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Childhood Obesity

Childhood obesity has increased at an alarming rate over the last 20 years. Today, nearly one in five children is battling this condition and if patterns predict the future, almost all of America’s children will be living with diabetes, heart disease, and dying younger due to obesity within the next 20 years. The educated nurse can influence the caregiver’s strategies in promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors for obese children through proper education of prevention, lifestyle changes, and offering treatment options for obesity.

Childhood obesity alone is not the only issue facing children today, although being overly large may inhibit the child from living life to the fullest. However, the co-morbidities relating to childhood obesity are the real killers. Hypertension, type 2 diabetes, respiratory ailments, sleep apnea, and depression are just some of the common problems linked directly to obesity in children (Henry 2005). Others are increased likelihood of having elevated cholesterol, raised systolic blood pressure, experience of early menarche which links with future instances of breast cancer, and increased risk for cardiovascular disease (Ruxton 2004). All of these issues are associated with childhood obesity, and this is a fact that many people do not realize. Steps must be taken to prevent obesity and to promote wellness in children of all ages in order to save America’s children.

First, nurses can influence prevention through sharing information on misunderstood topics. Many people do not know which food choices will keep their children healthy, and these healthy choices should begin at infancy. Numerous women choose not to breastfeed their infants and according to a study done by Mayer-Davis, et al. (2006), breastfeeding can decrease the incidence of overweight/obese children by 13-22%. It is the concern for the children that many mothers say is the reason they do not want to breastfeed, as the mothers are either obese or battling diabetes and don’t...