The incidence of childhood obesity is rapidly rising throughout the globe. It was earlier confined to the industrialized nations, but is now steadily hitting many low and middle income countries. In India the scenario of childhood hood obesity is a growing concern in Kashmir
We all love chubby kids and assert that they are healthy individuals, but are we really aware about the healthy and unhealthy weight? How do you know if your child’s weight gain is normal and when its leading to childhood obesity? Childhood is the period which determines the maximum outcomes of health of an individual in the later years. Childhood obesity has both immediate and long term effects on health and well-being.
Child nutrition – or lack thereof – is worrisome if your child is a picky eater. Is your child’s nutrition –about to drive you to distraction? Children’s nutrition creates worry for many parents. Consider the scenario: your preschooler has refused to eat anything other than jam toast and something sweet at every meal and snack for the past two days. Your toddler, on the other hand, wants nothing at all during meals .you can barely drag him away from his toys to sit at dinner table.
Feeding you child is quite a common job since ages among all the animal kingdom but feeding the appropriate feed to your child to enable him to grow properly and correct the habits is of utmost importance that leads your child into a proper growth pattern, devoid of health risks. To feed a child is not only to replace the hunger but a meal that suffices all components necessary for growth and development of your child.
Humans are the most intelligent creatures of lord which possess the enhanced motor skills, unlike animals that are fed upon whatever they are feed. Your child will make decisions on whether to eat, what to eat and how much to eat, though you can help and properly direct the process. On a visit to various crèche /preparatory schools we found that lunch boxes contain not
a balanced diet, as evident from the images taken ,just the typical boxes full of rice, hence deficit of essential nutrients.
In a detailed conversation Dr Altaf shera, Paedeatric surgeon talks about “ mushrooming of childhood obesity as a growing menace’’. He said not all children carrying extra pounds are overweight or obese. Different children have different body weight as per their body frame. if your child doesn’t crawl ,standup on proper time and his growth pattern seems different than the age of the children of his age, it’s the very first visible clue to identify abnormal weight gain as a symptom for childhood obesity. The weight of an individual never remains same, it varies with age and the eating habits but if the weight of the individual is not in concord with the age and height for a prolonged period of time ,the parent should take a serious note of it and report the same to the doctor.
A large no of factors contribute to the childhood obesity that include diet, inactivity, genetics psychological and social factors.
What is the role of genetics in childhood obesity?
women who consume fat and sugar rich diets and are obese even before their pregnancy can predispose up to three generations to the risk of metabolic problems, even if their children consume healthy diets, the mothers obesity and its associated problems can be inherited through the genetic material-DNA .If your child comes from a family of overweight people ,he or she may be genetically predisposed to put on excess weight ,especially in an environment where high –calorie food is always available and physical activity isn’t encouraged.
How can dietary practices contribute to childhood obesity?
Large scale improper weaning practices have been seen in valley of Kashmir; usually the food of a child governed by grandmothers is an age old practice that needs to be replaced by child nutritionists, that focuses on proper guiding and selection of weaning foods –the supplementary foods. Encouragement of breast feeding exclusively for six months of child’s life, minimizing artificial feeds of milk .
Meal skipping and developing alternate source of replacement for hunger should be avoided. Homemade lunches should be accompanied by children at schools. Eating at canteens, ready to made soups, and snacks, Pocket money as an alternative for lunches, extra pampering of children by relatives , imitating the tv ads all are the factors infusing the unhealthy habits in a child.
“Parents should inculcate healthy eating habits and promote healthy and balanced meals or they will face serious health problems, as children mostly imitate parents.
Preparatory schools that provide the day meals to children should strictly focus the meal planning. Instead of normal food makers, there should be special skilled food managers that demonstrate and check the quality of food being fed to children. At formal schools the administration should ban the sale and supply of junk foods, which is the very first stage and the initial habit of competing of children for food. At local level in our localities ,angnwadi workers should instruct the home makers-the mothers how to make the food attractive and capture the taste of children and what to give to your child and what not to them so that nurturing is initiated at scientific levels.
How often poverty and obesity go hand in hand?
All of us know that malnutrition is caused majorly by poverty, but at the same point the role of misguidance and ignorant life style is equally responsible for it. Valley is still full of those inhabitations who feed their children bread and rice as a two meal pattern .The main nutrient supplying energy is the carbohydrates being cheaper source of more energy .The large number of carbs get convert in to fats. The poor parents aren’t able to afford healthier foods, like fruits, being deficit in proper knowledge, what healthy food means”
What is the relationship between obesity and early puberty in children?
From the biological view point whether puberty begins early or late, it still starts in brain. Something cues the brain to produce a substance called gonadotrophin-releasing hormone, or GnRH. Nowadays it is quite common to read reports about early puberty in females ,it is not shocking or something taken to be too seriously “,obesity can alter the levels of reproductive hormones prompting the body into premature puberty’’, adds Dr.Shera .
Such individuals esp. in female folk it has been been observed the development of mammary glands earlier than the children of same age, likewise in male gender, children who are overweight feel underestimated ,loo se confidence ,are more vulnerable to emotional disturbance as a result of over accumulated mass physique .
REFERENCE:
December 20 2016.Childhood obesity: Causes and Consequences.Greater Kashmir.retrieved from
http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/opinion/childhood-obesity-causes-and-consequences/236654.html
