The Future Consequences of Childhood Obesity

A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that heavier children are twice as likely to die prematurely, before the age of 55, than thin children. This conclusion was determined after researchers spent decades tracking and analyzing the specific functions that are directly effected by weight gain such as body mass index, glucose tolerance, blood pressure, and cholesterol in 4,897 non-diabetic American Indian Children.

While this analysis provides solid proof of major long-term risks associated with childhood obesity, the big question is whether or not it’s enough to convince parents to take action. A 2007  poll on children’s health taken by C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital revealed that a shocking 58% of parents did not cite childhood obesity as a health concern. Considering the various health problems that overweight children often encounter, this statistic has led me to wander: Are parents unaware of the medical classifications that define obesity?

What IS Obesity?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity in children is defined by having a body mass index (BMI) at or above the 95th percentile. To determine where your child’s BMI falls, enter their height and weight into a Body Mass Index Calculator and refer to the provided chart.

What Causes Obesity?

The obvious answer to this question would be over-eating, however there are many factors that play a role in the development of obesity:

1. Unhealthy options offered for school lunches
2. Lack of exercise due to sedentary activities such as watching TV, playing video games, and social networking sites.
3. Economic factors – people with lower incomes often see fast food as a cheaper alternative to fruits and vegetables.
4. The promotion of junk food through mass media.
5. Family genetics.

The Long-term Effects of Childhood Obesity

When an adult is carrying around more weight then their body is built to handle, it often causes strain and discomfort. When a child is carrying around excess weight, it not only causes strain and discomfort, but may also be effecting growth and bone formation. Here is a list of the potentially fatal, long term effects of childhood obesity:

1. Unstable cartilage between bones and growth plates leading to the development of Blount’s Disease
2. Sleep apnea – A condition where breathing is interrupted during sleep.
3. High blood pressure cholesterol – Both greatly increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.
4. Insulin resistance – obesity prevents the pancreas from producing enough insulin eventually leading to the development of diabetes.
5. Fatty liver disease – Fat causes the liver to enlarge, scar tissue forms, and then liver cells are destroyed. In the short-term it causes abdominal pain, infection, and fatigue. In the long-term it causes liver failure and liver cancer.

To learn more about these risks read this article from the Washington Post

If childhood obesity continues to be unacknowledged by U.S. parents, fatalities will continue to rise along with the $174 billion in health care dollars spent on the diagnosis of diabetes. You can help fight the epidemic by not only promoting a healthy lifestyle, but also by educating your friends and family on the dangers of childhood obesity. It’s time to take action and pave the way for a healthy America.

If you’re concerned about your child’s weight, call us at (512) 733-5437 to schedule an appointment for our nutrition management program. Getting your child on the right track for the new year will give them more energy, focus at school, and life-long good-eating habits.

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The “Clean Plate” Policy – A Thing of The Past

For many, the adolescent years are remembered as a time of joy – no responsibilities, running around in circles until night fall, riding bikes with the neighborhood kids; a time period where having fun is all that matters.

However in this day and age, the definition of “fun” has dramatically changed. Children no longer have to leave their bedroom for a good time and are spending the years when physical activity is crucial on technological forms of entertainment.

Combine that with an extensive amount of available junk food and you end up with a country where childhood obesity is a norm; a country like America.

The Facts

According to Action for Healthy Kids, only 2% of school-age children eat consistently well, resulting in a tripled obesity rate from 1980. This substantial amount is not only shortening our children’s lives, it’s leading many experts to believe that for the first time in U.S history, the current generation of children will live shorter lives than their parents. So what’s to blame for this growing epidemic? Today’s fast-paced yet sedentary lifestyle and a lack of routine physical activity offered for children. The fundamentals of life are learned within the education system yet only 8% of elementary school students have a daily PE program. We’re also seeing less of a parental influence in the home due to a suffering economy forcing many to work long hours. Among these are a few other contributing factors:

Nutrition and eating habits: An analysis conducted by the Bogalusa Heart Study discovered contributing changes in children’s eating habits over the last 20 years such as increased incidences of missed breakfast’s, more children eating dinner outside the home, and more snacking.

