Children's Health
Eating well tough to do for many of Valley’s poor
|
|
The smaller the paycheck, the bigger the belly, say many researchers who study poverty and obesity.
It might seem like a paradox, but not having enough money for food doesn’t mean the poor are skinny. The opposite appears to be true: The lower-income are more likely to be heavy than the well-to-do.
“Obesity is an economic issue,” said Cyndi Walter, manager for the California Department of Public Health obesity-prevention program, Project LEAN. Eating well is beyond the reach of many California residents, she said.
We all have a stake in the obesity battle
|
|
Does it seem to you as if the issue of childhood obesity should be solved by now with all of the national and local press coverage?
Whether it’s from a national magazine like Newsweek or our first lady Michelle Obama, this critical health challenge appears and reappears virtually every week with the same depressing statistics.
More than 20 percent of our young children are obese or overweight. One-third are not physically fit. It’s not getting better; it’s getting worse year after year. Enter SummerFest 2010! In its fifth year, SummerFest brings a funfilled day of physical activity, good food, environmental education, music and dance, gardening and health information.
New report from Childhood Obesity Task Force has something for everyone
|
|
Michelle Obama’s Presidential Task Force on Childhood Obesity released its findings yesterday. It’s encyclopedic in scope and has something for everyone—from school lunch, to sugar taxes, to veggie subsidies, to dietary guidelines, to obesogenic chemicals. Even farm-to-school programs get a prominent shout-out. The Letsmove.gov blog breaks the 70 recommendations down into these categories:
1. Getting children a healthy start on life, with good prenatal care for their parents; support for breastfeeding; limits on “screen time”; and quality child care settings with nutritious food and ample opportunity for young children to be physically active.
2. Empowering parents and caregivers with simpler, more actionable messages about nutritional choices based on the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans; improved labels on food and menus that provide clear information to help make healthy choices for children; reduced marketing of unhealthy products to children; and improved health care services, including BMI measurement for all children.
3-month-old baby can stand and walk
|
|
A three-month-old-new born baby from Chongqing can sit alone, stand and walk with mere assistance, Xinhua news report today.
Doctors from the health department of Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University said it’s rare that such a new-born baby could walk.
The little girl was born on January 31 this year, and within 101 days, she grew from 2.75 kilogram to 6 kilogram, 57 cm tall.
High-Fat Ketogenic Diet Effectively Treats Persistent Childhood Seizures
|
|
The high-fat ketogenic diet can dramatically reduce or completely eliminate debilitating seizures in most children with infantile spasms, whose seizures persist despite medication, according to a Johns Hopkins Children’s Center study published online April 30 in the journal Epilepsia.
Infantile spasms, also called West syndrome, is a stubborn form of epilepsy that often does not get better with antiseizure drugs. Because poorly controlled infantile spasms may cause brain damage, the Hopkins team’s findings suggest the diet should be started at the earliest sign that medications aren’t working.
“Stopping or reducing the number of seizures can go a long way toward preserving neurological function, and the ketogenic diet should be our immediate next line of defense in children with persistent infantile spasms who don’t improve with medication,” says senior investigator Eric Kossoff, M.D., a pediatric neurologist and director of the ketogenic diet program at Hopkins Children’s.
The road map to solving childhood obesity
|
|
White House domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes says first lady Michelle Obama is speaking quite literally when she says the goal of her Let’s Move campaign is “solving the problem of childhood obesity within a generation.”
“That is literally achievable,” Barnes said in an interview for the new POLITICO video series, “The Politics of America’s Youth.” “In the 1970s, about 5 percent of the nation’s child and adolescent population was considered obese. Now, that’s shot up to 20 percent. We set the goal of 2030. So we’ll go from 20 percent childhood obesity to 5 percent childhood obesity by the year 2030.”
The White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity, appointed by President Barack Obama, this month delivered a 124-page Report to the President, with 70 recommendations in five areas: early childhood, empowering parents and caregivers, health food in schools, access to healthful, affordable food and increasing physical activity.
Effects of weight on kids’ heart rate vary by income
|
|
Overweight children from lower- and middle-income neighborhoods may fall short of their thinner peers in one measure of cardiovascular fitness—but the same may not be true of those from more affluent areas, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that among 480 children and teenagers who underwent treadmill exercise tests, those with a high body mass index (BMI) tended to have a slower heart rate recovery after their workout—but only if they were from lower- or middle-income neighborhoods.
Extra pounds did not generally seem to affect heart rate recovery among kids from the highest-income areas, the study found.
Waterpipes are popular, especially with young men
|
|
Waterpipe smoking may be gaining in popularity, particularly among young men with some time and money to burn, a study of Canadian college-age adults suggests.
Waterpipes, or hookahs, have long been used for smoking tobacco in the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Asia, and “hookah lounges” have been increasingly popping up in the U.S. and other Western countries in recent years. Studies suggest they are particularly popular with college students.
In the new study, reported in the journal Pediatrics, researchers found that among 871 Montreal residents between the ages of 18 and 24, 23 percent said they had used a waterpipe in the past year.
