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

A team from the National Bureau of Economic Research has found that banning fast-food advertising in the United States could result in an 18 percent drop in childhood obesity rates. Despite that, researchers question the practicality of imposing such sweeping regulation.

The Reuters news service reported on this research in a Nov. 19, 2008 article:

For their study, funded in part by the federal government, [lead researcher economist Shin-Yi Chou of Lehigh University] and colleagues used data on nearly 13,000 children from the 1979 Child-Young Adult National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, both issued by the U.S. Department of Labor.

"The advertising measure used is the number of hours of spot television fast-food restaurant advertising messages seen per week," they wrote in the Journal of Law and Economics.

"Our results indicate that a ban on these advertisements would reduce the number of overweight children ages 3-11 in a fixed population by 18 percent and would reduce the number of overweight adolescents ages 12-18 by 14 percent."

The Chou team's findings are consistent with other research into the relationship between food advertising and childhood obesity.

Labels: research, causes of childhood obesity, advertising

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According to a July 9 USA Today article, hospitalizations rates for overweight and obese children have dramatically increased in the first half of the current decade:

The number of hospitalizations of kids and teens, ages 2 to 19, with a primary or secondary diagnosis of obesity nearly doubled between 1999 and 2005, climbing from 21,743 to 42,429, according to a study published Thursday on the Health Affairs website.

These were stays for obesity-related conditions such as asthma, diabetes, gallbladder disease, pneumonia, skin infections, pregnancy complications, depression and other mental disorders.

USA Today also reported that hospitalization costs for overweight and obese children rose from about $126 million in 2001 to about $238 million four years later.

Labels: health problems, overweight children, hospitals

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No one is talking about banning milk from school lunch menus, but there is a lot of discussion about which types of milk should be offered.

"Some schools are adding to the selection of sweetened varieties in an effort to boost students calcium intake, while other schools ban flavored milks," reported Tara Malone of the Chicago Tribune. "Chicago Public Schools stopped offering whole milk out of concern for the added calories and fat. Organic milk is edging into some lunch lines, while others now offer soy milk."

Currently, nine out of every ten preteen girls doesn't get enough calcium, and seven out of every ten boys falls short, Malone reported. The need to increase calcium intake is coming into conflict with overall nutrition issues related to childhood obesity.

Labels: schools, milk

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As students across the nation either prepare to return to school or have already begun classes, it may come as a surprise to many parents that very few American children have daily physical education classes.

This lack of regular phys. ed. opportunities was documented in a recent study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

• The study found that only 4 percent of elementary schools, 8 percent of middle schools and 2 percent of high schools have daily physical education.
• Only two states, Illinois and Massachusetts, require such classes every day for kindergarteners through 12th graders.
• The study found that children in Illinois and Massachusetts the same rates of obesity and overweight as children everywhere else in the United States, even though they exercise daily.

"I'm all for holding schools to high standards with regard to academic outcomes," said Russell Pate, vice president of Health Studies at the University of South Carolina. "But we need to have balance, and we need all schools to be healthy places for children."

Labels: schools, physical_activity, physical_education

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Compared to parents of normal weight, obese mothers are ten times more likely to have obese daughters, and obese fathers are six times more likely to have obese sons, according to a new British study that was published in the International Journal of Obesity.

The authors of the study do not think that genetics is responsible for this phenomenon. Instead, they call it a form of "behavioral sympathy," in which children copy the lifestyles of their same-sex parents.

Researchers at Plymouths Peninsula Medical School studied 226 families and found that 41 percent of the eight-year-old daughters of obese mothers were also obese, compared to only four percent of girls with normal weight mothers.

Professor Terry Wilken said that the implications of this study are that governments should target parents' weight problems, and not focus their childhood obesity prevention efforts solely on overweight or obese children.

Labels: parenting, research, causes of childhood obesity

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In the last 40 years, childhood obesity rates have quadrupled in the United States. And while many look to schools, food manufacturers and health experts for help, we can't forget another important resource in the fight against childhood obesity: parents.

In an Aug. X article on the ScienceDaily website, psychologist Edward Abramson, Ph.D., said that parents can play a pivotal role by ensuring that their children eat a healthy diet and get plenty of exercise:

While everyone, including children, is entitled to have food preferences, infants are born with genetic predispositions toward sweet and salty tastes and against sour and bitter tastes and unfamiliar foods, Abramson said.

"For these children, it may take several repetitions (10 or more) to have a child try a new food, but parents should retreat gracefully and try again another day rather than get into a battle of wills when the child refuses a food," he said. ...

Physical activity can also help prevent obesity even when there is a tendency to gain weight due to genetics, Abramson said. Research has shown that four- to seven-year-old children of active parents were six times as likely to be active [than were children of sedentary parents].

Labels: parenting, causes of childhood obesity, prevention

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In the last 25 years, childhood obesity rates have tripled in the United States. In Lafayette, Lousiana -- in a state where one of every three people between the ages of 10 and 17 is overweight or obese -- a group named "Trim Kids" is working to reverse these troubling trends.

According to Veronica White's Aug. 13 article on the website of Louisiana's KATC, Trim Kids has been offered for four years. Among the program's successes are BreAnne Justin, who lost 18 lbs. during the 12-week spring program.

KATC reports that Trim Kids teaches kids how to make important changes to both diet and activity level. Program creator Dorian Driscoll also emphasizes to parents the importance of teaching by example. The next Trim Kids session is set to start in September.

