Tackling Childhood Obesity in Our Families and Communities

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How can we reduce and/or manage the risk of developing childhood obesity? 


Well, there are a multitude of ways to engage our youth in educational, nutritional and physical activities. Children may not have the ability to make such decisions for themselves without the help of their parents or legal guardian. So, family dynamics and parental supervision is important to acknowledge while looking into a child’s overall health. Lets not forget community and school efforts in addressing children obesity. There are different places (i.e. homes, daycares, schools) where we can change or improve the diet and increase opportunities for physical activity for children to grow healthy. 


As a family, parents and legal guardians can look to refining their child’s schedule.



For example, try incorporating  at least an hour of physical activity daily, eating breakfast daily, becoming more conscious of (or reducing) meal portion sizes, and lowering the frequency of snacks and sugary beverages (i.e. juices, sodas). ² Begin practicing or slowly incorporating these elements into your child’s schedule and monitor accordingly. Family support can help reduce childhood obesity within an immediate family and generations to follow.



We can keep going! Schools are communities of their own and have the ability to directly influence a child, too. Schools can mandate the nutritional standards for school lunches; the school board can look into healthier (yet likable) food options for students. In addition, it would be great to provide a nutritional education curriculum in the basic health and physical education area to emphasize healthy eating and body image. ²


Most interventions create the focus on individual behavior change, yet there still seems to be ineffectiveness towards the reduction of obesity prevalence. ³ To not add onto the social stigma of obesity, community-based and environment-based interventions/programs create a health and development support for children and adolescents. ³ Shifting from an individual approach to communal approach is needed to face the obesity issue. Children are essentially setting their bodies up for the future and life later down the line. It is important to intervene to avoid psychological concerns such as anxiety and depression, low self-esteem, and social problems (stigma and bullying). ¹ 



Now..... What are the next steps you will take to tackle childhood obesity in your family or community?





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References:

  1. https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood/causes.html

  2. Gurnani, M., Birken, C., & Hamilton, J. (2015). Childhood Obesity: Causes, Consequences, and Management. Pediatric clinics of North America, 62(4), 821–840. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pcl.2015.04.001

  3. Weihrauch-Blüher, S., & Wiegand, S. (2018). Risk Factors and Implications of Childhood Obesity. Current obesity reports, 7(4), 254–259. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13679-018-0320-0

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