Many children during the school years have different health problems: weak sight, weak immune system, memory problems. Nevertheless, these problems are internal and not everybody knows about them. But childhood obesity is the disease which makes a lot of difficulties for children to coexist in school and to have friends. It became one of the leading problems over the XXI century. The first question which is bothering people while seeing an obese child is “What are your parents doing to you?” or “What are they thinking about?”. However, not everybody realizes that the reason of it is not parents’ neglect or child’s indifference. The problem is hidden a little bit deeper.
Approximately 30% of adult obesity begins in childhood. But what is the prime source of its apparition? There is no single cause which one can blame for such a high rate of childhood obesity. Children's habits are effected by numerous factors, including an easy access to junk food and soda, not realizing the importance of healthy food and not enough appropriate places, where they can play and exercise. However, there are several factors that are considered to be of the great importance nowadays. These are: changes in lifestyle, irrational nutrition, genetics, and physical activity.
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The outmost reason of children’s obesity is considered to be eating too caloric food, unhealthy products and drinking an excessive amount of soda. These types of products increase the level of fat on the child’s body and lead to obesity. Sometimes parents are guilty for the way their children look. For instance, they can be too worried that their kids are hungry or eating not enough. That is why they start to fill their stomachs with a great deal of food. It is normal when it happens once or twice a month, but when it is the constant procedure, it starts deforming kids’ bodies.
The next, but not less vital cause of children’s obesity is the technique dependence and laziness. It means that they would rather spend the whole day watching television or playing computer games than walking around with friends. Indeed, with the emergence of modern devices children became crazy about them. Lack of movements and excess of food in child’s organism are destructive.
There are can be 2 groups of effects of childhood obesity: physical effects and psychological effects. Physical problems include cardiovascular risks such as heart failure and stroke. Another serious issues occurring as a result of obesity are type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Not less important are sleeping disorders, early sexual maturity and eating disorders, such as Anorexia Nervosa. Moreover, children may suffer from the lack of stamina and joint and bones problems because of the overweight body mass. In accordance to the CDC, 70-percent of children who are suffering from obesity have such diseases as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol levels or glucose intolerance. Moreover, obese children may suffer from asthma, non-alcoholic liver disease and life threatening complications, such as heart or kidney failure (Biro M. Frank, Wien M., 2010).
Taking psychological effects into account one can distinguish depression, low self-esteem, fears of being mockered, disliked or humiliated due to the way they look. As a further result they can experience shyness, feeling lonely or even drug or alcohol abused. In most cases, people who are suffering from obesity from the early childhood find it difficult to forget the way they were treated and, as a result, become confidential, mistrustful and full of inferiority complexes. According to Schwimmer, the quality of life of obese children is compared with the life of cancer-sick patients. It is hard to make friends for the obese children, since almost everybody is making fun of them (Schwimmer, J.B., Burwinkle, T.M and Varni, J.W., 2003).
There was no doubt earlier that male and female put on weight on the same level. However, gender factor became more popular nowadays. Scientists claim that women have more possibility to overweight than men. This is because men burn far more energy at rest than women. As a result of it, men require a bigger quantity of calories in order to gain their body weight. Moreover, one more fact, when women get postmenopausal, their metabolic rate decreases. That is the reason why a lot of women put on weight after menopause (Slyper A., 2004).
Parents must support their obese children in different way in order to help them to overcome the disease. First of all, they need to consult with the doctors and to make a special diet for their kids. It is advisable to limit the amount of sweets, fried food and soda from their daily ration. It is better to reduce visits to the cafes and restaurants with the fast food, which is extremely harmful for children’s health. It is vital when family encourages kids, for example, eating and exercising together. Not less important to reduce the hours on spending near the television and computer.
All in all, one apprehends obesity as a lifelong issue. The most important reason why it takes so long for people to lose pounds is that they lack in willpower. They start losing desired pounds, than get tired of restrictions, exercises, diets and then go back to their usual habits of eating anything they wish. That is why it is considered to be the biggest problem with losing weight, since no one can force a person to do what he or she does not want. One should not forget to support an obese children at all costs because it is like a new lease of life for them, to know that someone appreciate them.