Healthcare providers consider Individuals with weight more than 20% above the normal weight to be obese. The National Institute of Health defines Obesity as a healthcare condition where individual have a Body Mass Index exceeding 30. When calculating the Body Mass Index, an individual’s sex, weight, age, heights are taken into account. Clinicians use the BMI to assess populations suffering from overweight and obesity. More than a 1.4 billion people in 2013 suffered from obesity with more than 300 million overweight (Lang and Michael 72). Obesity affects individuals in all age groups and socio- economic groups. Obesity prevalence among adolescents, children and infants are rising significantly around the world (Bagchi 282). The prevalence is, however, higher in low and middle-income countries when compared to developed countries. A risk for obesity begins during pregnancy and that the eating habits and sleep patterns of
...an infant can be a source of obesity in different developmental stages (Pizzorno and Herb 695). The home food environment comprises interacting environment factors; natural and built environment, economic and political, macro level and micro level environments
Genetics and behaviors are major contributors of obesity among children (Searcy 22). Medication use, inactivity, physical activity and dietary patterns are among the behavioral causes of obesity among children and adolescents. Exposure to environmental hazards can also increase the risk to become overweight. Unhealthy behavior arises from the consumption of unhealthy diets and irregular physical activity at home. A healthy diet for Americans constitutes taking sufficient amount of water, dairy products that are fat-free, low fat, lean protein, vegetables, fruit and whole grains. Besides, children should conduct at least a sixty-minute exercise on a daily basis to
live a healthy lifestyle.
Advertisements impact adolescents’ abilities to make appropriate choices relating to healthy living (Irwin 3). They will spend a lot of time in their homes watching television commercials that will influence their choices on what they will consider good food. Companies use different forms of media platforms including television networks to market food stuff rich in fat, salts, sugars and low nutrients. As a result, adolescents increasingly chose unhealthy food staffs over high nutrient and low-fat food products. Other ways through which television viewing increase obesity are by reducing energy expenditure in the viewing process and encourage excessive eating as they view different programs.
The design of a child’s neighborhood may not provide space for physical activity. States have different laws that regulate care centers to ensure they encourage children consumption of healthy foods. The rules and regulation do not promote children to engage in physical activity. Without enforceable laws, the children are to a large exposed to unhealthy food staffs. States also have an impact on the design of the built environment. Not all states have laws that promote designs that leave space for children to exercise. As a result, children remain inactive which increases their risk of suffering from obesity and other lifestyle diseases.
The socioeconomic status is a predictor of obesity among children and adolescents coming from such households (Fitzpatrick and Meredith 391). Children and adolescents from low socioeconomic groups consume lesser amounts of vegetables and fruits and large amounts of saturated fat foods. The high cost of healthy foods limits children’s accessibility to healthy food staff and exposes them to high-risk food products. Some neighborhoods are located in remote neighborhoods making
it costly for parents to access stores that sell health food staffs. Retailers sell relatively similar food products, and it becomes confusing for parents to select healthy from unhealthy food staffs. With an increasing reliance on fast food that are in most cases rich in sugars and fats that cause overweight, children’s risk of obesity continues to increase. Even in homes where individuals understand the causes of obesity, the portion of unhealthy foods is larger compared to healthy foods. Many homes stock larger volumes of unhealthy foods. Children and adolescents access and consume the unhealthy food staffs and hence increase the risk of suffering from obesity.
Mothers in most cases have dietary knowledge on the nature of healthy foods and their impact on health. In most cases, they do not rely on the knowledge to ensure adolescents access healthy foods. Adolescents will consume what their parents provide. They consume the food due to its availability and accessibility. A large number of adolescents do not have the knowledge of what constitutes healthy living (Rippe 1546). The home environment exposes Children and adolescents to the consumption of unhealthy food staffs and limits their involvement physical activity. Homes do not encourage physical activity and provide adolescents and children with unhealthy food staffs.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researched on and discovered that insufficient breastfeeding causes overweight and obesity. It notes that whereas 75% of parent mothers breastfeed their children at birth, only 13% of children will receive exclusive breastfeeding for six months. In most cases, mothers lack the motivation to continue breastfeeding their children continuously due to external forces. Family members will play a central role in ensuring
that mother’s breast feed their children as recommended by the health practitioners.
The home food environmental factors shape children behaviors and lead to the development of obesity influencing choices and limiting the availability of healthier food choices. Multiple environmental factors lead to obesity, and the home environment forms a significant part where a child eats, develops grows and behaves. The quality of diet that children take is likely to decline as the progress to the adolescent stage.
The Cohen, Bardet Biedl and Prader-Willi syndromes are genetic conditions that experts use to predict obesity among children. Research conducted by mm showed that when parents, the father or mother had obesity there was an 11.75, 4.66 and 2.93 possibility respectively of a child suffering from obesity. Besides, Childs obesity at a young age is a predictor of obesity through different developmental stages including adolescence and childhood. As such parents suffering obesity, predispose an unborn child towards a higher risk of suffering from obesity.
