Naturally, children should, and must, gain weight through the natural process of growth, but many children go beyond that and put on excess fatty tissue; i.e. they become obese. Obesity is rapidly becoming a serious problem with today’s children, partially through the wrong nutrition and eating too much of the wrong foods, and partially through ignorance on behalf of the parents who have a misconception that ‘puppy fat’ is a healthy and normal thing.
There are also psychological problems to consider. Overweight and obese children frequently experience playground teasing about their appearance which can destroy self esteem and confidence, and lead to isolation and depression. This can last for the rest of their lives, and often leads to such children taking up smoking and drinking alcohol at an early age.
Rather than blame obesity on genetics or health problems parents should look at their child’s unhealthy lifestyle. Their lack of exercise and physical activity. It is become easier for children to become overweight. Sweets, convenience meals, fast foods, all full of excess salt and sugar. They are targeted at children through TV advertising. Have you ever sat and watched TV with your child on a Saturday morning and taken note of the adverts? I know there are very good reasons for it these days, but 30 years ago children did not travel to school by car. They walked to school. How many hours does your child spend sitting in front of a TV set or a games console or a computer screen? How much sport do they participate in'It is relatively easy for adults to determine whether or not they are overweight by working out the Body Mass Index, which is not an appropriate measurement tool for children. Charts taking into account a child’s rate of growth, age, gender are used instead. Health professionals are able to measure what proportion of their weight is fat. As a rule, a child’s weight is generally classed as obese if the body weight is more that 25% fat in males and 32% fat in females.
P.S. As an adjunct to this article you can find a Body Mass Indicator suitable for children and teens, and an extended version of this article, on our website here:
