Empowering Healthy Kids Blog

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The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have released their latest findings from their 2006 survey of schools across the US:

• States prohibiting schools from offering junk foods in vending machines increased from 8 percent in 2000 to 32 percent in 2006, and the percentage of school districts doing so increased from 4 percent to 30 percent.
• Schools selling water in vending machines or school stores increased from 30 percent in 2000 to 46 percent in 2006.
• States that required elementary schools to provide students with regularly scheduled recess increased from 4 percent in 2000 to 12 percent in 2006 and the percentage of school districts with this requirement increased from 46 percent to 57 percent.
• Schools with policies that prohibited all tobacco use in all school locations, including off-campus school-sponsored events, increased from 46 percent in 2000 to 64 percent in 2006.
• Schools that sold cookies, cake, or other high-fat baked goods in vending machines or school stores decreased from 38 percent in 2000 to 25 percent in 2006.
• Schools that offered salads a la carte increased from 53 percent in 2000 to 73 percent in 2006.
• The percentage of schools that offered deep fried potatoes (French fries) a la carte decreased from 40 percent to 19 percent.

The CDC then offerred the following areas for improvement:

• Seventy-seven percent of high schools still sell soda or fruit drinks that are not 100 percent juice, and 61 percent sell salty snacks not low in fat in their vending machines or school stores.
• Only 4 percent of elementary schools, 8 percent of middle schools, and 2 percent of high schools provided daily physical education or its equivalent for the entire school year for students in all grades.
• Overall, 22 percent of schools did not require students to take any physical education.
• Currently, 36 percent of schools still do not have policies prohibiting tobacco use in all locations at all times.

Encouraging. Looks like the increased childhood obesity awareness is making a difference.

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 sent out a childhood obesity survey recently (which can be view here – we are still accepting responses) and promised that I would post the results. The goal of this survey was to get parents view on this issue and where they see the main problems lie. There were a total of 43 respondents as of 30 August 2007. Feel free to comment on this article at the bottom of this page.

In summary:

On the whole parents found that they weren’t as concerned for their own child compared to other children in the community; they were happy with the role that their school played in combating childhood obesity (but counter-intuitively, wanted schools to have a greater role in this area); kids were generally aware that they needed to be healthy and are easily motivated to be active. Be sure to see the additional comments from parents at the end. Some very passionate voices there!

Q1: Age Range of Children

Other interesting stat: Number of kids per respondent was 1.80.

Q2: How concerned are you about your children being overweight or obese?

Q3: How concerned are you about childhood obesity as a community issue?

I have grouped these two questions together as I think it gives an interesting insight into how we view childhood obesity. The dark green graph represents how concerned respondents are about their own children. The light green represents how concerned they were about it as a community issue (ie. other people’s kids). Notice that the light green bars are skewed to the “Very Concerned” and “Concerned” as opposed to the dark green bars when are more evenly spread. This could mean that our pool of respondents (which is admittedly small at 43) have generally healthy kids. Or it could mean they view their kids through “rose coloured glasses.” It could mean that the intense media focus on childhood obesity means that parents view it as “we’re OK but maybe other families aren’t.”

Q4: How happy are you with the amount of exercise/physical activity your children do?

Perhaps this is why our respondents aren’t that concerned with their kids.

Q5: Nutrition vs Physical Activity: Which do you think is more important for your children’s health and wellbeing?

No real surprise here.

Q6: What physical activities do your children participate in?

Here is what people put under the “other” category:

• walking in general
• riding bicycles
• outside organized activities when kids get together and play by themselves eg BMX, skateboarding
• cycling
• BIKE RIDING AS “PLAY”
• Swimming
• Childcare - activities are provided at most Childcare centres.
• Playing at the park
• Swimming lessons, tennis lessons.
• family cycling
• family evening walks
• exercise through kinder
• swimming
• Horse riding on weekends.
• Swimming lessons.
• Limited due to work commitments of parents.
• playing in park
• She has run some minor marathons.
• Playground
• Gardening
• neighbourhood walks for exercise
• Using play equipment at the local park-very physical.
• Twister Dance DVD- exercise for kid to music-very structured with warm ups and various degrees of difficulty. Kids think its great fun.
• He also attends SCOUTS which is quite active and they do much outdoor activities
• Physical activity organised at youth club.
• Lots of playing/kicking the ball in the garden
• Hours of body boarding/swimming at the beach
• Surf Life Saving

Q7: Are you currently looking for products or services to help your children become physically active?
Q8: Are you looking for solutions (eg. products, services and information) for providing a healthier lifestyle for your family?

Again I’ve combined the two for comparison. Generally speaking parents are trying to create a healthier lifestyle for their family.

Q9: How easy it is to get your children to be physically active?

Must be all that red cordial.

Q10: How concerned are you about the amount of “screen” time (eg. playing video/computer games, TV, Internet) your children are exposed to?

These results weren’t all that surprising. Most parents I talk to are generally concerned that video games, TV etc. takes up too much of their kids time.

Q11: How aware do you think your children are about the need to have a healthy lifestyle?

Looks like the media and health-education at the schools are working (and let’s not forget the role of parents!).

Q12: Is your child’s school (or childcare provider) doing enough to combat childhood obesity?
Q13: Should schools have a greater role in combating childhood obesity?

This did surprise me. It looks like schools are getting the message. However, respondents did think that schools, in general, should do more.

Q14: What publications, websites, books, magazines, newspapers etc. do you read to learn about childhood health and wellbeing?

