Strollerderby : overweight

When Your Kid's Report Card Says They're Fat

JeanneSager — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:01:00 GMT

The "B" on your kid's report card could soon stand for Body Mass Index.

The Massachusetts Public Health Council has OK'd a proposal that will have schools measuring students' weight and height and sending report cards home to parents that warn them when their kids are overweight.

It's actually just the latest in a string of states that measure kids' BMI (eighteen in total do so), and a growing number that are sending the results home to the parents. Dubbed Mass in Motion, the Massachusetts program is aimed at lowering rates of childhood obesity - and parents will have the chance to opt out if they want to.

I am already prepared for the response of some parents - BMI isn't not an accurate representation of whether or not someone is overweight. And they're right. But the breakdown can be helpful, especially for parents who see the pediatrician only once a year with their kids, when it's time for the well visit. Sudden spikes or drops in weight can be signs of illness in kids, signs of depression or drug abuse too. Catch the warning signs early, and you might prevent your kids from future harm.

Parents would also do well to know a little more about their child's health. Studies have shown that parents often fail to recognize that their kids are overweight - be it because they have problems with weight themselves, are in denial or simply don't notice a change because they see their kids every day (where a grandparent who sees them monthly might notice a big difference in that time span).

How would you feel if you got this kind of report? Would it bother you to have the school stepping in?

Image: Go Healthy Go Fit

For Goodness Sake, Leave Their Tonsils Alone

JeanneSager — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:29:00 GMT

Want another reason not to put your kids under the knife for a tonsillectomy?

Word has it, putting your kids in the hospital so a doctor can cut out those little chunks of lymphatic tissue at the back of the mouth could make them fat. And we're not talking about all that ice cream served up during recovery.

A Dutch study of almost four thousand kids determined that eight year olds who underwent a tonsillectomy when they were younger were at a heightened risk of obesity - regardless of whether doctors had also removed their adenoids. The doctors factored in kids who were already overweight when they were tots (pre-surgery) as a control, and they say they were able to determine the tonsillectomy prompted the obesity.

They're not calling for tonsil surgeries to stop - the numbers performed in the states have steadily decreased since the 1970s anyway. Instead, the researchers call for better nutrition management and education for kids who have had the surgery.

Considering I still have my tonsils, I guess that's one less chance I have to blame my big butt on someone else. Sigh. . . although, I could always blame it on the baby I had three years ago, right? Right?

Image: Kids Health

Barbie Teaches Kids About Obesity

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:30:00 GMT

A new ad campaign by an organization called the Active Life Movement is relying on the paragons of impossible beauty to teach kids about the perils of obesity. Since toys like Barbie really encourage healthy body images and lifestyles….

The goal of the Active Life Movement is laudable—to encourage kids to be active and healthy—but this ad campaign is certainly not serving that goal. As Jezebel points out, toys like Barbie and Superman hardly have body types that kids should be striving for. (Check out the superhero version of the ad here.)

And the ads’ tag line—“Keep obesity away from your child”—is unnecessarily harsh, making it sound as if being overweight is a contagious disease. Being healthy does not necessarily mean being thin, just as being thin does not necessarily mean being healthy. I would hope that the epidemic of eating disorders among increasingly young kids has taught us that by now.

This ad is the visual equivalent of shouting at kids, “Don’t be fat! Be beautiful! Or else everyone will hate you!” Active Life Movement, I suggest sending your creative directors back to the drawing board.

Photo: AdFreak.com

They Say: Obesity During Pregnancy Raises Risk of Birth Defects

Kate Tuttle — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:01:00 GMT

A new study looking at data from dozens of earlier research efforts has concluded that women who are obese cduring pregnancy are more likely to give birth to children with birth defects, in particular spina bifida and other neural tube defects. Other problems, such as hydrocephaly, cleft palate, and some heart and limb anomalies, are also found at higher rates when children are born to mothers who were obese during pregnancy.

