Introduction
Child obesity is a significant health predicament dogging children and adolescents in the US. Investigations indicate that close to 17% of juveniles in the country are obese (CDC). This state has significantly been on the rise as illustrated by statistics collected within the past three decades.
However, since 1999 the numbers have remained fairly moribund due to an amalgamation of factors but the levels are still high. In as much as obesity is a well understood problem, it is vital to look into the causes, implications and solutions of child obesity with the aim of initiating sustainable corrective measures.
Causes
Child obesity is a physical attribute complication resulting from unevenness involving the calories consumed and those finally utilized by an individual (CDC). It is noted that licentious eating processes are the leading reason for the unevenness. This incorporates lopsided eating patterns as illustrated by eating in between the standard meals such as breakfast and supper. In the end, this significantly upsets the body metabolism thus culminating in obesity.
It is interesting to note that pregnant women have, in addition, been found to add to the levels of child obesity (Zarembo). Pregnant mothers recurrently feed on elevated energy containing foods, and they do so in huge quantities. This transcends to surplus calories in the body. This is because the intake outweighs their subsequent use to significant extents. These superfluous calories will be transferred to the foetus thus triggers the circumstance at that point of growth.
Genetic receptiveness among children has also been confirmed as a cause of corpulence among children (The healthcare centre). Genetic investigations have established that some genetic concepts have an unswerving correlation with obesity. It is noteworthy the Prader-Willi set of symptoms, an atypical genetic disorder, has obesity as its clinical facet. However, this disorder is a surprisingly exceptional episode and can not culminate in obesity in segregation (CDC).
The augmented time spent by children watching programs and processes presented on TV, compounded with playing video related games has been recognized as a definite way to obesity. It is affirmed that children spend prolonged hours in so doing at the expense of exercising thus failing to burn the added calories (Zarembo). This leads to accretion of the calories in the body which ultimately form fats thus culminating in obesity.
Cases of child obesity have also been heightened by painstaking promotion of junk food and related foodstuffs in the media. Research has deduced that junk is one of the most non-beneficial foods that fail to address the needs of a child and the broader society (Swartz & Puhl 58). Their unrelenting marketing and subsequent acquisition have considerably contributed to child obesity.
The diminishing food prices have noticeably contributed to child obesity. The reduced food prices in the marketplace have led to distortion of apt consumption habits among the masses. Children are able to comfortably access food stuffs outside the constraints of the home and the recommended eating time. This has vastly contributed to the commonness of obesity.
Environmental factors have also not done any justice to the child in relation to the state of obesity (CDC). The letdown of the parents to standardize what their children eat and what they do not especially during leisure has culminated in obesity. Furthermore, the instruct set up to also failed to standardize what the children consume. This is coupled by the accessibility of junk food and related foods at the schools’ cafeteria. The child’s surroundings in this case are chief causes of obesity.
Implications
Child obesity has extensive communal, financial and well being implications. Obesity causes psychosomatic strain to the child. Obese children especially adolescents are targets of societal prejudice from within their societal circles making them lose track of their aspect of belonging.
Their peers are inclined to scorn them consequently culminating in social stigmatization (CDC). This takes a toll on their communal upbringing as they grow up whilst lowering their self esteem. Educational work is in the end affected, in addition to the presence of, social costs or misfits way into maturity.
Adult obesity is a culmination of child obesity as illustrated by investigations (CDC). These investigations indicate that 80% of children who are obese carry it into their grown-up life. Obesity in adults is more severe, in comparison to children. Obese adults are viewed as indolent and gluttonous. This makes it immeasurably complicated for them to come to pace with the varying life and its vitality. Their extent of work is also constricted because of the wide-ranging perception in the public.
A CDC statement in 2004 deduced that obesity caused a mind boggling 400,000 deaths a year in the country. This number provided a manifestation of the seriousness of the circumstances considering the fatalities it causes in an annum (Swartz & Puhl 58). These deaths come along with a lot of unhappiness and despondency to an individual’s affiliates and relatives. This culminates in the assertion that obesity is a life-threatening health condition that should be urgently addressed.
Child obesity has been confirmed to result in a myriad of cardiovascular diseases; furthermore, diabetes and cancer are also evident. These are bodily conditions that extensively weaken the human body and prevent it from working optimally. They cut on the performance of the daily human functions, in addition to relentlessly weakening the, patient.
The prolonged pains that come along with these conditions cause a lot of depression to an individual (Swartz & Puhl 61). Cancer, for instance, being an incurable illness will in due course lead to the demise after a lot of suffering.
The fiscal implications are numerous and wanting. The situation will require the preservation of the corpse through provision of sufficient calories. These calories are solely supplied by food that will, therefore, be required in plenty. The health complications that child chubbiness tags along require substantial funds to cure. This condition will in the long run cause unenthusiastic economic effects on the people concerned.
Solutions
The devastating effects of obesity in US demands for extensive corrective solutions. It is further affirmed that exhaustive unrestricted awareness campaigns should be undertaken on child obesity since the public is ignorant on this condition (Zarembo). This being a vital aspect, the authorities in conjunction with related entities should endeavor to inform them.
This should be by enlightening them on the defining aspects child obesity is, its basis, inference and most important how it can be curbed. The information can be passed through the communication avenues like the media and related factions.
The administration should also attempt to standardize food coming through the marketplace as a long-term measure in decreasing child obesity. Programs pertaining to tax holidays should be introduced on improved foods, to diminish their costs and promote their acquisition.
On the contrary, the tax forced on junk food related foods should be increased to daunt their consumption. This measure was immensely triumphant in 1954 when cigarette smoking was becoming a grave problem (Zarembo). In so doing, apt eating habits will be reinforced leading to a reduction in child obesity.
Parents should take up the inventiveness of encouraging apt eating habits among their children. This can be done by the instruction on what they eat by infusing health-friendly foods such as vegetables, white meat and whole grains while limiting junk and related food products. Parents can also find ways of making their children’s much loved meals healthy by reducing on the foods containing high-calorie.
Sedentary time should also be regulated by the parents by reduction. “The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends against children under two years watching television” (CDC, para 6). The parents should initiate this, in addition to limiting entertainment time, as illustrated by TV and computers. The extra hours should be occupied by bodily activities that engage physical activities thus burning calories.
The school program should also be crafted in a way as to infuse rigorous bodily activities for a recommended time. Most juveniles spend a substantial part of their time in school and care centers. These areas will offer an ideal stage for them to be engaged in training, thus curbing obesity.
Within the school setting, junk and related foods should be successfully banned. Even though, this will be a radical move, it will in the long run significantly help reduce the prevalence of obesity. The regulation of these food stuffs both at school and home, in addition to the creation of, communal awareness, are crucial moves that once explored will abolish child obesity.
Conclusion
Child obesity is a disturbing fitness situation that if not taken care off may culminate in several fatalities. A situation where the parents live longer than the children may be created thus negatively impacting the societal, monetary and opinionated growth of the country. This calls for urgent and long term actions to trim down and eventually eliminate child obesity.
Works Cited
CDC. Overweight and Obesity. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. 2009. Web.
Swartz MB & Puhl R. Childhood obesity: a societal problem to solve. Obesity Reviews 2003; 4(1):57–71.
Thehealthcarecentre. The Three Leading Causes of Childhood Obesity. Thehealthcarecentre. N.D. Web.
Zarembo, Allan. Childhood obesity rate in U.S. hits a plateau. latimes. 2008. Web.