How teachers can help and support obese children and their families to reduce the numbers of obesity.

A child educated only at school

is an uneducated child.

  ~George Santayana

Feeney, Moravcik, Nolte and Christenson (2010) says that children need to have the support and understanding of teachers to achieve at the best. This is the same for children that are obese. They need to have teachers support and understanding from teachers to help loss weight so they are not obese or to have the teachers help in understanding about food that may cause obesity.

Research reports show that  there are more children in a form of early childcare settings in the last five years in New Zealand than in the past (O’Brian and Taylor, 2004). As times changed more people are entering the work force and view it as easier to use packet food instead of fresh food in children’s and their own lunch. Food and drink intake is a direct link to the obesity rate. 5+ a day was introduced the purpose of this is to eat five or more fruits and/or vegetables a day to create a healthier lifestyle for children and adults. It aims to promote awareness of the importance of having five or more fruit and/or vegetables (Ashfield – Watt, 2006). However many families are finding it easier to supply their children with package food and not fresh food.

What I was wondering is do teachers help support families into knowing and understanding what healthy food is and why it important?

Plunket offers advice on what food children should eat depending on their age they have posters that are free to centres and parents.

Some of their posters and pamphlets include:

-Finger food ideas

-Vegetables and fruit  for children

- Ways to include vegetables and fruit into children day in a fun way

-Lunch box ideas

-Easy to prepare food

-Making healthy food (Plunket, n.d.).

Many centres have these pamphlets and having this information centres may be able to help families to gain knowledge to provide healthy eating and pack healthy lunches for their children.

There are resources available from SPARC which are available from regional sports trust that provides information about active movement for children under five. They have pamphlets available to show what active movement is and why it is important for children to participate in. Some of the resources on offer are:

-          Active movement brochures

-          Introduction to active movement brochures

-          Active Movement DVDs

-          Play Gym – Building blocks for life

-          Active movement in water and

-          Moving to learn. (SPARK: ihi Aoteroa sport and recreation New Zealand, 2011).

Some centres have a healthy eating policy that helps teachers promote healthy eating. A healthy eating nutrition policy helps teachers to follow guidelines set forth to help with healthy eating. Having a healthy eating policy and centres that is shared with families is important as they are the ones that are packing children’s food and it is important that they understand healthy eating and are provided with information surrounding healthy eating. There are some families out there that do not understand healthy eating or may feel it does not matter what children eat as they are still young.

I believe that with families and teachers working together to provide healthy eating for children is important to help reduce the high number of obese children in New Zealand.

             

References

Ashfield-Watt, P. AL. (2006). Fruits and vegetables, 5+ a day: are we getting the

message across?, 15(2), 245-252. Retrieved from http://library.eit.ac.nz:2053/pqcentral/docview/213832647/12EFFB4AB1EBCD79CD/4?accountid=39646

O’Brian, B. & Taylor, Dr. R. (2004). The f word: A New Zealand Guide to preventing childhood obesity. Auckland, New Zealand: David Bateman Ltd.

Plunket: Whānau āwhina: Caring for young families (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.plunket.org.nz/

SPARK: ihi Aotearoa sport and recreation New Zealand. (2011). Retrieved from  http://www.sparc.org.nz/en-nz/young-people/Ages-0-5-Years/.  

Feeney, S., Moravcik, E., Nolte, S., & Christensen, D. (2010). Who am I in the lives of children? An introduction to early childhood education. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.

Videos I have Found Relating To Obesity

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I have found these two videos that have been in the news.

The first is called overeaters anonymous - addressing the emotional side of obesity

The second video I found is about a family that are obese and how to help them to achieve losing weight

I found many videos about obesity in children. I feel that these to videos are important when dealing with obesity as many other videos are more focused on the physical side of obesity.

Is the New Zealand society helping to reduce the amount of obese children?

“When I was 5 years old,

my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life.

When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.

I wrote down "happy". They told me I didn’t understand the assignment.
I told them they didn’t understand life."
— John Lennon

There are many sports at primary school that children are involved in like push play, five + a day and compulsory sport activities. But what is there that children under five to participate in.

There are outdoor environments where children are able to run around have sports equipment and be free but is this really reducing the obesity rate and helping stop it in children.

What is New Zealand doing to encourage healthy eating?

Sanitarium is in the process of proposing a three traffic light food labelling system. It identifies “negative” nutrients. At the same time, it takes into account “positive” nutrients through a colour scheme based on the nutrient found in food. This is helping people to distinguish between healthy foods, non healthy food and food that looks healthy but is full of negative nutrients.

Push play was introduced to New Zealand to inspire New Zealanders to become more active. Push play’s primary focus was on women between the age of 25 – 50. The focus was mainly on women as they were viewed as less physical then males. In 2005 it was reviewed and changed to initiate all children into the push play programme that was organised for 30 – 60 minutes of physical activity a day. There are many resources that have been created for children under 5 to participating in physical movement experiences (SPARK: ihi Aoteroa sport and recreation New Zealand, 2011).

