Obesity in Children

Obesity in Children: A Review of Literature

Claudia Padilla
University of Texas at El Paso

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Obesity in Children

Abstract

Child obesity is no longer an indication that a child or baby is healthy or cute. It now has different indications related to childhood diseases following the person well into adulthood. Studies now show that
child obesity affects a child health and mentally as children who suffer from obesity at are a greater risk
of enduring child bullying leading to low self-esteem and in extreme cases with older adolescents: sui-

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cide. There are several factors such as genetics, poor diet and decreased physical activity that have contributed to obesity in children and the number increases yearly. Other factors that contribute to obesity
in children are media advertising, family lifestyles and influences by school mates and friends.

There

are several ways to address this problem to avoid or decrease the weight issue surrounding 18% of
Americas children. Some interventions that have been suggested include but not limited to educating
the parents, modifying the diets at school and increasing exercise.

So after seeing all the bad things

child obesity brings, why is it continuing to grow? How involved should outside sources be? Is it solely
the responsibility of the parents to educate their children or should schools and medical providers assist
as well?

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Child Obesity in America: A Review of Literature

Obesity in children is on the rise and illnesses and diseases it brings are alarming.
today are not eating the same way they were 20 years ago.

Children

According to the World Health

Organization, globally over 40 million preschool children were overweight in 2008. This pandemic can be very devastating for a child because it paves the way for high blood pressure (later in life), diabetes, cardiovascular and heart disease.

Childhood obesity is now considered a

major public health problem. (Thibault and Rolland-Cachera 2003, Knehans 2002).

There are

many negative factors to child obesity, aside from putting the child at risk of health issues later
in life, this also poses a drain on health care cost and resources later in life for the child and
government. Surrounding environments play a big role in childrens diet and exercise.
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According to the American Heart Association, parent biggest concern today is their childrens
weight followed by drinking, smoking and doing drugs. It seems like physical activity is at - time
low and family eating habits at an all -time high. This literature review will identify the importance of child obesity, the most obvious causes, possible solution and roles that parents,
teachers and health professionals play in childrens lives.
What is Child Obesity?
In order for child obesity to be addressed, a definition must be established and some sort of
criteria defining what constitutes as obesity must be in place to help health professionals determine who is at risk or who is obese. Body mass index (BMI) is a measure to determine childhood overweight and obesity. An age and sex specific percentile for BMI in boys and girls is
used because they are growing and there are variations between boys and girls. According to
the CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, overweight is defined as a BMI at or above
the 85th percentile and lower than the 95th percentile for children of the same age and sex.
Obesity is defined as a BMI at or above the 95th percentile for children of the same age and sex.
Although these are the safest and most practical ways to determine the obesity levels of a child,
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it is important to note that ethnicity also plays an important role a childs weight. Because of
this, one must take other factors into consideration before determining whether a child can be
deemed obese or not.

Livieri et al. (2003) states that because obesity is caused by an excess

of body fat, devices to measure skinfold thickness should be enough but proper training and
knowledge of proper equation transformation.
Why are more children obese today than 20 years ago?
What factors have contributed to obesity today? In short, children today are eating more and
many times unhealthy and not exercising enough. In the 70s and 80s the obesity rate was 5%,
in 2010 approximately 18% of children were obese. Other interesting statistics include: 20% of
obese four year old children will be obese as children, 80% of teens who are obese will also
continue to be obese as adults.

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One major contributing factor is fast food and its advertising geared towards children. These
chains almost cater to the working family making it so easy to pick up take out Many of the
popular fast food chains such as McDonalds and Burger King now entice their young customers
with toys with their meals and playgrounds. Portions have more than doubled in the past years.
No one orders small now, it seems it is the norm to supersize. Parents seem content if their
child finished their happy meal. According to Coakley (2003) children are a billion dollar market
in the eyes of these global corporations. They are basically encouraging these children to eat
nutritionally bad food. Inactivity has dramatically increased with the invention of technology
and all the gadgets that have been invented.
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Children today are not exercising as they were 20 years ago. Games and activities that most
children played back then are unheard of today.

Video games are the new addiction of today.

Studies have shown that heavier children spend more time in non-physical activities than do
children with smaller BMIs. Childrens lifestyle at home will also impact their physical activities.
Hodges (2003) suggests that children with active parents are more than six times more likely to
be physically active than children whose parents dont exercise.
What can be done to stop or decrease obesity in children?

