Childhood Obesity Causes | Facts & Dangers

Losing weight can look like an unwinnable war for those who are suffering from overweight. Be aware from several childhood obesity causes, Facts and Dangers that have contributed to its boost globally.

Childhood Obesity (meaning a BMI-for-age above the 95th percentile) can happen as an effect of various combination of causes like environment and genetic factors. Nevertheless, it is significant to realize that weight gain, whether leading to mild or severe clinical obesity, typically occurs when a person takes more calories than expends. A high calorie surplus is usually needed to cause obesity.

Definition:

Childhood obesity is a critical medical situation that affects children as well as adolescents when a child gains weight above than normal age and height ratio. Childhood obesity troubles particularly because extra pounds mostly lead children on the path to health problems that were formerly confined to adults, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Childhood obesity can lead to poor self-esteem and depression in persons. To reduce childhood obesity, one of the best strategies is to improve the diet and workout habits of whole family. Preventing and treating childhood obesity helps to care for the health of your child.

BMI:

For many physicians and researchers studying obesity, BMI (body mass index) is the measurement of choice.

BMI = weight in kilograms / (height in meters x height in meters)

This is what the child’s BMI can indicate:

• A BMI of less than 19 – underweight
• A BMI of 19-24.9 – normal weight
• A BMI of 25-29.9 – overweight
• A BMI of 30+ – denotes obesity

Causes of Childhood Obesity:

Lack of Exercise:

During these days, the average children spends a lot of time in watching TV at home, playing computer games that include mental stimulation not physical. Just few calories are expended during this sedentary doings. Obesity evidence is higher in children and teenagers who habitually watch television. Merely a little minority of children (1 in 5) take part regularly in after-school sports or extra-curricular or outdoor physical activity. Inclusion of running and burning the calories in games that gained from their food are not a popular option any longer. Minority numbers of children are aware about fitness. They do not care about the overweight or care extra about it causing bulimia and anorexia.

Snack time, All the Time:

Obesity’s one of the causes is too much nibbling. Statistics and facts of the childhood obesity show that on snacks and fast food, billions of dollars are spent on a daily basis. Children do not concentrate on healthier types of snacks. High-calorie snack vending machines surrounded at school are dispensing high-calorie snacks that have a tendency of a high calorie count. Children are exposed to a battery of fattening snack foods and drinks via regular TV-watching. That’s why the variety in the market and amazing marketing techniques on the part of snack manufacturers have added the list of causes leading to obesity.

Family Ties:

One should keep in mind that a child is only as healthy as the rules that are laid down for them by the family. While kids are in the process of growing, parents should make an impact upon the importance of health and fitness. So everyone in the family should maintain the meal times of the day. If children skip meals due to parents and are survived on the fast food then they can’t be expected to stay away from doing so.

Fast Food Rules:

It is apparent that home-cooked meals are being avoided with increasing popularity of KFC and McDonalds. According to the studies occasional consumption of fast food is not harmful. Consisting of fast food in majority of the meals can take a toll on the health. Fast food is too high on the calorie count and too low on the nutrition count. So a person does not get full nutrition from it. This in turn leads them to eat more of it and leading to weight gain.

Confidence:

Many children even older have a tendency to associate consuming with emotional moods. In these days, children can lose their self confidence due to intense stress even at school level that makes a tad bit more susceptible to emotions. This leads to rather a bout of reckless emotional eating that is mostly with foods that are low nutritious and high in calorie count, like ice creams and chocolates. This makes it a major reason of childhood obesity.

Some other causes of the childhood obesity:

• Genetics
• Behavior
• Environment
• Socio-Demographics
• Body Image
• Family history
• Socioeconomic factors
• Overeating or binging
• Certain diseases like hormonal disorders

Childhood Obesity Statistics and quick facts:

Weight categories are determined based on some percentiles and are defined as:

• Underweight < 5th percentile
• Normal 5th to < 85th percentile
• At risk of overweight 85th to <95th percentile
• Overweight 95th percentile and above

Childhood Obesity and Some facts:

• Genetics, behavior, and family environment play a role in childhood overweight.
• Childhood overweight increases the risk for certain medical and psychological conditions.
• From 1976 to 1980, 5% of children aged 2 to 5 were considered obese. From 2003 to 2006, this number has increased to 12.4%, more than doubling over the span of 30 years.
• In the ages 6 to 11 bracket, just 4% of kids were obese from 1971 to 1974. But from 2003 to 2006, this figure has exploded to 17%, more than QUADRUPLING in just 30 years.
• For teens, the numbers don’t look much better. From 1976 to 1980, 5% of teens were classified as obese. From 2003 to 2006, this number has sky-rocketed to 17.6% – an over 300% increase.
• Overweight children have an increased risk of being overweight as adults.

In 2004, CDC conducted a research about a study that lasted from 1999 to 2002 entitled “Prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents: United States”, according to a report, “16 % children (over 9 million) 6-19 year olds are overweight or obese” this is three times what it was in 1980. In addition, this report brings out the fact that also during this same time period an additional 15% were “at risk of becoming overweight”.

This number has not only tripled but just in the past three decades (according to this same study) obesity has “more than doubled” in children and adolescents from ages 2-5 and 12-19 respectively while in children between the ages of 6-11 more than tripling.

Childhood Obesity analysis:

Economic Costs: From 1979-1991, the hospital expenditure for children and youth have increased from 35 million, from 1979-1981 to 127 million.

Dangers of Childhood Obesity:

The risks of childhood obesity are more serious than teasing on the schoolyard and far deeper. Childhood obesity creates short-term health risks and leaves children susceptible to health risks as adults. In several worst cases, diseases that last for the rest of their lives are developed in obese children.

A Growing Problem:

In a study of 14 industrialized countries, United States’ children were found as the most likely to be overweight. In the United States, according to a study at the age of 13 years the ratio of obese children, in boys is 12.6% and in girls is 10.8%.

It doesn’t get better as children get grown-up: 13.9% of 15-year-old boys and 15.1% of 15-year-old girls are overweight. It is also shown in research that obesity is not like something that kids grow out of; obese children have a 70% probability of becoming obese adults.

Serious Health Risks:

Obese children face many problems that only occur in adults like,

• Heart disease
• Type II diabetes
• Joint issues — overweight people are more likely to get defects in load-bearing limbs
• High cholesterol
• Breathing problems
• Sleep Apnea
• Liver problems

The Psychological Toll:

Obesity is not just affect on physical health. How much the poor obese kids are teased or eschewed by their peers in your class at school that is Psychological Toll. And still, with more overweight children around, some serious psychological dangers with childhood obesity are terrible for them. Obesity can frequently affect Psychological health.

Obesity doesn’t just affect physical health. It can often affect mental condition. Obese children are often teased or shunned by their peers. This can lead to several emotional issues:

• Low self-esteem
• Depression
• Bullying
• Poor school performance

Lack of self-confidence, which sometimes shows as apparent over- confidence — it’s all too easy for an overweight child to become the self-selected class jester, hiding their hurt behind a mask of buffoonery.

Chart of Obesity:

1. By Moon at 8th August, 2010

   umm…agreed with u..i also believe that one of the leading causes is parents! kids pick up the habits of the adults. naturally u’ll find the source of child obesity, if you observe the lifestyle of the parents!!!!