Tartamella, Herscher and Woolston (2004) say that  with push play programme of 30 – 60 minutes a day of healthy eating that children are getting enough physical activity to reduce obesity rate and to get more children healthy. However, O’Brian and Taylor (2004) say that this is not going to reduce obesity rates unless children have healthy eating as well and that there needs to be more physical activity offered to children from 0 – 12.

So who is right? There is research that shows healthy eating and physical activity will help reduce the number of obese people and help people already obese loss weight but there is also research that shows healthy eating is the most important thing however I found a minimal amount of research that shows eating healthy alone will help with obesity.

I found this video on you tube that shows why there are many obese people around especially in pacific islanders. I found it very interesting to watch and see why obesity is so high in communities that grow and have built their life on eating fruit.

There are many things that the New Zealand community can do or are doing to lower the obesity rate however there are also many things that they are doing that are keeping the obesity rate high, like losing our fruit and vegetables to overseas and advertising and lowering cost of processed foods.

References:

O’Brian, B. & Taylor, Dr. R. (2004). The f word: A New Zealand Guide to preventing childhood obesity. Auckland, New Zealand: David Bateman Ltd.

SPARK: ihi Aotearoa sport and recreation New Zealand. (2011). Retrieved from  http://www.sparc.org.nz/en-nz/young-people/Ages-0-5-Years/.   

Tartamella, L., Herscher, E., & Woolston, C. (2004). Generation extra large: Rescuing our children from the epidemic of obesity. New York, NY: Basic Books.

 

 

Obesity: Who is responsible?

The Past is to be respected and acknowledged,

but not to be worshiped.

It is our future in which we will find our greatness.

Pierre Trudeau

The question that many people have is, who is responsible for the high rise of obesity? Many people feel that obesity is the parents fault. However, families are not the only factor. Heredity is only one factor towards obesity; obese children are likely to have at least one obese parent. Family eating habits also play a role in creating obese children, as adults are the people that purchase the food for children and may give high calorie food as a treat or reward, which is more likely to lead to obesity (Berk, 1999).

Socio-economical status also has an influence on obesity in children, as healthy food is normally more expensive than food that is full of sugar or fat. Fast food adverts also play a part in obesity. Research shows that fast food adverts are developed and shown where children are most likely to see them. More fast food adverts are shown during 5pm to 7pm where most children are likely to be watching tv (Berg, 2005). This can create a frenzy as many children want to have fast food through watching these, so if adverts where not shown to children it can decrease the obesity rate. Out of sight out of mind (Berg, 2005).

Television also plays a large part in the obesity rate for children. 73% of New Zealand children watch less than two hours of television during the week through this result, it is presumed that more than a quarter of New Zealand children watch more than two hours of television (O’Brian & Taylor, 2004). On weekends, 60% of children watched television for less than four hours however that leaves 40% of children watching more than four hours of television on the weekend alone.  O’Brian and Taylor (2004) say “there is good evidence to suggest that watching television for extended periods is one major factor in weight gain” (p. 57).there is nothing wrong with watching television though it needs to be done in moderation just like everything else.

Many things in childrens society can impact on the children becoming obese. Obesity is not only passed through genetics but also through the environment that they live and grow up in. There is no one-thing that is responsible for the growing rate of obesity in children it is a combination of everything.

References:

Berg, F. M. (2005), Underage and overweight: Our childhood obesity crisis – what every family needs to know. Long Island City: N.Y: Hatherleigh Press.

Berk, L. E. (1999). Infants and children: Prenatal through middle childhood. (3^rd ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Mhurchu, C. N. (2007). The price of healthy eating: cost and nutrient value of selected regular and healthier supermarket foods in New Zealand. Retrieved from  https://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/120-1248/2388/

O’Brian, B. & Taylor, Dr. R. (2004). The f word: A New Zealand Guide to preventing childhood obesity. Auckland, New Zealand: David Bateman Ltd.

Obesity an overview: what are the causes and problems that arise from obesity in childhood.

Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society.

Benjamin Franklin

Obesity is a worldwide problem. Obesity can be defined as an excess amount of body fat. Others define obesity in children as body weight at least 20% higher than a healthy weight for a child of that height, or a body fat percentage above 25% in boys or above 32% in girls (emedicine health, 2011).

Obesity affects many children statistics show that one in 12 children are obese which has created a worldwide problem.  More and more children are suffering the same problems that only adults used to face; heart disease, high cholesterol and diabetes. Being obese in childhood is likely to result in being obese in adulthood, which can create a higher risk of having a stroke before turning 30.

Many issues can affect children where they have no control, for example, income of families, physical activity and the dietary habits, this can can result in obesity. Environmental issues and families have a strong impact on what food children eat. Families are the one that children look to when they are too young; to buy, prepare and serve the food that they eat. In the younger years good or bad food habits are developed.

In future blogs I will aim to discover

Ø  Who is responsible for the worldwide problem of obesity

Ø  What the New Zealand society is doing to help reduce the number of obese children

Ø  What we can do to reduce the number

Ø       Also to discover what teachers of children can do to help and support the child and families of obese children.

Reference: 

Emedicine Health: experts for everyday emergencies. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.emedicinehealth.com/obesity_in_children/article_em.htm