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

Researchers have established a link between childhood obesity and family violence.

If a child's mother is being abused by her partner, that child is more likely to be obese at age five years old, according to a new study from Boston University School of Medicine.

• Renee Boynton-Jarrett studied 1595 children born between 1998 and 2000.
• She tested them at birth and at ages one, three and five-years-old. About half lived in households where their mothers were being abused by their partners.
• After factoring out other issues such as the hours spent watching television, maternal depression, and smoking during pregnancy,
• Dr. Boynton-Jarrett found a higher incidence of obesity among five year-olds whose mothers were being abused.

"Intimate partner violence may influence maternal responsiveness to the socio-emotional needs of the child," according to the report published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. "Witnessing family violence may be associated with emotional distress, and emotion-focused coping using food to self-soothe and address negative emotions."
 

Labels: families, violence, abuse

Posted By: My Overweight Child 1 Comment

If you ate only what is advertised on television, you would eat 25 times too much sugar and 20 times too much fat. You would also get less than half the recommended amounts of vegetables, dairy products and fruits, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

Prof. Michael Mink and his colleagues at Armstrong Atlantic State University analyzed 84 hours of prime time and 12 hours of Saturday morning cartoon television to identify what foods were being promoted in advertisements. Nearly every ad was touting what the dietitians call "junk food."

"The public should be informed about the nature and extent of the buyers in televised advertising," according to the study. "Educational efforts should provide consumers with skills for distinguishing balanced food selection from imbalanced food selection."
 

Labels: junk food, media influences

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 2 Comments

Overweight girls who lose weight before they reach adulthood are less likely to develop diabetes, according to a new study from the National Institute of Health and Harvard University.

• Researchers analyzed data on 109,000 female nurses, of whom 3300 developed diabetes.
• If a woman was obese when she was 18 years old, she had nine times the risk of diabetes.
• If she had been overweight at age ten but not overweight at age 18, her chances of developing diabetes were no greater than those who were normal weight as children.

"These findings suggest that ensuring that overweight kids reverse their weight gain is critical to their future risk of diabetes as adults," said author Edwina Yeung.

This study appeared in the journal Diabetes Care.
 

Labels: diet, diabetes, girls

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 1 Comment

In an effort to prevent rising rates of childhood obesity, Mexico is about to outlaw junk food in primary and secondary schools.

Schools will no longer be allowed to sell sugary soda drinks and sweetened fruit juices, processed snacks, and high-calorie, fried foods. Health Minister Jose Cordoba said Mexican consumption of fruit and vegetables dropped 40 percent even as consumption of sweet drinks rose 50 percent in the last 15 years.
 

Labels: junk food

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 2 Comments

Obesity among American children is on the increase, but only in certain parts of the country, according to a study that appeared in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

• Children who live in Oregon actually showed a 32% decline in obesity between 2003 and 2007.
• Utah had the lowest rate at 23% .
• Arizona, Illinois and Mississippi showed increases in obesity rates as high as 45% during that same period.
• The Southeast had the highest incidence of obesity and overweight children.

Labels: statistics, states

Posted By: My Overweight Child 1 Comment

Overweight children are at twice the risk of developing cancer of the bowel, according to a new study from New York University. Previous studies have shown that overweight children are at greater risk for diabetes and heart disease.

Researchers asked 1,865 patients undergoing screening for bowel cancer what size clothing they wore as children. Those who were overweight in childhood were twice as likely to have cancer of the bowel.

This study was presented at a conference on digestive diseases.
 

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 0 Comments

Since so many children are overweight, does this mean that heavy children are less likely to be bullied and teased at school? The answer is no, according to a new study in the journal Pediatrics.

• Prof. Julie Lumeng and her colleagues at the University of Michigan analyzed bullying incidents among 821 children ages 8 to 11 years old.
• The researchers assessed the children in third, fifth and sixth grades.
• Overweight children were much more likely to be bullied, regardless of their gender, race, socioeconomic status, academic achievement, social skills, or school demographic profile.

"This study speaks to the deep prejudice against children who are obese," said Dr. Lumeng. "They are viewed as lazy and lacking self-control, although we know the reasons for obesity are so much more complex than that. ... No matter how much we retested, the findings were very robust. Obese kids are more likely to be bullied."

Previous studies have shown that overweight children who experienced bullying are more likely to experience depression and anxiety.

Labels: depression, anxiety, bullies

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 1 Comment

Overweight and obese children metabolize over-the-counter drugs differently than normal weight children do, according to a new small study from the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy.

This poses two dangers to these children: they can metabolize the drugs into inactive forms and get no benefit from taking their medicines; or they can metabolize them into active forms and become overmedicated.

Dr. L'Aurelle Johnson and her colleagues monitored 16 normal weight children and nine obese ones ages six to ten years old as they drank caffeinated colas and took an over-the-counter cough medicine. The obese children showed higher levels of activity for two key enzymes after they ingested caffeine.

"There could be severe implications," Dr. Johnson said. "We might need to take into account a child's physiological condition -whether they're obese or non-obese- when determining dosage."

This study was presented at the meeting of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.
 

