Are You Feeding Your Child to Death?

Find out if you could be feeding your child to death. With the alarming rate of childhood obesity in this country continuing to climb everyday, experts say this will be the first generation where children will have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. Yes, it is this serious of a problem. And, somehow it is not being given the attention that is requires.

Parents strive to raise a happy and healthy child with hopes that one day he or she will go to college, start a company, or just be successful in living out their dreams. What most parents are not aware of is that what they feed their child everyday can directly impact whether they will go on to accomplish any of these. What is even worse is that what parents put on their child’s plate could shed years from their life.

This might sound a bit dramatic, but statistically almost twenty percent of children ages two to nineteen are obese. That means when you go to a shopping center or out to eat one out of every five children you see is obese and one out of every three children is over weight. So whose fault is it? Some blame parents, others blame schools, and even recently the fast food industry took a huge hit. First Lady Michelle Obama understands that it is just not one thing that has caused this tragic epidemic and it will take several things to change the frightening numbers of families suffering from obesity.

The First Lady launched her Let’s Move campaign in order to help turn the epidemic of childhood obesity around within a generation. In May the task force assigned to this campaign released an action plan that outlined step by step what needs to happen in order to reach this goal. The four major pillars the report are based on providing healthy food in schools, improving access to healthy and affordable foods, increasing physical activity, and empowering parents and caregivers. Intensive care nurse Kimberly Hickman states that “although each of these are important, empowering parents and caregivers should be the main focus”.

After struggling with obesity as a child, she knows first hand how traumatic being the “fat kid” can be. “Parents may see their child as a little heavy but are not tuned in to the psychological and physiological effects on their child”, says Kimberly. In fact, after working hard to lose over ninety pounds she has made it her business to educate children and parents what to eat so that other children will not have to go through what she did. Kimberly says, “Kids hold their feelings inside so issues like depression, eating disorders, and anxiety can be happening without a parent ever knowing.”

In the hospital where Kimberly works it is not just her patients that are fighting diseases triggered by obesity, it’s the whole family. “It is a viscous cycle and until parents realize how much impact what they feed their child has on their bodies and their future this epidemic will only get worse”, says Kimberly. It is now being said that if things do not get better one out of every three children born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes. Diabetes alone can lead to blindness, limb amputation, vascular disease, and several other health problems.

“Childhood obesity has become a trend and for that reason people accept it. Would we accept it if twenty percent of seven and eight year olds were smoking? No, so why do we think it is okay for our children to be obese and suffer from tragic diseases like heart disease, asthma, sleep apnea, cancer, and type 2 diabetes that was previously known as adult onset?”, says Jay Snaric M.S., college professor of anatomy, physiology, health and disease, and nutrition.

Even though many factors have caused the percent of obese children to more than triple in the last three decades, ultimately parents are responsible claims Snaric. “Children look up to their parents as role models. Habits are developed early in life so leading by example is a key factor in determining what eating behaviors children will develop”, says Snaric.

Parents are missing the basics of meal planning and even down to what foods to put on the dinner plate. It seems that because of busy schedules and both parents working families have gotten away from cooking and sharing time at the dinner table.

So what can parents do about this? “We need to take a grass roots approach. Our parents, caregivers, and community leaders need to take a stance. The First Lady’s plan is good, but I don’t think the trickle-down effect is good enough. We need to take action and demand that our children are being taught health and nutrition in schools and are getting at least sixty minutes of exercise and play everyday. Parents need to make time to educate at home and cook meals and snacks together in the kitchen. says”

It is important to provide families with the basics of building a healthy diet for kids as well as providing useful tools for weight loss for kids. Unfortunately, at this point, there are very few good educational tools that teach parents and children about the basics of nutrition in order to empower them to make healthier choices. Children do not need to be put on a diet they just need to develop healthy eating habits and learn what foods should go on their plate. Good educational tools and awareness is a good place to start to help fight the obesity epidemic, as well as to just provide very good nutritional education for parents and children.

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