The rate of spina bifida was strikingly higher in these cases, with obese mothers 2.2 times more likely to have a child with that condition; spina bifida ranges in severity but can cause paralysis, incontinence, and other serious medical challenges.

The paper, which appeared this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, looked at the results of 39 previous studies and was authored by Judith Rankin, a researcher at the Institute of Health and Society at Newcastle University in the UK. Rankin told the New York Times that she and her co-authors had also found increased risk to the children of mothers who were classified as overweight, rather than obese, but that further research was needed.

Pregnant women and women planning to become pregnant are routinely advised to take folic acid to lower the risk of neural tube defects, but some doctors now suggest a link between those defects and insulin resistance and undiagnosed diabetes.

Whatever the precise mechanism, the message is pretty clear -- losing weight before conceiving is in the best interest of your future child. How that advice is played out in doctor's offices and homes is another story entirely -- we live in a time and place of mixed messages about weight and health, in which we are bombarded with advertisements for unhealthy food and at the same time urged to lose weight at all costs (and often merely to look good, rather than to improve health). I hope that studies like this can help shine a clear light onto what really matters -- women's health and healthy babies.

More By This Author:

Kittens Have Their Say (Aided by Nutty Six-Year-Old)

Twenty-Year-Old Kidnapping Solved

Little Girl with Bowel Disease Kept Alive on Donated Breastmilk

They Say: More Abuse, Neglect Among Bottle-Feeding Moms

Adoption Application Turned Down Due to Prospective Father's BMI

Shannon LC Cate — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 20:00:00 GMT

A UK couple was denied the opportunity to adopt due to the husband's weight. He is 2% over the body mass index limit of 40%. I don't know much about adoption law in the UK, but I immediately wondered if this was a one-off or a policy across the board, nationally. (This particular case was an attempt at public adoption through a city council, not a private adoption agency.)

But more than that, I wondered if there are laws banning single parents from adopting in the UK. Because the rationale given the couple was that the man's morbid obesity was a dangerous enough health risk that he might be seriously disabled or die because of it. I can understand that concern, but I cannot understand banning a couple from adopting if only one member of it has such a health concern. If they would allow the wife to adopt as a single mother, they should overlook the husband's weight, I think.

Of course, it also depends on what kind of adoption the couple is seeking to do. If they are looking for a rare healthy newborn, that's one thing. But if they are hoping to welcome a child who might not otherwise grow up in a stable family setting, 2% BMI is no reason to deny them.

What do you think of these kinds of restrictions on prospective adoptive parents? Is this an "ism" rooted in our obsession with thin bodies or a reasonable concern? What about some of the other restrictions that sometimes come up in adoption, like a history of using anti-depressants, a marijuana arrest at age 21 or other things breeders don't think twice about when becoming parents? Should there be higher standards for adoptive parents, period?

Is This Baby Obese? Aussie Mom Says No

Kate Tuttle — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:02:00 GMT

Are we too quick to call babies overweight and obese? One Australian mother thinks so, and she's pulled her infant from a daycare center for fears the staff there, who labelled her ten-month-old overweight, will fail to feed her adequately. Olivia Villella, ten months old, is hitting the 75th pecentile for weight and the 25th for height -- maybe a little on the round side, but nothing most doctors would worry about -- but her teachers at the ABC childcare center in Australia have called her fat and obese (which her four-year-old brother mis-heard as "a fat beast"), prompting her mother to worry they will withold food from her should she remain there.

I'm all for helping parents feed their children a healthy diet, and even giving them tools to know when their child might need expert help, but the knee-jerk labelling of any child as obese, particularly by people who have no medical training, seems counterproductive at best. While I'm sure the mother is leaving the daycare out of embarrassment and anger as much as any real concerns of her daughter's starving, I can understand how she feels. It's all too easy to judge someone else's baby, and when those doing the judging may well be bringing in their own baggage (especially when it comes to gender: why is it always a girl baby that gets this label?), then it's downright destructive. I know that if my child's daycare wanted to put my child on a diet without consulting me, I'd be out of there fast, calling everyone on the waitlist as I went.