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 0 Comments

It’s no secret that life as an overweight adolescent or obese teen can be a decidedly difficult experience. From health risks and body-image issues to teasing and bullying, young people with weight problems face an ongoing series of challenges to their physical health and mental well-being.

But at programs across the United States (plus a few in Canada and the United Kingdom, too), thousands of overweight youth are taking their first steps toward healthier and more satisfying futures. Best of all, there’s still time to enroll your child.

The renowned and respected Wellspring weight loss program is hosting youth summer weight loss camps this year in the following U.S. locations: California, Florida, Hawaii, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin. Outside the U.S., camps have been established in Vancouver, Canada, and Devon, England.

For more information about Wellspring and this summer’s slate of weight loss camps, click the link in the previous paragraph or call 866-364-0808.
 

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Third-grader Cameron Collins doesn’t much care that he can run a mile in under seven minutes, or that he’s able to focus better in class. He’s walked 120 miles over the course of the school year for one simple reason: prizes.

“The crowning achievement in the Feelin’ Good Mileage Club at West Elementary in Lancaster is one Collins long has surpassed. On Friday, 111 students who topped 26.2 miles got to throw a pie in the faces of the gym teacher and principal.” [Source: Zanesville Times Recorder]

Schools across Ohio have found creative, inexpensive ways to encourage physical activity in their students. In addition, the Ohio General Assembly has passed the Healthy Choices for Healthy Children act, which raises school nutritional standards and creates a pilot program requiring students to get 30 minutes of exercise per day.

Labels: schools, prevention

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 0 Comments

The health care reform bill that was passed in March included a provision requiring restaurants to list calorie counts in their menus. Despite this, the Center for Science in the Public Interest found that few restaurants have scaled back the size or content of their meals.

A pancake breakfast providing 1,380 calories, a single-serving pizza that packs two days’ worth of sodium and a pasta dish swimming in four day’s worth of fat top a list published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). …

The U.S. Institute of Medicine says the average American needs about 2,000 calories a day, 1,500 mg of salt and no more than 20 grams of saturated fat. Most get far more than this. [Source: Reuters]

The food and restaurant industry insists that American consumers, not eating establishments, need to regulate food. The industry has long argued that Americans need to exert self-control when eating out, regardless of the food offered on in restaurants. Few agree with this premise, believing some form of government regulation needs to be enacted.

Labels: nutrition, menus

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 1 Comment

The Ohio legislature has passed a bill to address the growing scourge of childhood and teen obesity. One in three children is overweight by age eight years old in that state.

• The measure calls for weight and height measurements of all students, healthy food in school cafeterias, and a pilot program for daily physical exercise during the school day.
• Parents will be able to waive body mass index screenings for their children.
• The BMI measurements would begin in kindergarten, and then be taken again in the third, fifth and ninth grades.
   

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Boys (especially teen boys) eat more than girls -- much more, according to new research from the US U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

"Boys really can eat," Dr. Jack Yanovski said.

• Dr. Yanovski and his colleagues kept track of the amounts of food that 204 children ages eight to 17 years old consumed during lunch buffets.
• Boys ages eight to ten years old took in 1300 calories compared to 900 for girls the same age.
• By ages 14 to 17, boys consumed almost 2000 calories at lunch.
• Girls peaked at 1300 calories at ages ten to 13 years old.

Dr. Yanovski said parents should not worry about the amounts their teenage boy eats unless their child is overweight.
 

Labels: nutrition, boys, teenagers

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 0 Comments

If a child's favorite cartoon character appears on a food package, the child is more likely to say the food tastes good, according to a study from Yale University Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

• Researchers asked 40 children ages 4 to 6 years old to evaluate pairs of snack packages of graham crackers, carrots, and gummy fruit.
• One package had a picture of either Scooby-Doo, Dora the Explorer or Shrek; the other did not.
• Two-thirds of the children told researchers they preferred the package with the cartoon character, and half said the food in that package tasted better even though it was identical to the other package.

The study appeared in the journal Pediatrics.
 

Labels: junk food, advertising, media influences

Posted By: My Overweight Child 0 Comments

Here's yet another reason to help your children achieve and maintain a healthy body weight: Having a large waist means you're more likely to depressed, according to a new study from the University of Alabama.

Researchers studied longitudinal data on 5115 people ages 18 to 30 years old to try to determine which comes first -- a person's depression or his or her large waist.

"We found that everyone as a whole gained weight during the 15-year period of time we examined," said Professor Belinda Needham, lead author of the study. "However, the people who started reporting high levels of depression increased in abdominal obesity and BMI at a faster rate than those reported fewer symptoms of depression in year five. "

This study appeared in the American Journal of Public Health.
 

Labels: health, depression

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 0 Comments

Overweight preschoolers are more likely to have tooth decay, according to a new study from the University of Buffalo.

Pediatrics Professor Kathleen Bethlin studied 65 children ages two to five years old, who had undergone extensive dental procedures. Parents answered questions about the children's eating habits.

Only 47 of the children were of a healthy weight. The 18 children who were overweight or obese had higher cholesterol and consumed over 1550 calories a day, a level above the recommended 1000 to 1400 calories for children in that age group.

The study was presented at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society.
 

Labels: pre-school, teeth

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 0 Comments