Physical environment: Urban and suburban areas are shown to have less available outdoor space for recreational activities. Neighborhood crime and a lack of street lighting may also inhibit a child’s ability to get physical activity.

Genetics: Studies indicate that 50-70% of a child’s over-average body mass index is determined by genetic influences and there is a 75% chance that a child will be overweight if both parents are overweight.

Advertising and Marketing: It has been estimated that the average child currently views more than 40,000 commercials each year, and more than 50% of advertisements that are specifically directed at children promote unhealthy foods and high sugar beverages.

The Risks

Children who are overweight miss four times as many school days as a child who is an average size. Much like with adults, a child suffering from obesity is at risk for many dangerous and potentially life threatening health conditions:

• Bone and joint problems
• Liver and gal bladder disease
• Emotional problems
• Sleep apnea
• High blood pressure

Is My Child Obese?

Carrying a few extra pounds is not considered to be obesity. Growth patterns are different in every child and it’s not uncommon for weight distribution to occur at a slow pace. A good way to determine if your child is at risk is by using a  Body Mass Index (BMI) calculator. Although a BMI calculator can be misleading in some situations, it will provide you with a rough estimate of where your child’s weight is in comparison to the average weight of his or her age group.

Underweight: BMI below the 5th percentile

Normal weight: BMI at the 5th and less than the 85th percentile

Overweight: BMI at the 85th and below the 95th percentiles

Obese: BMI at or above the 95th percentile

The most accurate way to determine your child’s risk factor is to schedule an appointment with your pediatrician who can properly asses eating and activity habits and screen for any contributing medical conditions. After finding the source, you can then begin the process of helping your child live a long healthy life.

What Can I Do?

Leading by example is one of the best forms of preventing childhood obesity. A parents influence plays a huge role in the developed eating habits of a child, and proper nutritional education may greatly improve your families quality of life. Here are some other helpful tips:

• Avoid rewarding kids for good behavior or trying to stop bad behavior with sugary snacks.
• Get rid of the “clean plate” policy and be aware of your child’s hunger cues. If they appear to be satisfied, don’t force them to finish every last bite. This will reinforce the idea that they should only eat when they’re hungry.
• Don’t completely eliminate all of your child’s favorite snacks. This may lead to rebellion and increases the risk of overeating these types of food outside the home.
• Change your own eating habits and invest the time to make healthy meals with natural ingredients rather than quick meals filled with processed foods.
• Stress the importance of drinking lots of water to your entire family. Water is shown to help prevent weight gain and keeps the body running properly.
• Help your child stay active and limit the amount of sedentary time. Come up with fun outdoor activities that you and your child can do together, or even activities that your child can do on their own.

Remember, the behavior of parents reflect that of their child’s. Making these simple changes will not only improve your child’s life, it’ll improve your life too.

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Healthy Make-Ahead School Lunch Ideas

Our public schools face this issue on a much larger scale every day, which is why, try as they might, it is virtually impossible for schools to provide meals that are as healthy as parents can provide for their own children.

The healthiest lunch at school is the one that a child brings from home.

…but I’m too busy to make lunch every morning

Families today are busier than ever before, which means that parents have some tough decisions to make about where to invest their time.  Providing children with a healthy lunch is a wise investment. Nutrition powers children’s learning.

A healthy lunch will empower your child to make it through the school day alert and ready to learn. Overloading on carbs, fat, salt, and sugar by eating a lunch provided by the school can result in a spike of blood sugar, closely followed by sleepiness.

If you’re too busy to make lunch every morning, consider spending half an hour every Sunday preparing lunches for the coming week. Don’t limit yourself to peanut butter and jelly – try these alternatives to make lunch interesting. Be sure to press as much air as possible out of the plastic bags before zipping, to keep the food fresh.

Veggies and Dip

Cut up a couple stalks of celery, a head of broccoli and a head of cauliflower. Thoroughly moisten and then wring out a handful of paper towels. Put the paper towels in a sealable plastic container, add the broccoli and cauliflower, then put more damp paper towels on top. The cold, damp towels will help keep the vegetables crispy.  Every day, put some of these veggies in a bag along with pre-peeled baby carrots, sugar snap peas, and cherry tomatoes – whatever vegetables your child will eat.  Serve with a small side dish of low fat salad dressing, peanut butter, or hummus. If you’re really rushed, you can buy a vegetable and dip tray from the supermarket and divide it into five days worth of meals.

