Word: overweightness
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There must be a lot of lonely kids in America these days, judging from the skyrocketing rates of childhood obesity. According to the latest federal figures, the percentage of youngsters ages 6 to 11 who are overweight has tripled since the 1960s, to 13%. As many as 1 in 7 kids is obese, and doctors are seeing dangerously obese children as young...
...never had a population like this before," says Naomi Neufeld, a pediatric endocrinologist and director of KidShape, a nonprofit weight-loss program in Los Angeles. "Children who are overweight are 20% to 30% heavier now than they were even 10 years ago. We can't even imagine the medical costs we will be seeing in the future. It feels like Armageddon...
That's hardly an exaggeration. Last month the Surgeon General issued an urgent call for the nation to fight its growing weight problem, a move that was sparked in part by the epidemic rates of childhood obesity. Overweight children are more than twice as likely to have high blood pressure or heart disease as children of normal weight. Even more alarming is the number of children with Type 2, or non-insulin-dependent, diabetes. Once known as adult-onset diabetes--before so many children started getting it--Type 2 diabetes puts kids at risk for very adult ailments, including blindness...
Once a child has gained too much weight, it's time to get outside help. Many parents turn to weight-loss camps for kids, an industry that seems to be growing as fast as America's waistline. Camp can seem like the answer, especially when an overweight child comes home as much as 50 lbs. lighter--but beware. Kids who lose in the summer often gain it right back come fall...
...Leonard Epstein, a psychologist at State University of New York at Buffalo and director of one of the most successful pediatric-obesity programs in the country. "You really need to include the parents as part of the treatment," he says, if only because parents of obese children are often overweight or obese themselves. Usually, the entire family could stand to modify its diet and reduce high-fat foods and sweets. Epstein encourages families to build exercise into their daily lives, taking walks together after dinner, for instance, or turning off the TV on weekends...