My doctor informed me that children of overweight/obese parents have an 80% chance of being overweight/obese themselves. 80%!!
Is it genetics or environment or both?
My doctor said that he actually tells parents that their kids need at least an hour of exercise daily. When I was a kid, daily exercise and being outside was kind of part of being a kid. All of that stuff went unsaid. Are parents more overprotective? Do we second and third guess ourselves to the point where we don’t allow our children the same freedoms that we had as kids because of fear? Or do we have more things to do while “sitting down”?
I can honestly say that my parents never educated me on nutrition and exercise. Then again, it wasn’t as big of an issue back then as it is today.
My husband and I enroll our kids in various activities that require being active: karate, swimming, cheer leading, dance, soccer, etc. We want them to have less of a struggle with their weight and more importantly to have self-confidence and a good body-image. In addition, we have also started being better examples. We explain about nutrition and healthy food and making good choices.
What do you think about childhood obesity?
I think it’s such a big problem nowadays. I think kids spending more time indoors is not necessarily due to safety issues; that’s not the most significant reason anyway, though it is easier to keep an eye on them whilst they’re inside, especially in the society we live in today. We also live in a generation of computer games and video games. Most children will prefer to sit inside and play on the Xbox or Playstation than going outside. They don’t even have to go and see their friends – they can talk to them through the computer. Maybe this is due to a lack of education on the parent’s part. Children are probably unaware of the amount of fun they can have outside! I can’t really talk, I was one of these children! I wish my parents would have forced me outside sometimes! But I will learn from my mistakes. When I have children, like you, I will encourage them to do lots of different activities. I will join in! Parents definitely have a responsibility to educate children on healthy eating etc too. I’m not trying to place blame but my whole family are big people. My dad has always given us huge platefuls for dinner and made us eat the whole thing so as not to waste it! We have grown up thinking we have to eat everything we put in front of us and it’s a very hard habit to break!
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K Reply:
January 26th, 2012 at 7:26 pm
Absolutely, Hannah! I think that we all kind of have the mindset that we must eat more. Even my kids have the “eyes bigger than their stomachs” issue. It’s an overindulgence thing. But I think it is more prominent in our culture because we haven’t had to struggle too much.
Fast food, processed food and inactivity are huge factors of childhood obesity.
Thank you so much for your comment!
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I think you know that I’ve written plenty on this topic!
The world is different from when we were “normal” kids. All of these obesogenic factors play a role. In my opinion, it’s 90% environmental and 10% genetic.
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K Reply:
January 26th, 2012 at 7:28 pm
For sure Dr. J! The world is a much different place. Who is to say that the obesity problem wouldn’t have come much sooner if we would have had the kind of technology back then, that we have today?
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