Child Obese - A Serious Problem
With more and more children spending in front of television and computers, and less time outdoors, it's not surprising that studies show that the number of obese children is increasing steadily.
Here is information which will help you deal with the child obese problem.
What is Child Obesity?
Obesity is defined as an excessive accumulation of body fat. In Boys obesity is present when total body weight is more than 25 percent fat and in girls more than 32 percent fat.Skinfold measures are more accurate determinants of fatness. Although childhood obesity is often defined as a weight-for-height in excess of 120 percent of the ideal.
Did you know obese children are likely to remain obese as adults and face increased health care risks?
Visit This Link To Find If Your Child is Obese
- Body Mass Index (BMI) Calculator
- This calculator provides BMI and the corresponding BMI-for-age percentile on a CDC BMI-for-age growth chart. This calculator is used for children and teens, aged 2 through 19 years old.
How Does Obesity effect Children?
Obesity presents numerous problems for the child. There is increased risk of obesity in adulthood and childhood obesity is the leading cause of pediatric hypertension.Child obesity is associated with Type II diabetes mellitus, increases the risk of coronary heart disease, increases stress on the weight-bearing joints, lowers self-esteem, and affects relationships with peers.
Some authorities feel that the obese child may face significant social and psychological problems.
What Are The Causes of Child Obesity?
Most likely childhood obesity results from an interaction of nutritional, psychological, familial, and physiological factors.
- The Family: Obese parents have the greatest risk of having obese children. This may be due to genetic factors or due to parental modeling of both eating and exercise behaviors. This indirectly affects the child's energy balance.
- Low-energy Expenditure: These days an average child spends several hours each day watching television. This time which was spent in previous years to outdoor games and other physical pursuits.
Obesity is greater among children and adolescents who frequently watch television, not only because little energy is expended while viewing but also because of concurrent consumption of high-calorie snacks. - Heredity Factors: Heredity has been shown to influence fatness and a childs response to overfeeding. Infants born to overweight mothers are found to be less active and to gain more weight by age three months when compared with infants of normal weight mothers.
How to Treat Child Obesity?
The aim should be to slow or halt weight gain so the child will grow into his or her body weight over a period of months to years.
Prevention and early and appropriate intervention is particularly valuable in handling child obesity.
You can consider and following forms of intervention.
- Physical Activity: Adopting a proper exercise program, or simply becoming more active, is valuable to burn fat, increase energy expenditure, and maintain lost weight. However, exercise should be coupled with nutrition education and/or behavior modification.
Exercise also has additional benefits of improving blood lipid profiles and blood pressure. - Diet Management: Do not go for fasting or extreme caloric restriction. this is not advisable for children. Balanced diets with moderate caloric restriction, especially reduced dietary fat, can been used successfully in treating obesity. As mentioned above, diet management coupled with exercise is an effective treatment for child obesity
- Behavior Modification: Promote the cild to do self-monitoring and recording food intake and physical activity. Slow the rate of eating, limiting the time and place of eating. Use rewards and incentives for desirable behaviors.
There is significant reduced percent overweight and maintained reduced weight when parents are directly involved in the problem solving whith their obese child.
How To Prevention Child Obesity In The First Place?
Child obesity is easier to prevent than to treat. Prevention focuses in large measure on parent education and their interest in their children.Parents should focus on education and should include proper nutrition, selection of low-fat snacks, good exercise/activity habits, and monitoring of television viewing of their children.
Parent should also focus on building self-esteem and address psychological issues of their children.
Here Are Some Interesting EBooks Dealing With Child Obesity
- Is Your Child Overweight Or Obese
- "Childhood Obesity: How to Prevent It, How to Deal With It" has the answers - not just for today, but for the rest of your child's lifetime
- Overcoming Childhood Obesity
- This ebook is the essential guide you need to help your child live a healthier, better life - which is something we as parents all want for our children!
Great Stuff on Amazon Related To Child Obesity
Eat This Not That! for Kids!: Be the Leanest, Fittest Family on the Block!
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 09/05/2008)
List Price: $19.95
Usually ships in 24 hours
Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp
Amazon Price: $16.47 (as of 09/05/2008)
List Price: $24.95
Usually ships in 24 hours
The A to Z Guide to Raising Happy, Confident Kids
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 09/05/2008)
List Price: $14.95
Usually ships in 24 hours
Your Child's Weight: Helping without Harming
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 09/05/2008)
List Price: $19.95
Usually ships in 24 hours
Indigo Dreams: Garden of Wellness Stories And Techniques Designed to Decrease Stress, Anger, Anxiety While Promoting Self-esteem ages 5-10 (Indigo Dreams)
Amazon Price: $10.85 (as of 09/05/2008)
List Price: $15.95
Usually ships in 24 hours
Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand by
