Childhood Obesity: Our Future in Our Hands

Obesity is on the rise in America with news articles and scientific reports unanimously agreeing that we are becoming the most overweight country in the world, and other developing countries are not far behind. In addition, these countries’ children are now becoming as overweight as their parents and other adults. Unlike these adults, children seldom have the knowledge and control over their lifestyle to contribute to either health or obesity.

The numbers that are coming out of the research on this topic are simply staggering and show that in 2010 more than one third of children and adolescents, covering an age range of 5-19, were considered obese (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2010). This is an epidemic that has been on the verge of happening for almost a decade and it has finally hit its peak and unfortunately there is no sign of it slowing down or stopping unless we as a society and parents fight for the health of our children. How do I know if a child is obese? Before we can address the issue, we must first understand what it is that we are fighting.

Obesity is a medical condition that affects both children and adults and is defined as an individual who has an excess of body fat that is carried around by the person. Most experts have determined that pediatric obesity is reached when the adolescent weighs 20% more than the healthy weight for their age or has a body fat percentage of 25% for boys and 32% for girls (eMedicineHealth, 2013). There is another method that is used to determine an individual’s health which is to determine their Body Mass Index which is then used to determine if the patient is obese.

Below is a table that will allow you to figure out a BMI and if it is within a healthy range. I have included a chart in this pamphlet that will help you to determine someone’s BMI and if they are in danger of being diagnosed with this condition. What are the causes of obesity? There are many factors that factor into a child becoming obese so pinpointing just one thing is very difficult. There are a few factors that have been pushed to the forefront as leading causes for contracting this medical condition which would be a lack of physical exercise and nutrition which are both huge factors.

Each of these factors has a massive influence on childhood obesity and the longer that there is a lack of proper exercise, doctors suggest at least one hour a day, and the child not receiving a balanced nutritional diet that has all of the food groups incorporated into it, the problem will only get worse. The nutritional piece in the discussion of this disease is possibly the most important because if they are simply fed foods that will replace the calories that may be burned during exercise then we are taking two steps forward and two steps back.

We need, as parents, to teach our children about nutrition and the right and wrong ways to feed our bodies so that we can conquer this as a society. Another factor that is coming more to the forefront is the genetic aspects and the implications that it could have on the child. Studies have shown that if one of the child’s parents is obese, they have a 50% chance of becoming obese themselves whereas if both the parents in the household are obese that number skyrockets to 80% (Marcus, 2013).

Background Information Although child’s weight is the primary external feature that is affected by this disease, the internal damage that is done to a developing body is almost as significant if not more so. The primary organ within the body that is being affected by this excessive weight gain is the heart which will have to work much harder to pump the same amount of blood then that of a child who is not afflicted with this condition.

Studies show that childhood obesity will cause the heart muscle to thicken which would make it more difficult to pump blood through the body and this will in turn make the child two to three times more likely to develop high blood pressure, possibility of Type II Diabetes, and high cholesterol which lead to them being at risk for heart attacks and strokes at a very early age (Levine, Maloney, Schulte, ; Stein , 2011).

Another bodily function that is drastically affected by childhood obesity and its onset at a young age is the development of the child’s lungs. Deposits of excess fat can hinder the lungs and diaphragm from fully expanding causing the child to become winded much easier than a healthy child. This can also case early onset sleep apnea, where during sleep breathing is interrupted temporarily and this hinders the brain from receiving the full amount of oxygen that it needs to function especially at this young of an age.

Fatty deposits can also collect in the child’s windpipe and cause asthma which would perpetuate a cycle where the young child cannot breathe fully and therefore becomes winded as mentioned before and so they shy away from physical activity which only leads to more weight gain. A final example of something that could be drastically effected by this condition is the physical growth of the child. As the child develops and children start to grow taller, there is a section right at the top of the child’s where there is some cartilage and that has to be in place and connected for the child to grow.

It is a ball and socket joint, which is basically the bone has a ball on one end and it fits perfectly into a indention on the pelvis that it is attaching itself to. This cartilage is what expands to allow the child to grow and in obese children there is a very good chance that the bone and the pelvis may become unstable and separate because of the excess weight that is constantly being applied to the joint. This will not stunt a child’s growth completely but it definitely could hinder it from happening as quickly as it does in healthy children.

Mechanism With childhood obesity, there are many long lasting symptoms of this type of medical condition and some of them although prevalent during their adolescent years will become more so as they age. As we have mentioned previously, their development in many cases is hindered by their excessive weight and the child’s homeostasis which are a complex system of organs that keep the human body stable and working to the best of its ability.

It is the reason that the human body stays around 98. 6 degrees and does no fluctuate heavily from that. With obesity in children, there are beginning to be more and more frequent cases of early onset diabetes amongst these children which is disrupting this homeostasis in the child. As part of our human bodies, when there is an excess of sugar there is a insulin that is produced to offset that and so the effects are not as bad when this occurs in a healthy person.

Through studies, it has been shown that one of the offshoots to the excessive weight that is being carried around, is that there is a much slower or nonexistent response by the child’s organs to elevated glucose (sugar) levels and that the insulin that may be produced to offset this is not in the amounts that it should be or not be dispersed at all. This is beginning the process of early onset diabetes amongst these children and a life dealing with this medical condition.

Obesity at a young age has also shown a vastly improved chance that the individual will be stricken with not only the visual abdominal fat but it will also accumulate around their liver and may cause fatty liver disease which is where the insulin is produced. Fat deposits that are surrounding the liver will inhibit the insulin from being produced but it will also force the liver to work much harder than it is accustomed to and cause fatty liver disease with symptoms being that the liver shuts down completely or fail the children later in life.

This also affects the metabolic rate at which food that is ingested is turned into energy and because of this the excess food is stored as fat which inhibits the homeostasis of the individual for many years to come. Diagnosis and Treatment Diagnosis and treatment of childhood obesity must begin at a very young age and it requires vigilant work on both that of the parents and the pediatricians to make sure that we are setting the children up for success and giving them every opportunity to not have to deal with this condition.

To do this the American Academy of Pediatrics have recommended that pediatricians screen children for obesity related diseases early on in the process and initiate weight management programs to improve diet and physical activity, as well as increasing the number of visits that they schedule for the children to make sure that they can keep track of their progress (Concato, Dorsey, Krumholz, ; Wells, 2005).

Educating families on healthy eating habits and tips/tricks to stay away from excessive foods that are unhealthy is the first step in the treatment and prevention of this disease. As mentioned earlier, implementing a regiment of physical activity for the entire family would be a necessity in these cases because if the child witnesses the rest of the family getting out and participating with them, they will lose some of the inhibitions that they may have previously had and be more willing to continue with getting help.

Outside of leading a healthier more productive life, there are a few medications that can be prescribed for children that struggle with this condition but these are to be taken only after approval from your doctor as some may not be suitable for use by children. Some of the medications that are available to use are Orlistat, which has been approved for children older than 12 and it works by preventing your body from absorbing all of the excess fat that you may be eating into your intestines (Mayo Clinic, 2012).

There are a few other options but none of them are recommended to be taken for extended periods of time or by children because much of the research that is coming back on it is showing that there is a huge variance in the effect it has on children. A final option that you may look into is weight loss surgery which although not recommended for children is an option that is on the table and would obviously need to be discussed with your pediatrician.