Childhood Obesity


Childhood Obesity is a condition where excess body fat negatively affects a child's health or well being. In common words, obesity means overweight. Childhood obesity is a burden in developed and developing countries. Overweight and obesity are caused by numerous social and environmental factors that influence people's food habit and physical activity. Lack of physical activity leads to obesity. Activities like Overindulgence in indoor activities and entertainment like television viewing, internet, computer games and now a days mobile phones are also a big cause of not doing physical activities. Due to unrestricted intake of fast foods which are high in calories as per body weight is the major cause of obesity. Also, if the practice of overfeeding of low birth weight babies for catch up growth continues, then also contributes to obesity later on. Also daily allowance to go to school by bus or car instead of walking or cycling leads to increase in amount of fat in the body makes the children unhealthy. Obesity also leads to diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, sleep problems, cancer and other disorders.

 Some Factors responsible for Obesity are :-

Family practices


  • With a decreasing number of mothers who breast-feed, more infants become obese children as they grow up and are reared on infant formula instead.
  • Less children go outside and engage in active play as technologies, such as the television and video games, keep children indoors.
  • Rather than walking or biking to a bus-stop or directly to school, more school-age children are driven to school by their parents, reducing physical activity.
  • As family sizes decrease, the children's pester power, their ability to force adults to do what the want, increases. This ability enables them to have easier access to calorie-packed foods, such as candy and soda drinks.
  • the social context around family meal-time plays a role in rates of childhood obesity. 
  

Social policies


  • the quality of school lunches.
  • the emphasis of schools on physical activity
  • access to vending machines and fast-food restaurants
  • prevalence of and access to parks, bike paths, and sidewalks
  • government subsidies for corn oil and sugar
  • advertising of fast-food restaurants and candy
  • prices of healthy and unhealthy foods
    •
  • access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food.


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