Effects of Childhood Obesity

Overweight children, as compared to children with a healthy weight are more likely to develop health problems. A child suffering from obesity is a higher risk of getting high cholesterol and high blood pressure, which are associated with heart diesease in adults. (“Childhood”. Pg 2.) These contribute to the bulidup of plaques in the arteries, which can cause the arteries to narrow and harden, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke later down the line.

American’s has label obesity as the terror within, it is perceived to be the cause of over “300,000 deaths in America alone each year”. A child’s excess weight at a young age has been linked to h... ... middle of paper ... ...html. Judy A Rollins. (2004). Kaiser Family Foundation Releases Report on Role of Media in Childhood Obesity.

Within the past three years obesity among children has tripled. Childhood obesity is considered the number one health threat in America. Childhood obesity has become a major issue facing America. And today over “nine million” (Selicia 4, May) United States children are overweight and obese. Sadly “2 million” (Tanner 2005) of these children are at risk for type 2 diabetes.

Obesity occurs when a child weighs above the normal weight for his or her age and height. Childhood obesity is a serious issue in the United States and around the world because the extra pounds may lead children to health problems. Overweight is defined as one have more body weight from fat, muscle, bone, or water for their height and obese is defined as someone who has too much body fat. In the article “Childhood Obesity Facts” the Centers for Disease Control explains that childhood obesity has tripled in the past three decades in the United States and is becoming an epidemic. The American Heart Association reported in the article “Overweight and Obesity” that 23.9 million children between the ages two to nineteen in the United States are overweight or obese.

Childhood obesity is a difficult problem with our growing children today. Childhood obesity not only affect the child, but it also the people around them. Childhood obesity cause serious health issues, from heart disease to diabetes. According to Farhat (2010), twenty years ago there was just a hand full of children that were overweight, mostly because of a hormonal or genetic disorder. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services (2013), the number of children aged 6 through11 that were obese, increased from 7 percent in 1980, to nearly 30 percent in 2011.

If obesity is not managed in childhood, then it leads to the negative health consequences in adulthood. In the cardiovascular system, many obese children suffer from Hypertension, Coronary heart disease, and Dyslipidemia. Obesity causes increased blood volume and cardiac output. This leads to cardiovascular problems. Obese children have more risk of musculoskeletal problem.

If this pattern continues over time, they develop more fat cells and may develop obesity. Childhood obesity will cause physical, social and emotional adversities for your child Obesity has many primary factors that can cause this disease, the main ones being: social, genetic, and economic. Nutrition, physical activity, and family factors also contribute to obesity. Children with obese parents have a fifty percent of being obese. If a child has two obese parents he’s at a higher risk of thirty percent of being obese than a child with one obese parent.

Approximately, 5-17 year olds, 70% of obese youth is at a high risk of getting cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular disease is high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Obese adolescents are more likely to carry a condition called pre-diabetes, which is a development of high blood glucose that becomes diabetes. The long-term health effects of obese children and adolescents are at more risk to obtain adult health problems. The conditions of adult health problems are much worse conditions that connect to heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and several types of cancer, arthritis, and stroke.

Obesity is one of the most discernible, but until recently, most deserted public health problems. The present high pervasiveness of obesity and the brisk increase in pervasiveness in the last twenty years has been referred to as an endemic (Johnson SJ, Birch LL. 1994). Children all through the U.S. are getting fatter and less fit, through potentially treacherous enduring consequences. The figure of overweight children ages 6-17 has dual in the past 25 years.

Obesity affects both adults and children but it is more chronic to young children. This paper will look at the analysis of diabetes in young children, obesity, health education strategies and communication strategies used in nursing care and control of diabetes (Benjamin, 2011, 108). Summary of the article Obesity in children has become a serious health issue, in the United States of America. The disease causes problems that persist, as children grow older and has the capability of affecting the quality and length of their lives as adults. Younger children are now at high risk of becoming obese.