Pinwheels

Spread a thin layer of low fat Laughing Cow cheese on a whole wheat tortilla. Top with turkey or chicken breast. Roll as tightly as possible, holding in place with toothpicks. Refrigerate until firm, then slice into bite-sized pinwheels. Use flavored cheese for variety. Serve with a piece of fruit.

Flat Sandwiches

Place a piece of low fat meat and cheese between two pieces of whole wheat flat bread. Put in a plastic bag. In a separate zipper bag, put a piece of Romaine lettuce, a slice of tomato, and a damp segment of paper towel. (The paper towel will keep the lettuce fresh all week.) Because the bread is so thin, the meat, cheese, and vegetables provide plenty of moisture, making mayonnaise unnecessary.

Pasta Salad

Boil whole wheat pasta according to package directions. Add in chunks of vegetables and thawed, frozen peas. Try to use as many vegetables as pasta. You can also add a small amount of meat and cheese. Toss with Italian salad dressing.

Hard-Boiled Eggs

Boil half a dozen eggs, then cool. Peel and put into a plastic bag with a little salt and pepper. Seal the bag well with as little air as possible. Be sure to send some fruit or vegetables with this.

Making a healthy lunch for your child to take to school doesn’t have to be complicated. Yes, it takes a little time, but by planning ahead, you can do it… and your child can help!  By the way, these are healthy lunch options for adults, too.

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USDA Proposes Significant Changes to School Lunch Program

On January 13, the USDA proposed significant changes to the school lunch program for the first time in over 15 years, as part of the nation’s fight against childhood obesity.  Lawmakers hope this will have a significant impact, since a great number of children rely on lunch at school for almost half of their daily nutrition intake.

Parents can learn a lot from the proposed changes when it comes to fighting childhood obesity at home. This image shows an example of how a week of school lunches would look before and after the proposed changes take effect in 2012: School Lunch Comparison. Click here for the PDF version of the new School Lunch Program proposed changes.

The full proposed rule for the school lunch changes can be seen by clicking here.

More Fruits and Vegetables

In Tuesday’s “before” example, children ate one-quarter cup of canned pears and one-quarter cup of
celery and carrots, combined. (No, ketchup does not count as either a fruit or a vegetable.) After the
school lunch changes, the Tuesday example shows that kids will eat one-and-a-half cups of green beans,
broccoli, and cauliflower, combined, plus half a cup of kiwi, and only half a cup of the “main” dish,
spaghetti.

Think about this when you’re preparing dinner. Your entrée does not need to fill up the plate. Consider
the entrée as just another side dish, and allow your children to fill up on fruits and vegetables. Fresh is
better than canned; canned is better than none.

An easy way to provide more vegetables at dinner is to make a practice of serving a salad with every
meal. If you’re rushed for time, you can buy a bag of pre-washed salad greens and serve it with a little
low-fat dressing for flavor. Your salad doesn’t need to be complicated to be nutritious.

The standards require schools to rely more on dark green and orange vegetables and less on starchy
vegetables, which is why tater tots have been replaced by sweet potato fries. Serve potatoes and corn
sparingly, as a special treat.

Go Whole Grain

Every child seems to get excited when it’s pizza day at the school cafeteria, and the developers of the
new standards have taken this into account. Pizza remains on the menu but with a whole wheat crust.
The new standards require that at least half of the grains in any meal be whole grain-rich.

Go whole grain at your house. Your children may require a brief period of adjustment if you switch to
whole wheat pasta, but it will come to taste delicious and “normal” to them. The same is true when
using whole grain bread for their sandwiches. By making the switch, you will be training their palates to
prefer whole grain, which will help them to lead a healthier life.

