Childhood_Obesity

Childhood Obesity Page 1 Obesity within Young Children Chiquita Johnson Eng 122 Professor Lee Kinkade March 12, 2012 Childhood Obesity Page 2 There are a lot of different issues that she can tackle when it comes to childhood Obesity. When it involves childhood obesity there are a lot of serious issues. Most of the issues can become long term issues and follow her throughout her adult years. This paper will focus on the causes of childhood obesity, long term health problems, short term health problems, environmental reasons, and how to prevent childhood obesity. Sometimes obesity can seek up on you, but if you are a parent raising a child that is obese. It is very said to see those parents who agree with the situation of their child. You have some parents out there who think having an obese child is ok. I am here to let you know that it’s not ok. Having an obese child can be unhealthy and dangerous. I am here to let you know what are the wrongs and rights of having an obese child. When focusing on the causes of childhood obesity I would like to find out exactly what causes childhood obesity. “The Journal of Pediatrics published a study yesterday that finds that toddlers (24 months) who drink from bottles regularly are more likely to become obese later in childhood. The study, which included 6,750 children, reported that toddlers who were using bottles at 2 years were more likely to be obese at age 5 (24%) than those who did not use bottles (16%). This was even after factors such as socioeconomic status, breastfeeding, and race had been controlled for.”(Quraishi, 2011, para. 1) Those are just a few different things that can cause childhood obesity. There are many ways one can become obese when they are young. “Childhood obesity is the result of eating too many calories and not getting enough physical activity.” (CDC) Another cause of childhood obesity is the parents letting the child eat any and Childhood Obesity Page 3 everything that they like and want to eat. You can put a stop to that by putting healthier foods and snacks in the house instead of letting them eat sweets all the time. There are a lot of long term issues that you can get when you are diagnose with childhood obesity. Long term basically means that these problems will follow you throughout their teenage and adult years. These problems can be serious or they can be something that is not that serious. There are ways that she can prevent her child from having any serious long term issues. There are a lot of long term issues that you may end up with if you were an obese child. One of the long term effects of childhood obesity is type 2 diabetes. Another serious issue is asthma. Type 2 diabetes is a very serious illness that can leads to death if you don’t take care of your child or yourself. Asthma can cause you child so serious problems when they grow up. The reason that I’m saying that asthma will be a serious problem is because what if your child wants to play sports when they get in grade school. It would be a problem for them because they want be able to exercise and practice like the other children because of their asthma. Those are just a couple of health problems if you were an obese child that can turn into a serious problem during your adult years. There are also a lot of short term issues and effects that can come with the package of being an obese child. Short term basically means that it can gradually go away if you treat your body right. High Cholesterol is considered a short term effect that you can get from being obese when you were a child. Even high cholesterol is a short term effect it can as well turn into a long term illness. With high cholesterol you have to watch what you eat. High Blood Childhood Obesity Page 4 Pressure is also considered a short term effect that you may come across when you are an obese child. Even though high blood pressure is short term it is also very serious and dangerous. High blood pressure can also lead to death if you don’t take care of yourself. If you have a case of high blood pressure you would probably have to check your pressure every day to make sure your pressure don’t get to high. Those are just a few of short term issues that you can have after being an obese child. Not only can you get rid of those issues, but you can also avoid these issues. In my opinion childhood obesity is more environmental than genetic. I believe that childhood obesity is environmental is because there are many different reasons that you or your child can come obese. Depression can be one of the environmental causes. When you are depressing the number one thing that a lot of people do is eat. Stress is also another environmental cause of obese. It too can cause you to just eat. Being sick is another one. You the parent can control the environmental cause of your child being obese. You can control them by making sure your child is not obese, keeping your child surrounds stress free and making sure your child doesn’t get sick. Just those few steps can decrease the cause of obesity. Preventing childhood obesity is a big issue when it involves children of any age. No one wants to see an overweight child. There are many different things you can do to prevent a child from being overweight. Just to name a few things and ideas to keep a child from being overweight is you can start by breast feeding when your child is first born. I’ve heard that breast feeding is a good decision and those who are breasted feed is less likely of being a obese Childhood Obesity Page 5 child. Keeping your child away from sweet drinks and sodas it’s not good for them. You can also make sure your child is eating healthy foods. Make sure your child is eating all the fruits and vegetables that are needed in their daily diet. If you decide to let your child drink juice make sure its 100% fruit juice. Let them eat fresh fruits and vegetables. Also let them eat healthy snacks. If you have to you can put your child on a light diet if you think that they are leaning towards obesity. “The dietary and physical activity behaviors of children and adolescents are influenced by many sectors of society, including families, communities, schools, child care settings, medical care providers, faith-based institutions, government agencies, the media, and the food and beverage industries and entertainment industries.” (CDC). There are a lot of different things that you can do to prevent childhood obesity. You can start with your child first. Have you ever heard of the television show Maury' Well if you did maybe you saw the episode where Maury had the obese children ranking from ages six months to six years old. The sad part about it is that some of the parents accepted their child situation. The reason that I said it was said is because you had six month old babies that were between fifty and seventy pounds and they weren’t walking yet. You had the toddlers who where between the weight of sixty and hundred and ten pounds. The foods that they were feed these babies were nowhere near healthy. They had their children eating large pizzas by themselves, bucket of fried chicken, box of donuts, bucket of ice cream, cookies, chips, etc. The even had the nerve to video tape it so that you can see how their days go. Sometimes that was just lunch for that poor child. Little do the parents and guardians know they are slowly killing their child. I wish it was some type of Childhood Obesity Page 6 law that was out that the parents can be punish for letting the child eat all of these unnecessary foods. In conclusion I have briefly talked about the reasons and causes of childhood obesity. I focus on the causes of childhood obesity, long term health problems, short term health problems, environmental reasons, and how to prevent childhood obesity. It is very sad to see an overweight baby or toddler. There are lots of different things you can do to stop situation like this from happening. I hope you have learned a something new from my little research that I have accomplished. Childhood Obesity Page 7 References Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2011) Health Effects of Childhood Obesity. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/obesity/facts.htm Quraishi Jen. (2011, May) Study Links Bottle Use and Child Obesity. Retrieved from http:motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/05/study-links-bottle-use-and-child-obesity Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2011) Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood/problem.html