Childhood Obsesity

...

health effects, and poor school outcomes create a very dangerous situation for these children.

It is evident that childhood obesity is a problem that needs a solution. I currently work with young children and hope that childhood obesity is a problem they do not face as they continue to grow. Throughout my work I have interacted with a few children who have received my concerns regarding their weight, but their weight never turned into a serious health concern as they grew. As a growing professional who plans to interact with children on a daily basis, this issue is very important to my work. I plan to use this knowledge in my work to help prevent children from suffering from childhood obesity. The first step in doing this is to spread awareness, but in order to see a decrease in childhood obesity rates there needs to be a worldwide, nationwide, and community wide effort in helping children with this problem. Awareness is key because people may not know the facts about child obesity, nor may they know that obesity is even a true problem for children. To help spread awareness I would talk with each family that I encounter in my work and briefly explain childhood obesity, the risks, the causes, and what efforts they could make to avoid childhood obesity. If there were children I was working with who I thought may be at risk for childhood obesity, I would go more in depth with their parents about childhood obesity. I would also share my concerns with parents who have a child who is obese. I feel that this is part of my ethical duty to do everything I can to help a child in terms of their growth and development. My hopes are that if I show my passion for wanting the best for their child, they will see that they need to do everything possible to ensure their child has a bright future ahead of them. I would also create an enticing pamphlet or brochure that I can give to parents and guardians so they have a hard copy of the information. They need to know the risks their child faces. Even if one out of every 10 families take time to read through it, I will still be happy the result be that is one more family that now has the information they needed to help their child.

Another effort I would make is in intervention programs. I believe that there need to be effective intervention programs for children who are obese or at risk for being obese. The main concentration for these programs should involve family. Gradually, family-based intervention has developed into a preferred method of mediation because that houses two frameworks, behavioral approaches to family based healthy lifestyle, and behavioral approach to family based health lifestyle with parent education (Sung-Chan, Sung, Zhao, and Brownson, 2012). According to Sung-Chan, Sung, Zhao and Brownson, eighty percent of the studies presented weight loss in treatment groups and showed that family played an important role in modifying lifestyles. They also found that family-based lifestyle interventions that involved one primary parents achieved better treatment outcomes than the intervention with additional training in parenting and child management (2012). This result indicates that parents have an impact on a child’s intervention program. Parents who help their children in intervention programs enhance the chance that their child will lose weight and reduce the amount of fat in their body.

In summary, childhood obesity is an epidemic that needs community-wise, nationwide, and worldwide attention. As an individual in a profession that focuses around children, this problem is very close to my heart. We need to spread awareness about this problem and begin to work on solutions. I believe that we can make true strides to reducing this problem if we continue to work with effective intervention programs, increase public knowledge to parents and teachers, and promote healthy lifestyles. Children who are obese face major side effects, which can all be prevented with support from people in each child’s life.