What Might Surprise You About Childhood Obesity

The formula is pretty straightforward: energy in/energy out. This is the term nutritionists use to describe the intended balance between calories consumed and calories burned. If the level of physical activity is not great enough to burn the amount of calories taken in, weight increases. If this imbalance continues, overweight and possibly obesity result.

Given our fondness for fast food (an ever-growing fondness, due to ever-busier lives) and our tendency to "supersize," it's easy to imagine that caloric intake is the crux of the obesity problem. And certainly it is part of the problem, especially considering the quality of the calories consumed. (Recent evidence indicates that children get a full quarter of their vegetable servings in the form of potato chips and French fries!) But the greater problem lies with the second half of the equation: energy out.

Studies both here and abroad have indicated this is true. The Framingham Children's Study, for example, found that preschool children with low levels of physical activity gained significantly more subcutaneous (beneath the skin) fat than did more active children. In another study it was determined that inactive preschoolers were 3.8 times more likely than active preschoolers to have increased triceps skinfold thickness (the best measure of obesity in children) in follow-up assessments. It's also been found that children who watch more than five hours of television a day are almost five times more likely to be overweight than children who watch two hours or less ? with excessive TV viewing considered to contribute to 60 percent of the risk of obesity in children.

More specifically, in the United Kingdom, while the proportion of overweight or obese children remained the same between 1974 and 1984, there was a marked increase in the following decade. The research, reported in the British Medical Journal, determined the change was due not to increased energy (calorie) intake but rather to a decrease in energy output.

Studies in the United States have made the same determination. An increase in childhood obesity of 20 percent over the last decade (at least one in five American children is currently overweight) has occurred despite a decrease in overall fat consumption and little change in caloric intake.

According to the authors of a research article appearing in the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine, there is one consistent observation that stands out among the studies of energy expenditure in young children. That unfortunate observation is that children under the age of seven seem to expend about 20 to 30 percent less energy in physical activity than the level recommended by the World Health Organization.

Sedentary children? Obese children? Unfit children? They're all a fact of life in today's society. The sad irony is that in today's society we're more "active" than ever ? in terms of "busyness," that is. Perhaps we should get busy becoming more active in the physical sense. Energy out is the key to maintaining an appropriate weight during childhood. As such, exercise (mostly in the form of active play) should be a natural part of the child's daily life ? a habit as common as brushing teeth.

Said Dr. Samuel Abbate, at a childhood obesity conference sponsored by the North Dakota Department of Health: "The consequences of denying the body exercise are just as severe as depriving it of food, water, or oxygen; it just takes longer to see the consequences."

Rae Pica is a children's physical activity specialist and the author of Your Active Child: How to Boost Physical, Emotional, and Cognitive Development through Age-Appropriate Activity (McGraw-Hill, 2003). Rae speaks to parent and education groups throughout North America. You can visit her and read more articles at http://www.movingandlearning.com.

---

Treatment Options for ADHD

Ritalin has been shown through the years to be very... Read More

Give Your Child Life Skills for a Lifetime

Many parents struggle with solutions to put their child on... Read More

Homework Doesn?t Have to Be a Battle of Wills

Homework. It doesn't have to be a daily battle of... Read More

Be Serious With Your Child Future

As a parent your biggest responsibility is to prepare your... Read More

Why Wont My Teens Clean Their Room?

Have you ever had this struggle with your teens? Did... Read More

Who Wants To Date Their Mother?

Do any other reality TV junkies remember a show on... Read More

Is Your Child Ready For an Allowance?

Children think money grows on trees. Maybe not literally, but... Read More

Just Average

What do you mean average? Not good? Just doing good... Read More

Understanding A Childs Beliefs, Nuturing Young Beliefs

Children are moral and make moral determinations... at least until... Read More

Choosing a Daycare or Pre-School ? Top Ten Safety Tips

When it's time to put your child into a daycare... Read More

Are You Frustrated With Public Schools?

Join a growing number of parents and teachers!Fact: Last year,... Read More

What Do You Teach Your Children About Money?

Whether we realize it or not we teach our children... Read More

What Should I Know About Strattera for ADHD?

Strattera came out around January of 2003, and is becoming... Read More

A New Dad To Be? Deer in the headlights?

Ok. So you're a dad to be. If you're like... Read More

Cloning; is it for you?

What would it be like to have a clone? What... Read More

How Public Schools Assault Parents Values

Is there anything wrong with lying, cheating, stealing, shop-lifting, taking... Read More

Committed Parenting

When you think about it, probably the one thing that... Read More

Vision: 20/20 Is Not Enough!

Now is an excellent time to have your child's vision... Read More

Your Kids Career - Whose Choice?

A strange thing happened to me today. Or more precisely,... Read More

School Days - Top 10 Tips for Establishing a Good Routine

Teachers know that children thrive in an environment with routines,... Read More

A Call For Fathers

Dads, please let me encourage you to change some things... Read More

How Much Water are You Wasting?

Are you being smart about water conservation? Do you consider... Read More

Picky Eater Syndrome

'Picky Eater' is a label coined to describe the phenomenon... Read More

Theres a Lollipop on Your Bottom (and Other Terms of Endearment)

"I took care of Callie," my three-year-old announced.Callie had been... Read More

MORAL ARMORS Irrational Parenting, Part III

Not Letting Them Think.We all implicitly know that anything questioning... Read More

Parenting Styles - Overcoming Your Differences

If you spend any time in the parenting section of... Read More

How Kids Learn To Cooperate In Video Games -- A Guide for Parents and Teachers

A great many parents are concerned that the electronic games... Read More

Who Will Be Their Guardian?

If you are like most people today, you do not... Read More

Effective Troubled Teen Programs

Not all parents subscribe to the notion of "tough love,"... Read More

Parents, Teach Thought-Stopping! Fix Crooked Thinking Caps

Does your child pout, blame and brood? Does he gripe,... Read More

Strategies to Help Boost Your Childs Self Esteem

Self esteem in an important quality for all children to... Read More

Planning the Ultimate Kid Birthday Party

Child Party Planning Guideline #1)Pick the ThemeYour child is going... Read More

Don?t Make Fast and Furious Food Changes

OK, moms and dads out there, we hear you when... Read More