OBESITY IN CHILDREN

[FUZO]

TweetObesity and Overweight in Children


AHA Recommendation

Obese children are at an increased risk for obesity as adults. Successfully preventing or treating obesity in childhood may reduce the risk of adult obesity. This in turn may help reduce the risk of heart disease and other diseases.

Obesity is an excess amount of body fat. With children and adolescents, it is important to consider both weight and body composition. (See below, How is body fat measured?)

National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) data from the NHANES III (1988-94) survey show that 11.3 percent of boys and 9.7 percent of girls ages 12-19 are overweight. This represents an increase of 180 percent compared with data from 1970. Preliminary data from the 1999 NHANES IV shows a 2-3 percent increase compared with NHANES III.

How do you prevent and treat obesity in children?

Reaching and maintaining an appropriate body weight is important. That's why recommendations that focus on small but permanent changes in eating may work better than a series of short-term changes that can't be sustained.

Reducing dietary fat is the easiest change. Highly restrictive diets that forbid favorite foods are likely to fail. They should be limited to patients with severe complications who must lose weight quickly.


Becoming more active is widely recommended as a way to lose weight. Increased activity is common in all studies of successful weight reduction. Create an environment that encourages and supports physical activity.


Parents' involvement in modifying obese children's behavior is important in losing weight. Parents who model healthful eating and activity habits can have a significant positive influence on the health of their children.


For individual treatment of most obese children, the primary emphasis of treatment should be preventing weight gain above what is appropriate for expected increases in height (that is, prevention of increased weight gain velocity). For many children this may mean limited or no weight gain while linear growth proceeds normally. Recommendations for maintaining weight should include regular physical activity and careful attention to diet to avoid excessive caloric intake. Factors predicting success are:


frequent intervention visits.


inclusion of parents in the dietary treatment program.


strong social support of dietary intervention from others involved in food preparation.


regular exercise prescription.


The importance of continuing these lifestyle changes well past the initial treatment period should be emphasized to the entire family. The healthiest way to change weight for height is slowly.


How is body fat measured?

The two most common methods used to measure a person's percentage of body fat are the body mass index (BMI, weight in kg ÷ height in m2) and the triceps skinfold thickness. A body mass index over the 85th percentile has arbitrarily been used to define obesity, even though variations in body size (as well as increases in body fat) increase the BMI. The triceps skinfold measures body fat directly, so it isn't affected by body size. However, even with extensive training of the physician or technician, triceps skinfold measurements are hard to reproduce, especially among fatter children. Also, skinfolds don't track into adulthood as well as BMI.

[mick-G]

TweetI see ppl feeding their children crap all the time because they either don't want to make the time to cook or are just lazy and then they take them to Mac D's.

[mick-G]

TweetGood read!

[mick-G]

TweetNice read!