Desire to have chubby baby is general among parents worldwide, irrespective of financial and educational status.  Many times, parents will bring normal babies to hospital complaining of body sizes in comparison with other chubby babies of the same age groups. It is all about fitness, not sizes.

Recently, a set of grandchildren visited their grandparents during vacation; grandma was quite upset that they were skins and bones. She rang her daughter, a medical doctor who resides in Europe complaining she is not feeding the kids well. The kids’ mother only educated her mother not to overfeed the children. It is the same with all grandma, they tend to overfeed children you keep with them. I personally love chubby babies and had few of them but considering the danger of obesity in children, their health is more important to me now than my desire.

Low birth weight is associated with future hypertension and diabetes and this is why pregnant women should be well taken care of. Avoid cigarette smoking, alcohol intake, and eat balanced diet during pregnancy, then the issue of low birth weight will be half solved. As low birth weight has future risk, so also is excessive weight gain as they grow up. The focus this week will be to discuss obesity in children and how to prevent or treat it.

Implications of obesity in children
Obesity is a major problem worldwide; it’s associated with more than thirty medical conditions. Of most importance is cardiovascular diseases and sudden death. While searching for solution to obesity it was discovered that the cause of obesity is not overeating in adulthood but overfeeding in childhood.

Researches within Nigeria have shown that most of our children in primary and secondary schools are either overweight or obese. In America and Europe, screening of children between age 4 and 7 were screened using body mass index (BMI) and they found an increase in percentage overweight children from 8% to 21%.

Obesity in children is increasing day by day with junk food from our kitchen and other fast food joints. These children, our future hope now grow up prone to heart problems, blood pressure, diabetes and strokes. In our country where your health care is in your hands, it is my prayer that nothing bad will happen to our children, but let us not jeopardize their future by overfeeding them. The treatment of obesity really starts in childhood. Prevention is better than cure.

How to overcome obesity in children
Right from birth, the meal can be planned toward a healthy living using different age groups. It is cheap and realizable.

Infants – encourage exclusive breast feeding for 6months to be combined with other meal for minimum of 18 months. Do not rush to introduce solids and concentrate on fortified grains and vegetables.

Toddlers – take diet rich in vegetables and fruits. Less juice and sweeten beverages. Encourage outdoor games and enroll in schools with recreational facilities. Restrict television and videos viewing to less than one hour daily. It may be difficult but try it. Apart from disturbing their interest in studies, excessive TV viewings make them sedentary and grow fat. Separate dinning time from other activities like television watching.

School age group- as they enter school, in addition to above plan, encourage sports. Support a healthy body image, emphasizing strength and fitness

Behavioural – parents should please avoid cooking special meals for kids, rather emphasize family meals, our mothers will understand this. Do not use food as reward or punishment. Do not encourage eating beyond satiety (no clean plate syndrome). It is even amazing that some of our children are being scolded because they cannot finish meals. Let us remember that the stomach size of children is not same as that of adult. But at times your children may not want to eat food for reasons which your physicians can handle, consult him or her.

Be a role model yourself as parents (healthy diet, green vegetables, exercise and minimal TV viewing). Few weeks ago I gave a health talk in the presence of my children where I strongly condemned ‘pot belly syndrome’ and perfectly linked it to cardiovascular death. When we got home, my son led a family discussion where we all agreed that my own little belly should also be flat to avoid cardiovascular diseases. Since then , though not easy, I had doubled my effort to flatten my abdomen. Parents- children monitor us to see whether we do what we say, let us be good example. Eat healthy diet, rear healthy children and preserve their future.

Let me end this week by quoting a French man who said

Inferior physicians treat patients when the disease is full blown

The mediocre physician treats diseases when it is manifested clinically but

Superior physician prevents diseases.

I want to always be a superior physician, prevention is far better than cure. Maintain a healthy heart.