Childhood Obesity Prevention

The prevalence of childhood obesity is so high in the United States that it may reduce the life expectancy of today's generation of children. While parents and other adult caregivers play a fundamental role in teaching children about healthy behaviors, even the most positive efforts can be undermined by local environments that are poorly suited to supporting healthy behaviors. For example, many communities lack ready sources of healthy food choices, such as supermarkets and grocery stores. Or they may not provide safe places for children to walk or play. In such communities, even the most motivated child or adolescent may find it difficult to act in healthy ways. Local governments-with jurisdiction over many aspects of land use, food marketing, community planning, transportation, health and nutrition programs, and other community issues-are ideally positioned to promote behaviors that will help children and adolescents reach and maintain healthy weights. Local Government Actions to Prevent Childhood Obesity presents a number of recommendations that touch on the vital role of government actions on all levels-federal, state, and local-in childhood obesity prevention. The book offers healthy eating and physical activity strategies for local governments to consider, making it an excellent resource for mayors, managers, commissioners, council members, county board members, and administrators.

Children's health has made tremendous strides over the past century. In general, life expectancy has increased by more than thirty years since 1900 and much of this improvement is due to the reduction of infant and early childhood mortality. Given this trajectory toward a healthier childhood, we begin the 21st-century with a shocking developmentâ€"an epidemic of obesity in children and youth. The increased number of obese children throughout the U.S. during the past 25 years has led policymakers to rank it as one of the most critical public health threats of the 21st-century. Preventing Childhood Obesity provides a broad-based examination of the nature, extent, and consequences of obesity in U.S. children and youth, including the social, environmental, medical, and dietary factors responsible for its increased prevalence. The book also offers a prevention-oriented action plan that identifies the most promising array of short-term and longer-term interventions, as well as recommendations for the roles and responsibilities of numerous stakeholders in various sectors of society to reduce its future occurrence. Preventing Childhood Obesity explores the underlying causes of this serious health problem and the actions needed to initiate, support, and sustain the societal and lifestyle changes that can reverse the trend among our children and youth.

Childhood Obesity: Prevention and Treatment provides a comprehensive summary of the scientific knowledge available today concerning the control and treatment of obesity in children. Written for researchers in the areas of pediatrics, nutrition, dietetics, exercise, and physical education, this book analyzes scientific data and offers readers insight into the underlying factors, theoretical conclusions, and practical outcomes in treating childhood obesity. Although obesity is often accompanied with other functional and/or biochemical conditions, these health risks can be prevented and/or treated through the use of natural factors - provided there is a lack of additional pathological complications. Childhood Obesity: Prevention and Treatment outlines the results of reduction treatment using various approaches, including modified and/or hypocaloric diets, and exercise. Also included in the text are guidelines for an efficient intervention that should begin as early as possible in at-risk children. Offered are specific strategies concerning diet and exercise for various ages and degrees of obesity.

The remarkable increase in the prevalence of obesity among children and youth in the United States over a relatively short timespan represents one of the defining public health challenges of the 21st century. The country is beginning to recognize childhood obesity as a major public health epidemic that will incur substantial costs to the nation. However, the current level of investment by the public and private sectors still does not match the extent of the problem. There is a substantial underinvestment of resources to adequately address the scope of this obesity crisis. At this early phase in addressing the epidemic, actions have begun on a number of levels to improve the dietary patterns and to increase the physical activity levels of young people. Schools, corporations, youth-related organizations, families, communities, foundations, and government agencies are working to implement a variety of policy changes, new programs, and other interventions. These efforts, however, generally remain fragmented and small in scale. Moreover, the lack of systematic monitoring and evaluation of interventions have hindered the development of an evidence base to identify, apply, and disseminate lessons learned and to support promising efforts to prevent childhood obesity. Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity: How Do We Measure Up? examines the progress made by obesity prevention initiatives in the United States from 2004 to 2006. This book emphasizes a call to action for key stakeholders and sectors to commit to and demonstrate leadership in childhood obesity prevention, evaluates all policies and programs, monitors their progress, and encourages stakeholders to widely disseminate promising practices. This book will be of interest to federal, state, and local government agencies; educators and schools; public health and health care professionals; private-sector companies and industry trade groups; media; parents; and those involved in implementing community-based programs and consumer advocacy.

