If your child is obese, you must take steps to combat the problem as soon as possible. There are many things that you can do, such as preparing and serving healthy foods, and limiting access to unhealthy foods and snacks. Of course, regular visits to your doctor are also essential to help combat childhood obesity, but you must also get your obese child to be more active as well.

The biggest factor today that causes children to become obese is the fact that children simply are not as active as they once were. Instead of running and playing outside, they are camped on the living room sofa playing video games or watching television – or camped in front of the home computer, playing games, chatting with friends, or surfing the Internet.

Surprisingly, many schools have now done away with appropriate physical exercise and education classes as well. First, there are funding problems, and second, children have a great deal more to learn – from an academic standpoint – than they ever have before, which means that physical education programs have essentially been shoved aside due to time constraints.

It is up to you – the parent – to get your child to become more active. Start by leading by example. Start taking a walk each day, and invite – or insist – that your child goes with you. Start parking further away from the store or other places that you regularly take your child to, so that he or she must do some walking. Create situations where your child does as much walking or bike riding as possible – and do not invest in motorized bikes.

Join fun activities with your child, such as a dance class or a sports team. These days, children seldom take the initiative to do things on their own, so you will need to present the ideas and opportunities, and in many cases join in. You absolutely must be willing to do anything that you are asking your child to do.

Stop buying your child toys or games that don’t require any physical movement! Buy them balls, bikes, skates, jump ropes, and other items that promote physical activity above all else, and insist that they spend time outdoors each day, playing with and using those items. Simply put, you are the parent, and it is your call. If you don’t make them do it, they won’t do it, and if this means that you have to set things aside in your own life to go do some type of physical activity with them, then you must do so. Your child’s life depends on it.

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If you don’t think your child’s weight – or your child’s obesity – is a serious problem, think again. You absolutely must consider how obesity is affecting your child’s health and his or her emotional state. Being overweight – especially obese – is very difficult for adults. It is even harder for children.

First, let’s take a look at the potential health problems associated with obesity. These include Type 2 Diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, problems with the bones and joints, sleep issues, fertility problems, liver disease, and gall bladder disease. Not all of these conditions will wait to strike your overweight child until he or she is an adult. Some will strike while the child is still young.

Then, there are the mental aspects of obesity. Obese children are more prone to depression – as children and as adults. They will usually have a low self esteem that will begin in childhood and follow them into adulthood – and possibly for their entire lives. Many children who are obese are also likely to develop eating disorders, such as bulimia or anorexia nervosa. These children are also more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol, and to have sexual experiences at a very early – inappropriate – age.

Aside from the mental and physical issues, there are also very serious emotional issues that stem from obesity in children. Because obese children are often the target of bullies, they will often be teased and will often be rejected by other children. Children can be exceedingly cruel to each other. This causes a great deal of emotional distress and stress in your obese child’s life.

Even if your child is lucky enough not to be teased, it won’t take long for them to see how they differ from the other kids. They won’t be able to play in the same way. At amusement parks, they may not be able to ride certain rides. They won’t have the same stamina that the other kids have either. All of this affects them greatly – and the saddest part is that they will hide how they are being affected by these issues from you.

No matter how much love you give your child, there is no way that you can protect them from the fallout of being obese. Your love is not going to make that go away. The best way to love your child is to help him or her to get the weight off, and to keep it off, so that they can avoid all of these problems.

Angela likes talking about Urbane Scrubs Free Shipping and Landau Scrubs as well as Landau Scrub Tops and also likes writing articles about various topics.

If your child is obese, he or she needs your help – desperately. If you found yourself to be overweight or obese, you realize, as an adult, that nobody can lose that weight for you. Unfortunately, your child is not equipped, as an adult is, to get the weight off without your help. Here are some ways that you can help your obese child.

Start by taking a look at the meals that you are preparing for your child – and the rest of your family. Make a vow to cook and serve healthier foods, and talk to your doctor openly about what your child should be eating, and how much of it he or she should be eating as well. If necessary, fork out the money for a private nutritionist.

Never use food as any type of reward for your child. This sends all of the wrong signals. Also, never force your child to eat foods that the rest of the family isn’t eating, while depriving them of the foods that the others are eating. That’s just cruel in the grand scheme of things. Make sure that the whole family is eating healthy.

Your parents probably required you to clean your plate at meal times. You cannot use that outdated policy on your own kids these days. Put the amount of food on the plate that the child needs – no more, and no less – and if they don’t ‘clean the plate,’ don’t sweat it.

While you should never reward your children with food, this is no reason to deprive your child of treats forever. Make going out for ice cream a special occasion. Serve cake on birthdays. Just use good sense, and keep the sweets and unhealthy foods to a minimum.

Get your obese child off the couch, out of the computer chair, and into action. Do physical activities as a family. Encourage them to join various sports teams. Enroll them in dance classes or martial arts classes. Make exercise fun for them, and make sure that they are getting at least an hour of physical exercise each and everyday. At the same time, however, don’t deprive them of the technology that is very much a part of their world, such as video games and computers. Just make sure that there is a healthy balance between the two.

Finally, make use of professionals that exist to find out how to approach your child’s obesity from a mental standpoint that won’t damage your child in the long run. Children are very sensitive, and what they think that you think of them can define their entire lives.