More by this author:

They Say: Healthier Pregnancies, Babies After Gastric Bypass

Kate Tuttle — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:30:00 GMT

It used to be that pregnancy was a time of blessed reprieve for overweight women. Once the belly grew out past the "is she or isn't she" point, they could bask in the public affirmation of their size instead of worrying about being judged for it. Ladies, those days are gone. Overweight and pregnant, it seems, isn't cute when it means an increased risk of not only gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia but also prematurity, low birth weight, and other neonate ills. So for women of childbearing age who are significantly overweight or obese, a new report suggests, undergoing weight-loss surgery before becoming pregnant might be the smartest thing you can do.

In one of those "study of studies," published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the authors reviewed 75 research projects that compared outcomes between formerly obese women who had had gastric bypass or other bariatric surgery with their still-obese peers (and some, with their non-obese peers). Overall, they found that moms who had undergone surgery before becoming pregnant had a significantly lower risk of various weight-related complications, in some cases equalling the risks faced by women of average size.

Weight-loss surgery still carries inherent risks, and it's no easy path. But neither is becoming pregnant, carrying and delivering a baby while obese, it turns out.

They Say: Parents Don't Know Kids are Too Fat or Too Thin

JeanneSager — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:56:00 GMT

Think your kid has a weight problem? You might want to check with their doctor. A Melbourne University study of more than 2100 families found almost half the parents of overweight kids thought they were "healthy." The numbers weren't much better for parents of underweight kids.

The Australian study found 49 percent of parents with a child who is overweight thought they were of an average weight. For kids who are underweight, 43 percent of parents thought they were just fine.

It's no wonder - I walk around and where I see overweight children, I often see an overweight parent. If Mom or Dad has trouble identifying a healthy weight and healthy eating habits themselves, how are they going to do it for their kids? With childhood obesity so rampant, they can't even guage a child's health against his or her classmates - because "normal" has shifted. Add in the differences in bone structure, body type and America's melting pot of ethnicities with their own traits for weight, and it's hard to tell what qualifies as "overweight" without a doctor sitting down to evaluate height against weight against muscle mass against . . .

And in a society that researchers found has a "social bias toward thinness" (really, they had to do a study to figure that out?), complaining that a child is "underweight" is a sticky wicket. As parents, for the last several years, we've had the words "childhood obesity" drilled so heavily into our heads our ears are bleeding. Underweight isn't something most parents focus on - the National Eating Disorder Association estimates 5 percent of the American population at any given time is living with an undiagnosed eating disorder. That includes adults - often adults whose parents don't see them as having a problem. But eating disorders have been diagnosed in kids as young as 7 or 8.

A recovering bulimic, I struggle daily to ensure I'm keeping my daughter on track toward a healthy weight. I have vowed not to make food an issue in our house, denying her little but presenting as many healthy options as possible. Still, I hold my breath at each well visit with the pediatrician, waiting to hear the magic words, "your daughter is doing just fine."

Image: Mebby

Keep Kids From Getting Fat - Get a Dog

Babble Talk: My Daughter Gets Her Happy Ending at McDonald's

What's Worse, Getting Fat or Getting Pregnant?

Is Your Daughter a Princess?

Addicted to Food Because of Genes?

Kelly Mills — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 14:31:00 GMT

I've read about a quadrillion studies on obesity research, and it's rare that one actually makes me reconsider my behavior. This latest one, on a gene variant and the pleasure derived from food, actually did give me pause though. It also might make you think twice about how to feed your kids. Here's what I mean.

