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

A study of more than 8,000 children from the University of Missouri found that overweight children are at higher risk for loneliness, anxiety, and depression. Even overweight kindergartners had more social problems than did slimmer peers

"We found that both boys and girls who were overweight from kindergarten through third grade displayed more depression, anxiety and loneliness than kids who were never overweight, and those negative feelings worsened over time," Professor Sara Gable wrote in the journal Applied Developmental Science, which published the study.

Young girls felt more negative impacts of being overweight than boys, Dr. Gable noted. "Teachers reported that (overweight) girls had less positive social relations and displayed less self-control and more acting out than girls who were never overweight," she wrote.

Dr. Gable and her colleagues took into consideration the age when the children became overweight, the length of time they were overweight, and their social and behavioral development.

Labels: childhood_obesity, depression, anxiety

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Today's parents may be "overzealous, even obsessive" in their warnings to children about food, according to a report in the New York Times by Abby Ellin.

Experts in the field of nutrition say that some parents are too restrictive and "micro-manage" their children's eating, making them too anxious about what should be a natural activity. Even eight year-olds are worrying about their sodium intake and the dangers of eating meat. The problem with this kind of teaching is that parents run the risk of creating eating disorders in their children.

"We're seeing a lot of anxiety in kids," said Cynthia Bulik, director of the eating disorders program at the University of North Carolina. "They go to birthday parties and if it's not a granola cake, they feel like they can't eat it."

Lisa Dorfman, a dietician at the University of Miami, concurred.

"It's almost a fear of dying, fear of illness, like a delusional view of foods in general," she said. "I have five-year-olds who speak like 40-year-olds. They can't eat an Oreo cookie without being concerned about transfats."

Sometimes lessons at school can trigger food fears in young children, making them categorize foods as either "good" or "bad," when the operative word should be "moderation."

"All this stuff about preservatives and pesticides," said Katie Wilson, president of the School Nutrition Association. "All an eight-year-old kid should know is that he or she should eat a variety of colors and don't supersize anything but your water jug."

Labels: parents, anxiety, food-labels

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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

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