Understanding the contributing factors of childhood and adolescent obesity can help your family and your child remedy the problem of obesity the best way possible. In the long term, rectifying these contributing factors can help prevent adult obesity, which is one of the leading causes of cardiovascular problems and diabetes, two of the leading killers around the world.

General causes

The following are just some of the contributing factors of childhood and adolescent obesity. It has been observed that in many cases, a combination of two or three of these causes are present in individual cases of childhood obesity and adolescent obesity.

Inappropriate diet- Just because it tastes good, does not mean it is good for your child. One of the biggest contributing factors of childhood and adolescent obesity is inappropriate diets. A good example would be so-called “kiddie meals” sold in many fast food restaurants. It has been discovered that nearly all of these meals packed more than 400 calories per meal- enough to cause obesity if eaten regularly.

? Sedentary living- being a couch potato at a young age is very bad. If your child is packing in more calories per day and is not burning off enough of these calories, the extra energy is stored as fat. This fat accumulates over time, and eventually, leads to the condition of being overweight.

? Socio-economic conditions- if the parents are working overtime to provide for the daily needs of the family, healthy foods choices and regular exercise may be put at a lower priority. From this arises the possibility of obesity in children and adolescents, because with no adults guiding the effort to lose weight, children would continue with their sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy eating patterns.

Kill the tube

Some parents think that watching television is not one of the contributing factors of childhood and adolescent obesity. Actually, watching television or playing games on the Internet per se is not the cause of obesity. The amount of time spent doing these activities is the cause. “Screening time” is the term employed by dietitians to the length of time a child sits in front of a television, watching his favorite shows or just killing time. Apart from simple lack of physical activity, being excessively glued to the television also has an impact on what your child eats.

As a child grows older, he or she would begin making more independent decisions, including what to snack on or what to eat for lunch. If a child is exposed to all the advertisements on television for fast food, potato chips and other high-calorie foods, do you think your child would suddenly opt for organic salads and lean meat? Of course not, this is why an uncontrolled screening time is also one of the leading contributing factors of childhood and adolescent obesity. Instead of castigating your child, you can just suggest alternative activities that he or she can appreciate, which would naturally replace the television or computer.

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