The Hindu : Front Page : Chubbiness is not an index of a child's health

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 26, 2006
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Chubbiness is not an index of a child's health

Karthik Madhavan

Paediatricians worried about rising child obesity ; children spend hours in front of television

ERODE: As families move up the socio-economic ladder and become nuclear, and parents' purses get fattier, their lifestyles change. Children spend hours in front of the television, go in for fast foods and become obese. Doctors here are concerned over the rising incidence of obesity.

Affluent families

The number of obese children Dr. M. Ramesh, a paediatrician of eight years, treats may be a case in point. He says when he started practice he attended to only one or two cases a month but today it is six. And they are no longer children from from just affluent families.

"Today I see obese children from the middle income group as well, who like their rich cousins have stopped playing. They instead spend hours in front of the TV while consuming junk food,'' says Dr Ramesh.

No physical activity

He adds: "There is complete absence of physical activity. The children no longer walk or cycle to school. With van and autorickshaws picking them up right at their doorsteps, they are spared of that exercise as well. Dr. C. K. Saraswathi of C.K. Hospital agrees.

Dr Saraswathi says obesity has also to do with small families. "Apart from sedentary lifestyle, nuclear families also contribute to obesity. With no family member to play with, the child has little choice but turn to TV for company. And in my observation obese child is always a single child.'' She treats about five cases a month.

Another reason paediatricians advance is the declining emphasis on sports and games in schools. "With academics taking centre stage to push aside extracurricular activities, a student hardly gets to play,'' says Dr. P.

Senthil Prakash. Expressing concern over this trend, Dr Prakash adds: "Even in schools, I believe, the number of games and PT periods in a week has come down.'' His other concern centres on parents' equating obesity with a child being healthy.

Susceptible to diseases

"Parents think obese children are healthy, which is wrong. On the contrary, they are more susceptible to diseases than normal kids,'' he says.

Being chubby has nothing to do with a child's state of health, he says and adds that parents watching such children in advertisements may be a reason for them entertaining such a notion.

To prevent children from getting obese, doctors suggest a number of ways, the first of which is change in lifestyle. ``I suggest parents ensure that children spend least amount of time in front of TV and instead go out to play,'' says Dr. S. A. Nassir, a paediatrician.

Strong motivation

Dr. Prakash wants the children to sweat it out for at least an hour on the playground, and at the same time reduce junk food intake. He stresses this point because the obese tend to become psychologically depressed as peers taunt and bully them. The doctors call for strong motivation from parents to contain obesity.

They warn of various consequences of obesity - susceptibility to diabetes, cardiac problems, high blood pressure, infertility and menstrual irregularities.

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