Friday, 25 July 2008
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Are Your Kids Too Fat?
by Nurse Jenna
Earlier this week I talked about how it has recently been recognized that continuous breastfeeding until a baby is 9 months old helps prevent childhood and later adult obesity. This is one step towards helping a larger problem that we, as a society, face today.Childhood obesity is a problem in the United States and it is only grower bigger, as are our children. Diseases that were once reserved for adulthood, such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease, are now being diagnosed more and more in kids as a result severe childhood obesity. “Obese” is defined as having a BMI (body mass index) over the 95th percentile and this affects 13.9 % of children 2-5 years of age, 18.8 % of kids 6-11 years old, and 17.4 % of teenagers 12-19 yrs old. These numbers are staggering and only getting larger.
Take the following quiz and see how your kids are doing regarding healthy lifestyle habits and then look to see what the American Medical Association guidelines are for parents to help prevent childhood obesity.
“The Big Five” - Scoring Worksheet
Some habits contribute more than others to excess weight. Complete this brief scoring sheet on behalf of your child. Keep in mind that all children should have good nutrition and physical activity habits, regardless of whether they are overweight.
1. Sweetened beverages
Sweetened beverages include fruit juices (whole juice or from concentrate), fruit drinks and punches, regular-calorie soft drinks, sports drinks (e.g., Gatorade), energy drinks, regular sweetened iced tea, and chocolate or other flavored milk. One serving of a sweetened beverage is 12 oz.
How many servings of sweetened beverage does your child consume in a typical day? (Round up any half servings to the next whole number of servings.)
A. One or no servings = 0
B. Two servings = 5
C. Three servings = 10
D. Four servings = 15
E. Five or more servings= 20
2. Fast Food (excluding sweetened beverages)Traditional fast food (e.g., burgers [with any type of meat], hot dogs, French fries, chicken nuggets, onion rings)
In a typical week, how often does your child eat traditional fast food?
A. One time or less = 0
B. Two times = 5
C. Three times = 10
D. Four times = 15
E. Five or more times = 203. Family Meals
Eating Dinner while being supervised by at least one parent is protective against obesity.
How often does your child eat dinner with at least one parent during a typical week?
A. One time or less= 20
B. Two or three times = 10
C. Four or five times = 5
D. Six or seven time = 04. Media Time
Media time is defined as the amount of time your child spends watching television, using a computer (apart from homework), playing video games, or listening to a music device while sitting or lying still. In a typical day, how much total media time does your child have?
A. Less than one hour = 0
B. One to two hours = 5
C. Two to three hours = 10
D. Three to four hours = 15
E. More than four hours = 205. Habitual physical activity
Regular physical activity is protective against obesity.This can include most sports as long as your child is out of breath once while playing (softball and bowling do not usually count.)It can also include walking, riding a bike, skateboarding, etc. regardless of whether or not your child is out of breath.Gym class does not count.
In a typical week, on how many days does your child participate in physical activity (sports to the point of being out of breath) or walking, riding a bike, etc., for at least 30 minutes total per day?
A. Zero to One day = 20
B. Two to three days = 10
C. Four to five days = 5
D. Six to seven days = 0
Total Score: ______To calculate your child's total score, add up the score above, and then subtract that number from 100.For example, if the sum of the scores above is 60, your child's score would be: 100 - 60 = 40
Scoring Guide:
- 80-100 points: Excellent. Although there is always room for improvement, it's obvious that your child is practicing habits that will help him or her achieve or maintain a healthy weight.
- 60-80 points: Good. Your child has many good habits but there is still significant room for improvement.
- 40-60 points: Fair. To achieve or maintain a healthy weight, there are many health behaviors your child needs to adopt.
- Less than 40 points: Poor. Your child is at high risk of becoming obese or remaining obese.You should speak to your doctor about helping your child achieve a healthy weight.
Recommendations for Parents to Prevent Childhood Obesity:
- Limit consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages
- Encourage consumption of recommended quantities of fruits and vegetables
- Limit television and other screen time to one to two hours a day in children five years and older
- Remove television and computer from child’s bedroom
- Eat breakfast daily
- Limit eating out, especially at fast-food restaurants
- Ensure that parents and children eat meals together
- Limit portions to appropriate serving sizes
*Taken from American Family Physician, July 1 2008 edition
How did you score? What type of things are you seeing in our culture that are leading to this gradual, yet ultimately deadly pattern leading to childhood obesity?