It might seem logical that people who are overweight or obese get more pleasure from food than skinny folks, and that's why they overeat. But the study says the opposite might be true. Researchers gave chocolate milkshakes (mmm) to 77 young women. Some were lean, some were obese, and some had a gene variant that makes them respond less to dopamine (a chemical important to the pleasure response.) Here's what they found: Obese women had less of a pleasure response to the milkshakes; this was even more so for women with the gene variant; and women with the gene variant had gained more weight a year later. In the words of one resarcher: "'If you look at the brain response when people are about to get the milkshake, obese individuals show greater activation of the reward circuitry, not less. So, ironically, they expect more reward but seem to experience less.'" Which kinda makes sense---if anticipate something will be better than it is, you might keep eating it in an effort to get satisfaction.

The researcher suggests that eating a small amount regularly of something high in fat and sugar might not be the way to go, because it could make it hard to stop eating. Perhaps cutting the food out entirely would actually do more for reducing cravings and overeating. And this applies to kids because, well, it may be easiest to build in good habits when you are young. Sigh. I'm a cupcake addict, and my kid likes her daily dessert, but this study might make me re-evaluate the frequency of our treats. Um, maybe. No promises.

Does anyone let their kids eat candy on halloween anymore?

Keep kids from getting fat - get a dog.

It's hard out there for a mom who says 'no'

Your Stress Is Making Your Kid Fat

Amy Kuras — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:02:00 GMT

This, this is just kinda sad. Researchers have found that stressed-out moms may be raising fat kids because those kids respond to family stress by turning to food.

Awww.

More to the point, this affects kids who are raised in poverty because of their mother's money worries, long work hours, health insurance concerns and other factors, said study leader Craig Gundersen of the University of Illinois.

"People will eat in response to feeling stress," he told Reuters news service, "and in this case children may be eating more in response to stress-related trouble at home."

Gundersen's fix is a better social safety net for poor families, such as food stamps and better health insurance coverage and better financial education to help people manage money.

Gundersen and colleagues at Iowa State University and Michigan State University looked at data on 841 children in families living below the poverty line who were part of a government nutrition survey conducted from 1999 to 2002.

Certainly many of us have been guilty of "stress eating" – grabbing carb- and fat-laden foods that taste good and have little to no nutritional value, and we probably unwittingly pass that behavior on to our kids.

But I think this also overlooks a really important fact: Many people who are living in poverty also live in what are termed "food deserts" — places where it's difficult to find fresh, healthful food. I live in a pretty poor city and while my neighborhood is blessed with two decent grocery stores, that’s not the case for much of the city. What is common are gas stations and party stores selling chips, cookies, candy bars and pop, with not a healthy choice to be found.

If you're a mom working two jobs just to make ends meet and it's two bus rides to the nearest grocery store, I refuse to blame you for your child's obesity because you're stressed out and sometimes are reduced to shopping at the gas station. I think finding a way to make more healthy, affordable foods available to low-income families is key to the health of the next generation of urban kids. Sure, parents need to be responsible in what they feed their children, but offering them smart choices is key.

They Say: Coffee Makes Poor Fertility Worse

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 20:23:00 GMT

The bad news is, Dutch researchers have found that caffeine consumption lowers the chances that a woman with poor fertility will be able to conceive. The good news is, we’re talking a lot of coffee.

The study of 9,000 women who had received in vitro fertilization found that drinking four or more cups of coffee a day lowered the chances of conception by 26 percent. Drinking alcohol three or more times a week was equally damaging to subfertile women’s chances of conception, and cigarette smoking and obesity were the worst fertility offenders. In other words, healthier women stand a better chance of conception. (Though I must say that if coffee makes you unhealthy, I don’t want to be well.)

It’s important to keep in mind that these findings do not apply to all women. Fertility expert Bill Ledger colorfully put the study into perspective: “A lot of women can have 20 cups of coffee a day and get pregnant while falling off a log, but if you’re already subfertile, it could push you over the edge.”

