Word: overweightness
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...ways to control weight or increase activity, the job pretty much ends here. Parents, however, have it harder; they have to think about the whole child. "If dealing with my daughter's weight issues was as simple as following a few nutritional and exercise guidelines, she wouldn't be overweight," says a Southern California mom. "But the whole thing is so much bigger and messier than that. I don't just care about what she weighs; I care about her growing up healthy and happy and feeling good about herself. And that is where it gets difficult...
...critical relatives ("Ah, she's going to grow up to be just like fat Aunt Sue!"). Schoolmates--at least those not yet claimed by the obesity epidemic themselves--may soon join in the chorus. All of this can hit a child's still developing ego hard. On the whole, overweight children are more likely than healthy-weight kids to be anxious, unhappy and depressed. The science is mixed on which kids suffer the most. One study finds that self-esteem takes a bigger hit in black kids than in white kids; another sees the problem as being worse for Hispanic...
...addition, any changes made in terms of the kinds of foods served or the time allotted for TV viewing should be made "at the family-wide level," Lowry says. "This will prevent the overweight child from feeling targeted." And new self-esteem standards should be applied to the whole household too. If you're walking around commenting on how fat your butt looks in your new jeans, not only is your daughter going to hear you, but she may also begin making generalizations about how she looks...
...comparative novelty of such early-onset diseases makes them particularly tricky to treat, since extensive studies on the long-term consequences of childhood obesity just don't exist yet. But doctors know enough from work on adults to be worried. Overweight people of any age are at risk of not only better-known ills like cardiac disease but also arthritis, joint damage and sleep apnea. Adults who were overweight as children have nearly twice the risk of dying from any cause in their 70s than are adults who were of normal weight as youngsters. Early evidence also suggests that heavier...
...ills overweight kids risk (see chart), the two that may be the most complex--and thus earn a lot of new research attention--concern breakdowns in the function of the liver and pancreas. Mess with these organs, and you mess with some very fundamental metabolic systems that govern how well the body recruits and uses energy--a systemwide disruption that causes systemwide harm...