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Comments (26)
Well awesome. 90 and that's because of TV time. We're working on cutting that down too.
The only one that drinks soda here is my husband and he's cut back a lot. My boys either drink water or milk. Sometimes orange juice when we buy it or watered down apple juice. They like and ask for water so we don't often buy juice. We can't afford to go out to eat but even when we did, we only ate out once or twice a month. Dinner is always ate as a family. And I can't get my boys to stop moving (except for a movie in the afternoon for 'quiet time') so we have no issues there.
Honestly, I think it's sad that kids expect fast food every week (or every night
) and that many many kids have TVs and game systems in their rooms! We have 1 TV in the living room. My husband and I will not allow TVs in the bedroom, ours or theirs.
I do my best to cook healthy and well rounded meals. Now that we are vegetarian I'm feeling even more confident that my boys will get the good nutrition they need. We don't buy junk food so they don't ask for it. They would rather eat fruit, cantaloupe is a big favorite this summer. I model good choices for my kids and make sure my family stays healthy. I can't expect my kids to want to eat healthy if my husband and I don't.
I wish the spotlight would focus on underweight children in America as well. I'm in the 15th percentile for both my weight and height while I used to be in the 60th percentile weight wise. I just dropped all this weight and can't get it back. It makes kids like me so angry that the focus is never on what we can do to gain weight, only what we can do to lose.
Another thought about fast food. Many parents that work full time don't have the option of cooking a meal from scratch every night. They are tired from their day so they just go through a drive though to pick up dinner. It's extremely unhealthy of course but also expensive! Of course many SAH parents are just as tired and don't feel like cooking.
It would be simple to cook a week's worth of meals on the weekend and freeze them so all it takes to make dinner after work is turning on the microwave. There's even Once A Month Cooking. Crockpots are also handy. Just because you are time strapped doesn't mean you can't give your family healthy home cooked meals. It's cheaper too.
TV time killed us. We are at a 90, but we will be cutting back on that.
I know we have a huge prob. with obesity, but some kids will just be bigger for a time. My kids are in the 90th percentile for height and weight, and a dr. I went to wanted me to cut down on the junk I feed my kids. What junk??? My kids all eat well balanced meals, and they are just big. I went to a friends house, and the 2 hours I was there, her kids had eaten bags of chips, and honey buns, and drank Pepsi. I was telling her about that dr, and she was shocked. She said her kids eat like that all the time. They were all thin as a rail. I think a lot of the obesity problem is bad eating habbits, and lack of physical activity. But maybe a little is genetics?
While I think it's great that we're talking about obesity, I've got to point out a huge statistical discrepancy in this:
th"“Obese” is defined as having a BMI (body mass index) over the 95
percentile and this affects 13.9 % of children 2-5 years of age, 18.8 %
of kids 6-11 years old, and 17.4 % of teenagers 12-19 yrs old"
The 95th percentile is defined as the point (or the set of people at the point) at which 5% of the population has higher scores(weight) and 94% of the population has lower scores(weight). Thus, at any given time, only 6% of the population could be defined as at or above the 95th percentile. Certainly not 17%!
@tedder6@xanga - If your kids are in the 90th percentile for both weight and height, then their BMI might not be outside a healthy range. It's a matter of weight-to-height ratio.
But yes, a lot of it is genetics. I know people who can eat two large pizzas three times a day every day and lose weight. But your kids could still probably stand to be a little healthier, even if they're not overweight. I was underweight all throughout my childhood, and now I'm normal weight, but I've always been physically unhealthy due to lack of sufficient exercise.
Well we scored a 90 and the 10 points off came from TV viewing. Although most of the time, we turn the TV and then our daughter ends up walking away and doing something else before even watching a 30 min program. This has been a problem lately because finance has been working 15 hours days and being pregnant and working full-time I have been exhausted. Next week start trimester 2 so hopefully my energy will pickup!!
It makes me so sad to see kids these days just consumed by poor choices not only made by themselves, but their guardians as well. I've watched it happen to my own nephew during his early months and it took what felt like an eternity to help get him back to a healthy weight and eating habit. He was lucky, though... He received intervention before he was a year old. If only all kids could be as fortunate...