Childhood obesity is a serious health problem that has adverse and long-lasting consequences for individuals, families, and communities. The magnitude of the problem has increased dramatically during the last three decades and, despite some indications of a plateau in this growth, the numbers remain stubbornly high. Efforts to prevent childhood obesity to date have focused largely on school-aged children, with relatively little attention to children under age 5. However, there is a growing awareness that efforts to prevent childhood obesity must begin before children ever enter the school system. Early Childhood Obesity Prevention Policies reviews factors related to overweight and obese children from birth to age 5, with a focus on nutrition, physical activity, and sedentary behavior, and recommends policies that can alter children's environments to promote the maintenance of healthy weight. Because the first years of life are important to health and well-being throughout the life span, preventing obesity in infants and young children can contribute to reversing the epidemic of obesity in children and adults. The book recommends that health care providers make parents aware of their child's excess weight early. It also suggests that parents and child care providers keep children active throughout the day, provide them with healthy diets, limit screen time, and ensure children get adequate sleep. In addition to providing comprehensive solutions to tackle the problem of obesity in infants and young children, Early Childhood Obesity Prevention Policies identifies potential actions that could be taken to implement those recommendations. The recommendations can inform the decisions of state and local child care regulators, child care providers, health care providers, directors of federal and local child care and nutrition programs, and government officials at all levels.

Understanding the complex factors contributing to the growing childhood obesity epidemic is vital not only for the improved health of the world's future generations, but for the healthcare system. The impact of childhood obesity reaches beyond the individual family and into the public arenas of social systems and government policy and programs. Global Perspectives on Childhood Obesity explores these with an approach that considers the current state of childhood obesity around the world as well as future projections, the most highly cited factors contributing to childhood obesity, what it means for the future both for children and society, and suggestions for steps to address and potentially prevent childhood obesity. This book will cover the multi-faceted factors contributing to the rapidly growing childhood obesity epidemic The underlying causes and current status of rapidly growing obesity epidemic in children in the global scenario will be discussed The strategies for childhood obesity prevention and treatment such as physical activity and exercise, personalized nutrition plans and school and community involvement will be presented

The Definitive Program for Maintaining Healthy Weight for Children Obesity Prevention for Children is the definitive guide for parents and caregivers to put their children on the path to a happy and a healthy life, protected against childhood and adult obesity. Written by Dr. Alvin N. Eden, a well-known pediatrician and authority on childhood nutrition and obesity together with expertly crafted recipes and meal plans provided by Sari Greaves, Obesity Prevention for Children is a practical and authoritative resource for parents and caregivers. A child’s early years are critical. Both in terms of forming lifelong healthy habits and proactive mindsets, the decisions that parents make for their children today will continue to shape them for the rest of their lives. By focusing on these early years, Obesity Prevention for Children puts the knowledge in your hands—the power to positively affect your children’s health and well-being for years to come.

Childhood obesity has several early-onset adverse effects on all body organs and the metabolism. Moreover, as obesity tracks from childhood to adulthood, it can be an underlying factor for the development of chronic non-communicable diseases, which are the worldwide leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Such chronic diseases can result from lifelong accumulation of some risk factors, including obesity. Therefore, sustained interventions are necessary to tackle the onset or progression of childhood obesity. Childhood obesity is no more limited to high-income countries; it has a rapid growing trend in low and middle-come countries. In addition to genetic background, environmental disruptor chemicals and their epigenetic effects are of important underlying factors for the escalating trend of childhood obesity and the trans-generational aspects of obesity. It is noteworthy to consider the early life determinants of childhood obesity, including prenatal, perinatal and post-natal factors, are usually preventable. Dietary habits are formed in the first years of life; therefore it is of crucial importance to establish healthy habits from early life. Food industry, food environment, and social media are important factors influencing the food choices for families and their children. On the other hand, parents are the most important role models for lifestyle habits of their children. In addition to preventative measures, it is important to know how to manage excess weight in growing children, who need enough macro- and micronutrients for their growth, but need to have controlled food intake. Various family-based and school-based interventions are suggested in this regard. In addition to energy intake, it is essential to increase the energy expenditure by regular exercise. Most healthcare providers are not aware of appropriate physical activity for weight control in the pediatric age group. Sometimes the process of weight gain is not correctly prevented or controlled in children and adolescents, and they would suffer from morbid obesity necessitating surgical treatment. Limited evidence-based information is available about these aspects of childhood obesity. This book is written with collaboration of international experts with different scientific backgrounds, who contributed in gathering the updates and findings from their experience on how to deal with the complex factors related to childhood obesity. The main focus of this book is on providing updated information on all above-mentioned aspects related to childhood obesity. It is expected that researchers, health care providers, physicians, health decision makers, and families would find this book as a beneficial tool for implementing widespread measures for prevention and control of childhood obesity.