Childhood Obesity in Todays Society

Childhood Obesity is a killer in today's society. I think there are many causes or influences of childhood obesity today. The main influences to me are the influences that effect the child every day, and those are parents, and school. It is very important that parents, teachers and school officials take a role in teaching good health to our children. Teaching good health at school is not only the teacher's responsibility but it is up to the school board as well. In this paper I will be discussing the effect of the home and schools on our children's health and obesity today. I will also be discussing the effects that childhood obesity has on the bodies of our children.

The first place a child learns how to eat is at home. Parents have a huge responsibility to teach their children the proper way to eat, and the proper thing to eat. Many parents in today's society do not want to upset their children, and will let them eat whatever they want. This may make the child happy at that time, but the child can become obese if the parents are not watching the intake of certain foods. The parents must also make sure that the children are getting the proper amount of exercise or activity. Video games have become very popular over the last few years, and this has made children want to stay in the house more and not go outside and get exercise. Parents must monitor the amount of video games and television consumption that the children have. Eating the proper foods, and getting the correct nutrition is a huge thing, but getting the proper amount of exercise is just as important and a lot of people forget how important that can be. I know that I am guilty of letting my children watch too much television, and I have made them start playing outside more to get more exercise and help them stay active. My children play sports and dance, this helps them stay in shape as well. There are so many activities that children can do to stay in shape. The statistics regarding childhood obesity are alarming. "Childhood obesity has more than tripled in the last 30 years. The prevalence of obesity among children aged 6 to 11 years increased from 6.5% in 1980 to 19.6% in 2008. The prevalence of obesity among adolescents aged 12 to 19 years increased from 5.0% to 18.1%." (CDC) When I read these numbers I knew the problem was bad, but I had no idea just how bad it had become.

The next influence I am going to talk about is schools. School is the place where our children spend the majority of their time when they are not with us. A lot of their influence comes from the people and environments they are introduced to in school. It is easy for parents to pack their children's lunches with healthy snacks but there are parents who do not have the time to pack lunches. These parents send their children to school with lunch money and the children must eat whatever the school has to offer. "Schools, school districts, and state educational agencies need to ensure that all meals served or sold in schools are in compliance with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Additionally, schools should focus on improving food quality in the school meal programs. Increasing the availability of whole-grain foods, low-fat milk, and fresh local produce will not only be more healthful for participating students, but has the potential to attract greater participation." (Koplan, Liverman, Kraak, 2005) School lunches when I was going to school were not always the most healthy choices. We would have pizza, hot dogs, fried chicken fingers and many high calorie foods to choice from on most days. My school did throw in a fruit and milk, but if you had a little extra money you could always get a nice candy bar from the vending machine. 'There is no or little regulation on competitive foods that can be offered outside of the cafeteria. Many States are establishing their own rules regarding this at this time.' (Wechsler, McKenna, Lee and Dietz, 2004) Competitive foods are food such as the foods that are ala carte foods in the lunch line or foods in the vending machines. These foods can also be foods that are sold for school fund raisers as well. These foods are found more in the High Schools. This is again when the parents have to come into play as well as the children. When you teach your children at a young age how to eat properly they can make better decisions on what foods they should intake as they grow older and start to make their own decisions. Parents can not be with their children at all times and must trust that they have taught their children the right ways to have a healthy lifestyle.

The CDC has developed a system to try to help schools with their school health programs. This system helps not only with the schools lunch menus but with helpful tips with many other things that can keep our children healthy and safe at school as well. "The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) was established in 1946 to "safeguard the health and well-being of the Nation's children and to encourage the domestic consumption of nutritious agricultural commodities and other food" (7CFR210.1). Each school day approximately 28 million school-aged children participate in the NSLP and some 8 million participate in the School Breakfast Program (SBP) (USDA, 2003)." ( Koplan, Liverman, Kraak, 2005) Each state and school district may have different rules and regulations that their schools have to follow when it comes to their school health program but the CDC's system can help any school that is having problems with their program. Many schools have budgeting issues that hender them in their fight against childhood obesity. "Often it takes the leadership of a respected local person to initiate change. The identity of this champion varies from community to community: it might be a superintendent, school board member, school administrator, parent, student, teacher, health professional, or food service director. Local champions interest