I chose the topic of child nutrition, more specifically, childhood obesity. This came to mind as I thought of an incident at school just last week. One of my former students was crying in the cafeteria. She is obese. Another child called her "fatty, fatty, two by four." She is only 8. This broke my heart. In her case it is not solely a matter of poor nutrition habits, it is genetic and doctors are trying to regulate her thyroid.
Obese children are stigmatized because of their weight. They become victims of discrimination and bias. This can then cause psychological effects such as depression. Socially, they might be withdrawn and or isolated. This in turn can, because of the depression increase eating and sedentary activity. Physically, they can experience problems such as sleep apnea, bone and joint problems, are more susceptible to type 2 diabetes and heart problems.
Currently, more than 30% of children in the United States are obese. It has become a pandemic. According to the Journal of Child Nutrition, in 2006, schools were mandated to create and implement a wellness plan in efforts to increase knowledge of child nutrition and decrease the obesity rate. During my research, I found that in Africa, 19% of children under the age of 9 are obese. This was interesting to me as I associate Africa with malnutrition. The rates are attributed to not only to eating habits but to things such as violence. If it is unsafe for a child to go outside to run and play, then they most likely will be sitting indoors with sedentary activities.
This topic has sparked by interest and curiosity about child nutrition. I need to take a closer look at obesity as it seems to be replacing malnutrition in certain areas. It is important that I collect a wealth of information on this topic so that I may be informed as I work to educate parents on the importance of nutrition to the development of their child.
Resources
http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/documents/Chaput-TremblayANGxp.pdf
http://docs.schoolnutrition.org/newsroom/jcnm/08spring/mcdonnell/index.asp
http://www.socialbranding.org/sb/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=181&Itemid=46
Obesity is on the rise here in the US some studies says it's the portion size some studies says it is the lack of physical activities. What ever the reason for a person being obese does not give another person or child the right to make them feel less that the other person. When this type of behavior happen it make me think what are the parens saying.
ReplyDeleteAS I considered the public health issues worldwide, I thought that public health is related to a country's infrastructure, to how leaders spend resources on the people's behalf. But childhood obesity is not about poor use of public funds. It is about poor personal choices, perhaps based on lack of parenting or personal health education. This is a different problem than lack of medical facilities or public utilities. This is a problem of abundance. Educators can be a major influence in teaching healthy lifestyle choices.
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ReplyDeleteI also chose to look at childhood obesity. What makes it so tragic is that this is being "done" to the children and is preventable. Choices made by adults to limit recess time, provide stagnate activities such as video games, and feed with processed and sugar loaded foods are directly impacting innocent children. In many ways, I do believe it is a public health issue. The USDA writes and implements school lunch requirements--French fries are a vegetable, gummy chews are a fruit? Children eating school lunches need truly nutritious foods not poor substitutes that form bad habits. Whoops, I am on my soap box again :)
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