No my daughter is not fat, in fact she is bony and she needs the fat has much as she can. She's 2 years old and she weights only 21 pounds.
85 for my own habits. By the time I get home from work at 9pm at night, take the dogs for a 30-45 minute walk and get back to the house? I do tend to veg infront of the computer or a movie for a bit before bed and that kills my score.
I think more people should consider going vegetarian and encourage their kids to do the same (assuming that they'll actually eat vegetables and not simply pasta). I'm a vegetarian. I may not be stick thin but I'm healthy and feel good and that's what counts.
We got a 90....and, like many others said, it was because of TV time. When I give my kids juice, I cut it half and half with water and they don't know any better (since that is what they have always gotten) and it is extremely rare that they don't sit down and eat a meal with us. The only time we do fast food is if we had appointments and such and are running way late. (Like lunch at 1:30 or 2). We go for a walk as a family every day and my older boys usually ride their bikes for that. Plus, they run circles around the house all day.
I have had a bit of a hard time with this, because my 8 year old weighs 90 pounds. Too much for an 8 year old, right? But he is not overweight and I wouldn't even describe him as cubby. He is not stick thin either. But he is also like 5 foot and wears a size 8 in mens shoes. He is just a big kid. My husband and I were always this way too. Not big, but not small and we were both very active, sporty kids. He is, though, the one we have the hardest time getting off his butt! My other 2 are larger than average also, but what are you gonna do. I don't feed them just (to them a candy bar is a fruit and granola bar) and they all like a least a couple fruits and veggies well enough that they eat them every day. They are all very active and seem to have an endless suppy of energy (they are all jumping on my bed behind me right now). So, there really isn't much else I can do, but people still think my kids are big. Oh well, I know they are good (and the dr says they are) and that is what counts.
My son lives with his mom, so I couldn't accurately answer everything, but doing myself got me 80. He certainly isn't obese, he's actually really thin, so i think that must mean something about what goes on at his mom's house. And whenever he is here I get to see the habits that his mom has taught him, like how he doesn't really like watching tv - He'd much rather be playing outside, although he'll watch something with me if I really want to see it and he's waiting to go out heh.
At his age, 7, I would never keep a tv or game system in his room - those are privileges I feel are reserved for older kids, going up in their teens, and even then it would be monitored and gradual. Better yet, my parents told me if I wanted anything I'd have to buy it myself, but! If my schoolwork was bad, or if i wasn't taking care of myself properly, they'd make me quit my job (obviously this is when I was still in highschool lol) so then i couldnt earn it. So, in order to get anything, I had to be diong well in school, taking care of myself by getting some sun and exercise daily and eating/drinking properly, and maintaining a job.Doing that, I got a computer at 16 (it was a piece of junk so I didn't stay on it all day playing games - I couldn't afford any better. It was good for using Word and the internet, and thats all I needed, really, though the 16-year-old me was probably disappointed) didn't get a tv/game system til I was... 18? I got a tv for my 18th birthday and a ps2 i bought for myself soon after (and, as a side note, hte tv in my bedroom was NEVER connected to cable. it was ONLY for watching movies or playing games on... which actually means it gets used a LOT less). and after that was all beyond graduation from high school, things I earned on my own, and I had already developed at least somewhat healthy habits as it were.I think it was also a great lesson in money management; I'm one of the few college aged people around here who can budget well enough to pay their own way through college (Community College, but still, its tough) without mommy and daddy's help. I also was the only one of my friends to buy my own car with no help from parents besides a cosigner. NOT ONE of my other friends did that. I do think it's because my parents encouraged me from a young age, and showed me how, and since I was so determined to show my parents that I could be a responsible, mature adult and handle my own money now, I did it all on my own (they would have been willing to help me if I needed it)Back onto the topic, I feel the need to add that all my life I've been a healthy-thin, only gaining some weight recently due to health issues. I think I've done pretty well, and I would like to pass on that method to my son in the future.yay. 90.
althoguh my son is huge... he isn't over weight at all.
he has been in the 99.9% for height weight and head diameter since he was 1 month old.
