Health Education Research



Changing the trend in the rate of childhood obesity in America is not difficult as long as parents are willing to accept their responsibility for teaching their children healthy lifestyles. Thus, the expert panel recommended that this Guideline prioritize the primary prevention of obesity in infants, preschool, and elementary-school-aged children up to 12 years of age. Obesity in childhood is causative for many chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, osteoporosis, and some carcinomas.

The Carol and Louis Della Penna Pediatric Center offers expert inpatient care to all ages including infants, children and teens. WE need to stop this from occurring and get our children active and healthy. Given that at stake is the health of today's children and youth, as well as the health of future generations, the nation must proceed with all due urgency and vigor.

Children are our future and we need them - and we need them as healthy and developing as optimally as is Preventing Childhood Obesity possible. So allowing children to internally regulate their intake and stop eating when they are full may be a practice worth adopting. As they get older such children are at a greater risk of developing other health problems such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and of course heart diseases.

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), childhood obesity has since doubled (quadrupled for adolescents) in the past three decades. Limit sweetened beverages, including those containing fruit juice, as they make your child feel too full to eat healthier foods.

It is important to determine and plot the BMI beginning at age 2. The CDC growth charts for children age 2-20 demonstrate that the BMI (an indicator of the amount of adipose tissue) decreases from age 2 to about ages 6-8 (depending on the child's percentile at age 2). Children whose BMI does not decrease, (i.e., does not stay in the same percentile between ages 2 and 6-8) are most likely developing excess adipose tissue and are at risk for obesity.

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