Obesity impacts negatively on the wellbeing and health of children and adolescents. High cholesterol levels in the blood of adolescents and children suffering from obesity and high blood pressure are causes of cardiovascular diseases. Research shows that more than 70% of youth diagnosed with obesity suffer from cardiovascular diseases. Sugary foods, which are a cause of obesity, also increase the risk of diabetes. Children and adolescents with obesity suffer from joint and sleep-related diseases. They will suffer from stigmatization which in the long will lower their self-esteem. Besides, research studies show that obesity predisposes children to cancer of the prostate, pancreas, endometrium, colon and breast other than predicting the likelihood of developing to obese adults.
Holistic treatment of
obesity requires the intervention of a multidisciplinary team (Novak 491). Parents at home will prevent obesity by encouraging physical activity among their children and encouraging healthy eating habits. Parents should encourage children and adolescent to engage in active physical activity in their homes. Activities that encourage physical activity around homes include running, swimming and walking. The Department of Health and Human Services (US) recommends that adolescents and children should engage in active physical activities for at least 60 minutes in a day. Bone and muscle strengthening activities are important in the process of preventing obesity since they make it able for adolescents to engage in physical activity. The parents should encourage participation of children in activities that suit their age. Age-related physical activities like games are enjoyable to children and are likely to impact their health positively.
Parents can prepare healthy food and instruct their children on good eating habits and patterns. They can design nutritional programs to ensure that children have access to food with high nutritional value. As children grow through different developmental stages, parents should monitor their BMI to ensure they create intervention measures before they can impact negatively on their children’s healthy. Understanding the dietary needs of children and adolescents is the first step towards developing and effective nutritional plan to prevent the occurrence of obesity. Parents should limit providing their children with foods with high sugar and fat levels. They should also plan and implement healthy weight management programs to deal with the challenge of obesity among children.
Infants may be predisposed to obesity before they are born during pregnancy. Mothers, therefore, should undertake screening and different forms of diagnosis to ensure
they do not suffer from diseases that may cause diabetes. When the intrauterine environment is unfavorable for the development of the fetus, it increases the risk of suffering from metabolic abnormalities after birth. Healthcare providers classify obesity as one of the metabolic abnormalities alongside diabetes and hypertension (Landecker 173). During infancy, the parent should ensure that the infant receives sufficient breastfeeding. Besides, the parent is the Childs primary socialization agent during infancy. The mother will help the child develop good diet habits that will prevent the occurrence of diabetes at an early age.
Research shows that children are born with biological sets of predispositions relating to taste (Contento 52). They are therefore likely to value and concentrate on energy rich, salty and tasty foods. Since parents have control over and observe their children as they grow through different developmental stages, they can authoritatively regulate the type of foods that their children. As a result of continuous regulation, children learn and develop new tastes and preferences that are likely to improve their health.
Parents have a role to ensure that children and adolescent access mental and social health services. Parents in families that receive less income and are not able to provide their children with sufficient food should register to receive aid through different government programs. Parents can help monitor their children’s eating habits by increasing the number of times they take meals together (Lindh et al. 662). They can deliberately avail healthy foods and reduce the availability of fatty and sugary food. Other deliberate measures include reducing time children spend viewing television. As such they are less exposure time reduces the possibility of viewing adverts that encourage
them to take sugary foods. By regulating the amount of time adolescent take viewing television they encourage them to take more active roles that prevent obesity.
Works cited
- Bagchi, Debasis. Global Perspectives on Childhood Obesity: Current Status, Consequences and Prevention. London: Academic, 2011.
- Contento, Isobel R. Nutrition Education: Linking Research, Theory, and Practice. , 2016. Print.
- Fitzpatrick, Joyce J, and Meredith W. Kazer. Encyclopedia of Nursing Research. New York: Springer Pub, 2012. Print.
- Irwin, Diana Arielle. Selling a healthy campaign: the influence of trade characters on children's food choice. ProQuest, 2008.
- Landecker, Hannah. "Food as exposure: Nutritional epigenetics and the new metabolism." BioSocieties 6.2 (2011): 167-194.
- Lang, Tim, and Michael Heasman. Food wars: The global battle for mouths, minds and markets. Routledge, 2015.
- Lindh, Wilburta Q., et al. Delmar's Clinical Medical Assisting. Nelson Education, 2013.
- Novák, Daniel, ed. Handbook of Research on Holistic Perspectives in Gamification for Clinical Practice. IGI Global, 2015.
- Pizzorno, Joseph E, Michael T. Murray, and Herb Joiner-Bey. The Clinician's Handbook of Natural Medicine. , 2016. Print.
- Rippe, James M., ed. Lifestyle medicine. CRC Press, 2013.
- Searcy, Cynthia S. Are eating and exercise behaviors at school contributing to adolescent obesity in the United States?. ProQuest, 2007.
- The centers for Disease Control and preventionhttp://www.cdc.gov/
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
