Over
Weight?
The nutritional requirements of a child have to be
considered carefully. Growing children require a high
amount of energy intake to help them to grow, but, just
as with adults, if energy intake exceeds energy usage,
the child will put on weight.
Naturally, children should, and must, gain weight through
the natural process of growth, but many children go
beyond that and put on excess fatty tissue; i.e. they
become obese. Obesity is rapidly becoming a serious
problem with today’s children, partially through
the wrong nutrition and eating too much of the wrong
foods, and partially through ignorance on behalf of the
parents who have a misconception that ‘puppy
fat’ is a healthy and normal thing.
To a certain extent this is true, but excess ’puppy
fat’ is as dangerous to a child as excess fat is to
an adult. It is estimated that more than 15% of UK
children are overweight or obese, and this figure is
rising rapidly. The Journal of the American Medical
Association reported on the 4th April that the level of
overweight American children was 33.6%. Obese children
grow into obese adults. They do not lose this so called
‘puppy fat’ unless positive steps are taken.
They have a significantly higher risk of developing
serious health problems , both now and as an adult,
including potentially life threatening conditions such as
bowel cancer, diabetes, strokes, heart conditions and
high blood pressure. The more overweight the child, the
greater the risk.
There are also psychological problems to consider.
Overweight and obese children frequently experience
playground teasing about their appearance which can
destroy self esteem and confidence, and lead to isolation
and depression. This can last for the rest of their
lives, and often leads to such children taking up smoking
and drinking alcohol at an early age.
It is predicted by health experts that due to our
children’s poor diet and lack of exercise their own
parents will be outliving them. This is a scary thought,
is it not. The most exercise many children get is getting
out of bed! Many spend their leisure time in front of a
computer or games console. School sports are non existent
in many schools due the ethos of everyone having to be a
winner. Competition in sports is bad because someone must
lose. Many school playing fields have been sold off by
local councils to developers. How short sighted!
It is very rare for children to be overweight due to
health problems. The opposite is true. Children have
health problems because they are overweight. Unless
diagnosed by a doctor, health problems should not be used
by parents as an excuse. Similarly with genetics.
Although genetics can play a part, it is only a very
small part. Fat parents frequently have fat children, but
this is not usually genetic. How about the fact that
children mimic the bad eating habits and activity habits
of their parents? How often have you seen parents and
children living off Big Macs and other fatty convenience
foods.
Rather than blame obesity on genetics or health problems
parents should look at their child’s unhealthy
lifestyle. Their lack of exercise and physical activity.
It is become easier for children to become overweight.
Sweets, convenience meals, fast foods, all full of excess
salt and sugar. They are targeted at children through TV
advertising. Have you ever sat and watched TV with your
child on a Saturday morning and taken note of the
adverts? I know there are very good reasons for it these
days, but 30 years ago children did not travel to school
by car. They walked to school. How many hours does your
child spend sitting in front of a TV set or a games
console or a computer screen? How much sport do they
participate in?
It is relatively easy for adults to determine whether or
not they are overweight by working out the Body Mass
Index, which is not an appropriate measurement tool for
children. Charts taking into account a child’s rate
of growth, age, gender are used instead. Health
professionals are able to measure what proportion of
their weight is fat. As a rule, a child’s weight is
generally classed as obese if the body weight is more
that 25% fat in males and 32% fat in females.
Unfortunately far too many children have considerably
more body fat then that, and we, as adults and their
parents, are failing them. They will not thank us in
years to come for failing them in this way. Don’t
blame the overweight child. Blame the parent, if there is
any blame. Some is due to genetics or illness, but only a
relatively very small amount.
P.S. As an adjunct to this article you can find a Body
Mass Indicator suitable for children and teens, and an
extended version of this article, on our website here:
http://www.childhood-diseases-online.com/overweight-children.html
Copyright 2006 Peter Nisbet