Analysis Of Parents Denial Fuels Childhood Obesity

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The mentality of parents can lead to the downfall of their children 's health. Due to the lack of provision and support that they provide as a result of their mentality, their children who gravely need it remains obese and their condition usually exacerbates. In Jan Hoffman 's article, Parents ' Denial Fuels Childhood Obesity Epidemic, she makes it clear that parents who deny the condition of their children can drastically harm them even if it is unintentional. Since, parents with an ignorant mentality cannot provide their obese child with the help they desperately need to combat their obesity problems. She provides anecdotes of parents as well as the sentiments from individuals that developed obesity as a child and needed an intervention, …show more content…

The documentary emphasizes how parents believe their children will grow out of it and portrays the life of four Spokane families struggling with obesity. Also, it goes into depth about the food parents allow their children to consume, and explores other causes and effects of childhood obesity. Throughout the documentary, there are strong anecdotes and opinions of many physicians, pediatricians, and other medical practitioners. The anecdotes show us the detrimental consequences of obesity on children and their troubles that manifested from it. But most importantly, it allows people to see firsthand the impact of obesity on a child. All the parents in the documentary were unable to differentiate the condition of their child 's health as normal or overweight or obese, which is an obvious problem because nothing can change especially if it is not acknowledged or viewed as something important. If parents believe it does not have to be addressed or belittle the problem, then the condition of the child worsens. One of the parents (Yesenia Torres) in the documentary said that she did not realize that her children were in a grave situation because of her feeding practices. She said she used to believe that "An expression of love is feeding the kids whenever they ask for food" but shortly after her children were diagnosed as obese, she realized the seriousness of the situation. Therefore, the parental mentality is an influential factor that determines whether or not a child develops

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