Why are parents unable to recognize obesity in their children

By vpaulose, 15th Mar 2011 | Follow this author | RSS Feed | Short URL http://nut.bz/2n71w._i/
Posted in Wikinut>Health>Diet & Nutrition

Modern globalized world is extremely busy. People are too busy that they are unable to take care of the food habits of their children.

Why are parents unable to recognize obesity in their children

Obesity has turned out to be a major health problem of the modern age. It is not only restricted to adults but more and more children are growing up obese threatening the health of future life. According to the statistics of World Health Organization (WHO) in the year 2004, more than 17.6 million children under five are estimate to be overweight. The International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) also estimated in the year 2004 that 22 million of the world’s children under five years of age were obese. By now, it should have been increased by and large. Studies of IOTF show that obesity is acute in America and Europe and it has also begun to affect the developing countries. There can be no doubt that apart from the serious health problems, obesity in children increases the risk of behavior problems in them.

Obesity and parents

Role of parents in growing their children healthily is very vital and needs great attention from them. They do not seem to recognize the problem of obesity in their children. They can help their children in many ways to build up a healthy society if they recognize and realize the dangerous effects of obesity.

Health problems and psychological problems of obesity

1) Childhood is expected to be the happiest period of life when children supposed to grow happily into fruitful adults. Children who are overweight tend to grow up as overweight adults. Recent researches have shown that obesity of modern life is associated with many health problems, including lung, gastro-intestinal and circulatory problems during childhood.

2) Obesity in children leads to cholesterol, high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, heart attack, stroke and bowl cancer in later life. In fact, adverse effects of obesity are seen nowadays in childhood itself. Type 2 diabetes affects modern children even before puberty.

3) Obese children may suffer from obesity-related health disorders, including sleep apnea, high blood pressure and heart diseases. Studies show that orthopedic problems also arise as a result of excess weight.

4) Obese children show four times more signs of depressive disorder than non-obese children. They also show symptoms of opposition more than non-obese children.

Why parents do not recognize obesity in their children?

1) Modern lifestyle is one of the important reasons for childhood obesity. Computer era has made life more sedentary. Children tend to spend more time in sitting, watching TV or engaged in computer games.

2) Although genetic factors have a part to play in obesity, it is less significant than the fact that families tend to share fast food habits. Children follow their parents who spend more time in sitting and have less movements.

3) Changed eating habits with fast foods cause obesity today. Nowadays, it is easier for children to become obese because of high-calorie foods which parents prefer to give their children. The American Academy of Pediatrics has published a study stating the facts about how eating fast food negatively impacts the diets of American children, increasing their risk of obesity.

4) Today parents tend to ignore eating habits of their children as they mostly fail to prevent children from their picky eating habit. Children prefer eating more fatty and junk foods which are easily available in today’s consumerist world market.

5) Another important reason for parents not recognizing obesity in children is that they do not find time to pay attention to all such things. Parents find it hard to find time to cook and care as ‘time has become a commodity’ that all are running out in terms of family.