Introduction
The growth and development process of every child is very important; hence, the need to monitor the progress of children’s health. In an attempt to understand the child’s developmental health, this paper places special focus on childhood obesity. There has been a lot of contention on the techniques for use when assessing and indicating childhood obesity. Until the late 1960s, various technologies were used to check for childhood obesity. These methods included densitometry, dilution method, and potassium counting (Dawes, 2014). However, all these technologies had significant drawbacks that rendered them unreliable.
Epidemiology of Obesity
The mental state of every child is the fountain of the child’s overall health. Jonovich and Alpert-Gills (2014) have indicated the essence of ensuring sound mental health for children because their mental status dictates their perceptions of all other issues, including obesity. The last few decades have indicated an exponential increase in childhood obesity. Despite the fact that genetic factors have a significant role to play, behavioral, environmental, and social factors also lead to obesity (Darukhanavala & Pannain, 2011).
Gupta, Goel, Shah, and Misra (2012) discuss five patterns of nutrition transition that can be used to show the association between socio-cultural factors and the escalating prevalence of obesity. These transitions evolve in various disparate geographical locations. The first pattern entails hunting and gathering. This pattern promotes a lifestyle that results in lean body phenotypes. The second transition is characterized by famine-like environments and the individuals in such environments have low adipocytes and fat-free masses. Thirdly, improved nutrition due to the availability of healthy foods is associated with adequate nutrition that does not lead to obesity. The fourth transition typically describes the contemporary world that is conducive to obesity. This environment is supportive of an aggressive food environment that encourages the consumption of energy-dense foods that are high in calories alongside a sedentary lifestyle. In the last transition (5), there is increased information on healthy nutrition and the importance of physical activity; yet, the prevalence rates of childhood obesity are still high.
Diagnosis of Childhood Obesity
Since the 1970s, the body mass index (BMI) was deemed the most appropriate index of adiposity, and the most preferred technique for establishing the links between “high body fat content and illness” (Dawes, 2014, p. 75). It is, however, important to note that BMI is just an indicator and not a measure of body fat. In contrast to the BMI categories used for adults, age- and sex-specific percentiles are used to categorize BMI for children. This difference is attributed to the change in the children’s body composition as they grow old, and the fact that the body composition is different between boys and girls. The CDC growth charts are used to identify obesity based on the percentiles as mentioned above for children and adolescents between 2 and 19 years (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). About these percentiles, overweight is defined “as a BMI ≥ 85th percentile and lower than the 95th percentile for children of the same age and sex” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012, para 3). Obesity is “a BMI ≥ 95th percentile for children of the same age and sex” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012, para 3).
Managing Obesity
The mainstays of treatment for childhood obesity are a focus on diet and physical activity. In addition, family education is given to enable families to make healthy choices as far as establishing feeding habits in children is concerned. Unfortunately, these behavioral strategies have not yielded significant outcomes as would be expected. Sabin and Kiess (2015) indicate that childhood obesity stems from conception; hence, optimizing weight gain during pregnancy is very important. Childhood obesity has been indicated as an epidemic that is the result of evolutionary processes of maternal effects, phenotypic evolution, and socio-environmental evolution that lead to a “tipping point in human energy metabolism characterized by the suppression of other cell types by the adipocytes to acquire and sequester nutrient energy” (Sabin & Kiess, 2015, p. 332). Counseling and education on the right feeding practices during infancy are very important to help in the regulation and control of childhood obesity. WHO guidelines for infant and young child feeding govern child nutrition; thus, should be adhered to. In addition, mothers should shun away the socio-cultural perceptions of a healthy child. The pharmacotherapy approach uses orlistat for children that have failed the trial of lifestyle change (Sabin & Kiess, 2015). Among children with insulin resistance and/or abnormal glucose metabolism alongside excessive weights, metformin, and lifestyle change behavioral strategies are used. Bariatric surgery is deemed to have a sustained short-term effect on weight loss. The severity of obesity is increasing; hence, new ways of managing obesity are required alongside new ways to treat the accompanying metabolic syndrome because Sabin and Kiess (2015) postulate a pandemic of heart disease and type 2 diabetes in the next 20 years. There are various obesity medications on trial for licensure, but others already have a license. These medications include, but are not limited to, zonisamide, Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists, topiramate ± phentermine, and lorcaserin.
Conclusion
Childhood obesity is a serious condition that predisposes children to adverse health outcomes in later years. It has been a great challenge addressing the issue of obesity because much as though lifestyle approaches associated with a healthy diet and increased physical activity are encouraged, there have not been significant reductions in childhood obesity. As a result, there is a need for appropriate devices and more credible techniques to address the issue.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2012). Overweight and Obesity. Web.
Darukhanavala, A., & Pannain, S. (2011) Sleep and obesity in children and adolescents. In D. Bagchi (Ed.), Global Perspectives on Childhood Obesity: Current Status, Consequences and Prevention (pp. 167-182). Burlington, MA: Elsevier Inc.
Dawes, L. (2014). Childhood Obesity in America: Biography of an Epidemic. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Gupta, N., Goel, K., Shah, P., & Misra, A. (2012). Childhood obesity in developing countries: Epidemiology, determinants, and prevention. Endocrine Reviews, 33(1), 48-70.
Jonovich, S., & Alpert-Gills, L. (2014). Impact of pediatric mental health screening on clinical discussion and referral for services. Clinical Pediatrics, 53(4), 364-371.
Sabin, M., & Kiess, W. (2015). Childhood obesity: Current and novel approaches. Best Practice & Research Clinical endocrinology & Metabolism, 29, 327-338.