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

Researchers at Harvard University recently completed a study in which they measured the relationship between a girl's weight gain and her perception of her popularity. They found a surprising connection.

"...all of the girls had gained weight - no surprise, since they were all growing. But teens who had rated themselves at four or lower had gained more. In fact, girls who thought they were low in the social pecking order were at a 70 percent higher risk of gaining excess weight. The extra weight averaged about 11 pounds, or a two-point increase in BMI scores."

The study appears to indicate that educating young people about healthy living and the dangers of obesity can be undermined by "social variables" at school. They suggested that parents encourage their kids' participation in group activities and development of a healthy social network.

Labels: social_networks, girls, popularity

Posted By: My Overweight Child 1 Comment

Children and teens that are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes are five times more likely to develop kidney disease than people who develop diabetes as adults. The risk of kidney disease is equated, not with age, but with how long someone has had Type 2 diabetes.

"Citing an example [Robert Nelson] explained, 'A 15-year-old person with 10 years of type 2 diabetes has the same risk of kidney disease as a 55-year-old with 10 years of type 2 diabetes.'"

Diabetes is becoming increasingly common among young people as obesity rates rise. While kidney disease can be prevent through proper management of diabetes, Mr. Nelson also emphasized the importance of reducing the prevalence of childhood obesity.

Labels: diabetes, obesity_rates, kidney_disease

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 1 Comment

In an effort to combat childhood obesity by encouraging young people to partake in regular physical activity, British leaders are implementing a plan to provide rewards to children who walk to school:

Under the scheme, pupils will be issued with electronic swipe cards that they use to touch receivers on lampposts between their home and school, in much the same way that Oystercards work on the capital's transport network.

In a pilot scheme in Wimbledon, south west London, teenage girls received a £5 Topshop voucher if they walked to school eight times within a certain period, and an Odeon cinema ticket for five days of walking.

As a result there was an 18 per cent increase in walking to school. ...

Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, gave the idea a "cautious welcome".

"In principle it's a good idea, but it needs to be closely monitored," he said, advising that chools should set their pupils a "time limit" depending on distance.

"It needs to be a brisk walk - they've got to huff and puff," he said. "If they amble to school and stop at the corner shop to buy fizzy drinks, it's a waste of time, because then they would probably take in more calories than they would expend." [Source: Daily Telegraph]

Labels: walking

Posted By: My Overweight Child 1 Comment

According to a Dec. 1 article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, civic leaders in Atlanta are engaged in a dual battle against asthma and childhood obesity. One component of this effort is to increase awareness when Atlanta's air quality is poor, so that teachers and parents can make alternative plans to keep kids active:

[Nov. 29] Tuesday at Coretta Scott King Young Women’s Leadership Academy, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Mayor Kasim Reed and Elder Bernice King joined with Mothers & Others for Clean Air to launch a new school initiative that helps battle both asthma and obesity.

The school Air Quality Index flag program will make air quality visible to the entire school community with large, colored flags that fly daily reflecting the day’s air quality. Green is good; yellow means moderate; orange is unhealthy; and red is very unhealthy.

The flag program visually alerts children, teachers, coaches, administrators and parents about Atlanta’s smog each day by highlighting good air quality days as well as bad ones. ... Physical education teachers and coaches can make schedule and location changes to reduce exposure and reduce risk when air quality is poor.

Labels: health, asthma

Posted By: CRC Health 1 Comment

A doctor at New York University Medical Center has raised concerns that the facility is rushing through too many lap band surgeries and not providing enough follow-up care after the operations are performed.

Dr. Neelu Pal is not alone in having concerns: many doctors who specialize in helping obese patients are questioning the long-term effectiveness and safety of lap band surgery, especially when it is performed on teenagers.

• A gastric band is an inflatable band made of silicon that a surgeon clamps around the top of the stomach to create a small pouch that restricts the patient's intake of food.
• Only a few studies have been done on the long-term effectiveness of the surgery as performed on teenagers.
• One such study found that 20% of teenagers experience "pouch dilation," which means the pouch gets bigger and allows too much food intake.
• A Swiss study of adults published in the journal Obesity Surgery found that the band fails 33% of the time within ten years, and one in five patients need a second surgery.

Mary Brandt is an investigator for a government study called Teen Longitudinal Assessment for Bariatric Surgery.

"Bands are definitely safe in the short term and definitely work in the short term," she said."What we don't know is about the long-term. I think there is a fundamental problem with putting a rigid plastic object around a moving organ. ... You're asking it to stay in place and not erode over a long period of time. ... I'll be happy to reverse my position as soon as I see ten or 20-year data."

Dr. Pal raised concerns that the NYU facility was performing as many as 20 lap band surgeries a day. "I could see what they were trying to do was get as many patients onto the operating table as possible," she said. The death of a 14-year-old boy who died of infection after a surgery at NYU is currently under litigation.

