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Screening for Childhood Obesity, Without an Easy Solution

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appliance repair Pasadena of AL 4:10PM June 06, 2011

It is true that excessive video game playing does distract from exercise and physical activity but this alone does not increase the chances of a child becoming obese because it has little or no effect on the types of food that a child consumes.
http://www.fightobesity.net/adolescent-obesity.html

jadesmith of FL 6:16AM November 15, 2010

I strongly believe that parents can influence the outcome of the childhood obesity epidemic, but they often miss the early signs of their children becoming overweight. The book “Growth Charts and User-friendly Overweight-obesity Screening Tools” for boys and girls is a very useful tool which parents can utilize to track the growth rate of their children and prevent the onset of over-weight/obesity. This book is available on Amazon.com and was developed by Professor George Fernandez.
The childhood BMI charts used by pediatricians are not user-friendly and not easily understandable by everyone. On the other hand, Dr. Fernandez’s book is very simple to use and easy to understand. The simple color coded charts included in these books provide the necessary tools for parents to monitor the growth patterns of their children and detect the early signs of obesity. Thus, parents can prevent their child from becoming overweight by tracking their child’s growth and by seeking professional advice and appropriate intervention if necessary. In addition, parents can record their child’s health (0 to 20 years), medical records, and family health history directly in the book and teach their children to monitor their own growth.
Some schools are considering mandatory BMI checks for young students. Why should the school be responsible for this? As parents, we can take the responsibility, especially when there are easy to use screening tools available.

Ryan of NV 2:50PM July 07, 2010

Many kids just need to play outside more or run around like kids did a decade or two ago. Excessive video games and tv watching is to blame in many households, and then their parents feed them crap on top of that. I'm 19 and in college and have had a little trouble keeping it off the past 2 years being a pre-med student, but I'm in no way overweight still and am getting back to my high school weight. Middle schools and high schools have athletics and sports clubs that are free and kids should be encouraged to be a part of them; hell even colleges have gym memberships already included in fees and many sports clubs have only one fee per semester.
Things like forcing a child to finish their plate at dinner are not good for their natural sense of hunger. Also, kids are not naturally "addicted" to sweets and bad food. I mean think about it, when we are babies and our parents feed us baby food (which is a balanced diet), they soon find out what their babies like and don't like. Many of the things they like are vegetables and fruits... later on, a few years down the line they get a taste of fast food and sweets and of course they taste good too but we can't forget that healthy food tastes good too! Of course junk food can be eaten in moderation. The key to everything is moderation.

Lauren Staffen of TX 10:19PM June 06, 2010

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has suggested that a combination of rigorous diet, activity and behavioral counseling can help children lose weight. While well-intended, this is another measure that attempts to change behavior and history has demonstrated that these programs have not been effective. Rather, the Task Force should consider interventions that incent the food industry to implement calorie reduction marketing practices. Only when our children are not “prompted” to consume large quantities of high calorie foods and beverages will we make a serious dent in the obesity crisis.

Hank Cardello of NC 11:03AM January 21, 2010

I will be turning 19 in march and i am around 100 more lbs. than i should be and i think there needs to be more easy options for teens to lose weight besides diet programs...I think that they should begin to have classes that fit into a teenagers budget and should be around 2 to 3 times a week...I get more worried everyday because i have a daughter who just turned 18 months and i dont want her to have trouble like I do when she gets older. Please help out the overweight/obese children-teenagers, because the more we can fight for it not to happen the better and more healthy our world will be!

Sarah Yuhasz of IN 6:28PM January 20, 2010

Yes, there is no easy solution. But there are incremental steps that can be taken that will make a significant impact in this major health crisis. Most importantly, parents need to understand the problem and agree to help. Kids don't go food shopping; their parents do. Kids don't drive themselves to fast food restuarants; their parents do.
How do the parents learn what to do and that they must act? Family physicians and pediatricians MUST step in; explain the health consequences of failing to act and give families solid guidance on nutrition. Schools can help educate (Michele Obama I hope that's where you're going to focus). And, as the director of Camp Shane, the largest weight loss kids camp in the country, I can tell you that intense, summer long programs do make lasting changes. But, again, parents need to support their children's efforts. You can't make lasagna for Sunday dinner, and expect your overweight child to eat salad (as one of our camper families did).

Ziporah Janowski of NY 11:27AM January 19, 2010