Childhood weight issues

[alattejava]

Originally Posted by Lynnardr

I am a single mother of three children. Two are gymnasts, the third was a soccer player until age 16 when he stopped soccer and started helping me drive his younger sister to gymnastics. Many nights my children don't get a home cooked meal. I go to work in the operating room at 6 am and get back to the house at 9 pm at night---after gymnastics practice. Even without home cooked meals I manage to provide healthy foods for my children. We occasionally eat non healthy foods, but can manage to eat mostly healthy foods even if I don't cook at home. My oldest is a sophomore in college competing in gymnastics. My middle child is a thin 18 year old (who played competitive, travel soccer until age 16) and my 11 year old daughter, a gymnast, is "too small" according to the pediatrician. I model healthy eating--everything in moderation-- and exercise. We are not couch potatoes but I am not home many nights to cook meals. My daughter was just at the pediatrician and now we need to go to a pediatric endocrinologist because at 11 (amost 12) she is only 55 pounds and 51 1/2 inches. She eats everything she wants---I don't restrict anything, but she eats a healthy diet. Desserts are allowed in my house as long as most of the food you eat is healthy and help your body grow. She has Halloween candy and other deserts when she wants them. Her brothers are not tall but are 5'8 and 5'10. I and my ex-husband are normal heights and athletic builds. We both work out in our 40's and 50's. My daughter is a competitive gymnast and has always been healthy but the pediatrician says we need to work her up for a growth abnormality. Have any of you experienced this? Her x-rays show her bones are the appropriate age so now we have to get lots of blood work. We do have some short, wirery (Sp) relatives who she could be built after. She is comfortable with her size and many gymnasts develop late so I am not too worried. I did gymnastics for many years and didn't get my first period until age 14. Once I stopped competitive gymnastics at age 16 I grew lots. What experiences have other gymnasts had? I would love to hear. Thanks.

I grew six inches in the two years after I stopped doing gymnastics-I stopped when I was 18.

[alattejava]

Originally Posted by Muffy

What I meant to say is that obesity is an overall poor indicator of your physical health. Many people have a healthy lifestyle, are in perfectly good health but are still overweight/obese. On the other hand, there are "normal" weight people who do not follow a healthy lifestyle but are in poor health. I gave the example of my high school as a place that isn't exactly conductive to a healthy lifestyle, but still has very few overweight/obese people.

Furthermore, often your body mass index is an indicator of health, but is not the underlying cause. For instance, having a high body mass index is a risk factor for type II diabetes. We do not know, however, what the cause/effect mechanism is. Is the obesity causing the diabetes? Is the diabetes causing obesity? Is there an underlying condition that's causing both the diabetes and obesity? Why is there still a substantial minority of people with type II diabetes and a "normal" bmi (e.g. my paternal grandpa)? It's unclear. On another note, based on twin studies, we know that there is a strong genetic basis to type II diabetes, more so than with type I diabetes. There appears to be some sort of genetic/lifestyle/environmental interaction going on, but we aren't exactly clear on the details. People like to say, "obesity causes diabetes so we need to stop obesity," but that's a huge oversimplification of the extent of our knowledge. If only matters we so simple! Likewise, we shouldn't say that being underweight causes type I diabetes, although type I diabetics tend to have a lower bmi.

To further illustrate the complexity of the problem, take a look at this study. It tried to examine the risk of disease and death for people of various BMIs. It found that being overweight (but not obese) was associated with an increased death from kidney disease and diabetes specifically, but an overall decreased mortality rate compared to "normal weight" people. Both underweight and obese were associated with increased mortality, but for different reasons. Another study found that only the most morbidly obese had an increased mortality.

My bottom line is that I am bothered by attempts to reduce health and healthy lifestyles to obesity and body mass index. I do not mean to say that I think that we have no control over our health --- I believe we do --- just that there is too much focus on weight specifically.

Not all obese people are unhealthy, just like not all thin people are healthy but statistically obese people are at a higher risk for diabetes, heart disease and cancer. They are also more likely to have mobility problems. I see it every day at work. One of our customers is 350 lbs and 5' and in her late 30s and cannot stand up straight or walk without a shopping cart when she shops. She buys a lot of junk food and now her children are starting to gain weight. You'll never convince me that that is healthy.

[megs2u]

I have a co-worker who is obese and is trying to lose weight (and being successful at it). He has an 18 month old son that will most definitely follow in his foot steps. I constantly hear him talk about what he feeds his son - french fries and tator tots. That's it. Nothing else. "That's all he likes". Um, why has your 18 month old even tried those foods? Apparently his son won't eat ANYTHING else. I told him to not give in and let him go hungry - he'll eat other HEALTHY foods when he's hungry. He won't right now b/c he KNOWS that the parents will give in and feed him what he wants.

[medstudent24]

allow me to be undiplomatic for a second...(so out of character, I know)


When children get to be so fat small objects begin to orbit around them, it's the parent's fault. No one else's. You can blame school meals, the media, secret government conspiracies, or the fast food fairy, but as long as the tiny terrors live under YOUR roof, YOU control what they eat. Therefore, when they become large enough to have their own gravitational field and start leaving footprints in concrete, it's the parents who are to blame.

