Nurses Are Fighting Childhood Obesity

For the most part, children today have access to more education options and technology than any prior generations

. This has produced an amazingly intelligent and curious group of young minds. Unfortunately, it has also produced children twice the size of kids from 20 years ago. Combine constant computer use and video game playing with the kind of foods being offered and eaten, and its an excellent recipe for childhood obesity. All over the country, nurses are recognizing the huge impact of childhood obesity and are doing their best to fight it and educate children and adults alike.

Obesity is technically applied to those with a Body Mass Index(BMI) higher than the 95th percentile. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention states that at least 17% of children under 19 in the US are obese, and that the amount of obesity cases in children has tripled in the last 30 years. Children who are significantly overweight can develop early type 2 diabetes, and have hypertension, joint pain and sleep apnea.

At the Health4Life Clinic in Georgia, nurses have implemented a program with obese children to try to change their outlook on life and hopefully change their habits. The children must have a body mass index either in the 95th percentile, or a BMI in the 85th percentile or above combined with a something like diabetes or hypertension. The patients visit the clinic once a week and create their own strategies and goals to change their lifestyle. This technique has proved fairly successful and made the children feel in control of their disease.

The University of Mississippi Medical Center founded the Cardiovascular Risk Reduction in Children (CCRIC) Committee to study obesity in African American children in this state that tops the obesity charts. The CCRIC have found that children with obesity often have a harder time learning due to the fact that they are constantly teased or feel the need to goof off and disrupt class to take focus off their weight. They are preaching prevention and encouraging their nurses to teach children to cook healthy and nutritious food. They are also urging nurses to work with the parents to get on board with healthy eating, and to communicate with the school systems to provide healthier lunches and snacks.

Roosevelt Middle School in Long Island has benefited from the NuHealth Foundation which implemented a $50,000 local anti-obesity program. Nurses have been given the resources to teach staff, students, and families how to properly understand nutrition labels, how to create healthy meals, and what fast food really does to a body. They also preach the 5-2-1-0, which is a system for remembering to eat five vegetables and fruits every day, limit yourself to only two hours of sedentary activities like video games and television, squeeze in one hour of exercise a day, and consume zero amounts of juices, sodas or fried foods.

These examples are just a glimpse at all the amazing things nurses are doing out there to fight childhood obesity. What has your community been doing to help out?

by: Kevin K. G.

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