Child obesity is a consequence of poor eating habits

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The latest research of the Institute of Food and Nutrition has given food to many adults. Every fifth Polish child is overweight! It is very important to create programs that, like the Healthy Preschool Academy, try to do counteract obesity. Through early education, children can do a lot to stop the obesity epidemic. But what to do if your child is unfortunately already in these 22 percent of overweight children? Where to start and how to deal with it so that the child will grow up into a healthy adult?

Despite the growing problem of overweight and obesity in children, Unfortunately, parents often underestimate the problem, saying that "the child will grow out of it." However, the truth is different. Mostly obese adults grow out of obese children, who more often than slim people develop civilization diseases. So when we notice a problem in our child or a child from our environment, we should be more interested in it.

How to recognize child obesity

Obesity is defined as excessive fat accumulation in adipose tissue leading to adverse health effects. The simplest and most commonly used method to assess the degree of overweight and obesity in children is determination of the mass to body height ratio using centile grids. In children and adolescents during growth, we use BMI percentile grids, taking into account gender and age. To assess the degree of overweight or obesity, it's better to ask a doctor or dietitian. However, parents must be vigilant. The excess of adipose tissue visible to the naked eye should oblige them to visit a specialist.

Genetic obesity

Of course, there are some genetic factors that promote obesity, but obesity will only develop in those children where adverse environmental factors coexist - improper nutrition and too little physical activity.

How to deal with the problem?

For the treatment of overweight and obesity in children, the best results are obtained by providing comprehensive care for specialists in various fields: doctor, dietitian and psychologist. For children, whose body weight only slightly exceeds the norm for age and sex, no weight reduction is necessary, but to keep it at its current level until the child grows up to this weight. In this situation implementation of the principles of proper nutrition will certainly bring measurable results.

However, weight reduction is necessary in children whose BMI is above 95 percentile, especially when resulting from excessive body weight health complications. The physiological rate of weight reduction in children and adolescents should be within the range 0.25-0.5 kg / weekly. The basic method of treating overweight and obesity in children is proper diet and increased physical activity.

However, slimming a child cannot be based on diets available in the press, which are usually intended for adults. Their use in children can cause health consequences, associated with deficiencies of some components necessary for the proper growth and development of a young person.