Kids at Risk for Obesity Need Early Attention

Yahoo! News - Kids at Risk for Obesity Need Early Attention
Thu Feb 24, 1:49 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - For children, obesity often begins in preschool, suggesting that pediatricians need to act early to prevent and treat excess weight in childhood, new research shows.

Furthermore, referring kids who have already gained too much weight to a pediatric endocrinologist does little to help them shed excess pounds.
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In the journal Pediatrics, Quattrin and her colleagues write that obese children are likely to become obese adults, which puts them at risk of numerous diseases related to obesity that are already being seen in children, such as type 2 diabetes.

I was never an obese child, but I always fought my weight. We grew up on a farm and always had chores and other things we had to do. Summer time came and there were weeds to be pulled from the beans fields, corn had to be detassled - and for many years I worked building grain bins. But I was never obese - I was always, however, overweight.

Now I see children in stores that are 3 times the size I was .. who have difficulty walking they are so large. I look at their parents and see, in a lot of cases, obese parents. I use to just shake my head and wonder why, and now that I have diabetes, I wonder what kind of danger these parents are putting their children in? Should this be considered child abuse? Some people would say so, and I can almost agree with them.

I get behind these people in the check-out and see bag upon bag of chips, tubs of dip, bags of candy and processed food. No fruit, no fresh veggies, no proteins like fish or chicken. I wonder if the parent’s parents were overweight and that is where they learned it from? And - are they now teaching their children this?

The medical records showed that 4 out of 5 children became obese before their sixth birthdays, and came to the endocrinologist an average of 4 years after gaining weight.

More than half of children who took blood tests showed high levels of cholesterol and insulin, a sign they were at risk of diabetes. Half of mothers and more than half of fathers were also obese.

There are so many ways to prevent these problems - walking every day is one. Pushing back from the table is another. Buying and providing the best possible food you can. Yes, it costs more to eat healthy, but in the long run aren’t you saving money by less doctor’s bills?

I remember in school having recess - do schools have that anymore? We used to play after lunch, running around the playground. We had gym where we were all suppose to exercise, no matter what. Do schools have this anymore? I don’t know because I don’t have children.

My sister lives on a farm and my nieces are involved in sports and the caring of the horses. They are not overweight for their ages and my sister does her very best to ensure they eat as well as possible.

It scares me when I see obese children … I fear for them and their lives.