Labels: childhood_obesity, prevention

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American adults believe that obesity is the number one problem facing their children today, according to an annual poll conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Matthew Davis and his colleagues found that adults' top concerns for children are obesity, drug abuse, smoking, bullying, Internet safety, child abuse and neglect, alcohol abuse, stress, not enough opportunities for physical activity, and teen pregnancy.

These concerns ranked higher than other health issues including school violence, depression, attention deficit disorder, autism, sexually transmitted diseases, suicide, etc.

This is the first year that adults ranked stress among the top 10 problems facing children today. This was also the first year that Hispanic, Caucasian and African-American adults all agreed that obesity was the top concern facing children today.

Labels: childhood_obesity, research, health_risks

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Most pediatricians agree that parents play an integral part in the fight against childhood obesity. But they also warn parents that certain restrictive feeding practices can increase a child's risk for unhealthy weight gain.

According to an Aug. 11 News-Medical.net article, researchers with the Center for Childhood Obesity Research at Pennsylvania State University followed nearly 200 girls over a 10-year period, tracking their body mass index and the familys eating habits.

The researchers found that girls whose parents exhibited more control over food had less ability to self-regulate and were twice as likely to be overweight by age 15.

"Parental attempts to help children with lower self-control by restricting their access to favorite snack foods can make the forbidden foods more attractive, thereby exacerbating the problem," wrote co-lead researcher Stephanie Anzman, MS.

The study is scheduled to be published in an upcoming edition of the Journal of Pediatrics.

Labels: parenting, research, causes of childhood obesity

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Officials with The Brighton and Hove City (UK) Primary Care Trust will be sending letters to parents of Year Six students to inform them if their children are overweight. Those whose children are deemed overweight or obese will also get food and exercise recommendations. (Year Six in the United Kingdom is equivalent to fifth grade in the U.S. system.)

An Aug. 12 article by Siobhan Ryan of The Argus provided the following details on this effort:

Health bosses claim the intention is to support parents to make important lifestyle changes to help their child reach a healthy weight ... Figures from the 2007/08 measurement programme show that 21 percent of reception [kindergarten-age] children and 31 percent of year 6 children were overweight.

"Modern living can really make it hard for children to maintain a healthy weight," PCT public health development manager Lydie Lawrence said in Ryan's article. "If this trend [of childhood overweight and obesity] continues, nine out of ten children may grow up with dangerous amounts of fat in their bodies which puts them at greater risk of cancer, type 2 diabetes and heart disease as adults."

Source: The Argus (UK)

Labels: childhood_obesity, UK, schools, overweight children

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A study conducted by the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences has found that friends and other social factors play important roles in a child's eating habits. According to an Aug. 5 ScienceDaily article, the Buffalo researchers found that friends may act at "permission givers" for kids who are overweight or obese:

The study involved 23 overweight and 42 normal weight children between the ages of 9 and 15, who were randomized to participate with either a friend or an unfamiliar person of a similar age. After randomization, there were 33 friend pairs and 39 "unfamiliar" pairs. ...

Results showed that friends who ate together consumed more food than participants who were paired with someone they didn't know, and that friends were more likely to eat similar amounts than participants paired with a stranger.

However, overweight children who were paired with an overweight peer, whether friend or stranger, ate more than the overweight participants who were paired with a normal weight youth.

"Given the impact of friends on eating behavior, it appears that if we hope to change the growing obesity epidemic among children, friends and family need to be involved," researcher Sarah Salvy, Ph.D., said in the ScienceDailyarticle.

The Buffalo research was published in the August issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Labels: research, overeating, social_networks

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With ample opportunities to get outside and play, summer vacation would seem to be the ideal time for overweight young people to shed a few unwanted pounds. But according to a recent study in Madison, Wisconsin, this may not be the case.

According to a July 23 article by Adam Helmsing of the Marshalfield News Herald, the researchers discovered that many students who improved their body fat percentage during the school year gained weight during summer vacation:

"It would seem that the summer months offer prime opportunities for riding bikes, playing ball, swimming, and other activities that burn calories, but it appears that much of this time is spent in more sedentary activities like watching TV and playing video games," said [Susan Nitzke, a nutrition specialist for the University of Wisconsin-Extension].

Experts with whom Helmsing spoke offered the following tips to help children maintain a healthy weight during summer vacation:

• Share activities with your children.
• Play games outside, take a walk, or ride bikes together whenever the weather permits.
• Try to avoid concentrated sweets. Eat nutritionally dense foods instead.
• Set activity goals each week and plan small rewards to celebrate reaching these goals.
• Keep chips, candy, soda and other "junk" foods out of the house. When it's time for a snack, make sure healthier options like fruits, vegetables, whole-grain crackers and low fat milk are available.

For more information about helping overweight children, check out this list of tips for parents of overweight kids.

Labels: nutrition, overweight children, summers

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A new study conducted by RTI International out of North Carolina has found that obesity-related medical expenditures have doubled in less than ten years.

The results also showed that an obese person has $1,429 per year more medical costs, or about 42 percent more, than someone of normal weight. Costs for an obese Medicare recipient are even greater. (Source: The Milwaukee Business Journal)

In addition to the dramatic rise in medical costs, the report also noted that four states  Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia and Tennessee  have adult obesity rates above 30 percent, and that childhood obesity has tripled since 1980.

Labels: costs_of_childhoood_obesity, health_care

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