How can society or parents prevent children obesity - Research Paper Example

Outline page Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………….2 Body Reducing children screen time and exposure to food and beverages market…………..2 Reducing sedimentary time …………………………………………………………....2 Diet……………………………………………………………………………………..3 Prevention of eating disorders in children……………………………………………...3 Exercise…………………………………………………………………………………4 Parents should act as policy makers at home…………………………………………...6 Advocacy….....................................................................................................................6 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………7 References………………………………………………………………………………………8 Introduction Obesity in children has become a health epidemic in United States. For the last 20 years, obesity has exploded and a lot need to be done to prevent it. According to the research conducted by centers for disease control and prevention, they found that the explosion of obesity has doubled among the children below the age of 10, and for those between the ages of 11 and 20 it has tripled (Birch, Zimmerman and Hind 856). This epidemic has consequences in the life of the children since obesity in many occasion results in chronic diseases such as hypertension, sleep apnea, bone conditions, type 2 diabetes, and hearth diseases, a generation that suffers from this problem might have short life infancy unlike those who didn’t experience the problem. For the problem to be prevented, the parents, community and government should put in place serious efforts to reverse the trend in full. Medical practitioners have explained that healthy eating and physical exercise are the key issues in compacting obesity and overweight. It has also been found that problems associated with obesity will continue even in adulthood, if a person suffers from obesity in childhood he/she will have a greater risk of conducting the diseases in adulthood and the diseases associated with obesity will stay throughout their lives (Birch, Zimmerman, and Hind 1980). This article explains how the parents can assist in preventing obesity in children; the information provided will be important especially to the international students. Parents should try to reduce the time children watch screens such as mobile phones, TVs, and digital media. According to the medical child care settings for watching screens, it is recommended that children between the age of 2 to 5 should spent less that 40 minutes per day for those in half day programs while those in full day program should spent less than one hour. If the children watch TVs or other digital Medias most of the time, they will be exposed to ‘good looking’ food marketing and advertisements designed in a way that will promote brand loyalty and influence the power of purchase (Committee on Obesity Prevention Policies for Young Children and Institute of Medicine 121). ‘Television advertisement influences children to prefer and request high calorie and low nutrient foods and beverages’ (Birch, Parker, and Burns 121). It is approximated that in US, food organizations spend up to 1.6 billion dollars annually in marketing food for children between the ages of 2 to 15. ‘The parent can use weight maintenance versus weight loss to attain weight goals’ (Green-Hernandez 255). For children whose obesity is in their early ages, weight maintenance program will control the weight of the child for healthy growth. To attain this, the parents should try to stop children from taking chunk food such as sugary soda, excess milk, energy drinks like Redbull and glucose in their food (Green-Hernandez 255). Milk food should have low or no fats. If a child has already shown signs of obesity, the parent should establish weight loss program to assist reduce the epidemic. Relying on the child age and medical state, a well balanced hypocaloric food restricts the kids’ normal taking by 30 to 40 percent. The caloric of the food ranges fro 25 to 30 percent for fats, 50 to 56 percent for complex carbohydrates, and 21 to 26 percent for protein. This composition of food assist the children grow with slow reduction in weight and it is normally given to children of the age below 10 years. ‘Today, significant numbers of children are weaned on chips, French fries, and sugar sweetened beverages that are carefully formulated and tested to be especially appealing to children” (Akabas, Lederman, and Moore 433). These products make children like sweet products and it starts at early life. The diet preference influence diet intake and shape the base of child customary food. Thus, parents should emphasize on good eating habits at early age. Parents are in charge of food that come into the home and routinely availed to children. The choice of the food taken is so much influenced by marketing efforts from food companies. The parents should protect the children from the commercial drive persuasion in order to shape healthy eating habits and lifestyle (Akabas, Lederman, and Moore 433). Parents should control food intake to a certain level. Thought it is a parent responsibility to control food intake they should do it with caution. It has been found that when parents over control children food intake; they might go out and start looking for their own food which might contain a lot of fats and will cause obesity. Though the tendency of controlling food is good it might override the kids’ interpretation. Parents should provide children with natural food rather than chunk food. Vegetables and fruits are encouraged to be given to children but the problem sometimes is that children will not simply take the vegetables because the parents have provided (Koocher and Greca 2010). It is well known that children tend to dislike new vegetables and parents’ modeling is required to encourage and guide them to accept new vegetables. The modeling involves parents encouraging children by giving presents if they manage to bite the vegetables. In some occasions, parents should tell the kids they will not get other food or they will not leave the dining table until they bite the food. Parents should make sure that children taste the food many times so as to like it Physical exercise is an important component in the treatment of obesity in kids. The goal of the physical exercise is to reduce inactivity and not developing vigorous exercise routines. For this goals to be attained, parents should encourage the children by giving them presents when they reduces the time they spend watching screens like TVs and phones and playing computer games. Parents should come up with regular physical activities that make fun to the child and encourage other family members to join the activity (Lumeng 211). Good fun that a child can experience with family members include biking, swimming, or playing team games such as hide and seek. When the parents and family members get involved in the weight loss program, it will be more effective and it will stay for a long time. Another significant factor the parents can apply to treat obesity in children is behavior modification. ‘Self monitoring increases children’s awareness of when, where, why, what, and how much they eat’ (Green-Hernandez 255). Even if the self report of diet taken and activity is largely not correct, it will assist the children learn how they may be using diet to