What Is Childhood Obesity ?

It is a common experience that children are not taught the importance of nutrition and hence they don’t mind being over-weight.

What is obesity ?

Obesity is nothing but the unnecessary accumulation of fat. If your son has 25% more body weight than is recommended for his age, he falls in the obese category. Similarly, if our daughter has 32% more weight that the recommended figure, she would be called obese. All over America around 25-30% children suffer from this condition. In Canada even the adolescents are not safe and between 16-33% of them are obese. Actually, obesity can be easily diagnosed but is too difficult to cure. An astonishing and depressing fact is that around 300,000 deaths occur the world over because of obesity.

Cause of childhood obesity ?

There are a variety of complex and intertwined reasons that lead to this problem. Reasons may be genetic, biological, behavioral, cultural or a combination of these but the fact is that it is very difficult to control even one of them. If one of the parents is obese, the child has a 50% possibility of being obese. If both the parents fall in the obese category, the child has 80% probability of suffering from this condition. Some medical conditions also lead to obesity but such cases are very few.

Obesity Effects ?

Various conditions and diseases are related to obesity. If your child is obese, he is likely to suffer from breathing problems, high blood pressure, and sleeping and emotional problems. He even may develop some kind of heart disease in the long run and may also suffer from diabetes. Moreover, your child has to deal with strong bouts of depression and embarrassment because he looks quite different from other normal children and is extremely conscious of this fact.

Ways to prevent obesity ?

The first step is to start a weight-management program in your home. It should not be a half-hearted attempt but whole of the family should be involved in it. Take your child to nutritional classes, seminars etc. so that he is able to change his eating habits with a conscious effort. Then, you should plan the meals of your child themselves and make it sure hat there is no kind of junk or fatty food in the menu.

Make your child get involved in increased physical activity. If possible, he should go to a gym daily for a workout. Make it sure that he eats food with the whole family and not in front of computer or TV. Never use a food item as a source of reward or punishment for the child. Make it a point that your child gets engaged in family activities like swimming, hiking, bicycling etc. Remember, recovery from obesity is a gradual process that demands the involvement of the whole family.

Make kids aware about obesity

The children should be taught to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy food. You yourself should watch videos on nutrition, read good books about this topic and make your children do the same. They should be conscious of the relation between food and disease. Obesity can be 100% cured by regular practice of yoga and pranayama.