Childhood Obesity

It took me awhile to decide what I wanted to do my topic on for this paper. I found childhood and adolescent obesity to strike my interest. It's no secret that our nation has an outbreak of not only adults becoming increasingly overweight and obese, but now children too. Through my research for this paper I confirmed what I already knew and gained more knowledge r/t why obesity is prevalent in children and adolescents. Genetics, behavioral factors, and environmental factors contribute to the childhood obesity in the U.S. As Phyllis mentioned nearly 1/3 of the U.S. children and adolescents are overweight or obese. Determinging obesity in children and adolescents is done a little bit differently than an adult. BMI is still used but it's determined by and obesity and overweight for children is defined a BMI at or above the 85th percentile and lower than the 95th percentile. Obesity is defined as a BMI at or above the 95th percentile for children of the same age and sex. Among the contributing factors we all know that kids now a days have so many media influences. These include video games, computers, their cell phones, & television. In my paper I also included the fact that television isn't like it was when I was little and growing up. Children now can record their shows that they want to watch and this allows for even more time in front of the television daily. Children 8-18 years old spend an average of 3 hours per day with one or more media influence. This is just an average, I have seen up to 6+ hours with several different kids in front of the television or playing video games. These things are allowing for decreased physical activity and an increased sedentary lifestyle among children and adolescents. It has been reported that Children and adolescents who participate in physical education (P.E.) in school on a daily basis have dropped 14% in the last 13 years. This is obsurd to me, and especially with the kind of lifestyles children have now compared to 13 years ago. P.E. should be a requirement and participation should be required unless doctor execused. This is the way it was when I was going to school clear up until I graduated and that was only 4 years ago that participation was required it was your grade no matter what. With the exception of a doctor's excuse. This information is not only beneficial for us as nurses and especially the people who want to work with PEDS, but for the people who are parents and whose children go to school or a day care facility.