subject: How To Help My Obese Child - Are Children Born To Be Obese? [print this page] If your child is one of the millions who now suffer from being overweight or even obese? If so you are not alone. Between the years of 1980 to 2001 the number of overweight or obese children in the U.S. nearly doubled. What has changed? Are children born to be obese or is the rise in childhood obesity strictly due to bad eating and exercise habits?
Children can be born with a genetic predisposition to be overweight. If one parent or grandparent was overweight and everyone else in your family is of normal weight except for one child, then there could be a chance your child has inherited a genetic disposition to obesity.
This alone does not guarantee a child will be overweight nor can it explain the dramatic increase in the large numbers of obese children today. The genetic disposition has existed long before the dramatic rise in obesity.
A child's ability to have normal and healthy weight throughout their lives can be affected during pregnancy and early childhood. Children born to parents with high Body Mass Indexes (BMI) are more likely to be obese. The children of mothers who suffer from excessive weight gain or diabetes during pregnancy are more likely to be overweight or develop gestational and type II diabetes themselves.
Smoking during pregnancy can also affect your child's growth rate later in life. Children of mothers who smoked during pregnancy face a 500% greater risk of being obese by age five. Smoking during pregnancy can cause low intrauterine growth and which can lead to rapid post natal growth and obesity.
Children who experience low growth prior to birth often experience an accelerated growth rate when exposed to a nutrient rich environment. A rapid growth in the first months and possibly the first days of an infant's life puts a child at greater risk of being obese later in life.
The first step to help your child be healthy and avoid being overweight or obese is to take care of yourself during pregnancy. Consult your doctor on normal weight gain for yourself during pregnancy.
Second, if you are a smoker, quit during pregnancy; if not for yourself, then for the sake of your child. Childhood obesity is not solely the result of overweight mothers who smoke. But it can make children more susceptible to obesity and all the problems associated with that.
Inactivity, overeating and eating junk food are by far and away the greatest causes to obesity among children. You can help your child avoid being overweight by what you do during and immediately after pregnancy.
by: Cary Mcdonald
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