Lap band surgery does not address the problem that most patients eat for emotional reasons, including undiagnosed depression. A recent small study indicated that the majority of patients who underwent lap band surgery develop problems with substance abuse.

Labels: surgeries

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 0 Comments

The problem of childhood obesity is getting attention from states, schools, and even the First Family. Despite all the attention and efforts, however, most experts agree that we still have a long way to go.

“In their latest national report on the issue, the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that efforts to help haven’t started to turn around the nation’s weight problem. In fact, resident of many states are heavier than ever, according to 2007-2009 data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention taken from surveys of Americas.” [Source: The Columbus Dispatch]

Across the country, organizations have started Farmer’s Markets, added parks and sidewalks, and encouraged people to bike to work and school. Legislators admit that measurable changes will take time but that the right steps are being taken.

Labels: prevention, awareness

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 0 Comments

With almost one-third of all American children overweight or obese, experts are debating the best ways to help these children and to prevent others from becoming overweight too. A recent edition of the Journal of Sports Psychology in Action looked at one such effort.

A four step approach was developed in 2005 by a committee of representatives from 15 healthcare organizations. This committee reported to the American Medical Association, the United States Health Resources and Service Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control.

• In Stage One, parents of overweight children would undergo three to six months of educational sessions, setting four goals, including eating more fruit and vegetables, minimizing sugar drinks, limiting screen time to two hours a day, and getting one or more hours of physical activity.
• If this does not cause weight loss, then they move into Stage Two, which requires healthcare professionals to monitor the children more closely for six months.
• Stage Three would increase the intensity of the monitoring.
• If necessary, the children would move into Stage Four, which involves restrictive diets, structured activities, medication, therapeutic camps or boarding schools, and/or bariatric surgery.

Labels: weight loss

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 0 Comments

A recent article in the Journal of Sports Psychology in Action recently outlined two efforts to develop regimens to help overweight youth achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

In 2009, a team of five doctors and three psychologists, all specialists in weight management, developed a seven-step model. They concluded that the four-stage model wasted too much time (three to six months) in educating and assessing the problem, instead of getting down to the job of actively helping children manage their weights.

The seven steps are: (1) medical evaluation; (2) education of parents; (3) environmental changes, such as removing TVs and computers out of a child's bedroom; (4) support groups, such as  Weight Watchers, (5) cognitive behavioral therapy; (6) immersion programs such as therapeutic boarding schools or summer camps for overweight children; (7) surgery.

In 2010 the U. S. Preventive Services Task Force sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality recommended that doctors refer obese children and their families to "comprehensive moderate to high intensity programs that include dietary, physical activity, and behavioral counseling components." These interventions should include more than 25 hours of contact with the child and/or family.

Both panels concluded that education about diet and exercise is valuable, but not as effective as behavioral counseling.
 

Labels: weight loss

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 0 Comments

When we were kids, we played hopscotch, hide-and-seek and kick-the-can. Today, kids play Wii, X-Box and PlayStation; and they do it all inside.

“The average American child age 8 – 18 spends more than 7 hours daily in front of screens – television, video games and cell phones, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study…The World Wildlife Federation suggests pitching a tent just steps from your door as part of the sixth annual Great American Backyard Campout June 26.” [Source: The Oregonian]

Getting kids away from their electronics and back outside doesn’t have to include a trip to a state park, or a long camping trip somewhere far away. A simple walk around the block can suffice.

Use the time to explore nature as it exists in your backyard and your neighborhood. Try to identify the trees, birds and insects that you see along the way. Help your kids begin to appreciate the real world as much as they do their “cyberworlds.”

Labels: exercise, nature

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 1 Comment

If both parents are obese, a child has 12 times the risk of being obese compared to a child of two normal weight parents, according to a new study from the United Kingdom.

• Researchers from the University College London used data on 4432 families, who took part in an annual national health survey between 2001 and 2006.
• Fourteen percent of children who had one obese parent were also obese.
• The risk was slightly higher if the mother was the parent who was overweight.
• Only 2% of the children of parents who were both normal-weight suffered from obesity, compared to 22% of children whose parents were both obese.
• Among families in which both parents were severely obese, 35% of the children were too.

This study appears in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
 

Labels: parenting, genetics

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment

College students residing in dormitories that have dining halls gain more weight than those who walk to their cafeterias, according to a study in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Researchers at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan found that female students living in dorms with dining halls weighed two pounds more and exercised 1.43 fewer times a week than those in dormitories that had no dining halls.

Male students consumed 1.5 more meals and three more snacks a week than their counterparts living in dormitories without dining halls.
 

Labels: students, college

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment