Talk:Childhood obesity/Archives/2014

Edit request on 29 October 2012 new Section called Impact on Education and Academic Performance
Obesity is an issue that is becoming more and more prevalent, especially in children. There are many factors that have previously been discussed but none have touched on the impact childhood obesity has on their education and academic performance. Poor diet, characterized by the excess intake of dietary fat and refined sugars which is becoming common in school age children are some of the primary mechanisms for this rising prevalence in obesity (Florence et al, 2008). It really is to bad, that children aren't eating lots of fruits and vegetables instead because those will increase your academic performance. In fact, Sweitzer et al (2011) has reported that proper nutrition enhances the learning of children and increases their academic performance and that only 48 % of American pre school children are consuming the required number of servings of fruits and vegetables. Imagine a society, where 100% of children were eating the required number of fruits and vegetables, resulting in a healthier brain and higher learning potential. In a society, where academic performance of children impacts their future educational attainment and success having poor nutrition in children leading to poor academic success is not satisfactory.

As childhood obesity is on the rise, it is important that childhood educators have well-informed and thoughtful responses to this issue/condition and be educated. If you went into the school system and asked the teachers how they were educated in regards to dealing with obesity, chances are most would say they weren't and sadly that's a reality (Jalongo, 1999). Steps should be taken towards educating teachers on how to deal with children suffering from obesity in a compassionate and respectful way. Furthermore, since the school setting is known to influence students eating patterns and that over 53 million students attend school every day in the US alone (Prelip et al, 2012); nutrition related obesity prevention programs can be very useful. School nutrition programs should target low caloric food that contains essential micro nutrients that reduce obesity weight and lead to a healthy body. As well, breakfast programs have been shown to be of great success (Mhurchu et al, 2010) and should continue to run in low SES areas and promote healthy living.

Overall, healthy children is pivotal to a successful future. The fact that hungry children may lack the energy and motivation to be involved in classroom activities, and that malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies have been shown to impact physical, mental, social health and cognitive functioning shows just how much nutrition matters and that for children, healthy nutritious lives should be emphasized both in the home and at school so that they may achieve their full academic and learning potential.

Pd08tu (talk) 15:24, 29 October 2012 (UTC)pd08tu
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: please be more specific about what needs to be changed. You also need to provide the references (Florence, Sweitzer, etc.) unless they are already present on the article. Also if you want the text above to be placed verbatim into the article, it needs to be rewritten to remove editorializing such as "It really is to [sic] bad" and "is not satisfactory". &mdash; KuyaBriBri Talk 19:39, 29 October 2012 (UTC)

Introduction, Home environment edits
For the introduction please add: In 2009, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2011) 28% of children aged 5-17 were overweight, showing just how much of a serious public health concern this is.

For the section on home environment please add:

As previously reported, the more mothers work the more children are likely to become overweight or obese, another factor that is also important would be the mothers education. There have been studies showing that child malnutrition and obesity can be predicted by their mothers education and family income (Tucker and Young, 1998). Furthermore, the socioeconomic status (SES) of the home and family is important; many low SES children lack the same access to resources and experiences that would help reduce the risk of becoming obese (Bradely and Corwyn, 2002).

Furthermore, a common occurrence of the home environment is meal times, especially breakfast and supper. Having said that, Mhurchu et al (2010) has found that missing breakfast is most common in older girls. This is important because the absence of breakfast has been associated with adverse effects on cognitive function, academic performance, school attendance, psychosocial function and mood in children and young people (Mhurchu et al, 2010; Prelip et al, 2012).

216.121.231.32 (talk) 19:22, 29 October 2012 (UTC)pd08tu
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done for now: You need to provide those references (OECD, Tucker and Young, etc.). &mdash; KuyaBriBri Talk 19:40, 29 October 2012 (UTC)

Edit request on 18 October 2013
Socioeconomic status of the family of overweight children[edit]I would like to add this topic, there are several studies avaiable. The two that I have researched are Delva, O"Malley, and Johnston (2006) and Kitsantas, and Talleyrand (2010). Both go into great detail on how the SES (socioeconomic status) affects overweight and obese children. Here are the citations:

Delva, Ph.D., Jorge, Patrick M. O'Malley, Ph.D., and Lloyd D. Johnston Ph.D. "Racial/Ethnic and Socioeconomic Status Differences in Overweight and Health-Related Behaviors among American Students: National Trends 1986-2003." Journal of Adolescent Health 39 (2006): 536-45. Web. 25 Sept. 2013. Kitsantas, Anastasia, and Regine Talleyrand. "Acculturation and Self-regulation as Determinants of Childhood Obesity." Counseling and Human Development Feb. 2010. 1+. Academic OneFile. Web. 25 Sept. 2013. --Tugboat in MI (talk) 01:23, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

This is the text I would put in: In a study done by Delva, Johnson, and O’Malley (2006) showed that overall findings that the prevalence of being overweight and engaging in less healthy behaviors and sedentary activities, like playing video games and computer games, considerably greater among youth from racial/ethnic minority backgrounds and of lower socioeconomic status. Another factor is that the lack of appropriate nutrition and physical activity, and the familial and various other environmental factors that contribute to youths’ nutritional and physical activity choices.

Tugboat in MI (talk) 00:53, 18 October 2013 (UTC)

Not done: Please see other edit request. Thanks, Celestra (talk) 17:25, 19 October 2013 (UTC)

Edit request on 18 October 2013
I would like to add the information on BMI, that even children with a high BMI needs to undergo weight loss. That BMI doesn't specify whether the body mass is consisting of fat or lean tissue. Experts available to discuss child hood obesity, role of BMI. (2005, Jul 2006). Business Wire Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com?docview?445400377?accountid=2200, Sept 22, 2013

In the first paragraph of the article it is mention that BMI is the method to determine if a child is overweight or obese. On Business Wire a article “Experts Available to Discuss Childhood Obesity, Role of BMI”, found that doctors often use the body mass index (BMI) to determine healthy weight in children, the U.S. Preventive Service Task Force has issued a report claiming there is no evidence to support that all children with a high BMI will need to undergo weight loss. Task force members say the BMI can identify that a child may have a weight problem, but the BMI doesn’t specify whether the body mass is consist of fat of lean tissue,  The reports recommends doctors pat special attention to children who experience sudden increases in their weight without changes in height. They also request that schools would require more physical activity and for the communities to develop exercise space for children to help curb childhood obesity.

Tugboat in MI (talk) 01:07, 18 October 2013 (UTC)

Not done: The text in your second paragraph, which reads like a quote from the reference, contradicts the text you say you want to add. Also, the text here and in the previous request are confusing and ungrammatical and suggest a reasonable concern as to whether the text correctly summarizes the claims from the sources. I'll go into more detail on your talk page. Regards, Celestra (talk) 17:38, 19 October 2013 (UTC)


 * Thank you for your input. Could we put in the first paragrah "On Business Wire a article “The U.S. Preventive Service Task Force has issued a report claiming there is no evidence to support that all children with a high BMI will need to undergo weight loss. Task force members say the BMI can identify that a child may have a weight problem,  but the BMI doesn’t specify whether the body mass is consist of fat of lean tissue."   This shows that we are putting to much on BMI on childhood obesity.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tugboat in MI (talk • contribs) 02:13, 15 November 2013 (UTC)


 * The first few paragraphs are called the lead (or lede) and summarize the entire article, so that wouldn't be a good place to add this. The first section, "Classification", talks about BMI and some content might be appropriate there, especially since one of the current references is an abstract which points out the problem with BMI as a predicter of body fat percentage (BF%). How about we add "The US Preventive Service Task Force reported that not all children with a high BMI need to lose weight. High BMI can identify a possible weight problem, but doesn’t differentiate between fat or lean tissue." Celestra (talk) 03:12, 22 November 2013 (UTC)

That would be a great idea, please go ahead and add that. Thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tugboat in MI (talk • contribs) 15:38, 24 November 2013 (UTC)