Child Obesity

Increasingly of concern in society is child obesity. An issue for parents, an issue with both health and social consequences and an issue that shows no signs of slowing down. Being overweight when you're young inevitably follows you to in to adult life.

Parents of overweight children are right to be concerned about child obesity, and will have many questions about how and why it occurs, and what can be done about it.

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  Child Nutrition Explained

  It's vitally important to understand child nutrition and what their specific diet requirements are - especially with a nationwide children obesity issue

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  Causes of Childhood Obesity

  Trying to understand the causes of childhood obesity, as more and more children in the UK become overweight learn more about the causes and what you can do.

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  Effects Of Child Obesity

  Health professionals have labelled the effects of child obesity as an epidemic. Find out how to help stem this problem on slimming.co.uk.

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  Child Diabetes - Which Diet?

  Understanding how child diabetes can be managed by diet is important so to help manage the diabetic condition more effectively due to the rapid increase

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  Child Obesity Statistics

  Of growing concern are child obesity statistics with increasing numbers of boys and girls under the age of 11 now seriously overweight.

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  How To Prevent Child Obesity

  With more and more overweight kids, attention is turning to child obesity prevention and what we can do to improve the situation.

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  Fast Food & Child Obesity

  Why not see how our appetite for eating fast food is contributing to adult and child obesity. More sugar, more fat and more volume of food.

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  Diet Plans For Children

  Finding the right diet plans for your children is crucial. If you aren't sure what to do then click on slimming.co.uk and get all the information you need!

What are The Causes of Child Obesity?

There are a whole range of causes, but these will include:

• Lack of physical activity or regular exercise
   
• Excessive sedentary behaviour - tv watching, video games, movies
   
• Socioeconomic status - higher levels of obesity with low family incomes/non-working parents.
   
• General eating habits - high-calorie foods, ready made meals and lack of fresh veg
   
• Environment - over-exposure to high-calorie food advertising and no recreational facilities
   
• Genetics - children with overweight parents are much more prone to weight problems

While causes are clear, the answers are not always as simple. Issues arise such as, are kids too concerned about their weight? What are the best strategies for prevention? What treatments work over a long time?

How Can You Prevent Obesity?

Prevention centres around issues such as creating a healthy eating environment, creating a physically active environment, and modeling good behavior for kids to follow. These are essential both in the home and also in school. If parents suspect that their kids have serious health, psychological or social problems as a result of weight gain, they should of course consult their doctor.