Seminar aims to prevent kids’ obesity

By Ed Runyan

HOWLAND — Medical professionals will have the most success in reducing obesity in the general population by focusing on kids age 6 to 12, a doctor at Akron Children’s Hospital told an audience at Avalon Inn.

Dr. Troy Smurawa, keynote speaker at Wednesday’s childhood-obesity seminar, said research has shown that 80 percent of obese teenagers will be obese adults, and treatments for obese teens and adults are not very successful.

Conversely, there is only a 20 percent probability that obese children age 4 will be obese adults.

“You can see that the 6- to 12-year-old range is the key area to target kids” for intervention so that they do not become obese teenagers, he said.

Changes in American society over the past 20 years — such as sedentary lifestyles brought on by the amount of video-game playing, computer time and television watching — are responsible for increased rates of overweight children.

Changes in families also have resulted more fast food and high- calorie beverages in the diets of children, he said.

Mel Milliron, an education specialist with the Trumbull County Health Department and one of the organizers of the seminar, said 142 people were registered to attend, 40 of them dieticians and another 40, nurses.

Smurawa said advertisers market products to youngsters which are high in calories, creating demand for those products.

Some socioeconomic issues, such as single-parent households, have led to children’s being on their own in making food choices or in eating a great deal at fast-food restaurants, he said.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control says 17 percent of kids age 6 to 19 are overweight, with the number of obese kids doubling since 1980 and nearly tripling since 1974. From 1971 to 1974, 4 percent of kids 6 to 11 and 6.1 percent of kids age 12 to 19 were overweight.

Obesity leads to diabetes; diseases of the heart, such as hypertension; diseases of the lungs; problems with the liver and gallbladder; plus cancers of the breast, uterus, colon, pancreas, kidney and prostate, Smurawa’s PowerPoint presentation said.

The standard measurement for children’s weight is the body mass index (BMI), which can be determined through a number of Web sites.

In children, it is shown as a percentile. A healthy percentile is 5 to 85 BMI. A BMI of 85 percent to 95 percent is at risk of being overweight, and a BMI of 95 percent and above is obese.

For instance, a 10-year-old girl, 5 feet tall, 110 pounds, has a BMI of 21.5, which is at the 91.7 percentile, which means the child is at increased risk of becoming overweight, according to the Web site www.keepkidshealthy.com/welcome/bmicalculator.html.

Smurawa noted that most of the health-care industry puts most of its resources into treatment of problems such as obesity, rather than prevention.

“Is it because insurance doesn’t pay for prevention?” he asked.

Many of the medical professionals sitting nearby nodded yes.

Smurawa said there is a possibility that if health-care reforms take place, a greater emphasis will be placed on prevention, and that would be good for childhood obesity.

As an example, he explained that parents of newborns should realize that babies cry for other reasons than being hungry.

So by “force feeding” a child when the child is upset rather than hungry, the child learns that when he or she is upset, he should put something into his mouth, Smurawa said. As adults, many people still do this, he said.

Because one of the major issues relating to childhood obesity is a sedentary lifestyle, parents should devise strategies to limit the amount of time their child spends at the computer, video-game console or watching television.

One fun way might be to give the child computer or TV “tickets” that they can spend in 30-minute increments, he said.

Parents need to be good role models of active lifestyles and make their children part of that by walking the dog or taking the family to a park.

In some cases in which intervention by a medical worker fails, the family needs motivation to succeed, Dr. Smurawa said, and that sometimes comes from counseling.

runyan@vindy.com

Childhood obesity Preventive steps

Breast-feed for at least five to six months.

Wait until age 6 months to introduce solid foods.

Don’t force-feed infants and toddlers.

Recognize that babies cry for reasons other than hunger.

Eat breakfast daily.

Limit the number of meals you eat out.

Limit portion sizes.

Be a good role model.

Keep TV and computer in open areas so you can monitor them.

Plan family walks, hikes and bike rides.

Source: Dr. Troy Smurawa, Akron Children’s Hospital