Cut Down on Salt and Fat

The most effective way to cut down on sodium is to avoid serving your kids processed foods. The USDA’s
proposed rule states, “The use of processed meats would be discouraged because those available at this
time are usually high in sodium.” That’s true pretty much across the board for processed foods. When
you make food from scratch, you control the amount of salt that goes into the food. In many recipes, the
salt can be omitted altogether.

To cut down on fat, choose lean meats and low fat milk, cheese, and other dairy products. The old
standards required a cup of milk with lunch. The new standards specify that this cup of milk should
contain no more than 1% fat.

Teach Your Kids to Prefer Healthy Food

When you put a concentrated effort into getting your children accustomed to healthy foods, they will
accept those flavors as “right.” They will turn to them throughout their lifetime, which means that you
are setting them up in childhood to live a longer, healthier life, something every parent wants for her
child.

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Back Pain? Pilates Helps

If you suffer from back problems, strengthening your core muscles will help maintain a strong spine. Our backbone supports the weight of the body, directs our movements and is involved in ambulation. The back suffers the consequences of our bad habits at the computer, when carrying heavy weights the wrong way and erroneous sitting positions. The back pays for all our posture mistakes. When the back hurts, the whole body suffers;from head to toe.

I have a bad back from a congenital defect. I know it and I am very conscientious about keeping up with maintenance of this part of the body. I started doing Pilates two years ago; it takes just a couple of hours at week to remind my muscles what a good posture should be, while keeping strength in the whole core.

These days a lot of exercise places offer Pilates classes, including our Brushy Creek Community Center. The classes run almost everyday of the week and they are free for members. The center offers lots of other classes for all ages, including Yoga, Aerobics, Racquetball training and general fitness training for kids and adults. They have a Basketball and a Volleyball League, Flag Football and Teen Fitness Boot Camp.

Do you have small children? No problem, they offer a Child Care area for kids from 6 months to 7 years of age, for up to 2 hours.

Living in this area makes it very difficult to come up with a good excuse not to exercise. To contact the center, call 512-255-7871.

Carol Ratcliffe is one of the Pilates instructors at the Brushy Creek Community Center. A Physical Therapist herself, Carol knows how to help her students adapt the level of exercise to their particular needs. She explains her experience here.

Pilates is a form of exercise designed by Joseph Pilates, a Greek physical-culturist, who believed that mental and physical health is inter-related. He developed a system of exercises seeking to develop controlled movement from a strong core which were intended to strengthen the human mind and body.

I enjoy teaching the “Contemporary/Modern Pilates” which breaks his method down into various parts and the order of the exercises changes from lesson to lesson with variations made to his original exercises. This variety is important for your muscles as well as keeping you mentally in the routine! Pilates is great for anyone trying to maintain a strong and healthy back, strengthen joints without stress on your joints, lengthens muscles to make a longer, leaner physique, or reshape your body post-pregnancy. Come and check it out at the Brushy Creek Community Center!

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A Pediatrician’s Gift Giving Guide

Today’s sedentary lifestyle has led to the surge in childhood obesity, so it’s important that parents find ways to tempt their children away from the computer screen and the TV screen. When you’re putting together your Christmas shopping list for your children, keep the word “active” in mind. Choose holiday gifts that will get your kids moving, playing, having fun, learning new skills, and making memories. Kids need to move more, and they’ll have fun when they do.

Here are a few gifts that your kids will enjoy. The idea is to simply get kids moving, not necessarily to get them exercising. By buying gifts that encourage movement and imagination, you are teaching your children to value those things, and you’re teaching them to entertain themselves.

Gift Ideas for Young Children

Puppet Theater – You can buy an elaborate puppet theater with lots of characters, or you can make something simple and inexpensive by decorating a cardboard box and affixing eyes and hair to colored socks. For older kids, finger puppets can help them develop fine motor skills. Children will love using their imagination to create stories. They’ll love it even more if you play with them, or ask the whole family to gather around for a performance.

Play Spaces – A play kitchen with little plastic pots and pans, a tool bench with hammers and interesting nooks and crannies… These toys recreate the real world in miniature, so children can act out the roles that they see adults playing in real life.

Costumes – Young children love playing dress-up, and you can encourage this by finding an interesting assortment of clothes for them to wear. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on store-bought costumes. You can find colorful options at your local thrift store and let your child’s imagination turn the used clothes into whatever they want to be.

