By: Jean Johnson for Reflux1Like epidemics throughout the history of the world, the current plague of overweight and obesity in America and other parts of the globe is hitting children as hard as it is the adult population.
| At a Glance |
Potential Causes of Childhood Obesity:
Lack of regular exercise
Sedentary behavior
Low socioeconomic status or non-working parents
Poor eating habits
Environment
Genetics
For more information on obesity and children, visit the
American Obesity Association
To read more about childhood obesity, look for these new releases: “Underage and Overweight” by Frances M. Berg, Hatherleigh Press, 2004
“Our Overweight Children” by Sharron Dalton, University of California Press, 2004
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Indeed, overweight and obesity levels are skyrocketing in youths. The percentage of heavy young children including preschoolers has tripled in the past 30 years, and weight-related conditions normally seen mostly in adults are increasingly handicapping kids. “When I was a kid in the 1950s, I was the only heavy one in my class and cringed on the days when we all had to line up in the nurse’s office and get weighed,” said Melinda Austin. “Now I’m seeing overweight kids everywhere. It’s so sad and I grieve for them. I know what it’s like to be rejected. It just made me eat more, I think, even though I was convinced I just loved the taste of all the goodies.”
It’s no surprise, then, when people like David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., former assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and the surgeon general under the George H.W. Bush administration, address the issue of obesity and overweight, they put psychosocial problems at the top of the list above the usual cardiovascular, respiratory, diabetes, and medical conditions.
“I don’t know what to do with my Valerie. All my other children are slim, but when I try to talk to her about her weight, she just starts crying,” said Susan Stevens of Portland about her 12 year-old daughter. “And at my oldest son’s engagement party last month, all the children were visiting and laughing, but she just sat alone and didn’t even perk up when my sister tried to visit with her. I know Valerie’s embarrassed about her size even though she still wears those low-waist pants.”
Most agree adolescence is a whirlwind that can leave a soul in a quandary. Standing on the brink of maturity as an overweight or obese child, though, compounds the usual problems and is a sobering proposition. As Melinda Austin and Valerie Stevens know all too well, fat kids carry heavy burdens.
Overweight and obesity is hardly confined to the female gender, either. Daniel Brown’s experience sadly exceeds the expectations of the professionals in the field who say the conditions shorten lifespans from five to 20 years. Brown started gaining weight during adolescence and by the time he was 46 he was so large he couldn’t bend over to tie his own shoes. Further, the day the family took him to the emergency room – for chest pains that within hours culminated in a lethal cardiac arrest – staff had to wheel him in from the car on a gurney because he was too big for even the extra-large wheelchairs.
Finding inroads into treating the problem of obesity and overweight is, of course, more difficult than it might seem at first glance. Indeed, the old-style approach of simply telling people to eat less and get more exercise is now seen as precisely that – simplistic. A range of issues are now present in the discussion and debate. Things like eating behaviors, corporate food marketing, emotional factors, educational levels, ethnicity and family habits.
How answers surrounding these questions will shake out remains to be seen, though. And in the meantime, America’s children are developing patterns related to overweight and obesity that will mark them well into adulthood if not for the entirety of their lives.
