An Early Start at Reducing Childhood Obesity

With childhood obesity rates continuing to rise, health centers have begun to take action much earlier than previously anticipated.

Childhood obesity affects "nearly 1 in 5 school age children and young people (6 to 19 years) in the United States has obesity."(1) Even with all of the current healthcare initiatives to reduce the occurrence of childhood obesity, the rates continue to rise each year. New strategies suggest that nutrition initiatives should begin earlier than once thought.

There is new research suggesting that introducing healthy nutrition and physical activity behaviors into children's lives while they are still babies was able to improve their home environment (lifestyle habits of the family) and increase the likelihood that they would grow up and make healthy lifestyle choices as they grew into their adolescent years.(2)

The behaviors are introduced by monitoring calorie intake to ensure it is within recommended daily values and making sure that the infant or baby has adequate physical activity through crawling or playing. Institutions, where these types of developmental interventions could be used, are childcare centers and family and child assistance centers.(2)

One potential problem with this new method is motivating parents to participate in the process. Although these behaviors can be learned during the child's time at the childcare facility, the parents are who the child will spend the most one on one time with and also the one that they mimic their behaviors from.

Having parents that are willing to change their lifestyle habits to reduce the chances of their child becoming obese in the future will be the determining factor as to if these methods will actually leave a mark on the fight against childhood obesity.

Currently, we are trying to promote this program to parents at the Washington County Family Center. The level of support needed in order for these initiatives to take root must come from both the agencies and the families that come to the facility.

References

1. Obesity Facts | Healthy Schools | CDC. Cdcgov. 2018. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/obesity/facts.htm. Accessed April 18, 2018.​

2. Benjamin Neelon SE, Taveras EM, Østbye T, Gillman MW. Preventing Obesity in Infants and Toddlers in Child Care: Results from a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial. Maternal and Child Health Journal. 2014;18:1246-1257.