Childhood Obesity Can Last a Lifetime

Brenda F. Johnson, MSN

Our children are our treasure, the future. In the midst of nurturing our children it is difficult at times to see their imperfections. We want to protect them from bullies, danger, and the germs that can make them sick. Addressing obesity in our children can be difficult, making it easy to ignore. Childhood obesity can create a lifetime of increased healthcare costs for the child. The health issue of childhood obesity is complicated by parental denial, nutrition and activity in rural environments, sleep disorders, and the lack of health care professional training.

The Parental Role

According to the article, "Childhood Obesity: Do Parents Recognize This Health Risk?" by Debra Etelson, most parents of obese children do not recognize that their child has a weight problem. Out of the 83 parents, 19 had overweight children. The 19 parents did not report any concern about their child's weight as a health risk, in fact most underestimated it. With about 15% of children between the age of 6 to 11 years old being above the 95% of BMI, obesity is now the "most prevalent nutritional disease" of children in the U.S.

Parental influences affect diet preferences and physical activity within the family. Parents must be involved if obesity prevention programs are going to work. For success in these programs, parents must recognize their child's excess weight and the health risks that are involved. Some of the health problems obese children may face are: sleep apnea, asthma, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes type 1. Etelson's research showed that parents had a basic knowledge of what healthy eating entails and often feel that their child's weight is temporary. To help parents, pediatricians can use the growth chart to show where their child is on the chart as well as comparing to previous years.

Childhood Obesity in Rural Areas

The rural versus urban obesity subject is sore as seen in the comments of the previous article to this one. However the same facts hold true for children, "Children living in rural areas are about 25% more likely to be overweight or obese than their peers in metropolitan areas," according to the Sarah Lifsey and Karah Mantinan in the article, "Barriers to Healthy Country Living: Child Obesity in Rural America, Part 1." The face of country living has changed since the 19th century, it's not always the ideal fresh food and healthy living it once was. Children in rural areas are also at an increased chance of being poor with lower access to health care, lower levels of activity, limited transportation and poorer quality of food. This seems backwards compared to how we think of country living, even so it is the new reality facing rural families.

We think of wide open places and spaces in rural living, but Lifsey found that there is not a lot of open public spaces available, partly due to a lack of central government. Sidewalks, walking to school, and out of school programs can be difficult to implement in rural schools compared to urban schools because of the distance from home, reducing the appeal.

Cost of fuel affects the availability of fresh, healthy food. Long distances and fewer grocery stores also add to the difficulty of shopping. Many families have large freezers that they fill with bargains, wild game and seasonal foods.

Some of the sources of help for rural families is the Federal nutrition programs such as Women, Infants and Children and the School Breakfast program with about 29% of rural children participating. However, there is still problems with children getting fresh fruits and vegetables as found by Lifsey. A study done in a rural Mississippi community there was less than one serving of fruit and less than one serving of fresh vegetables daily among the children. The students also were found to drink a lot of sodas, and eating snacks from machines.

Sleep Disorders

In the article, "Risk Factors for Sleep-disordered Breathing in Children, Associations with Obesity, Race, and Respiratory Problems" by Susan Redline, et. al., sleep-disordered breathing is defined as repetitive episodes of partial or complete obstruction of the upper airway while sleeping. Two of the symptoms of SDB are daytime sleepiness and loud snoring. SDB affects the body and causes several other problems such as sleep fragmentation, nocturnal hypertension, intermittent hypoxemia, and hypercapnia (Co2 retention). Until this study by Redline, there was not much information on this problem related to children.

The patients, age 2 to 18 were observed in their homes and they found that children in the United States were at more of a risk for SDB if they were obese, African American, and suffering from upper and lower respiratory problems. There was a significant relationship between obesity , increased neck circumference and SDB. SDB occurs more frequently in families rather than as a random medical disorder. Redline writes that there is still not enough known about SDB in children, however, the risk factors are clear.

Role of Healthcare Professionals

Treating and keeping children healthy is a team effort between family and pediatricians. In a survey given to pediatricians,pediatric nurse practitioners, and registered dietitians it was by a large majority (73-93%) that they felt childhood obesity to be a condition that needs to be treated and that can lead to chronic diseases. Mary T. Story, et al., tells us in her article, "Management of Child and Adolescent Obesity: Attitudes, Barriers, Skills, and Training Needs Among Health Care Professionals," that there are several barriers to treating childhood obesity such as parent involvement, support services, and not enough patient motivation. The professionals involved expressed interest in supplementary training regarding obesity management in their pediatric patients, especially behavioral and parenting techniques.

Conclusion

There are so many dangers in this world that can touch us, that we often want to push aside some of the more manageable ones, especially when it comes to our children. Obesity can couple with chronic diseases such as diabetes, that can snowball healthcare costs. There are a lot of opinions about childhood obesity, regardless, with obesity comes with increased risk for chronic health problems and adulthood obesity.

References

Etelson, Debra et al., "Childhood Obesity: Do Parents Recognize This Health Risk?" Vol. 11, Issue 11. Pp. 1362-1368. 6 Sept. 2012. Department of Pediatrics, New York Medical College. 26, Jan. 2016. Web.

Lifsey, Sarah and Mantinan, Karah. "Barriers to Healthy Country Living: Child Obesity in Rural America, Part 1." Tuesday 11 Feb. 2014. Altarum.org. 25 Jan. 2016. Web.

Redline, Susan et al., "Risk Factors for Sleep-disordered Breathing in Children, Associations with Obesity, Race, and Respiratory Problems." Vol. 159, No. 5(1999), pp. 1527-1532. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. 21 March, 2016. Web.

Story, Mary T. et al. "Management of Child and Adolescent Obesity: Attitudes, Barriers, Skills, and Training Needs Among Health Care Professionals." Vol. 110: Issue Supp. 1. July, 2002. American Academy of Pediatrics. 26 Jan. 2016. Web.