Angela likes talking about Urbane Scrubs Free Shipping and Landau Scrubs as well as Landau Scrub Tops and also likes writing articles about various topics.

If your child is obese, he or she needs your help – desperately. If you found yourself to be overweight or obese, you realize, as an adult, that nobody can lose that weight for you. Unfortunately, your child is not equipped, as an adult is, to get the weight off without your help. Here are some ways that you can help your obese child.

Start by taking a look at the meals that you are preparing for your child – and the rest of your family. Make a vow to cook and serve healthier foods, and talk to your doctor openly about what your child should be eating, and how much of it he or she should be eating as well. If necessary, fork out the money for a private nutritionist.

Never use food as any type of reward for your child. This sends all of the wrong signals. Also, never force your child to eat foods that the rest of the family isn’t eating, while depriving them of the foods that the others are eating. That’s just cruel in the grand scheme of things. Make sure that the whole family is eating healthy.

Your parents probably required you to clean your plate at meal times. You cannot use that outdated policy on your own kids these days. Put the amount of food on the plate that the child needs – no more, and no less – and if they don’t ‘clean the plate,’ don’t sweat it.

While you should never reward your children with food, this is no reason to deprive your child of treats forever. Make going out for ice cream a special occasion. Serve cake on birthdays. Just use good sense, and keep the sweets and unhealthy foods to a minimum.

Get your obese child off the couch, out of the computer chair, and into action. Do physical activities as a family. Encourage them to join various sports teams. Enroll them in dance classes or martial arts classes. Make exercise fun for them, and make sure that they are getting at least an hour of physical exercise each and everyday. At the same time, however, don’t deprive them of the technology that is very much a part of their world, such as video games and computers. Just make sure that there is a healthy balance between the two.

Finally, make use of professionals that exist to find out how to approach your child’s obesity from a mental standpoint that won’t damage your child in the long run. Children are very sensitive, and what they think that you think of them can define their entire lives.

Angela likes talking about cheap Urbane Scrubs and writing health articles about various health related topics.

Obesity or over nutrition is a generalized and excessive accumulation of fat in subcutaneous and other tissues.

Obesity in childhood is not a disease but rather a symptom complex having a weak association with adult obesity with its correlates of increased mortality, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, hyperlipidemias, liver diseases, cholelithiasis, and adult-onset diabetes.

Factors related to the occurrence of overweight and obesity are multifactorial in nature with the exception of certain single gene disorders associated with human obesity (Prader-Willi, Bardet-Biedl, and Cohen syndromes).

Some of known factors include:

- Repeated and uncritical offering of a bottle as a method of dealing with a fretful or crying infant may establish a habit that leads the infant to seek food whenever experiencing frustration.

- Uncritical early introduction of high-calorie solid foods may lead to rapid weight gain and obesity

- Heredity has recently been shown to influence fatness, regional fat distribution, and response to overfeeding. Infants born to overweight mothers have been found to be less active and to gain more weight by age of three months when compared with infants of normal weight mothers, suggesting a possible inborn drive to conserve energy.

- Excess fruit juice consumption by preschool-age children has been reported to be associated with obesity.

- excessive intake of high-energy foods

- inadequate exercise in relation to age

- more sedentary life-style

- low metabolic rate relative to body mass

- increased insulin sensitivity

The incidence of childhood obesity relates strongly to family variables, including parental obesity (The risk of becoming obese is greatest among children who have two obese parents), small family size, and family patterns of inactivity. An increased amount of time spent viewing T.V., playing video games, or “surfing” the internet appears to correlate with an increased incidence of childhood obesity.

Complications of obesity:

- Children with obesity experience significant social and psychological stresses and difficulties.

- School children are frequently harassed, intimidated, and excluded from other activities; teachers may treat obese children differently.

- Sleep apnea is increasingly identified in obese children, it is estimated that sleep apnea occurs in 7% of obese children, and it directly diminishes participation and academic performance.

- Glucose intolerance and non-insulin-dependent diabetes (NIDDM) occur in obese children and adolescents.

- Obese children have elevated serum levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides and lowered high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.

- Obese children are at increased risk of becoming obese adults.

- The pickwickian syndrome is a rare complication of extreme exogenous obesity, in which patients have severe cardiorespiratory distress with hypoventilation.

Prevention and treatment:

Early attempts to modify behavior commencing in infancy period, my effectively prevent overeating and obesity. Such attempts include;

1. Feeding an infant on demand shortly after birth.

2. Providing food only at signs of hunger in the 1st year of life.

3. Avoiding cueing by showing attractive foods or regimenting feeding times by clock.

4. Teaching the child to eat only when hungry.

After childhood obesity is established, active participation and motivation of both the child and the family is essential to implement an effective plan for weight reduction and maintenance.

Techniques used for fat reduction in adults, such as surgery, gastric balloons and pharmacotherapies are contraindicated in children.

Very low-calorie diets are inappropriate because they may impair growth and development at critical points during childhood.

Successful treatment of childhood obesity requires attention to the following components:

- Modification of diet and caloric content.

- Definition and use of appropriate exercise programs.

- Behavior modification of the child.

- Involvement of the family in therapy.

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