Child Obesity

If anyone has spent some time reading my diabetes posts, you will have found a theme of concern for children throughout them.

I see children every day, as I’m sure you do too, that are very obese and my heart goes out to them. A lot of times their parents are also overweight and I wonder if it’s genetics or no one cared enough to teach these people how to eat.

I also get mad when I see obviously overweight people enjoying french fries and candy bars (something I don’t/can’t eat anymore), and wonder why I was the one that got diabetes and they haven’t. But then again, as my nail technician says, they could have it and not know it.

I found an article on WebMD about the 8 Red Flags to Watch For in Child Obesity. I am going to list them here.

From a British Study:

• Parental obesity
• Higher birth weight
• Spending more than eight hours watching TV when 3 years old
• Sleeping less than 10.5 hours per night when 3 years old
• Size in early life
• Rapid weight gain in the first year of life
• Rapid catch-up growth between birth and 2 years
• Early development of body fatness in the preschool years (before age 5-6 years, when body fat should be increasing)

Now, none of these factors were my problem growing up. My doctor believes that since I was diagnosed with Graves Disease and subsequently had my thyroid killed off, the diabetes was something that was bound to happen. Graves Disease is an autoimmune condition, as is diabetes.

Then I see the children. Loosing weight and keeping weight off is not an easy thing - trust me, I’ve fought my weight all my life, so I know. But when I was growing up, the junk food trend wasn’t as prevalent as it is today. We didn’t have soda machines in our school until I hit High School. We had good foods, no pizza or doughnuts, in the school cafeteria - and we had gym class. You didn’t get out of that unless you had a broken limb or were in the hospital. I remember class starting with sit-ups, push-ups and a run.

On the local news tonight, they did a report on a local school system that is going to start removing junk food machines and adding better foods to their menu. Plus, they are going to be stricter on reasons for kids trying to get out of gym. I applaud any and all schools who have done this, or are planning to.

Parents are the beginning of the trail of good health for children, and a lot of parents never learned good healthy eating habits when they were growing up. It’s a cycle that can be broken.

Type 2 diabetes, which I have, was always thought to be an adult condition, but statistics are showing more and more children with it now. We must stop this disease in it’s tracks. Do everything you can to educate yourself and your children about good eating habits. Make them get up and out of the house when it’s nice and walk the neighborhood, play catch with them in the back yard. Put up the Playstation and XBox, and get them moving. Heck, if they must watch TV, but a treadmill and tell them that’s a condition of watching their favorite show — they have to do it on the treadmill.

Here is the link to my page with Diabetes Related websites for you to look through.