• Newspaper (The Age)
• Science magazines”
• Zone diet
• general newspaper
• being active in the school
• scientific magazines
• webmd.com. Usually we just google a topic and scan the first few articles that come up and see if there is a consensus. For example “Getting toddlers to eat”.
• “Young Parent Lifestyle”
• Melbourne Child Magazine
• www.fedup.com
• www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au
• Better Health Channel, The Age.
• The Age, industry journals, Melbourne Child
• general newspapers.
• Melbourne Child
• Only information that comes through the school and creche as I don’t have the time to read any more information, when I can be spending time with my kids.
• Melbourne child
• General articles everywhere, magazines, books, tv, etc
• The Internet and national news channel.
• Melbourne Child
• Kidspot
• Practical Parenting
• Playgroup articles
• I read anything which comes my way in relation to health and well being. But reading is only part of the solution - you actually have to create the environment for children to want to be active i.e. limit access to computer games and TV.
• Melbourne Child
• Children’s Cookbooks-get them involved in preparing healthy meals”
• I have a bachelor degree in Physical and Health Education… I have read enough, but will read magazine articles as I come across them.
• As I do not have a problem with my child I have not investigated publications on this issue
• All books by Dr Mehmet Oz, daily newspapers, Parent and Kids newspaper, numerous websites that i come across when reading different publications or watching certain news segments.
• Men’s Health

Q15: Do you have any other comments about the childhood obesity issue?

There were a range of issues and comments raised:

1. It falls to the parents in my opinion to create healthy habits that become the child’s lifestyle. I’ll let you know how it goes as they get older….
2. As I am generally fit and healthy and eat well and I am informed about diet issues, plus I eat a very healthy diet, I am very conscious of my kids’ eating habits and always have healthy food around and seek opportunities to exercise. Parenting by example is the most important contribution one can make I believe.
3. Food is more important than exercise based on the energy density of food and the hours of exercise needed to burn the calories.
4. Q 11 is a lead into a more important question - how is awareness transformed into action? Awareness itself is useless (e.g. the hazards of smoking)
5. I think something has to be done to educate children about this issue.
6. Advertising junk food during children’s TV hours is an influence as is what is stocked at school canteens. Parent education on levels of salt, sugar and fat that should be consumed would also help those that are unaware.
7. QU/13 - SHOULD SCHOOLS HAVE A GREATER ROLE (THAN THEIR CURRENT ROLE, OR A GREATER ROLE THAN FAMILY, OR GREATER ROLE THAN GOVERNMENT CAMPAIGNS)? NOT SURE ABOUT THAT QUESTION, AND I’M NOT SURE OF THEIR CURRENT POSITION.
8. SELF ASSESSMENT/BODY IMAGE, SHOULD BE NOT BE AN ISSUE FOR CHILDREN. Parents need to ensure that physical activity and good nutrition are part of a normal routine, and not make the need to be “fit and healthy” an extra issue. Children don’t need “issues”. Activity should always be fun and enjoyable.
9. This should be a high priority for government and the community. Kids learn habits very early and once ingrained, are very difficult to change.
10. Outside food servings should be smaller.
11. Soft drinks should have less sugar.
12. Australian schools/teachers should be given a set of guidelines for identifying children at risk.
13. At risk children who are identified should be referred to both parents and the relevant health authority for proper assessment, and remedial follow-up activities.
14. Schools should provide some core remedial activities as part of health ed/physical ed.
15. The government should be more aggressive in eliminating negative influences such as children’s foods/drinks being too high in sugar, also cut advertising for junk food (ag McDs). Kids have no self control so it’s important to educate them more are reduce unhealthy desires.
16. I strongly feel that a child’s obesity issue is linked to Parental discipline. Only an observation but I think if Parents have a weight problem so do the children
17. It is difficult to find time to make changes.
18. I think that adults like a quick fix for their problems, an easy way to feed their children, a pill to loose weight, a comfortable way for their children to excerise while they sit and drink coffee. I am so sick of hearing people complain about everyone and everything so they can shift responsibility from themselves.
19. I have a daughter at school who is overly aware of obesity to my concern that she is already worried that she is fat. Which she is not at all. I want her to be a happy kid and be a kid, not worry about what she looks like. My son just wants “junk” food although he is VERY active.
20. I think it’s common sense, we can’t feed our children chicken nuggets every night because we work all day, let them watch TV and play computer games because we’re too tired to get out and about with them and expect anything but childhood obesity. If parents don’t lead by example there’s not much hope for the kids.
21. The best example a parent can set for their child is to be healthy and active themselves !!!!!!
22. We eat a wholefood, organic diet. We talk as a family when planning our meals and what foods “feed our brains”. If the parents are eating healthy it makes it a lot easier for the children to eat healthy as well.
23. My kids go to a school where there is no canteen and they promote rubbish free lunches. This works well and controls what children eat. They also have a jog around the school oval before they enter the classroom first thing in the morning…what a great start to the day!
24. I feel that schools with a physical and health education program do their best in their role in combating obesity, it is up to the parents to do more.
25. It is such a shame - and a disgrace- that so many of the world’s children are dying of hunger yet in developed countries we have such a degree of affluence that we are becoming sick from being overweight.
26. As my children are firmly settled in different sporting activities, my interest would be geared towards more easily accessible healthy meals and educational tools towards achieving that goal for themselves.

Thank You

Thank you to all of you who participated in the survey. Feel free to comment on the results below.
If you have not yet participated in the survey and would like to contribute you can find it here.