Ways to Tackle the Epidemic
Dr. Pandit Anand of KEM hospital, Pune suggests various strategies to target specific age groups:
Infants and young children:
- Prevent excess weight gain in pregnancy and control diabetes in pregnancy.
- Promote exclusive breast feeding for six to eight months.
- Monitor growth with weight for height and BMI.
- Instruct mothers to accept child’s appetite and not force feed.
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Children and Adolescents:
- Promote active lifestyles including at least one hour of vigorous activity per day.
- Limit daily television viewing
- Impart health education skills to make healthy food choices.
- Increase fruit and vegetable intake.
- Celebrations to be encouraged in the form of outdoor play and picnics rather than fast food parties.
- Educate about the evils of alcohol and tobacco to adolescents.
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At Schools:
- Training teachers to inculcate values of good lifestyle habits in children.
- Introduction of ideal and healthy school meals.
- Introduction of nutrition and physical education in school curriculum as a compulsory and / or a ‘scoring subject’ with marks to be added to total. This kind of a strategy will make parents and children take due notice and dedicate required amount of time in their academic curriculum.
- Access to the playgrounds after school and on holidays.
- Monitor BMIs, identify the crossing percentiles, and counsel the pre- obese children.