Photo: Cafe At Home

Gasp! Childhood Obesity Not Exploding

Kelly Mills — Tue, 27 May 2008 23:10:00 GMT

Hey, remember how a little while back we were told childhood obesity was a horrific epidemic ravaging the land? And then every thirty seconds or so a study and accompanying news story would appear, saying that juice or distant mothers or text messaging was one of the causes? (Side note: News outlets almost always use one of maybe three pictures of overweight kids for these stories. I do hope those kids are getting royalties or something.) It seemed like you almost couldn't go a week without at least one "such-and-such is contributing to the fattening of our youth" story appearing somewhere.

Well, now there's more news in the kid and weight front. Apparently childhood obesity has leveled off. In fact, the rates of obesity have remained basically unchanged since 1999. The experts say it's too soon to get all hopeful, but maybe public health campaigns are perhaps responsible for the leveling. I don't know--I'd like to hear an alternative theory. Oh, but racial and economic disparities do persist, and poor folks and those in certain ethnic groups are still more likely to be obese. And we can probably in part thank the fast food industry and the dearth of healthy food options in lower income communities for that.

Ending the Food Fight: Stopping Childhood Obesity

Cole Gamble — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:01:00 GMT

You pretty much can't turn on the tv with out hearing how fat American kids are today. Every empire must fall. In Rome, Christian was the downfall. In England it was overextension. Apparently the fall of the American Empire will be juvenile diabetes.

A new book tackles the “epidemic” of childhood obesity in our country: Ending the Food Fight by Dr. David Ludwig, who founded the Optimal Weight for Life program (OWL) at the Children's Hospital Boston. Dr. Ludwig claims success for his method comes from a low-glycemic diet.

Now, I was once a fat kid, and actually would like to have been one now when being fat doesn't seem to put you in the minority. That said, I really watch it with my kids. Not psycho “baby anorexic”, just a concern for establishing good eating habits early on. My parents let me eat whatever I wanted and convinced me the resulting fatness was genetics and nothing I could combat. I don't know about special gylcemic diets, but I do know that modeling good eating habits for your kids does more for putting them on a solid health (physical and mental) foundation than anything.

Fat Kids Might Not Be Responsible For Everything Bad In The World

Adrienne Martini — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 19:00:00 GMT

From the "Huh." Department --

Researchers at the Eastman Dental Center in Rochester, NY, have discovered something that runs counter to almost everything we've been told about over weight kids, namely that they are doomed and, possibly, responsible for everything from factory farms to global warming.

As it turns out, there is one good thing about being a kid who is overweight. You probably won't have as many cavities as your lighter peers. No one seems to be certain why that may be but this data point does offer further proof that it is difficult to separate one body part from all of the other parts and get a good picture of how it works.

Or maybe there's just a dental-based advantage to being an overweight kid in Upstate New York. Time may tell.

Weekly Check-Up: Eating Disorders On the Rise In Young Kids

Kelly Mills — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:31:00 GMT

With all the news about the rise in childhood obesity and how we have to do something about it, it's interesting to see coverage of another topic: Increasing numbers of elementary school-aged children may be developing eating disorders. An eating disorder treatment center reported a 300 percent increase in calls for pre-teen patients. Oh, and get this: 80 percent of preteen girls are dieting. WTF? Dieting is linked with an increased liklihood of developing an eating disorder, which makes sense, cuz it's often just a matter of crossing a line a few too many times.

Treatment centers aren't the only ones who are worried: 63 percent of elementary school teachers say they are worried about eating disorders in their classrooms. Oy. And in case you thought maybe kids didn't get the message about how important it is to be thin, 81 percent of ten-year-olds are afraid of getting fat. The adverse health effects of anorexia and bulemia are much clearer than the health effects of being overweight, by the way. Perhaps as we loudly wage a war on an obesity "epidemic," we might want to spend some time looking at what other messages we are sending our kids.

Weekly Check-Up: Messy House Making You Fat?