nothing has went up (height weight or head) and grown to raise any concerns
doc said he is just going to be HUUUUUGE. which makes sense cause my fiances father/uncles etc... are about 6'7 and solid muscle
@la_faerie_joyeuse@xanga - Ok, once again, my statistics are confusing! Being that I have a math minor...let me try to clear this up a bit! First, BMI is calculated based on height and weight, so that does go into the equation. Also, as far as percentages vs. percentiles in this example--this is what they are saying: Obesity is is defined according to BMI for ALL people, including adults. That is where the 95th percentile comes in. The percentage of children that are obese is then greater the remaining 5% outside the overall 95%, which simply means that children overall as a group are fatter than adults as a group because the percentage of children above the 95th percentile is greater than 5%, which is what you would expect it should be.
@NurseJenna - Ah, apologies, then! So kids are (very) roughly 3 times more likely to be obese than any individual the general population. That's really kind of scary.
And yay for a math minor! Though, I don't exactly qualify statistics in the same branch as math, at least the way that modern statisticians do it.
@la_faerie_joyeuse@xanga - No, you are right..."real" statistics is *way* over my head, I just know the basic stuff :)
almost 100...she gets secondhand media when i check my email, blog, etc. we've gone without a tv since we got married. we wanted to have the 1st year "to ourselves" more or less, and we figured that we didn't watch that much tv, and whatever we wanted to watch was online anyhow. i don't see us getting one anytime soon.
both our family, respectively, have grown up eating meals together, and we still have meals with the grandparents once a week. we don't really like eating out. hubby likes to drink sweetened beverages once in awhile but i do most of the grocery shopping hehehe. my BIL is convinced that fruit juices are really good for you, but i keep telling him i've seen it on the junk food section of the food pyramid. we need to work on the physical activity a little more though.
@NurseJenna - My problem is that I can't really understand the basic stuff until I understand the more complicated stuff, which I haven't gotten to yet.
But thanks for this post! Keeping kids healthy and teaching them how to keep themselves healthy is the single most important responsibility a parent has.
Thanks for the quiz! We scored 95! I didn't think I was doing that
good of a job! And you didn't even ask if ourkids eat their veggies!!!
Honestly I don't shelter my kids from sweets, but I don't let them go
crazy either. And from the beginning offering lots of healthy choices
instead make a big difference! Like if the kids get chips, I at least
buy Sun chips so they get a little extra fiber or wheat thins instead
of chips....we alwasy offer fruits or veggies at every meal and at
snack times....kids are so impressionable if you start them off right
they'll learn to like healthy foods!!!!
Our biggest obstacle is getting outside to be active because my hubby works literally everyday, we don't have sidewalks in our neighborhood, and it's too hot out right now for my baby. I do try to get out as much as possible though and am always working on improving that. Fortunately we don't watch too much TV, I try to limit it to two hours a day. I don't drink juice or soda so we don't buy it, I'm always carrying a water bottle and I even give them as gifts because I think everyone should drink more water!
I'm a huge fan of family meal time. I make sure we sit down to at least one meal a day together and have since we were married. I think it's very crucial to staying connected as a family because you can all sit down, distraction free, at least once a day to be with each other!
It makes me sad and mad when I see overweight children out and about with their parents. I want to go over and smack their parents and let them know they are killing their children, much in the way that I want to do to smoking parents. Too many parents are just too lazy about giving into their kids desires to have sugary drinks and snacks, sit inside playing video games or watching TV, etc. Also a lot of parents set a bad example by having these bad habits of their own.
@XbabyK@xanga - I agree! Parents need to be better healthy role models.
We carry water bottles everywhere.
Some people are surprised that my kids actually like water. How awful is that?
I love seeing all of these parents on here scoring so high. Like that picture of the fat little kid eating McDonalds...just breaks my heart. I get so angry. I don't have any kids (yet) but I can guarantee that when I do have some, they'll be healthy and happy. I can't see how the overweight kids can really be happy or ever even know that they are MISSING out on being truly happy because from the very beginning they are "weighed down" so to speak. So to all you good parents, keep it up. Later your kids will thank you!
I took thistest for myself......I am a fourteen year old girl, scored 40 points even, weigh 120 pounds and am a size 1-2, and so I think this test may only work for children.....young children.....
My kids are weightless, they don't even exist!
Do I win something?