Childhood Obesity In Our Youth

 

Seeing a child abused is one of the worst sights a mother can endure, so why is making your child obese any different? Childhood obesity is on the rise as well as adulthood obesity so why are we all concentrating on adults getting slimmer when it should be children that are our main focus. An obese child is something that cannot go unaddressed. The child will have some serous problems in his life if he is not made to loose this weight. He will be unhappy and unfit for the rest of his life if no one takes charge, how I he supposed to know any difference he is a child, it is the parents responsibility to make sure that the child gets better!

A child is less likely to be obese due to health problems and although genetics play a part in his obesity the lifestyle of his family contributes most to his disease. To be straightforward most childhood obesity stems from an unhealthy diet and lack of exercise. Although in this day and age being overweight is nothing of a surprise with junk food, takeaways and sweets everywhere you go and convenience not health is on everyone’s mind! Not to mention that most children would rather sit in and watch television or play their console games than go out and play! Exercise is no longer a part of children’s routine, they are lucky if they get two hours of exercise at school and at home it is non existent. The National Diet and Nutrition survey in 2000 showed that 40-69% of children did not get the one hour a day exercise that is recommended and there is concern that this number has increased.

Childhood obesity can be sorted if worked on from a young age, we do not want to have to watch our children getting bullied at school for being grossly overweight, or getting operations to prevent them from eating as much. We need to show our children to eat sensibly and we need to get them active. Most children copy examples from their parents so if we were to eat fresh fruit and vegetables then there is no reason why they can’t. To help prevent childhood obesity try to eliminate a lot of the sweet stuff in the house and replace it with nutritional foods such as fruit, and low fat alternatives.

As well as an increasing mortality childhood obesity adds to the likelihood of contracting chronic diseases and we need to prevent this, we need to show our children that being overweight is not the life that they should be living and parents should buckle down and get their children eating properly or else obesity will lead us all into a recipe for disaster.