‘Children are our most valuable natural resource’
- Herbert Hoover

Gone are the days when children were full of beans and fighting fit. Instead children as young as 5 or 6 years old are fighting fat! Watching Mr. Bean in action or Tom and Jerry in hyperactive states, or simply laughing at the antics of Laurel and Hardy, unmindful of the number of sedentary hours, is a short cut to obesity.

Today’s children are spoilt for choice when it comes to food – not good healthy food. The market is inundated with food laden with transfat that tickles the taste buds and also gets the fat cells ticking. Sugary drinks, ice creams, fast food and snacks have begun to threaten what was once the mainstay of most households – a healthy balanced diet. No wonder, the crease lines are getting deeper on parents’ countenance.

Millions of kids are bogged down by their own weight and associated illnesses. Their salad days are eaten up due to weight problems. While there are many ‘answers to obesity’, solutions to this burgeoning crisis exist within the four walls - HOME!

How Fat Wears Children Thin

In the recent times, diseases that were ‘Adults only’ have now become ‘Universal’, with special preference to children. The cause is no great mystery and we all know it -childhood obesity. Children are affected in every way due to such problems with their weight. Apart from physical problems, they also suffer many psychological problems. Hypertension, diabetes and cardiac problems have crossed the line of control claiming young victims.

An estimated 22 million children world wide below the age of five are overweight. According to a report published by the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity, more than 50% of the children in North and South America are predicted to be overweight by 2020. The European Union is no better, where 38% of the children are slated to be in the danger zone of chronic diseases by 2020, if they do not check the obesity trend. In China, one among 5 children is expected to be overweight by 2010. Thousands of Indian children are bursting at the seams.

Warning Signs of Childhood Obesity

A child may portray tendency of weight gain in the early years. Generally child obesity raises its ugly head during the ages of 5 and 6 and also in the adolescent period.

The child may weigh higher than normal which should be a warning signal for parents to make necessary changes in diet and lifestyle.

The body mass index (BMI) calculation applicable for age groups is employed to ascertain the extent of body fat, which employs the measurement of child’s weight and height.

If the child has a body mass index greater than 95th percentile ((>30 kg/m2), obesity has struck. Children with BMIs between the 85th and 95th percentile carry an enhanced risk of being overweight.

Excess Brawn - Causes

The following conditions makes a child more predisposed to becoming obese-