I'm not saying to stop feeding them sugary bits altogether, but if your child's inner thighs can be spotted on Google Earth, maybe it's time to cut back.

[spezi3]

Originally Posted by medstudent24

allow me to be undiplomatic for a second...(so out of character, I know)


When children get to be so fat small objects begin to orbit around them, it's the parent's fault. No one else's. You can blame school meals, the media, secret government conspiracies, or the fast food fairy, but as long as the tiny terrors live under YOUR roof, YOU control what they eat. Therefore, when they become large enough to have their own gravitational field and start leaving footprints in concrete, it's the parents who are to blame.

I'm not saying to stop feeding them sugary bits altogether, but if your child's inner thighs can be spotted on Google Earth, maybe it's time to cut back.

You have a great way with words and gave me a good laugh this morning.

You are right. It's the parents who are buying the junk foods that the kids eat, taking them to McDonald's instead of cooking a healthy meal at home, etc. A 5-year-old doesn't have the ability to plan meals, go to the store and purchase the food, or drive to a fast food restaurant. Parents are supposed to be a child's role models. If a child sees his parents eating lots of junk foods and very few fruits and veggies, the child will grow up with those eating habits. As a parent myself, I do my best to make sure my son is eating healthy meals and model healthy eating myself. He has a piece of fruit or serving of veggies with every meal. Does that mean that he has perfect eating habits? No. But he eats a lot more healthy foods than junk foods.

There is a Burger King on the base where I used to work. Every 2-3 months I would bring my son there for a "treat." He liked the kids' meals with chicken nuggets and fries. One time when I was in the BK, the woman serving me asked if I was new to the community because she never saw me. I told her that I had been there for 12 years and only eat there every couple of months. She said that she sees families who eat there 3-4 times a week, and commented, "Those poor children never get any vegetables." Again, it's the parents bringing the kids to BK and paying for those meals, not the other way around.

[spezi3]

Another factor in childhood obesity is the lack of exercise that kids get. Back when I was a kid, we had daily recess and PE in school. Those things are now being cut from the school curriculum in order to make room for more academics and standardized test preparation. After I finished my homework, I was always playing outside with my friends, either in my yard or in my friends' pools. We rode our bikes all over the neighborhood. When I was a teenager, I was doing gymnastics and was on my high school drill team for a year (looking back, that was a great low-impact aerobic workout).

Kids today spend a lot more time doing sedentary things like watching TV or playing with their Game Boys. In addition, only a minority of adults gets regular exercise. It seems like the bar gets lowered for what's considered exercise. Vacuuming and dusting are aerobic exercises??? Therefore, kids have very few role models to show them that exercise can be fun. My husband and I model the joy of exercise for our son. We bring our son to the gym with us, where he'll play basketball or racquetball as well as try out the exercise equipment. My son sees me running and doing my pre and post-run stretching routine at home. My husband sometimes brings him out to my races to watch the finish. In the winter we all ski together. My son also rides his bike around the neighborhood with his friends after school.

My family seems to be an exception when it comes to exercise. There are so many families out there whose main form of exercise is walking from the couch to the refrigerator. Parents also find that the TV and Game Boy are great babysitters. No wonder the kids grow up fat and out of shape. If parents want their kids to be fit, they need to model good exercise habits themselves. They don't need to be marathon runners; even a simple walk around the block is good enough.

[larahine]

Originally Posted by spezi3

Another factor in childhood obesity is the lack of exercise that kids get. Back when I was a kid, we had daily recess and PE in school. Those things are now being cut from the school curriculum in order to make room for more academics and standardized test preparation.

I don't think that it's always a complete lack of recess or PE. Some schools may still have recess, but many adults are getting more and more paranoid about what kids do during recess. As a kid, in the winter I was told to go put on a snowsuit and get out there. When I got to college (went to college in Pennsylvania) if the temperature dropped much (if at all) below freezing, the local schools kept kids inside during recess, and were made to do things quietly inside. All in the name of being concerned about kids' health, because, you know, we can't have our kids catching cold. A lot of elementary schools that I'm familiar with still do have PE. .. . .but not every day. And teachers wonder why kids act up. They NEED some time to go out and run around, so that when class resumes, they can focus.

I found it ironic that by the time I got to high school, phys ed classes were every other day (instead of once a week - two if I was lucky), and the phys. ed teachers were all about "getting kids interested in sports." Funny thing is, but by that point, a lot of students were ALREADY hardcore into one or more sports. Those that weren't hardcore into sports had dropped out in Junior high, or never gotten into sports to begin with, and for a lot of kids it was almost too late. Funny. You'd think that if educators (who are supposedly well educated) really understood kids so well, and thought sports to be so important, they'd make more effort in elementary school and junior high, before kids get cynical about sports.

[alattejava]

The best way for children to learn a health lifestyle is for parents to lead by example. I work(ed) with teens and young adults and it is easy to spot whose parents used the "do as I say and not as I do" and those who used the lead by example approach.

[alattejavatoo]

In most cases that is a cop out-this way people don't have to take responsibility. Personally, I've never met anyone who became overweight by eating nutritionally.

[Gymmie]

^^^^^hahahaha you're right