Kelly Mills — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:31:00 GMT

Hmmm, is it just a coincidence that two of the first things to go when many people have kids are standards of house cleanliness and, well, the ass? Oh please. Apparently one of Oprah's special friends believes an untidy home can keep you fat. "Clutter expert" (do you need a Master's degree for that) Peter Walsh says he was stunned to discover that when people got organized, they also started making healthy food choices. I suppose a skeptical person could point out that our society's current fixation with obesity might make "it helps you lose weight!" a key selling point for all kinds of stuff, like, say, a book on home organization, but we can't find our skeptics under all these piles of papers and empty fast food containers.

So, how exactly does clutter keep you heavy? Well, er, that part isn't real scientifically clear, something about loving yourself and clearing room to do away with emotional eating and having a nice, clean space to cook healthy foods and exercise. Totally. Did anyone mention that housework burns calories? Why, it's all so clear! Feel lighter when you do away with extra junk in your house, and those extra pounds won't be far behind at all. They will just fall away. Now, if only my habit of exercising somehow made my house neater, I'd be stoked. And incidentally, I could go a million years without ever having to hear the phrases "healthy food choices" and "the real you" again.

Parents and Teens Don't Recognize Weight Problem

Kelly Mills — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 20:32:00 GMT

Yet another study found that parents of overweight teens don't identify the kids as being overweight, and the kids don't see a problem either. There's been a whole slew of these "parents don't know kids are fat" things lately. When both groups were asked if they thought the adolescents, who all have type 2 diabetes, were "very overweight, slightly overweight, about right, slightly thin, or very thin?" only 41 percent of the parents and 35 percent of the kids reported 'very overweight', even though 87 percent were considered overweight by accepted standards. The researchers say this is a problem because recognition of a weight problem is the first step in making lifestyle and diet changes. But, well, I gotta cry "bullshit" on this one.

Frankly, I do still have some trouble accepting the premise that in this weight-obsessed society, the teenagers involved don't have any idea they might be overweight, even if the parents are blind to it. But let's assume this study is valid: Is it in fact necessary for the kids and parents to acknowledge weight problems in order to make changes? Personally I don't think so, and I believe focusing on weight as a measure of health is foolish anyway. After all, this is a group who has type 2 diabetes (linked with being overweight) and you're telling me that explaining diet and exercise are crucial to diabetes management and even reversal is not good enough? These kids have a disease that gives them incentive and reason to make lifestyle changes that would almost certainly result in weight loss. That's more important than highlighting weight, and trust me, they'll get the weight message from many different sources for the rest of their lives.

Fat Guy Gets Go-Ahead to Adopt

Madeline Holler — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 21:27:00 GMT

A super overweight guy who was convinced that a judge denied him custody of his cousin’s son because of the man’s size has once again regained custody of the little boy.

Now the wheels are in motion for him and his wife to finalize adoption of the now 8-month-old, who the couple began caring for when he was 1-week-old.

The judge denies that the man’s weight was ever a factor in denying custody. At the beginning of the battle, he weight 550 pounds. Now, after a Dallas doctor offered free gastic by-pass, he’s 200 pounds lighter.

Instead, the judge says the man improperly moved the boy across state lines. He was born in Texas, but the family now lives in Missouri, where the case is being adjudicated.

The overweight man has been fighting to regain custody of the boy since this summer, when he was placed with another (skinnier?) family, also interested in permanent adoption.

I’m happy for the big guy and the little boy. Weight shouldn’t be a factor when deciding where to place children, particularly in places like Missouri! Jesus! In Missouri, food is love! So I’m glad this is being resolved. But now I’m sad for that other family.

Big Giant Humongous Baby

Kelly Mills — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 19:30:00 GMT

Just when you get tired of childhood obesity stories, there's an infant obesity story to catch your attention. I, Breeder found this story about a giant baby in China, and this was good: "Every bone in my body is aching to buy a plane ticket to Beijing, hop a bus to Jilin and track him down just to say 'don't be such a big baby!'" He's eight months old and is already too big to crawl or stand. I guess he was born at a "normal" weight--7 pounds, 4 ounces--but his folks said he started gettting huge at about one month old.

