My MSECS Journey: 2011-01-09

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Child Nutrition

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 Socially, they might be withdrawn and or isolated.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

My Connections to Play

When children pretend, they’re using their imaginations to move beyond the bounds of reality. A stick can be a magic wand. A sock can be a puppet. A small child can be a superhero.

Fred Rogers American Television Host

“Play is the highest form of research.”

~ Albert Einstein (scientist)

As a child, my family would always say "Go outside and play". That is exactly what I did. I spent hours upon hours playing in the barn, playing hide and seek and playing on the swing set. One of my favorite activities was climbing up into the silo and pretending I was skydiving as I jumped off into the huge piles of soft fertilizer(manuer). I loved the openess of running through the pasture pretending that the "bad guys" were after us and finding what my cousins and I believed to be the safest and best hiding spots. We would entertain ourselves with the real live cows, horses, pigs and chickens. When not on the farm, I would still play outside. I loved playing with the piles of leaves and climbing trees. I do not rememeber having many actual toys other than Cabbage Patch kids and a huge Strawberry Shortcake collection. I treated the dolls as if they were alive and could communicate with me. I mimicked my mother's behaviors towards my baby brother. I also recall how I loved to play in the kitchen. I could stack soup cans for hours and then bowl them over with my mom's bowling ball.

Inspirational Quotes and Words of Wisdom