Miller County - Family and Consumer Science
Healthy Snacks Make Healthy Kids
Healthy Weight For Young Children Objectives
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Obesity & Overweight in Young Children
Objectives
- Participants will understand the problems associated with overweight and
obesity in children.
- Participants will support positive eating habits in children.
- Participants will help children learn about food and eating healthfully.
Discuss “Background Situation” and “Cause for Concern” as a way of explaining
why weight of young children has become such a big issue in America.
Distribute handouts and involve participants in discussion of information in
the handout.
Background Situation
Overweight and Obesity have reached epidemic proportions in the United
States. According to former Surgeon General David Satcher, overweight and
obesity may soon cause as much preventable disease and death as cigarette
smoking.
In 1999, an estimated 61 percent of U.S. adults and about 13 percent of
children and 14 percent adolescents were overweight. Today there are nearly
twice as many overweight children and almost three times as many overweight
adolescents as there were in 1980. We are already seeing tragic results from
these trends. Approximately 300,000 deaths a year in this country are associated
with overweight and obesity.
In children and adolescents, overweight is defined as Body Mass Index
above the 9th percentile. That means that for every 100 children of the same sex
and age, 95 will have BMIs below those whose BMI falls above the 95th
percentile line. Children whose BMIs fall between the 85th and 95th percentile
are considered at risk for overweight and those whose BMIs fall below the
5th percentile are considered underweight. Children whose BMIs fall
between the 5th and 85th percentiles are considered normal weight for
height.
Cause for Concern
Overweight in children has potential profound effects on their current health
and long term health. Overweight children are more than two times likely to have
high levels of cholesterol. High blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes are more
frequent in overweight children.
One of the biggest concerns is that obese children are more likely to become
obese adults, with all of the health, social and psychological ramifications.
The risk is higher for those who were obese at older ages, such as in
adolescence. If parents are obese the risk for children becoming obese adults is
much greater.
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