So when I say big, exactly how big am I talking? Oh, 41 pounds. That's about the same weight as my six-year-old. And this makes my boobs hurt just thinking about it: His mom says he nurses 20 times a day because he's hungry. That's almost as often as I eat. So I'd guess that either there's something medical going on, or the big guy is just developing differently than most children his age and he'll even out in the end.

Embrace the Muffin Top: Extra Pounds May Save Your Life, Not Destroy It

Madeline Holler — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 21:25:00 GMT

Can't shed those last 10 pounds of baby weight? Don't! Being a little fat might actually help you survive illnesses such as pneumonia and emphysema, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overweight people also seemed less likely to die from some types of injuries and infections, according to the study.

Being fat is healthy? That's too good to be true! Indeed, it is. But not that much.

Extra fat still contributes to diabetes and kidney disease. But a new study found that up to 25 extra pounds (yessssss!) doesn't increase the risk of death from heart disease or cancer. But being obese -- that's scoring a BMI of 30 points or higher -- does. So, it's okay to be fat, but not too fat.

This whole fat-is-fine conundrum has doctors baffled. (No word on how self-righteous skinny people are taking the news.) The studies seem to contribute to the once-ignored idea that it is indeed possible to be fit and fat. One obesity expert says this news might also calm what he calls the "obesity epidemic hysteria."

A heart specialist, however, worries that the results might be misinterpreted and misleading. For example, a death certificate might have listed a diabetic's cause of death as diabetes, when actually heart disease contributed to the person's demise. He vows that this CDC report won't be the last word. (Those heart guys are such downers!)

Should we take our eyes of the scale? Rework the BMI chart? Forget about the pounds, embrace size 16 fourth-graders and just work on fitness?

How to Make a Fat Kid Skinny: New Friends

Madeline Holler — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 15:36:00 GMT

Any adult who has ever lost weight knows it takes vigilance and hard work to keep off the extra pounds. Researchers have found that fat kids, not surprisingly, have the same challenge with maintaining.

As with everyone else, obese kids who do manage to lose weight are at great risk of putting it all back on -- and more. But one approach is showing promise as a strategy for changing overweight and obese kids’ lifestyles for good: new friends.

In a small study, kids who weighed at least 65 percent above their normal-range were given exercise and nutrition counseling and assisted in losing weight. Most did. After the five-months of dieting, a third of the kids were sent out into the big high-calorie world to fend for themselves, and another third continued receiving counseling. Both of these groups eventually put the weight back on.

The other third of the kids had significantly better success at keeping off the pounds. What's the secret? These kids were encouraged to form new friendships, especially with other children who were physically active. They took up sports and joined teams and were better able to keep off the pounds.

So you know how peer pressure can get tempt your kids to try drugs or Vacation Bible School? I guess it can also get your kids to go out for team sports or take up surfing. Time to weed out the heavy-eating lazy bunch from playgroup and get me a camping chair for the soccer field sidelines.

Weekly Check-Up: Don't Tease Kids About Weight

Kelly Mills — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 12:30:00 GMT

Here's a disturbing finding: "In a five-year study of more than 2,500 teenagers, researchers found that 44 percent of girls and 29 percent of boys were overweight, habitual binge-eaters or had taken unhealthy measures to lose weight -- such as abusing laxatives, using diet pills or vomiting." Yikes. That is alot of teenagers doing possible longterm damage to their bodies. But before we make the lollipop-headed models in magazines carry all the blame on their frail little shoulders, what factors increased the risk of girls doing the purge or being overweight or trying the liquid-cleanse diet?

Let's put it this way: "Better lay off the ice cream, kiddo, because you are growing a twin." Yep, teasing by a family member raised the prevalence of going extreme with the weight loss attempts by 41 percent. And girls who reported teasing at the beginning of the study were twice as likely to be overweight five years later. And having a mother who dieted was also cited as a risk factor.

