Childhood Obesity - Do you have an overweight child? We offer tips to help your child lose weight and get fit!

The My Overweight Child blog will help you keep informed about the latest research, findings, and resources available to parents of overweight or obese kids. There are many knowledgeable people working on the increasingly dire problem of childhood obesity - and we want to give parents a place where they can check in regularly to see the latest studies and tips available to help you help your child lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

We invite you to add your comments - if you have feedback for the blog, would like some specific topics covered, or you just want to share your experience as a parent dealing with childhood obesity.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Teenage Obesity May Lead to Premature Heart Attacks

A new study from the University of Missouri indicates that obese children as young as 13 years old are developing signs of heart disease not usually seen until age 45.

Dr. Geetha Raghuveer, a professor at Missouri's School of Medicine, used ultrasound techniques to detect changes in the neck arteries of 70 obese children and teenagers. She had to match the children's arteries to those of 45 year-olds to develop accurate comparisons. She said "vascular age" is very different from chronological age, and there was no way of knowing if the children's abnormal cholesterol would continue to build up or plateau.

This study was presented at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association.

Children More Likely to Eat Whole Grains if Introduced Gradually

The key to making children and preteens eat whole grain bread may be to introduce it gradually, according to a new study from the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Len Marquart and his colleagues studied the amounts of bread that students in grades kindergarten through sixth threw away over the course of a school year as they gradually added more whole grains to the breads. The students did not throw away significantly more bread once it reached 70 percent whole grain.

This study appears in the Journal of Child Nutrition and Management.

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