity) Obesity can generally be defined as an excessive accumulation of body fat. Childhood obesity can create lot of physical problems like diabetics, heart problems and mental problems like lack of self esteem, depression, etc. Heredity, environment and the changing life styles are contributing heavily to the childhood obesity. Even though, parents have a major role in making their children obese, other issues like genetic predisposition and socioeconomic status can also play a vital role making the children obese. If adequate playgrounds and facilities for physical workouts are unavailable, children will take shelter in front of television, computers and internet. Moreover the schools should encourage physical education more to create awareness among the children about the necessity of keeping their body physically strong. Governments should provide enough infrastructure facilities like playing grounds, parks etc in order to encourage the children to engage in more physical workouts. They say, it takes a village to raise a child, but when it comes to childhood obesity no one seems to be taking responsibility and it is the children who are suffering. Obesity in general and childhood obesity in particular is growing in most of the countries. Fighting the childhood obesity epidemic is the responsibility of parents, the government and society as a whole.  Responsibility of parents, government and society in fighting against childhood obesity Parents need to take initiative at home and teach their children good eating habits and encourage them to participate in physical activity. If these basic principles are not taught at home, you cant expect children to make smart decisions when they are on their own. Parents have a major role to play in avoiding childhood obesity. Heredity plays an important role in making a child obese and hence parents who themselves obese, must take extreme care while organizing the food habits and physical workout sessions of their children. Food habits often contribute heavily to the childhood obesity. “Parental beliefs and perceptions play a part in childhood obesity because they shape parental feeding behaviours” (Development of Eating Behaviours in Children). For some parents childhood obesity is not a problem whereas other parents may take it seriously. Those who do not care much about the childhood obesity may not restrict the food habits of their children. Children with an obese body may have more hunger than the normal children and they will take more food. Subsequently, their mobility and ability to take part in physical activities may become lessened and the obesity problems may become more and more. Intra class correlations suggested similarity between obese and non obese siblings in maternal control over feeding. Mothers perceived differences between their obese and non obese childrens eating regulation. Mothers weight status was positively associated with disinhibition of their own eating as well as concern about both their obese and non obese childrens weight and health (Saelens, et al) “Not only parental obesity but also increases in parental BMIs were likely to be associated with development of obesity in children” (Suka et al). In other word, before giving birth to children parents should make sure that their body mass index is within the limits of a healthy body. Children of obese parents may become obese in most of the cases and hence parents should adjust their body mass before conception. Strauss & Knight (1999) also mentioned the relationships between body mass of the parents with that of their children. In their opinion, “children with obese mothers have significantly elevated risks of developing obesity” (Strauss & Knight) Schools need to offer healthy meal options and incorporate more physical education programs instead of eliminating them. Children spend a majority of their day at school; therefore school officials should take part in combating the issue. Modern curriculum focuses more on the subject learning and extracurricular activities are not getting enough prominence in schools. Earlier, most of the students got at least one or two periods per week for the drill and other physical education activities. Because of the intrusion of a variety of topics in school curriculum, physical education is disappearing from schools. A substantial period of time is spent in schools by the children and hence a combined effort of parents and schools is necessary to counter the childhood obesity. In order to force the schools to encourage physical education, government should make it compulsory in schools. Government cannot stay away from their responsibilities of making healthy future generation as a healthy generation is always an asset to the government. Media advertisements that influence children to make unhealthy choices should be banned. Children are constantly influenced by cool character merchandising which are often stronger then the healthy eating messages. Most of the children spend a considerable amount of time in front of television and internet. Product manufactures, especially food product manufacturers often display attractive and exaggerated advertisements in front of the children. They know very well that children do not have the ability to segregate between the good and evil. Attracted by these advertisements, children often spend too much money on fatty food items. They do not know much about what these fatty and sweetly food may do their health. So, misleading media advertisements with respect to food items should be banned at any cost. At the same time many people believe that neither government nor schools can do enough to reduce childhood obesity. For them, the responsibility for combating childhood obesity falls solely on the parents. In some countries the morbidly obese children were taken away from the parents and criminal cases were charged against them for not giving enough attention to their children and their food habits. Obesity is a personal matter like the height. Height and weight is gained by a person due to his genetic factors and food habits. “Children whose