The Dangers of Childhood Obesity (And How To Prevent It)

By >> Becki Andrus

A large number of responsible parents are slowly waking up to the fact that the dangers of childhood obesity are a clear and present danger and they are looking for ways how to prevent it. Childhood obesity is an epidemic which has gained momentum during the past couple of decades. Children are getting to be more overweight and thus they are suffering from weight related diseases like diabetes, hypertension, kidney failure, heart problems, high cholesterol, and even high blood pressure.

This danger is coming to light because recent statistics show that one out of every four child is suffering from obesity. You are going to be surprised to know that childhood obesity is caused because of bad eating habits and undisciplined children eating junk food without any restrictions from parents or other responsible adults. Apart from that, the sedentary lifestyle being followed by a large number of children who are not encouraged to exercise but are allowed to sit for hours and hours in front of a TV or a computer is responsible for childhood obesity.

Once upon a time, children were encouraged to play a number of outdoor games like baseball, football, and also to jump, skip, and cycle, because that helped in proper muscular development. However, sad to say nowadays parents as well as schools are not encouraging physical activities, because other co-curricular and scholarly activities have gained more importance in the sight of educationists and parents.

So apart from a wrong unhealthy diet which is not supervised by parents, you can consider TV, playing games on the computer, browsing the Internet, and absolutely no parental encouragement for outdoor activities, to be some of the main reasons why childhood obesity is getting to be such a worrying epidemic for medical practitioners and parents.

You can prevent your child from becoming a total couch potato by supervising the amount of programs he watches on TV in a day. You would also need to encourage him to go out and play games. Make sure that he does not have his cell phone with him because once he is outside he is going to sit on the nearest bench and text his friends instead of walking around or exercising. Texting and playing games on the cell phone or on the video are reasons why so many children miss out on physical exercise.

A large percentage of parents really do not have the time to supervise the food eaten by their children. Regrettable but true. You are a busy working mother. Your child is a latchkey child. He comes home, opens up the fridge and makes himself a sandwich of peanut butter and jam with a chunk of processed meat or cheese. If he wants, he might fry himself an egg and some bacon. If the fridge was filled up with freshly cut fruit, fresh fruit juice, delicious whole-grain bread and low-fat dressing made in olive oil, your child would eat that, would not he? So parents should consider themselves responsible for the food eaten by the child. A healthy diet means the child is going to follow it automatically. So, there is no question of the child growing obese under such circumstances.

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