If you ever needed a reason to not tease your kid about weight, there it is. And I'll go a step farther and say don't let anyone--not your brother or your mom or your cousins or whoever--give your child a hard time about weight. In fact, if this goes on in your family I'd have a ready retort or game plan, because no kid deserves that kind of crap, and frankly, "It was just a joke" shouldn't be an excuse for cruelty. And once again, the best way to help kids with a healthy body image is to lead by example.

One last finding: "Weight-related problems were less common among girls who said they frequently sat down to meals with their families, and that family meals were a positive, enjoyable experience." And what a great opportunity to show kids that food is not the enemy.

Kids Gain Weight Over Summer Vacation

Karen Murphy — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 11:19:00 GMT

Okay, people, we've got the idea. Kids are fat. Lots of kids are fat. The latest reason? Because they're not in school. That's right, now summer vacation is being blamed on weight gain in children. So getting away from schools which are filled with Taco Bell ads, junk-food vending machines, crappy cafeteria food NOT made by Jamie Oliver, and which offer little or no opportunity to burn off calories outside, apparently makes kids get even fatter.

5,380 5- and 6-year-olds in 310 schools across the country were studied over a three-year period and were found to have gained more weight over the summer than during the school year. Researchers speculate that the weight gain could be because the summer months lack the structure of the school year, which throws the cause of the problem back on the parents and is another justification for lengthening the school year.

All this passing around the blame isn't helping the kids who need help.

More About Fat Kids: Now They Don't Sleep Enough

Karen Murphy — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 13:13:00 GMT

I know, I know. It's yet another study about why kids are fat these days. [sigh] I'm beginning to wonder if anybody really knows? Is it fast-food commercials, watching TV itself, NOT watching TV, school lunches, what, what, WHAT???!

Theory du jour: sleep. Actually, I can relate to this one. I'm appalled at the amount of sleep most American kids get these days, so it's no wonder they're falling asleep at their desks and causing their parents to be fined for missing parent-teacher conferences. They just aren't sleeping enough. And while I can't quite manage the 7 o'clock bedtime espoused in books like this one, I do pretty well. And my kids look like walking stick insects.

Apparently, this study found a significant relationship between sleep, Body Mass Index (BMI), and overweight status in children aged 3 to 18. Even adding one hour sleep a night to a child's routine made a big difference in "weight status". The study was held over a five-year period whichhelped determine the issue of whether sleep actually affects weight or whether children who already are overweight are simply poor sleepers.

Love IS Blind: Parents Can't See Their Kids are Fat

Karen Murphy — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 11:39:00 GMT

There's been a lot of focus lately on the relative fatness of kids today. First: letters sent home from schools telling parents their kids are fat. Then: watching commercials makes kids fat in the first place. Next: even babies are too fat (Jon Stewart said so). And then: "mystery fat" has even crept into kid's lunches. To top it off: President Bush's ingenious solution to the fat-kid crisis. Even worse? Kids are having bariatric surgery to lop off an extra stomach or two. And? Just because you have kids, you're fat too.

So when I hear there's a study that says that parents of fat kids don't even KNOW their kids are fat, I feel like someone is finally putting two and two together here. On the one hand, I want to slap some people around and say, "Wake up! Can't you SEE what your kid looks like?", but on the other, I see that we're fortunately so conditioned to love unconditionally that I can totally see being completely blind to the fact that maybe my kid is fat. Or ugly. Or whatever-fill-in-the-blank, because how would our species survive if we DIDN'T love our kids so very much that the shallow things like appearance cease to matter?

Still, it's a major health concern when 89% of parents of overweight five- and six-year olds hadn't a clue their child was overweight. Hello? And 63% of parents of overweight 10-12 year olds were similarly clueless. So what's going on here? Are we that afraid of damaging poor Johnny's or Jenny's precious-wecious self-esteem that we can't lovingly whisper the words "HEY FATSO!" to our dear precious children? Is that really doing them a favor?