The Threat of Childhood Obesity
|
|
Recently, a group of retired military officers who call themselves “Mission: Readiness” released a report claiming that childhood obesity has become “a national security threat,” as more than a quarter of young Americans ages 17 to 24 are too overweight for military service. Sharing the concerns raised by first lady Michelle Obama, who has her own campaign to promote nutrition and healthy practices among youth, these ex-military men called on Congress to pass legislation aimed at improving school lunch programs and providing school-based resources to combat obesity. U.S. News asked William Dietz, a medical doctor and pediatrics expert who directs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity, to discuss the nation’s problems with childhood obesity and what parents can do to encourage healthy choices by their children. Excerpts:
How serious is childhood obesity in America right now?
I would say it’s a highly significant problem. About 17 percent of children and adolescents are affected. As they grow into adulthood, we can anticipate that, if obesity persists, then every major system in the body is affected. We also know that about 10 percent of the national healthcare budget is spent on obesity and its related problems. It’s quite clear that, if we don’t control obesity, we’re going to have a hard time controlling medical costs more generally.
Childhood obesity epidemic requires call to action
|
|
Below is an abridged version of “Fighting for our children, not just for ourselves,” a speech that was delivered on April 23 to the Pitt County branch of the NAACP’s Annual Freedom Fund Event at Cornerstone Missionary Baptist Church in Greenville.
The health care reform debate and the passage of the new law has exposed a completely new era of high anxiety and political divisiveness in our country. The principles that are championed or defended by each protagonist are held up as threats to the very foundation of our democracy. At the local level — within the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University and our affiliated hospital, Pitt County Memorial Hospital, we are taking this seriously, as we intend to maintain the highest level of care for the citizens of Pitt County and the region.
The national Center for Disease Control has said, “The United States cannot effectively address escalating health care costs without addressing the problem of chronic diseases.” Any serious policy proposal that aims to improve health care in America and control rising health care expenditures must address chronic disease.
Oregon Has Lowest Childhood Obesity Rate
|
|
It’s true that America is getting fatter and it’s starting at a younger age but I have to give it up to my home state. Despite its many months of gray and rain, cold weather and lack of vitamin D, we Oregonians have the leanest kids! More specifically, just under 10 percent are considered outright obese and these numbers fell from 2003. Unfortunately, 16 percent of America’s kids aged 10-17 years old are in the obese category – not just overweight. This is astounding to me. What’s worse is that this is a 10 percent increase since 2003.
Mississippi came in last with one-fifth of its youth (or 21.9 percent) falling into the obese range followed by Georgia at 21.3 percent and Kentucky at 21 percent.
Besides Oregon, the next best states were Wyoming at 10.2 percent, Minnesota at 11.1 percent and Washington State also at 11.1 percent.
Obese Children Face More Bullying
|
|
Obese children were almost twice as likely to be bullied as normal-weight children, regardless of other demographic, social, and academic factors, a multicenter study found.
The unadjusted odds ratio of being bullied for an obese child was 1.85 (95% CI 1.37 to 2.51), according to Julie C. Lumeng, MD, of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and colleagues.
And the odds ratio for bullying for an overweight child was 1.26 (95% CI 0.90 to 1.77), the investigators reported online in Pediatrics.
Obesity rate worrying military
|
|
Seventeen-year-old Bryan Aguilar did not want to be a chubby Marine. But when he started high school a few years back, it was a real possibility.
During his sophomore year at West Ashley High School, Aguilar weighed nearly 200 pounds. That’s when he decided to fight the fat. By running, lifting weights and changing his diet, Aguilar morphed into a lean-and-mean ROTC machine. He headed to boot camp this summer after graduation.
He’s also the exception among kids in South Carolina.
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
|
|
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) or crib death is a tragic event for any parent. SIDS is defined as sudden, unexplained death of an infant below one year of age. The cause of death can only be explained after a thorough medical investigation, which also includes autopsy and review of medical history, if any. SIDS is a leading cause of death in infants between one month and one year of age. However, the peak age of SIDS is when the baby is between two to four months old. Most often, it occurs during sleep. More cases of SIDS are reported during winter season but SIDS can occur at any time of the year. Despite a lot of research, the causes behind Sudden Infant Death Syndrome remain unpredictable. A lack of answer to symptoms, causes, and treatment is what which makes SIDS so frightening. Below are some pointers, which will help you know more about SIDS.
SIDS Causes And Risks
Causes Of SIDS
* According to research and evidence, it is suggested that some babies are born with brain abnormalities, which make them vulnerable to SIDS. A baby born with this abnormality might lack protective mechanism, which senses abnormal respiration and leads baby to wake up and take a breath.
Citing Obesity of Children, County Bans Fast-Food Toys
|
|
It was not a happy day for the Happy Meal.
In what it described as a blow against the fattening temptations of fast food, the board of supervisors in Santa Clara County, south of San Francisco, voted Tuesday to ban the promotional toys that often accompany child-size portions of cheeseburgers and chicken nuggets if those meals don’t meet certain nutritional standards.
The criteria, which are based on federal standards and recommendations from the nonprofit Institute of Medicine, would apply to all fast-food restaurants giving away toys in meals in-tended for children. Ken Yeager, the board president, said the new law would level “the playing field by taking away the incentive to choose fatty, sugary foods over healthier options.”
