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Child Obesity

Obesity can be defined as a disease of having excessive amount of fat in the body. Thus, child obesity is where the child has body fats in excess. The child has a medical problem and is at risk of contracting diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, some cancers among others. As the study states, childhood obesity is a major public health issue with high prevalence in African American and Hispanic subgroups. This is a major health issue with America recording 17% obese among its children in 2011. Currently, the prevalence of overweight is 32% with 17% children being already declared obese in the United States. The united states have also recorded millions of deaths as a result of obesity. At global level, children obesity has increased with the US being on the lead. In Nevada, obesity among children is a major problem. In a previous study, it was established that, in every four kindergarten children, one is overweight. A third of the youths in America are obese. Focusing on the United States and the world at large, coupled with the statistics we have seen, we can realize how obese a health hazard is. Comment by Glauser, Jessica: Indent each paragraph. Comment by Glauser, Jessica: Where did you get all of the information from this paragraph? Make sure to cite your sources.

So what are the themes and theories that have been established about obesity?

There is a study that has established that how children will weigh is influenced by the school context, community food environments and sociodemographic factors. Poor food environments attracts obesity more than healthier food environments. This means that children in healthier food environments are not likely to be obese and latter is the opposite. Children will tend to have obese if their school context can access healthier food. . The application of mixed-methods makes a step forward to comprehensively evaluate food environments and examine its impacts on childhood obesity (Walker et al. 2010). Sociodemographic factors on the other hand, will influence the quality of food environments. Thus if these factors are not conducive, food environments will be worse and awe have established the repercussions of such to children obesity.

More on food environments are the food outlets. Although the study did not focus on the choice and quality of foods, it is good if we can mention that. Human being basically do not feed for the sake of it, they are also to feed to keep healthy. This should be considered as the primary reason for taking food. Quality food can be used to mean, a balanced diet. The choice will cover fiber, vegetables and fruits. When we ensure intake of foods that are of good quality, it will mean we will be making the right food choice. This translates to reduced obesity cases and we also prevent future occurrence of the same. Parental role comes in handy when it comes to food choices. Most children will go for the sweet and unhealthy feeding. The source of acquiring these foodstuffs is their parent’s income. This means regulating how much you give your child to eat out will be an add to their mode of feeding. However, to achieve this, parents may encounter lots of difficulties. Stakeholders are thus encouraged to improving strategies to reach parents and providing culturally-relevant and tailored nutrition education are valuable in supporting a coordinated approach for school and family settings. In one of the study, we established that text messages were used and a lot of parents received the information. Luckily, today the same information can be easily passed through the internet. The translation of this is that, information will be assessed and used effectively. Comment by Glauser, Jessica: Where did you get this information?

Another theme that has been brought up on obesity is the parent’s contribution to its prevalence. It is good to establish that, obese children are likely to become obese adults. We can therefore say that the many cases of obesity established in the world have grown from childhood. These adults are also at the risk of having diet related diseases such as cardiovascular (Herman et al. 2009). Parents will determine the food environment of their children while at home. The social cognitive theory gives a good explanation on home environment. This is because the theory explains the interaction between the environment and personal factors (Bandura 1986; McAlister et al. 2008). There are several theoretical concepts to understand the healthy family home environment. To start with, the personal factors. The way people believe about consequences of certain behavior pushes them towards certain ways of life. Secondly are the behavioral factors. Children and adults have abilities to execute certain behaviors especially when it comes to their mode of feeding. Lastly are the environmental factors. This covers the food availability and the social environment. Poor environment factors attracts high chances of obesity and the opposite is the truth. Parents are also given the challenge to model good behavior this form good habits in their children, especially with respect to increasing vegetable consumption. . Many parents customize and alter cooking practices to accommodate their child’s dislikes and preferences and express frustration and exhaustion with the subsequent time and financial burdens. The results of these alterations are also bad feeding habits which have greatly contributed to obesity.