appease his feelings. CBT is one of the organizations that have the capability of treating obese children without necessary following the right diet. Weight loss programs do not provide long term benefits; they mainly provide short term benefits. Efforts by the parents to treat children for obesity has limited efficiency at long last, except only in the specialized centers with highly trained employees who are fully committed to bring change. Despite the efforts by parents and government to reduce obesity it is increasing. At home, parents are the one who are controlling the food to be taken. At the same time they are the role models for physical activities. If the parents eating habits and exercise behaviors are poor, changing them will be one of the efficient means of preventing poor eating habits in children. Medical practitioners should educate parents and provide them with education materials that have information on the right nutrients and effective physical exercises. Parents should also be included in school policies making process about food that are offered in cafeterias and vending machines, this will give them a chance to provide their useful contribution. For the right attitude, parents should keep away from focusing on the kids look. ‘These looks include telling the children that ‘you are too fat’ or ‘you look great’ such comments will encourage obsessions with body image’ (Green-Hernandez 255). Instead, their focus should be directed towards the kids’ health and behavior. The right comments the parents should make which will be helpful to their children include ‘I am concerned about your health’ or ‘recently you have been skipping meals’. In many occasions parents do not respect the children appetites, they should not force the children to finish every meal or drink. At the same time food should not be used for non-nutritive reasons like comfort or rewards (Green-Hernandez 255). At home parents should act as policy makers. A longitudinal study conducted in 2005 among the children of below the age of 5 shows that it is significant for the parents to develop and maintain household routine for young children. The most significant routines that were found are regular eating in the evening as a family, obtaining enough time for sleep, and limiting screen watching time to less than two hours in a day (DeBruyne, Pinna, and Noss 142). Parents should try to control the sleep hours because a study conducted by Chaput and his team found an inverse relationship between the sleeping hours and the danger of developing the epidemic. A survey conducted in 440 children between the age of 5 and 11 years shows the odd of obesity in children who slept for between 12 to 13 hours a day were less, while the children who slept between 10 and 11 hours a day had a great increased likelihood of obesity (Birch 1980). Sleep plays a significant role in the development and prevention of obesity in children and should be controlled by the parents. Parents should carry out advocacy; they are in a good position of advocating for change in their kids policies in regard to food provided by the school and the atmosphere of the mealtime. They also have a voice in advocating for better and more children playing grounds within the community so that children can exercise outside the home compound (Birch 1980). Parents’ working with family members to reduce obesity is significant but advocating for change in public health policies is vital. If the families living in both urban and rural set up have the capability of accessing food such as vegetables and fruits, it will be a significant factor for the better. If the availability of healthy and cheap food is increased it will make a big change in children lives (Birch 1980). Thought upper income families can afford to buy healthy food even if they are expensive; many low income families will not afford healthy food hence preferring chunk food which contains a lot of sugar and fats. Low income parents after a day of work they will be tired and at the same time they cannot afford to pay for a car to go with the children to the supermarket to buy fresh food and cook at home as the children vie for the attention. As a result of this problems of low income which results to poor diet, parents should advocate for better living standard to enable them manage to buy their children healthy food (Committee on Obesity Prevention Policies for Young Children and Institute of Medicine 121). In conclusion, childhood professionalism plays a vital role in controlling the rise of childhood obesity. This role will not only be carried out at home, it can also be carried out at school or community programs. Obesity should be prevented by all cost since it leads to chronic diseases such as hypertension, sleep apnea, bone conditions, type 2 diabetes, and hearth diseases, a generation that suffers from this problem might have short life infancy unlike those who didn’t experience the problem. For the problem to be prevented, the parents, community and government should put in place serious efforts to reverse the trend in full. Parents are the best players in controlling obesity since they understand their children well and children respect their directives. To prevent these parents should try to reduce the time children watch screens such as mobile phones, TVs, and digital media. For children whose obesity is in their early ages, weight maintenance program will control the weight of the child for healthy growth. To attain this, the parents should try to stop children from taking chunk food such as sugary soda, excess milk, energy drinks like Redbull and glucose in their food. Parents should not control food intake. Thought it is a parent responsibility to control food intake they should do it with caution. It has been found that when parents over control children food intake; they might go out and start looking for their own food which might contain a lot of fats and might cause obesity. At home parents should act as policy makers and lastly they should carry out advocacy; they are in a good position of advocating for change in their kids policies in regard to food provided by the school and the atmosphere of the mealtime. References Green-Hernandez, Carol. Primary care pediatrics [electronic resource]. New York: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2001 Committee on Obesity Prevention Policies for Young Children and Institute of Medicine. Early Childhood Obesity Prevention Policies. London: National Academies Press, 2011 DeBruyne, K, Pinna, K, and Noss, E Whitney. Nutrition and Diet Therapy. new York: Cengage Learning, 2008 Koocher, G and Greca, A, L. The Parents' Guide to Psychological First Aid:Helping Children and Adolescents Cope with Predictable Life Crises. London: Oxford University Press, 2010. Lumeng, J. What can we do to prevent childhood obesity? 2005. Birch, L. Effects of peer models’ food choices and eating behaviors on preschoolers’ food preferences. Child Development. 1980. Vol.51, P. 489–496. Birch, L, Zimmerman, S, and Hind, H. The influence of social affective context on the formation of children’s food preferences. Child Development. 1980. Vol. 51(3), P. 856– 861. Akabas, S, Lederman, A, and Moore, B. Textbook of Obesity: Biological, Psychological and Cultural Influences. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2012 Read More