The drastic increase of childhood obesity in the recent years is simply overwhelming and frustrating. This is a very serious medical condition which is known to affect a major percentage of children and adolescents.
What is childhood obesity?
In simple terms, this medical condition occurs when the child is very much above his or her normal weight. Childhood obesity has become the major reason why children are suffering from certain diseases which were earlier only confined to adults. The extra pounds gained by the children in their childhood years definitely increase their risk for diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Also, as the child gains pounds, he or she loses self-confidence and self-esteem as they are constantly teased for their obese sizes.
However, it is important to first understand the symptoms of this medical condition. You will be surprised to note that certain children tend to have larger body frames than their counterparts and as a result of this, these children cannot be classified as obese. Also, the body fat carried by a child keeps on varying during the different stages of development.
Just by analyzing the body weight of children, it is not likely to know if the child is really suffering from a weight problem or not. You can understand if your child is suffering from any weight concerns by using the help of your child’s doctor. He or she will further solve this situation by finding out the Body Mass Index or BMI which is a good indicator to understand if your child has weight issues or not.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has offered the below cutoff points to understand if your child is overweight or obese:
- BMI-for-age between 85th and 94th percentiles means overweight
- BMI-for-age 95th percentile and above means obese
Doctors attribute genetic and hormonal factors for the cause of childhood obesity. However, apart from this reason, overeating by children is one of the major factors for the drastic increase of this condition wherein kids also take part in very less or no exercising at all and the result turns out to be obesity.
In fact, more than genetic and hormonal factors, doctors are of the opinion that eating and exercise habits are to be blamed for the growing increase of obesity in the recent years. In fact, diet, lack of exercise, family history, psychological and family factors and socioeconomic factors are the most important factors responsible for childhood obesity.
Various health risks are associated with childhood obesity such as the onset of Type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, high cholesterol and high blood pressure, sleep disorders, breathing problems such as asthma and early puberty or menstruation. Also, such children may suffer from low self-esteem and depression which may affect them in their future years as well. The focus should be to keep your child from entering the childhood obesity arena at all and prevention is the best medicine.
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