Reynolds et al. (2002) have demonstrated through mediation analysis that parental change in outcome expectations and behavioral capability/ competence may increase intake of fruits and vegetables in elementary school-aged children. Despite demonstrations of behavioral competence for providing and preparing fruits and vegetables, parents felt other barriers persisted in making it difficult to encourage fruit and vegetable intake with their children. One of the other barriers is the pickiness. Children may become picky when it comes to fruits and vegetables. On the other hand, they will be obsessed with snacks. With reduced prices of fasts foods, parents may find it difficult to give their children healthy foods. This will be parental contribution to obesity in children. Those that can afford, end up adding sweeteners to healthy food to lure their children into consumption. Consequently, this might attract other health related diseases in the future. Thus this theory challenges parents to adopt good feeding habits that may attracts their children into replicating the same.

The theory of live earning capacity has been exhausted in children’s obesity issue. Take the US for instance. There is free and reduced lunch and breakfast program. It is automatic that the children from low earning families will be in these programs. However, the foods in these programs are of low nutritional value and contains high levels of fats. Due to unavoidable circumstances, these children will be exposing themselves to obesity.

Physical activities is a major boost to healthy living. When a child is obese, they are most likely to have low self-esteem. This puts them off games and exercises in general. Participation in physical activities shows that the children will be combating obesity if they are already into it. To realize an ideal physical activity set up, several factors are to be in place: : to start with ,offer a variety of activities within and between instructional sessions; Then ensure all children are provided opportunities for water and rest; additionally, present children with choices (i.e., activities, equipment); Moreover, create a nurturing and safe environment through de-emphasizing competition and highlighting individual effort and progress; and lastly, discipline the individual(s) responsible for inappropriate behavior.

The main cause of obesity is in taking of too much sugar and fats and less activities. This is the primary cause of obesity in human beings. Not burning these fats attracts accumulation of the same and the results may be fatal. However, it has been established that this illness can emanates from genes variance. This can be used as caution among parents to be on the lookout of what they consume especially during pregnancy. Obese parents might pass on the genes to their children. When adults are involved in their children’s physical activities, they will be burning fat and keeping off health related illnesses.

In general obesity is a disease that can attack all ages. Adults will be considered overweight when their BMI is above the normal (20-24.9). Whether adults or children low income is a great contributor of obesity. For the aged (60 and above), the risk of contraction is higher. Whether young or old, the prevention measures are the same. To start with, highly fibered nutrients are encouraged in our meals. Lots of fruits and vegetables in diet also goes a long way in shunning obesity. What we consume should have less fats and sugars whether we are old or young. Involving our bodies in physical activities goes a long way in realizing the right weights for our bodies. When all involve themselves in this as a family then we can realize reduced illnesses emanating from bad feeding habits.

To children, when obesity hits, it takes away their childhood. This is the scenario; a child looks thrice their age, meaning they no longer fit in with their age mates. On the other hand, they cannot fit in their ‘mistaken’ age groups. This may lead to withdrawal from routine. The child goes in isolation. They can no longer play with their age mates and gain more weight. The issues of self-esteem starts coming in. these children will then be putting their lives at risks. The first risk is that their translation to adulthood might be with the disorder. Additionally, their bodies will be exposed to health related diseases in future.

In conclusion, the state of overweight cases in the US is still high. The research that have been carried out shows that the people have the manpower to curb this disorder. However, the practicability is lacking. This has led to continued deaths among human beings in the world above. The governments can come in and encourage its citizen on healthy living. This is by offering programs that are of good quality. Lastly, many of the feeding practices revealed in our focus groups need to be examined further, preferably in experimental studies to help elucidate the mechanisms for their use. Examples of topics needing further study include the preparation of different meals to accommodate picky eaters, and successfully navigating “saboteurs” to healthy practices at home. Comment by Glauser, Jessica: Overall, you have provided good information from the sources. Make sure that you give credit to each source. Your challenge now will be to add the information that you get from the remaining sources.

Add to the conclusion: Solutions that have been reported in research.

Bibliography

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