Parental Decisions Impact Childhood Obesity Essay

Society, in general, has drastic aloney changed everyplace the past century. Growth and expansion drive kinsperson paved the way for new technological advances, but non with virtually downfalls to go along with it. hotshot more(prenominal) downfall of new technology would be the convenience calculate ( cheerful stores for trash nourishment, convenient to watch television, romp video games, watch a movie, bubble or text on a cellular phone as impertinent to physical exercise, convenient for p arnts to break by fast solid food as opposed to thinking(a) meals). Lack of p atomic image 18ntal controls in these empyreans in conjunction with the convenience performer has trinity to s collectrhood obesity.This is an increasingly growing sickness and will cut across to be so if society does not stop being so convenient. The Ameri usher out Society today has start out obesogenic, characterized by milieus that promote change magnitude food intake, un whole foods, an d physical in drill (Centers for unsoundness Control and Prevention, 2010). the great unwashed ( electric razorren and adults) spend more(prenominal) time in front of televisions or computers and slight time exercising. We drive a car everywhere we go as opposed to walking or riding a bicycle. Children blowout more video games instead of playing hide and seek, which requires them to run around, being active voice and getting exercise.We lead busier lives so time does not allow for disbursement it in the kitchen preparing rubicund meals. Parents live such hectic lifestyles which often lead to dining or getting take out at a fast food restaurant, reservation them guilty of contributing to youngsterhood obesity. Children with telling parents are likely to follow in their parents footsteps and become obese themselves. leaden and obesity result from an energy deficiency. This incorporates taking in too ofttimes food (too umpteen calories) and privation of exercise thus def ining obesity.The instability between calories consumed and calories practised can result from the turns and inter put to deaths of a number of cyphers, including genetic, behavioral, and environmental factors. Studies indicate that certain genetic characteristics may increase an individualists susceptibility to excess body weight. However, this genetic susceptibility may affect to hold up in conjunction with contributing environmental and behavioral factors (such as a high-calorie food supply and minimal physical activity) to nominate a significant effect on weight. Genetic factors alone can play a role in specific cases of obesity.The genetic characteristics of the human cosmos stool not changed in the last three decades, but the prevalence of obesity has tripled among school- developd children during that time. Because the factors that contribute to childhood obesity move with each other, it is not possible to specify one behavior as the cause of obesity. Behaviors let in energy intake, physical activity, and sedentary behavior. Home, child care, school, and community environments can influence childrens behaviors related to food intake and physical activity (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009).Parents in the disciplineplace often lead demanding, hectic lifestyles that have a condition reflection on home life activities. Activities, such as alimentation habits for their children, are a casualty of their fast-paced environment. such lifestyles lead to quick unhealthy meals, such as stopping at a fast-food establishment and consuming a high caloric meal. These types of meals are historically unhealthy with no nutritional value. Nutritional items, such as fruits and vegetables, are limited at these types of establishments. Healthy, home cooked meals are not the design routine for parents to provide their children of this era.Time does not allow for parents to prepare healthy, home cooked meals. The evidence is compelling that th e obesity epidemic is largely caused by hoi pollois alimentation unhealthy food and consuming bigger caboodle sizes. These unhealthy behaviors are not exclusively a matter of little decisions individuals make rather, the environment in which people live determines behavioral filling (Isaacs & Swarts, 2010). Parents workplace habits can directly affect their childrens fooling feeding routines. Children are relying on parents to provide them with healthy meals.There are many things parents can do to assist children in developing healthy eating habits. Offering fruits and vegetables, dairy products or whole grain items as alimentary snacks, as opposed to allowing them to submerge themselves in chips or sugar fill snacks, is a viable alternative to an unhealthy diet. The obesity rate for children would accrue if parents would make time to plan a healthy weekly menu. By doing so, parents are ensuring that their children get the day-to-day recommended amount of fruits and vegeta bles in their diet, thus making for a healthier child.Parents should lead by example. Children need to see parents eating different things, to win the child to want to try new food items. Children and adolescents are dependent on their parents for both economically and emotionally during much of this consummation of rapid growth (Davies & Fitzgerald, 2008, pg. 25). One of the best ways to fall obesity in children is to increase physical activity levels throughout the consummate family. Parents, at home or at the workplace, are faced everyday with busy schedules, long hours and time management issues (i. e. nsuring all required daily activities, such as household responsibilities, errands are completed).These tasks are direct contributors for the neglect of time set aside for physical activity with their children. Also, parents daily work schedules do not allow much, if any, time to incorporate a daily physical exercise routine for their children, let alone to monitor such acti vities. Parents should act as role models by setting examples for their children, such as allowing their children to see them exercise and being active themselves. By leading by example, this should encourage children to emulate them.According to the American Heart connecter and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (Payne, 2010), children should get at least 20 minutes of regular vigorous exercise that makes them parturiency and breathe hard. With the apparent lack of physical activity, parents need to progress to an environment that is conducive to building a daily regime of physical activities that soft grow over time. Minutes spent playing kickball with friends during recess forecast toward the hour-long daily goal, as does climbing trees in the backyard afterward school. It doesnt have to be all at once, says Nancy Brown, CEO of the AHA.Kids should be doing things appropriate for their age, so that exercise becomes a behavior and a natural part of what they do (Payne, 2010). Providing just small increments of daily activity that is geared towards the childs age category can foster a lifetime of behavioral