Other Gifts that Will Tempt Young Children Away from the Computer and TV:

• Toy Cars with Racetrack
• Dollhouse

Gift Ideas for Older Children

Guitars or Other Musical Instruments – If your son or daughter has a thousand songs loaded onto her iPod, then a guitar might bring a special sparkle to Christmas morning. Be sure to encourage your child by remaining noncritical and supportive during those early days of trial and error. Every world-famous musician started somewhere. In fact,

Digital Camera – With no film to buy or process, digital cameras are surprisingly affordable long-term gifts. Give your child an inspirational book on photography with tips and tricks, and encourage him or her to test new techniques.

Hobby Kits – There are kits that appeal to children with all sorts of different interests, from beading jewelry to building birdhouses to knotting rugs. Your child could even build a functioning robot!

Radio-controlled car or airplane – Kids who feel a need for speed will light up at the idea of going outside to play when they have a radio-controlled car or airplane to control. If a friend’s parents get the same gift for their son or daughter, then the kids can have races.

Other Gifts that Will Tempt Older Children Away from the Computer and TV:
• Telescope
• Balls and Sports Equipment
• Oil paints and canvas

You’ll notice that the gifts for young children encourage play. In their own way, the gifts for older children do the same thing. For older kids, as for adults, hobbies are how we play, and each of the gift ideas encourages your child to develop a new hobby. It’s important to try to find a hobby that will appeal to your child, so that the gift feels like a toy and not like a chore.

Happy holidays!

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Waist Circumference Related to Mortality

A recent study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine this month, shows an association between waist circumference and mortality in adults.

The risk of dying was double for men with a waist circumference of more than 110 cm (43.3 inches), when compared to those with a waist circumference less than 90 cm (35.4 inches). For women, those with a waist circumference over 120 cm (47.2 inches) also doubled the chance of dying, when compared to women with a waist circumference of less than 90 cm (35.4 inches).

Find out if your waistline is a healthy size by following these guidelines for measuring.

Time to get out the bike and start pedaling away the pounds while the weather is still mild and before the holidays contribute to an expanding waistline!

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Children Are Not Hummingbirds: Stop Giving Them Sugary Drinks

The childhood obesity epidemic in the United States does not have a single cause. Rather, there are a variety of factors that contribute to the increasing number of overweight or obese children. But one place we can surely point the finger of blame is toward the number of sugary drinks children consume.

Many of overweight kids drink more calories in a day than a child that age should eat. So even when their parents feed them nutritious meals in sensible portions, these children keep gaining weight. The calories going into a child’s body should be used as energy to power her through the day and as energy to help the body grow toward adulthood. Sugary drinks provide more calories than a child’s body can use. The excess makes the child go on a “sugar high,” and the remainder is stored in fat.

A 12-ounce can of regular soda contains approximately 40 grams of sugar. If one were to fill a glass with soda and a second glass to the same level with water, he would add not one, not two … but ten teaspoons of sugar to the water.

There are ten teaspoons of sugar in every 12 ounces of soda

The only creatures who need that much sugar are hummingbirds. It’s no wonder that children who eat too much sugar suffer from behavioral problems. Their little bodies are trying to flutter away all that excess energy, the way hummingbirds do.

Fruit juice has too much sugar, too

Soda is not the only culprit. Fruit juice should be drunk in moderation, as well. Even 100% juice with “no sugar added” has more sugar in one glass than a child should consume. The difference is only the type of sugar – natural versus high fructose corn syrup – but both sugars are full of calories. Parents should read the label before purchasing a bottle of fruit juice. The number of grams of sugar is almost as high as regular soda, and the number of calories may be even higher.

Fruit juice does provide some vitamins, but even so, a child should not drink fruit juice all day. One small glass per day is plenty. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than 4-6 ounces of fruit juice for children aged 1-6, and no juice at all for infants under the age of 6 months.

Even better, kids aged 1 and up could skip the juice and eat a piece of fruit, which helps them get the fiber and other nutrients their bodies need, in addition to the same vitamins they would have received from the juice.

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