Childhood Obesity

Early Child Development and Care Journal call it an epidemic. In a letter to Congress, Mission: Readiness, an organization of senior retired military leaders, calls it a threat to military readiness. They were not referring to the H1N1 virus, or Rubella or even AIDS. They were writing about childhood obesity. Consider this: in the past 30 years, the proportion of children in the United States who are overweight or obese has more than tripled for children 6-11 years of age and has doubled for preschool children. 15% of children, approximately nine million over the age of six, are obese. To get an idea of how many children that is there are 6.5 million people in the Dallas Metroplex according to U.S. Census Bureau’s 2009 estimates.

How did this happen? Well, how many of us have let “Jack” or “Wendy” or “Ronald” feed our children? How many of us have used the electronic media to babysit our children? How many of us have used the promise of a “treat” to get our children to bend to our will? Many of us have. I know that I have and as a result I became a parent of an overweight son.

Hello, my name is Doug. This evening, we will review the potential health threats childhood obesity causes, uncover what causes childhood obesity and look at ways to reverse the trend.

In 2003, the Surgeon General stated that the fastest-growing cause of illness and death in America today is being overweight or obese. He went on to say that 300,000 Americans a year die from its complications, nearly 1000 every day, one every 90 seconds. Type 2 diabetes has increased almost 50% from 1990-2000. The Obesity Society’s website notes several negative health risks of childhood obesity including: type 2 diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, sleep apnea, early puberty and liver disease. Further, obese children are more likely to be obese as adults; hence they are at increased risk for a number of diseases including: stroke, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes...