Empowering Healthy Kids Blog

New research from Columbia University Medical Center:

In a chart review of 1,713 children ages 1-5 years living in inner-city neighborhoods of New York City, they found that the risk of being overweight or obese significantly increased with each successive year of age, with the biggest increases in prevalence between the ages of 1 and 3 years.

By age 5, half of the children were overweight or obese. Boys were slightly more likely to be obese than girls.

So it looks like by setting up positive habits early, you can dramatically improve your child’s long-term health outcomes. However:

Additional research is needed about the events that occur during the critical age period in order to develop effective interventions aimed at reducing obesity. While the causes of this dramatic, early rise in obesity prevalence remain unknown, the Columbia researchers speculate that feeding behaviors may play a crucial role.

“The critical age period encompasses a major transition period for children, when they develop and establish food preferences and eating behaviors,” said Dr. Glassman, who is also a post-doctoral research fellow in the Primary Care Clinician Research Fellowship in Urban Community Health at Columbia University Medical Center.

She advises that pediatricians should screen early for obesity and offer advice to parents about the important role they play as their children move from a primarily milk-based diet of infancy to one consisting of a variety of solid foods. In order to help their children establish healthy eating patterns, parents need to think about the types of foods that they themselves eat and keep in the home, and how they approach mealtimes and the feeding (or overfeeding) of their children.

It will be interesting to see a longer term trend of these children to see if there is a link between the early childhood years and the prevalence of obesity as they continue to grow through adolescents and beyond.

Mini-breakthrough with our technology…

Here’s the problem:

A six-month progress report on childhood obesity in the East of England shows that only 40 per cent of Cambridgeshire schools have obtained Healthy Schools status - below the national average of 47 per cent.

Here’s the solution:

From next year the Government will offer five to 16-yearolds the chance to participate in five hours of sport a week, and three hours for 16 to 19- year-olds. Height and weight statistics are also being recorded to track progress in tackling obesity, and data from the 2006/07 academic year is expected by September 30.

Simple?

In our original survey results written up here, we didn’t included the open-ended responses to question 3: How concerned are you about childhood obesity as a community issue?

Here are the reasons parents gave for their answer:

1. It seems to be more common occurrence in the kids I see
2. parents that neglect their kids’ health are doing them harm
3. The prevalence of childhood obesity is on the rise and many of the proposed ’solutions’ I hear about in the media I think are only ‘Band-Aid’ measures.
4. The illness and lack of quality of life for those that are obese and the cost to society in medical support
5. I guess my kids are OK so it does not become an issue with me
6. National Healthcare burden.
   Improper unhealthy diet, excessively reliant on processed foods.
7. I don’t want the average Australian to become like the overweight average American.
8. Wellbeing of children is an important issue, making sure they develop good habits and good lifestyles
9. Unhealthy kids lead to all sorts of health issues in adult life. The community bears the brunt of this and not just in terms of cost. activity should be encouraged - just like us old folks did when we were young
10. I think so many of society’s health problems - diabetes, heart disease, cardiovascular disease are linked to kids’ health. It seems to be getting worse here in America, especially in minority communities.
11. Leads to earlier onset of health issues for obese children.
    Lowers self-esteem, they may not engage in healthy relationships due to self-consciousness of their size.
12. I don’t really think there is an issue regarding obesity as such. I don’t know may children that come under this category. In fact I think there maybe a stigma and kids know that it’s not nice to be fat. And if anything among the teenagers the issue is being thin.
13. It seems to be a growing problem, which will impact on the children’s heath later in life
14. it’s becoming a major issue
15. It will mean a huge cost to the community in the future when children develop health problems related to a lifetime of obesity later on.
16. I would like to see more kids with higher self esteem and succeed in life. I believe healthier kids are happier kids.
17. You see more and more younger kids being obese or overweight, which shocks me a bit.
18. Long term health of society as a whole. Cost on the health system could be reduced
19. It comes down to parents taking responsibility for what their children eat and the exercise they get.
20. physical health consequences
    mental and emotional health issues related to being overweight
21. As a teacher I see children who are very unfit and making poor food choices. School canteen provides some healthy options but still serves fast food and drinks.
22. My work in the field of health has highlighted the major impact that an increasingly obese society has on social, health and financial issues.
23. If children do not know how to manage their weight they will grow up to have health problems as adults - and it will adversely affect their adult lives as well as provide a huge drain on society.
24. Health and well being of future generations.
25. Because this an issue that affects all of our society
26. Observations of children in our circle of acquaintance and of those in our community. Aspects of their nutrition and activity levels
27. Fat kids > fat adults
28. There are so many in-door games that children have these days. They are more concerned about playing video games on their Wii or Computer that going outside to play is like being punished for them
29. Too many Tim-Tams
30. Would put more pressure on our Health systems
31. Influence on my kids.
32. Issues of peer pressure, negative ideas of self which I don’t think are good.

I have now moved this blog to www.empoweringhealthykids.com, so please update your bookmarks. There maybe slight disruptions, so if there is any errors that you spot, please let me know.

The MEND (Mind, Exercise, Nutrition…Do it!) scheme is experiencing good results from its programme:

The results of the first phases of the programme show, on average:

• Waist circumference reduced by over 2cms
• Physical activity up to over 11.5 hours a week
• Sedentary activity down by 5.5 hours per week
• Body Mass Index (BMI) down by 0.8
• Overall there were significant improvements to participants health and wellbeing

There are quite a few of these interventionist plans currently being launched around the world, so it is encouraging to see positive results. While these are the results from the first 3 years, it will be interesting to see if longer-term behaviour change is apparent. Personally, I like the approach they are taking: learning about themselves and setting goals, nutrition education, increasing physical activity and then actually “doing it” - rather than just learning the theory in the classroom.

PBS is promoting the use of it’s “Kid Fitness” DVD as a fundraising alternative:

Instead of selling cookies and candy to raise funds, “Kid Fitness” is proposing that districts sell DVDs of the “Kid Fitness” series to the school community at $19.99 a pop. Fifty-five percent of the proceeds will go directly to the district.

A school district with an average of 1,300 children in grades pre-K-5 can expect to potentially raise between $10,000 to $134,000, depending on whether a family buys one DVD or the complete series.

“As parents ourselves we hope to provide and an easier way to help our kids stay healthy without selling more candy bars, cookie dough and holiday wrapping paper,” says Paul Neville, CEO and founder of “Kid Fitness.”

Backed by an Emmy Award-winning directorial and writing team, “Kid Fitness” is a live, interactive series geared toward two- to eight-year-olds that revolves around a super health hero called Kid Fitness. Each episode incorporates physical activities, health recipes, nutritional tips, and educational segments to help prevent obesity.

Although I have not seen the DVD, this initiative seems like a great idea to promote kids health and helping schools raise money. If you are interested in your school getting involved please visit their fundraising page and download their fundraising kit.

HopeLab, a non-profit based in Redwood City, California, have launched Ruckus Nation, an online competition to garner ideas to get the young to get active. With up to $300,000 up for grabs, Ruckus Nation are hoping that they receive one or two ideas that they can take and run with:

After winners are announced and prizes are awarded for Ruckus Nation, HopeLab will support the development of product prototypes based on great ideas submitted to the competition. These prototypes will be rigorously tested to determine their effectiveness. Prototypes that prove to be most effective will be developed into final products and made broadly available to kids.

However, please note that all of your rights to the idea are given up to HopeLab (rule number 2.9):

You must have full rights to any idea, works of authorship or invention described in your Entry,
and you must be able to transfer those rights to HopeLab, as described below. If any other
party, including your employer, has any ownership or intellectual property rights to your ideas,
works of authorship or inventions, your Entry will be void.

If it weren’t for this rule I’d enter one of the projects I am working on.

I did a presentation recently for a group of investors and mentors at Anzatech and this was my second slide:

Source: CDC

Note that overweight rates are nearing 20% for a majority of the childhood population.

Note: Body mass index, expressed as weight/height2 (BMI;kg/m2) is commonly used to classify overweight and obesity among adults, and is also recommended to identify children who are overweight or at risk of becoming overweight. Based on current recommendations of expert committees, children with BMI values at or above the 95th percentile of the sex-specific BMI growth charts are categorized as overweight.

I spotted this in Oakleigh:

I think we will find more of these “market driven” solutions popping up around local communities. By the way here are the details of the “Activate Kids” event:

Activate Kids
Tuesday 25th to Thursday 27th September 2007
11am and 1pm
“Healthy exercise and food classes for kids”
Tuesday: Yoga & Wicked Wraps
Wednesday: Pilates & Rockin’ Rolls
Thursday: Dancing & Smiley Sandwiches