parents are obese have a much greater chance of becoming obese themselves” (Dr. Clayson) Dr. Mark Clayson Level: Platinum I am an experienced professional, graduating from King’s College, London in 1986 with a medical degree (MBBS). I have progressed in the medical world culminating ... ... Even if the schools and the government try to tackle the childhood obesity problem, they have their own limitations in tackling this problem. Before a child acquiring his adulthood, the responsibility of shaping the physical and mental development rests mostly on the parents. It is not necessary that the physical workout session in schools may bring the desired result if the children take too much fatty foods from their home. In short, parents of obese children should take the responsibility of controlling the foods habits of their children in rode to reduce the weight of their obese children. Parents cannot be expected to fix the problem without outside help. Even if parents foster good habits in their children at home, they are faced with many obstacles outside of the home.  Increased parental control over the eating habits of the children may bring more harm than the goods. Children who denied their favorite foods at home may take it in more quantities from the restaurants. For example, if parents put some control over eating ice creams at home, children will definitely purchase it from shops without informing the parents about it. Robinson et al (2001) have pointed out that “parents who impose control over their childrens eating may interfere with their childrens ability to regulate intake, potentially resulting in overweight” (Robinson et al). Parents should give the preliminary health education to their children. They should educate their obese children the consequences of obesity in their present and future life. Obese children may sometimes feel proud of their overweight in order to become heroes in front of their thin counterparts. Parents should educate their children about the needs of leading a healthy life and the basic requirements for leading a healthy life. They should tell their obese children that there are more interesting things in this world rather than food and in order to attain that sound health, energy and mobility are required. “Parents use of control strategies in an effort to manage their childrens weight that may have an unintentional, negative impacts on developing self-esteem”(Psychol). Self esteem development is mostly taking place at the childhood. Parenting behaviours and attitudes have definite role in the development of self esteem among the children. Even though, researchers have mixed opinions about the relation between self esteem development and obesity, many people believe that obesity may adversely affect the self esteem development. Obese children may not be able to take part in normal physical activities like the non-obese children which will create an inferiority complex among them. While traveling in buses, trains or flights, obese people always need extra space which will bring unnecessary comments and teasing from others. These things can cause development of negative feelings, thoughts and emotions which may finally lead to more severe psychological problems like depression. In short, society should treat obesity of the children sympathetically rather than witnessing it as a crime. Society and government also has major responsibility in controlling childhood obesity. For example, internet facilities and internet linked education have been increased a lot in schools at the expense of the much needed physical workout sessions. School is a place where major portion of a student’s life is being spent and hence obesity cannot be tackled by parents alone, unless schools and the government support the parents with the suitable strategies. The obese children should be given additional assignments for the physical workouts even at schools. The videogames facilities, computer and internet like facilities at public places must be reduced whereas more games, which need physical activities, must be incorporated at places like parks, grounds or public gathering places. Conclusions Combating childhood obesity is not a battle that can be fought alone; it requires the cooperation of many parties including the parents of the children, the government, and all of society. If all parties involved fail to do their part then it is only the children who suffer. Combined efforts are necessary to tackle childhood obesity. Parents should control the food habits of the children. Moreover, they should ensure that the obese children do not spend too much time in front of the television or internet. Parents should encourage obese children to engage in physical activities more frequently. At the same time schools, society and the government should ensure that the obese children are getting necessary facilities to get reduce their overweight. Works Cited 1. “Childhood Obesity”. Kid Source Online. 2000. Web. 27 November 2010. 2. Dr. Clayson, Mark, “Hereditary Factors In Childhood Obesity”. Web. 27 November 2010. http://ezinearticles.com/?Hereditary-Factors-In-Childhood- Obesity&id=459412 3. “Development of Eating Behaviours in Children”. 2003. Web. 27 November 2010. 4. Psychol, Pediatr, J. “Self Esteem in Overweight Children.” 2007. Web. 27 November 2010. 5. Robinson, Thomas N,. Kiernan, Michaela., Matheson, Donna M. and Hayde, Farish, K. “Is Parental Control over Childrens Eating Associated with Childhood Obesity?” Web. 27 November 2010. 6. Saelens, Brian E., Ernst, Michelle M., and Epstein, Leonard H. “Maternal Child Feeding Practices and Obesity: A Discordant Sibling Analysis.” Web. 27 November 2010. 7. Suka, Machi., Sugimori, Hiroki., Yoshida, Katsumi., Sekine, Michikazu., Yamagami, Takashi  and  Kagamimori, Sadanobu. Parental Influence on the Development of Obesity in 9-Year-old Japanese Children: The Toyama birth cohort study. 2002. Web. 27 November 2010. 8. Strauss, Richard S., MD and Knight, Judith, MD. “Influence of the Home Environment on the Development of Obesity in Children”. 1999. Web. 27 November 2010. Read More