Is parental negligence a reason behind child obesity?

In today’s world of Hush and Rush, people often forget to take care of their health. Also, the sedentary lifestyle has given a boost in increasing health problems not only in grownups but also in children. One such health problem that we need to get concerned about is childhood obesity.

Childhood obesity also called pediatric obesity is a serious medical condition where a child significantly overweight for his or her age and height. The imbalance of energy consumption and energy expenditure causes this problem. These obese turn into obese adults.  This leads to further severe physical health problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and other heart diseases. Over 42 million children <5 years worldwide are estimated to be overweight (OW) or obese (OB), and if current trends continue, then an estimated 70 million children will be OW or OB by 2025. (Rankin J, 2016)

Childhood obesity not only causes physical problems but psychological problems too. Obese children are often bullied and are a victim of body shaming. This leads to various problems such as low self esteem, lack of self confidence, increased loneliness and sadness and sometimes even too clinical depression.

What Causes Childhood Obesity?

Apart from genetic and medical cause such as hyperthyroidism and hormonal imbalances there are many factors that contribute to childhood obesity. Social factors such as easy access to junk food, access to physical activities and the importance of health given in the society we live in and the lifestyle we follow.

However, the style of parenting plays an important role. It’s not uncommon to see toddlers staring at mobile screens watching videos for long hours. They get so addicted to watching videos at such an early age that they wouldn’t even feed without watching the videos. Similarly, when these toddlers cry, giving them mobiles is a new escape for parents. These digital screening surely makes children stop cry for some time but they turn into a lifetime habit of sedentary lifestyle causing various health issues including obesity.

Good dietary habits start at home and children tend to take their parent’s dietary habits. With the changing lifestyle, gone are the days when people took proper care of what they cooked and ate. Now is the time of fast food and quick drinks. Every day, more than 2 million California adolescents (62 percent) drink soda and 1.4 million (43 percent) eat fast food, but only 38 percent eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables, say the researchers at UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. These dietary habits get picked from adolescents by the children and become one of the prominent causes of childhood obesity. An extra 12- ounce sugary drink a day increases a child’s risk of becoming obese by about 60% reports The Center for Science in Public Interest in the article “Carbonating the World”. It also reports that Sugar-sweetened beverages accounts for 180,000 deaths around world each year. These figures tell us that we consume unhealthy food regularly but are addicted to them.

How does Fast food and Sugar drinks become addictive?

Consumption of food and especially high-sugar and fatty food, causes to release dopamine. This hormone creates the feeling of pleasure. When we eat this food constantly, our brain develops a tolerance for this pleasure. For example you drink one can of some sugar sweetened beverage, the dopamine in your brain will get release and you will feel pleasure. But when you will drink that one beverage regularly, you will not get the same pleasure in one can and your brain will crave for more pleasure.

In the suburban and urban Indian lifestyle, parents often prohibit children from playing outdoors worrying they might get wounded or have skin problems. This leads them to play alternate digital games. This digital gaming is not only addictive and contributor of obesity but is also a cause of behavioral problems such as anger management issues and violence.

Overall the negligence of parents does contribute to childhood obesity to a great extent.

How to Avoid Childhood Obesity?

Diet Plan:  Set a limit on your child’s fast food consumption. Instead of letting them much on fries, chips and burgers whenever they want , encourage them to eat fruit salads, sprouts and other healthy food.

Let them spend time in sun: The imbalance in the consumption and expenditure is caused mostly because although even if we eat good amount of carbs, we do not expend it much and let them accumulate in our body in the form of fats. Engage them in any sports club or ask them to play outside.

Set a limit on the screening time of your children. Set other mediums of entertainment in your house such as indoor games.

Do not make your children prone to mobile phones, televisions or other digital screens at an early age.

Engage in healthy and mindful activities such as yoga and meditation. This will not only be helpful for children but for the parents too.

We all know these things are easy to say and hard to follow because of the lifestyle in which we live today. The parents of this generation are too busy with 9-5 work hours that being at home all the time attaining children isn’t a possibility. We should not forget to take care of our own health first to set an example for our children. We should not forget children learn from us and therefore taking care of our health will automatically lead to good health in children.