Childhood Obesity is a severe medical condition that affects children and adolescents. From the past few decades, the predominance of childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents.
Overweight or obesity in children cause a number of health problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, PCOS, breathing problems, fatty liver and many more. Childhood obesity can also lead to low self-esteem, being ignored, and getting anxiety in many children.
Treating or preventing childhood obesity helps restore your child’s health and make them self-confident and happy to achieve their goals in life.
What are the 5 common factors that increase weight in your children?
- Watch your child’s eating habits.
Children love eating fast foods or junk foods such as pizza, burgers, white bread, colas etc. Regular eating of such junk foods, baked items, packed snacks or wafers, overeating of sweets and dairy products can cause your child to gain weight.
- Sedentary Lifestyle
Children who don’t do physical activities such as playing sports or doing exercises tend to gain weight because their calories are not burned regularly. In addition, eating junk combined with too much time spent in a sedentary lifestyle such as playing video games, watching television contributes to a higher risk of getting childhood obesity.
- Certain medications
Some prescription medications for chronic health issues like Asthma, allergies, infections, hormonal problems etc can increase the risk of childhood obesity.
- Family factors
If you have a family history of overweight people, your child may also be more likely to get obese. High-calorie foods, a sedentary lifestyle, and the family history combined together has the highest risk of childhood obesity.
- Psychological factors
Many children overeat to cope with emotions such as stress, anxiety, or feeling of ignorance. If parents have tendencies of overeating, so can the child.
Generally, a poor diet containing high levels of fat or sugar and few nutrients can cause kids to gain weight quickly.
Children who have obesity may experience teasing or bullying in school or other groups. It can result in loss of confidence, low self-esteem, and an increased risk of depression, stress, or sadness. As a result, some children become introverted or withdrawn from others and lose interest in studying or other activities.
Treating childhood obesity is truly important as it can cause several chronic health problems later in life. Plan certain family activities – physical exercise like walking, cycling, swimming, playing badminton etc. Make your obese child comfortable doing physical activities and make them feel that you are with them.
Shop together for healthy food choices. In addition, make an effort to reduce the amount of time you and your kids spend in sedentary activities such as watching TV or playing video games.
These little actions can help a lot in your child’s weight loss journey and help them restore their confidence.
Dietary guidelines for a successful weight loss journey
Stay healthy, stay safe and prevent diseases.
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Author of the Blog: Dr. Ronak Naik
Expert Review By: Dr Smita Pankaj Naram
Co-Founder, Ayushakti Ayurved Pvt Ltd
