The obesity is one of the epidemics of the new century both adult and child level. More and more children are obese and this problem is beginning to be dangerous not only at the individual level, but also at the global level, as we explained a while ago at the entrance Childhood obesity: more important than we think.
Many parents are not aware of the risk that obesity poses to health and, in fact, many parents do not even realize that their obese children really are.
To say that "your child should, for his health, lead a healthy life" is not always a good technique to motivate parents. Sometimes we have to resort to the most negative side of a behavior to make a change and therefore it can be legal and logical to offer raw figures of what obesity can do with our children: Did you know that your child will live four years less because of being obese?
Less life expectancy
A review of 57 studies with a total sample of almost 900,000 people, published by Lancet in 2009, showed that the people with the best life expectancy are those with a BMI of between 20 and 25 (which in units is expressed as kg / m2)
Every 5 Kg / m2 of excess increases the overall mortality by 30% and also the probability of suffering from diseases such as diabetes, stroke, heart disease, etc.
This means that in addition to reducing life expectancy (the number of years), obesity causes the quality of life to decrease (In addition to living less, the last years live worse).
To put it in figures, people with a BMI between 30 and 35 have reduced survival in two to four years. If a person has a higher obesity, with figures between 40 and 45 kg / m2, their survival is reduced between eight and ten years, then their effects are comparable to those of smoking.
But children's BMI is not calculated the same
It is true, we are talking about values for adults. Tomorrow, in a new entry, you will be able to see how the BMI of children is calculated and what are the values from which we should start to worry, observing the WHO tables.
And mothers have no perception of being overweight or obese
In another study conducted in Mexico in 2010, 525 boys and girls between 3 and 9 years old were evaluated, controlling their weight and seeing what the mothers' perception was. Of all the children, 357 had a normal weight and 64% of the mothers perceived that their children had a normal weight. 72 children were overweight and only 29% of mothers believed that their children were overweight and of the 90 obese children only 52% of mothers perceived that their children were certainly obese.
These figures show that the problem of overweight and obesity is not only children, but also their fathers and mothers, who are not even able to realize that their children are overweight. Obviously, if it is difficult to motivate and educate mothers with obese children to offer healthy food to their children and try to instill healthy habits such as sports and active play, imagine how difficult this task can be if mothers do not They have the perception that their children have a potential health problem.
Eight-year-old children taking cholesterol drugs
Childhood obesity has been established in the United States for many years more than in our country and for this reason the possible solutions arrive earlier than here.
Three years ago the alarm went off in the healthcare world when the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) He recommended giving some children, from the age of eight, drugs to reduce cholesterol and prevent heart attacks. I speak of the so-called statins (many of you will know about your elderly relatives, or not so much, simvastatin, or atorvastatin, for example).
This recommendation generated controversy because they were drugs whose safety in children had not yet been proven, however, the concern of all professionals was common when wondering what they could do with a child whose cholesterol levels are similar to those of an obese person 65 years.
Conclusion
No, your child is not beautiful if he weighs a third more than 3 years old than he should weigh for his height. You will have a round, rosy face, yes, but you are probably on a body mass index that indicates that your child is overweight or obese. We must begin to change the equation chubby child = healthy child at once because the healthy child is usually rather thin in the eyes of our adults.
It is important to keep in mind that what children receive when they are young (and now I do not speak emotionally, which too) has a very important influence on the adult they will be tomorrow. Inadequate habits, unhealthy eating and an equally dangerous example of health (When parents are obese the chances of having obese children are much higher) they can make, as we commented, the next generation of ours live less years than their parents.
