Childhood Obesity: Breaking the Cycle

Nurses Education

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How would you feel if you were told your ten-year-old child was dying because of heart disease? Or better yet, heart disease that could have been prevented. What if your child's routine check up with the pediatrician reveled he/she was in the 90th percentile for weight. Predicting the weight to only double in the next few years if your child remained in the current trend of eating habits and activity level. How would you feel if due to your child's weight his peers were bullying him? Causing low self-esteem and poor grades in school. if only you were more aware of how your influence as well as the television industry was exposing your children to unhealthy food choices causing them to desire sugary, high calorie, non-nutritious foods, leading to childhood obesity.

Childhood obesity is a major health concern. In 2014, more than one third of children were obese or overweight. This means that one in three families are affected by childhood obesity. The increase in prevalence of childhood obesity has caused American's to be more worried today than ever. Overweight or obese children can be traumatized physically and emotionally. Why should we allow our children to experience adult physical and emotional problems? Scarring them for life.

Childhood obesity leads to complex medical conditions, including hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease, asthma, breathing problems, sleep disorders, early puberty, low self-esteem, depression, and learning problems. Childhood obesity can be avoided. We have the power to change the environmental factors that are affecting our children. We must take into consideration how greatly the impact of parental/family influence makes on our children. Children imitate their parents, if a child is raised observing their parents eating fruits and vegetables, they will learn that it is normal to consume these healthy habits. Physical activity is another important factor, the physical activity of our youth has decreased in the last decade. Just look around you, our TV's are remote controlled, providing entertainment at just a fingertip away. Computers are portable, providing on the go entertainment. One can drive up to a restaurant and get food within five minutes. In the past, schools had mandatory physical education. These are just a few examples of how our society has become more sedentary, helping our youth to become obese.

Another way to solve the childhood obesity epidemic is to place limits on the types of Tv advertisement our society is being exposed to overall. Nutritional restrictions must be configured on all food and beverages advertised on TV. If restrictions were fixed on all TV commercials and only healthy alternatives were being advertised, the childhood obesity epidemic will decrease. This change as well as education parents on the effects of sedentary lifestyles will help to make an impact on our obese children. As nurses it is our duty to spread the work on the detrimental effects of childhood obesity. Education our patients on prevention and lifestyle changes will help change the obesity epidemic.

Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.

How American Food Makes Us Fat and Sick | Psychology Today

We are killing ourselves.

Specializes in hospice.

Childhood obesity is a parenting problem. And no one should be violating the First Amendment to solve a problem with literally dozens of other solutions.

Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.

The problem is, the wast majority of "problem" parents heard all that, probably hundreds of times, and thus perfectly conditioned themselves to direct our wholeheartly delivered teaching into one ear, and out of another.

A few days ago I had memorable talk with visitor of one of the patients, quite typical for the population (morbidly obese, ESRD, dialysis, CHF, oxygen and vent-dependent COPD, you've got the picture). There was a pre-teen girl in the room who mentioned that the patient's new Quinton looked "cute" (for the total lack of other words, I guess), on what adult visitor casually noted: "You'll grow up and get it, too". I intervened, and from the following conversation I gathered that those people just thought about HTN, DM, HD, etc as I would think about wrinkles. For them, they were merely inevitable stages of life which you just have to endure till you die.

What, exactly, should I teach this (very much overweight) girl's mother, and how my teaching, given as the OP proposed, would change anything in her life? These people, as 90% of us, are not at the least concerned of what might or might not happen 30 years ahead, so scaring them with "imagine if your child..." is useless. Argument about bullying is nothing as well, as if bullying happens in a school because it is tolerated and if the girl starts to lose weight, it or something else will be just another "reason"for continuing it. Her parents most probably do not have money to pay for dance school or sports activities, her mother probably have no time and resources to shop around for produce on sale, or cook healthy, tasty and time-consuming food from scratch.

I really do not know what needs to be done in order to seriously influence those 30 or so %% of US population. Concerted efforts on community level, with healthy cooking classes in schools and family-friendly camps will be helpful but, as usual, places in need of such options are out of money and resources to utilize them. I feel though that the "traditional" teaching as described by OP does nothing and even alienates patients as what is wanted from them is either not possible or deeply contradicts their culture and values.

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
Childhood obesity is a parenting problem. And no one should be violating the First Amendment to solve a problem with literally dozens of other solutions.

Cigarette commercials have been banned from television for YEARS.

I don't think lack of education is the underlying problem. There are too many (my anecdotal informal appraisal) middle class with access to all of the media as well as college education who are obese. Our general nurse cross section is an example.

I do think we need to save the children, our future patients, from our societal messed food culture. We would no more have cigarette shops with kids meals or Vanilla Bean Frappacino equivalents than we would sell them alcohol, but food seems to have no or few regulations. We're just raising little diabetics with heart disease beginning in adolescence.

And don't think skinny kids are immune. Anyone who understands heart disease and IR gets that. Junk diets damage skinny kids as well. And what constitutes a junk diet is surprising to those not paying attention.

Specializes in hospice.
Cigarette commercials have been banned from television for YEARS.

And they never should have been, any more than beer commercials or all those awful prescription drug ads.

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

Okay, but "should have been" is irrelevant, because it's what it IS. I'm just pointing out that there is precedent.

Specializes in hospice.

It's not irrelevant to those of us fighting against further government overreach into freedom of speech. "That should never have happened" is the starting point of many reform efforts.

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

Well good luck with that, then.

Specializes in hospice.
Well good luck with that, then.

Many successful reform efforts have been dismissed with exactly the same kind of attitude.

I was going to say that it's a problem that will eventually take care of itself but considering that poverty and malnutrition, even starvation, hasn't affected world population in the best way, obesity won't run its course, it will just become what we are.

Getting really weird, I wonder if health will become the new wealth.

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