Mar 31

Written by: News
3/31/2007

There was a feature story on the news today that caught my attention. It was about a Mother who may lose custody of her 8-year-old son because he weighs 218 pounds.
The mother, who feared she might lose custody of her obese 8-year-old son unless he lost weight, was allowed to keep the boy after striking a deal with social workers to safeguard his welfare.

The case has set off a national debate over child obesity and raised questions about whether genetics, junk food or bad parenting is to blame. Connor McCreaddie, of Wallsend, northeastern England, weighs four times the weight of a healthy child his age.

The boy's case attracted national attention after his mother allowed an ITV News crew to film his day-to-day life over the course of a month. When he was 2 1/2 years old, he was too heavy for his mother to pick up, and at 5, he weighed more than 126 pounds. Now McCreaddie, who is tall for his age at 5 feet, wears adult clothes and size eight shoes, the newspaper said.

"He'll hover around the kitchen for food. He'll continually go in the fridge," McKeown said about her son. "I just keep telling him to get out of the fridge, wait until meal times and stuff. But at the end of the day he was born hungry. He has always been hungry." "Bacon. Mmmm... That's my favorite. Um ... chicken, steak, (and) sausage," the boy told the camera.

Childhood obesity is of particular concern because it greatly increases the risks of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, skeletal disorders, and strokes. Certain cancers are also associated with obesity, and obese children have a higher chance of premature death.

Several genetic conditions also contribute to obesity, such as Prader-Willis syndrome, a rare disease characterized by excessive appetite, problems in the central nervous system, and a low IQ.

Another rare genetic disease, Bradet-Biedl syndrome, can lead to problems such as vision loss, obesity, and being born with extra fingers and toes. Obesity and diabetes used to be seen as middle-age problems, but now we're seeing more and more children with both problems.

Have you ever met a child who has better eating habits than their parents? Parents are, hands down, the biggest influence on their kids. They need to be good role models. I heard a quote that said, 'What you say will speak to your kids. What you do will scream to them.' "

Government data show two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight or obese. One-third of children and teens — about 25 million kids — are overweight or on the brink of becoming so. All are at an increased risk of developing diabetes, high cholesterol and other health problems.

Everyone needs to be aware that the deck is stacked against children for having a healthy weight. Our society is set up to have our kids grow up overweight, which is why we need to be vigilant. The figures keep coming out, pummeling us with the fact that our kids weigh too much.

Some families don't seem to know how to plan and make healthful meals. This is a generation of young parents who may have grown up on a lot of high-calorie take-out food, processed snacks and few fruits and vegetables. If they grew up that way, those are the eating habits they're going to teach their kids.

All of us need to do something about it. When it comes to this issue, we cannot put a Band-Aid on it anymore. Busy parents often don't make the time to feed their children healthful foods. We need to rearrange priorities. You can't have “no time” to feed the kids.

So what's to be done?" Start by looking at what your children are drinking. The first point of attack is beverages — always, always, always. They typically don't drink enough water or milk, and their diets are low in calcium. Most are drinking a lot of soda and other sugary drinks. The calories they get from sugary drinks, and its often 500 calories or more a day...just by cutting those out, they can lose a pound a week.

Other problems: too much "grazing," too many packaged foods and fast foods, not enough fruits and vegetables, few structured meals.

Some have mothers and fathers who don't want to say "no" to them when it comes to food or TV and computer time. A parent needs to determine how much time their child is just “sitting”, inactive, in front of a TV or computer. And parents, don’t allow your kids to just go and grab a bag of chips any ole time they want. You need to set the structure and you need to say “no!”.

The good thing about making healthful changes at home is that it can help the children who have a weight problem and it doesn't hurt the others. If you have healthy food in the house, the thin child won't melt away. They'll eat more, and they'll improve their nutritional intake.

To make better meals, parents will have to plan ahead and go to the grocery store regularly to buy healthful ingredients. When you don't plan, you'll fail. I'm in no way minimizing how difficult it is to take the time to make meals and plan snacks. But it's worth it. And there are plenty of good shortcuts: packaged salads, cut-up vegetables and fruit, roasted chicken, ready-to-eat fish and meat.

Making an effort to help your child eat right is an investment in their health, now and decades down the road.

Copyright ©2007 HCC News Michele Leonard

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