changes that could observe the onset of obesity at a later age. Another factor in the saga of fighting childhood obesity is the issue of condomty and having a safe environment in which to add physical activity.Advocate for well-maintained, safe sidewalks and bike paths in your neighborhood, and volunteer to supervise the use of school facilities after hours. Children are more likely to want to play outsideand youll experience more comfortable with them doing itif its safe, so attend neighborhood connective or city council meetings to request proper upkeep of nearby sidewalks and paths. Also, read gyms and tracks at local schools as options for physical activity after hours and on weekends.Often, schools are willing to make gyms and equipment available on the weekends but plainly need parents to volunteer to supervise, Brown says (Payne, 2010). This avenue of taking facilities that already exist and adding in a safety factor so that they may be used more often could reach into a vast volume of neighborhoods and schools that are currently excluding physical education programs. This seemingly mundane action by a few sets of determined parents could catch on and create new and exciting ways in which physical activities could be introduced to children.In todays day and age of electronics, technological advances in this area continue to rise at record numbers. Features and upgrades to many electronic windings are geared toward a more convenient, user friendly target market. such markets, unfortunately from a health perspective, are focused on our children. agreeable and satisfying methods of entertainment, such as television, movies, video games, talking/texting on cellular phones, computers, etc. far outweigh pure physical activity and exercise. Parents lack of control in these areas, as opposed to phy sical exercise, is a factor in childhood obesity.Children would rather be sedentary playing electronic games on a television, cellular phone or computer, as opposed to playing games requiring physical exercise, such as hide and seek or kickball . The media may shape childrens food choices and caloric intake, including exposing children to persuasive messages well-nigh food, cuing them to eat, and depressing satiety cues of eating while viewing. According to estimates by the national Trade Commission (FTC), children between 2 and 11 years are exposed to 25,600 advertisements per year, of which 5,500 (or 15 per day) are for food or beverages.A 2009 depicted object analysis of foods advertised during childrens television programming revealed that most foods marketed to children are high in salt, sugar, and fat and low in nutritional value, and that healthy food are virtually invisible (Jordan, 2010). This barrage of brain-altering subliminal pass towards newly forming minds lends cr edence to how other areas of technology are creating pathways to enter waxy youths. We live in a world that is technology driven in which new devices are created frequently to make life more convenient.The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that television viewing by children older than dickens years be limited to two hours per day or little avoided altogether for children younger than two years. Surveys of United States parents found that most families do not adhere to these recommendations (Jordan, 2010). These families that provide this amount of television viewing for their children use it as a virtual nanny to keep the child entertain and distracted throughout the day. In todays health certified society, there are many reasonable alternatives to just keeping a child zoned out in front of various electronic devices.One such alternative that is catching on with many families is the Nintendo Wii. The AHA and Nintendo lately teamed up to promote the use of the Wi i Fit to help Americans meet recommended physical activity guidelines. The goal of the partnership is to teach people how so-called active-play video games encourage regular exercise. If youre having a tough time getting your child to play outside, consider buying a video game that requires the child to get moving, Brown suggests (Payne, 2010). The use of this new video game device has provided many families with not only an opportunity to exercise, but to also interact as a family unit.Interacting together provides an environment that can create coming(prenominal) positive habits that might help in the obesity battle. Following recent studies on childhood obesity, it has been found that In the United States, childhood obesity is on the rise the luck of obese children aged 6 to 11 more than doubled in the past two decades, while the percentage of obese adolescents aged 12 to 19 more than tripled, during the same period as well (Li & Hooker, 2010). Medical contributors to childhood obesity, such as genetics and/or heredity, are considered uncontrollable and unchangeable to the health and well-being of a child.The imbalance between calories consumed and calories used can result from the influences and interactions of a number of factors, including genetic, behavioral, and environmental factors. Studies indicate that certain genetic characteristics may increase an individuals susceptibility to excess body weight. However, this genetic susceptibility may need to exist in conjunction with contributing environmental and behavioral factors (such as a high-calorie food supply and minimal physical activity) to have a significant effect on weight.Genetic factors alone can play a role in specific cases of obesity (CDC, 2009). Battling all these convenience issues will prove to be a lengthy well-disposed problem to be solved, but for the sake of future generations of children that will likely be the first to not outlive their parents, it is one that should have the h ighest priority. Parents establishing controls over guidelines set forth and constant supervise of such to decrease childhood obesity is not a sprint, but more same to a marathon.This requires lifestyle changes both for the parent and the child. Constant monitoring on the parents part, along with both parent and child staying the course now will rear dividends for the future of a healthy America. We are all creatures of habit. In the end, the goal should always be for these changes to become second nature. We live in a society driven by a constant change. Growth and expansion will continue to buckle under new technological advances, with downfalls associated.One such downfall, the convenience factor (convenient stores for junk food, convenient to watch television, play video games, watch a movie, talk or text on a cellular phone as opposed to physical exercise, convenient for parents to stop by fast food as opposed to healthy meals) will have a direct correlation between matern al decisions and the health of children for future generations. Lack of parental controls in these areas in conjunction with the convenience factor will produce childhood obesity cases at record numbers. This increasingly growing disease will continue to be so if society does not stop being so convenient.