This has been gnawing at me a couple of days. I had to take Bubba to the vet the other day to have the remainder of his stitches removed (the ones he hadn’t already gotten out on his own) and I traveled a different route to work than normal.
I noticed children waiting for the buses to go to school. Out of the 15 or so kids I saw, at least 9 of them were obviously overweight. I never really paid much attention to it before, but now that I have diabetes, and have been doing a lot of reading, these kids really caught my eye that day.
The US Department of Human Services states “In 1999, 13% of children aged 6 to 11 years and 14% of adolescents aged 12 to 19 years in the United States were overweight. This prevalence has nearly tripled for adolescents in the past 2 decades. ” A lot of the reason for this is “…caused by [the] lack of physical activity, unhealthy eating patterns, or a combination of the two, with genetics and lifestyle both playing important roles in determining a child’s weight. ”
There is the American Obesity Association that has a whole section on Childhood Obesity. According to the AOA, children were mostly diagnosed with Type 1, Juvenile Diabetes prior to the last two decades. However, that has changed. Type 2 Diabetes use to be the “Adult” Diabetes, with more people getting this condition in their later years. However, Type 2 Diabetes is being diagnosed more in the earlier years in the last two decades. “Type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents already appears to be a sizable and growing problem among U.S. children and adolescents. Better physician awareness and monitoring of the disease?s magnitude will be necessary. ”
This really shakes me up when I read these articles. I told my sister the other day to do everything she could as a parent to prevent my nieces from getting this condition at an early age. (I’m sure she really didn’t want her bigger sister with no kids telling her what to do, but I’m scared for them.)
This country needs to wake up to what it’s doing to it’s children. In a world where more and more people want the government to get involved, it’s the up to the government — it’s all up to the parents. Parents need to stop depending on the government to raise their children for them.
Parents are the ones that determine what the child eats.
Parents are the ones that buy the Nintendo, Playstations, computers and allow their children to sit in front of them for hours at a time.
Parents allow their children to be babysat by the TV and the afore-mentioned electronics.
Parents are the ones that are responsible for their children, not the government.
Parents, family members — get involved. Help the young fight this condition and stop it in it’s tracks for their generation. Get them off the couch and out playing baseball, soccer, learning tap dancing, going swimming. Unhook the Nintendo and restrict TV time. Chores, physical chores, are a start.
It won’t hurt them — in fact it could very well save their lives.
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