Solutions to Childhood Obesity

KN Simon

Solutions to Childhood Obesity

Obesity among children continues to wreak havoc in the United States of America. One-third of children in the United States are affected by obesity. Parents have a vital role to play in mitigating the cases of obesity among children in the U.S. Paternal, and maternal employment is one of the biggest causes of obesity among children. Parents spend very little time engaging with their children in physical activities that are vital in mitigating cases of obesity among children in the society. Shared parent-child events are essential in mitigating child obesity by changing a poor eating habit, lifestyle, and physical exercises of the child. Collaboration between parents, schools, cafeterias, NGOs, state and a federal government, have a vital role in mitigating obesity among children in the society.

Solutions to Childhood Obesity

The family setting can socialize a child towards or away from obesity in the society. Parents input impact heavily on the elements of child development, parent-child interactions, and intergenerational transfer, which are critical to weight status among children (Moore et al. 1). However, home learned school-based programs due to limited parent involvement in the affairs of his /her child could affect behaviors significantly (Dehghan et al. 24). According to Ickes et al., parent’s physical presence, time, and decisions have underlying capacities in shaping the family health pattern (286). Parents play a vital role in shaping the family shared goals, forming good behaviors, meal planning and collective family activities which have an impact on a child’s health (Ickes et al. 287). Moreover, parents have the capacity to influence their children’s involvement in school-based physical programs. The way a child is molded when growing up helps a child to understand the importance of taking part in physical exercises while at school.

Parent involvement in dietary choices for their children impacts significantly in mitigating the risk of obesity. Therefore, parents’ involvement in dietary selection has an impact in achieving dietary change outcomes among children (Hingle et al. 103). According to Hingle et al., parents provide their children with diets that provide energy and eliminate those diets that increase the risk of obesity especially the fatty and sugary substances (105). Lack of information in dietary selection can also lead to food choices that increase vulnerability to obesity among children. Moreover, parents have the potential to influence children’s obesogenic behaviors hence the need to influence the children positively. Therefore, parenting practices that foster parent-child interactions create an environment that assists improved measures of dealing with obesity among children.

Despite genetic factors playing a role in causing obesity, behavioral practices have a bigger influence in causing obesity among children. Therefore, parenting has a major role too in mitigating obesity among children by encouraging physical activities and promoting healthful eating behaviors. In the U.S., most parents work long hours, and they spend limited time with their children. In the U.S. 62.4% of the households, have both parents in the labor force (Kraak et al. 5). Moreover, 77.1% of mothers and 88.7% of fathers are in labor in the United States of America (Kraak et al. 5). Involvement of parents in long working hours leave children with no one to monitor their eating habits and with no one to prepare cooked food. Consequently, children are left with the audacity to eat whatever they want due to lack of parental supervision (Rodgers 4). Moreover, working for long hours deny parents the opportunity to have sufficient time to spend with their children “parental time famine.” Parental time famine denies parenting an opportunity to engage their children in physical activities that are fundamental to the healthy development of a child (World Health Organization 5). Despite other microenvironments such as neighborhood, school and workplace having an impact on a child’s vulnerability to obesity, parenting and functioning of the family unit bear the largest responsibility in motivating or discouraging obesogenic behaviors among children (Kraak et al. 5).

Conversely, lack of time to spend with children with children is caused by various factors including social status, economic constraints, political and physical environments (Endevelt et al. 326). Therefore, solution strategies should be infused with other non-home elements in the society that can support the parents in the adoption of change (Kraak et al. 5). For instance, advocating positive models of eating and physical activities should also be encouraged through school-based programs, media, state and federal government and the community-based approaches (World Health Organization 11). The role of the non-home settings will support the parents in understanding the best strategies to exterminate parenting practices that increase children vulnerability to obesity.

Questions

Between quoting and paraphrasing, which is the best way to cite a source of reference?

How are quotes from interviews referenced?

Do some researchers have a motive they want to create in their research?

Works Cited

Dehghan, Mahshid, Noori Akhtar-Danesh, and Anwar T. Merchant. “Childhood obesity, prevalence, and prevention.” Nutrition Journal, vol. 4, no.1, 2005, pp. 24.

Endevelt, Ronit, et al. “An intensive family intervention clinic for reducing childhood obesity.” The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine vol. 27, no. 3, 2014, pp. 321-328.

Hingle, Melanie D., et al. “Parental involvement in interventions to improve child dietary intake: a systematic review.” Preventive Medicine vol. 51, no. 2, 2010, pp. 103-111.

Ickes, Scott, et al. “Parental Involvement in a School-Based Child Physical Activity and Nutrition Program in Southeastern United States a Qualitative Analysis of Parenting Capacities.” Health Promotion Practice, vol. 17, no. 2, 2016, pp. 285-296.

Kraak, Vivica A., Catharyn T. Liverman, and Jeffrey P. Koplan, eds. Preventing childhood obesity: health in the balance. National Academies Press, 2005.

  Moore, Elizabeth S., William L. Wilkie, and Debra M. Desrochers. “All in the Family? Parental Roles in the Epidemic of Childhood Obesity.” Journal of Consumer Research, 2016, pp. 1-59.

Rodgers, Rachel F., et al. “Maternal Feeding Practices Predict Weight Gain and Obesogenic Eating Behaviors in Young Children: A prospective study.” International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, vol. 10, no. 1, 2013, pp. 24.

World Health Organization. “Population-based approaches to childhood obesity prevention.” 2012, pp, 1-48.

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