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According to Medicine. Net children under the age of 6, watch an average of 2 hours of
television per day and children 8-18 spend an average of 7 hours per day involved in some type
of electronic device from television, computers, video games or cell phones. Child obesity
needs to be tackled as soon as the early signs develop because prevention is the best tool to
fight this epidemic.

Seeing how this epidemic is only growing and does not seem to be getting

better, monitoring is necessary. It can start with small but important steps such as replacing
sugary drinks with sugar free ones. Replacing cookies and chips with healthy snacks such as
granola bars and fruits. Make time to take the children to the park and enjoy physical activities
as a family. In order to have a successful outcome, the involvement of teachers, parents and
physician is vital and important.

Communication between teacher and parents can also help

the monitoring process and make parents aware of a problem they might not be aware. Obese
children have a higher risk of being bullied causing their self esteem to decrease. These are all
signs a teacher can relay to the parents.

Below is a perfect example of how obesity in children

can affect their lives in more than on way. Over- weight children over experience more obstacles than healthy weight range children. Family and friends motivation is also a small step to
cure obesity in a child.

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How involved should the schools become?

It seems that schools are very involved in many aspects in students lives, why not in
their nutritional input. There are many questions that need to be answered before this deter[Type here]

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mination can be made. First, the spectrum needs to be broad enough to cover children with
eating disorders and other illnesses. Another thing that needs to be considered is how to involved parents because demographics plays a very big role in the way a child is reared and educated.

The city of Sunland Park is a very good example of how demographics affects the

outcome of quality of life.

According to Area vibes, 50.8% of its residents completed the 8th

grade, 47.8% completed the 12th grade and only 32.4 have some college and only 13.3% have
an associates degree. The author of this paper also lives in Sunland Park and has witnessed first
the carelessness of parents towards the well- being of children.

Because this particular state

is considered a poor state even school menus lack nutrition.

So which is it? Fast food or todays way of life?

Another GREAT controversy is what is causing child obesity. Many parents want to point
the finger away from them and not accept responsibly so they blame someone else. It is in fact
the parents responsibility because the child does not know any better and will eat what the

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parents provide. Parents today are not encouraging their children to do exercise or spend any
time outside playing. Many people are also so quick to blame fast food chains causing these
places to rush and try to make their childrens menu healthy.

So who is to blame? The par-

ents for not doing more to protect their children.

Conclusion/Synthesis
In conclusion, this literature review has analyzed what child obesity is and what can be
done to minimize or eliminate it all together. It has also basis on how involved the schools
should become to assist in helping children become healthier. It is almost impossible for schools
to measure what a child should consume to become healthy. Funds are not becoming
hough every child is different and many factors do exist, the main ones were discussed.

AltSince

children do not have the full capacity to think for their own and are still dependent on their
parents, it is vital that parent participation occur in order to fight obesity in children. Child obesity needs to be tackled as soon as the early signs develop because prevention is the best tool
to fight this epidemic.

Obesity leads to chronic illnesses later in life, low self- esteem with an

increase in suicide as the child reaches puberty. Children need to continue being encouraged to
participate in active physical activities and also be provided with healthy well balanced meals.
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On- going intervention and family support is the key to turn this issue around and be successful
in raising a healthy and happy child.

References
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COAKLEY A (2003) Food or virtual food? The construction of childrens

food in a global economy. International Journal of Consumer Studies 2
(4): 335-340.

COAKLEY A (2003) Food or virtual food? The construction of childrens

food in a global economy. International Journal of Consumer Studies 2
(4): 335-340.

ROLLAND-CACHERA MF. (2004) Massive obesity in adolescents:

Dietary interventions and behaviors associated with weight regain at 2Year follow-up. International Journal of Obesity 28 (4): 514-519.

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Ogdm, C. (2012, February 1). Prevalence of Obesity and Trends in Body Mass Index Among US
Children and Adolescents. Retrieved December 10, 2014, from
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1104932

Childhood Obesity Facts. (2014, August 13). Retrieved December 10, 2014, from
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/obesity/facts.htm

Obesity Action Coalition What is Childhood Obesity? (n.d.). Retrieved December 10, 2014,
from http://www.obesityaction.org/understanding-obesity-in-children/what-is-childhood-obesity

Childhood obesity. (n.d.). Retrieved December 10, 2014, from

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/childhood-obesity/basics/definition/con-20027428

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