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Parents Blamed for Childhood Obesity

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Table of contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Summary of paper
  3. Study design
  4. Study population
  5. Outcomes
  6. Data collection
  7. Results

Introduction

Parents set the example for the kids. Who does not set an example for their kids? Growing up, I looked up to my mom and dad, who does not look upon their parents and how they do everything? Are they clean? Are they messy? This is why adults are always asked to look at what they do because that is what they are role modeling towards the kids with them. I wanted to be just like them and do everything they did. If my dad was eating a big hamburger from Burger King, I wanted one too. If my mom went to the gym, I also wanted to join her. Its being able to follow your parents footsteps.

Parents set the example for their children throughout their life. Will they eat healthy if their parents do? Yes, if the mom and dad start eating healthy, later their children will follow along there footsteps. Kids are carbon copies of their parents.

Parents are adults and adults are smart enough to know how to read nutrition labels. They know that fast food is not a good choice but they continue to make that choice because fast food is easy and cheap, however it is not worth the risk of heart disease and obesity in the future that they will have to carry on in the future. It is important to think ahead before the wrong decision is made about one’s diet.

Parents are role models and they can help prevent their children from being obese. They don’t need to be fed chubby fingers off a McDonalds Happy Meal for their kids to stop eating fast food, parents can simply just set a good example, by having cheat days, tiny bit of unhealthy food, exercising and doing all the good stuff that can become a habit for your child. Healthier the parents are living off from, would cause their kids to know how to be healthy and set a positive experience in their adulthood as well so they will not regret when they develop diseases when they become older and older.

Summary of paper

“Chubby” is often used as a word to describe “cute” children, but maybe it should start being used to describe “unhealthy” children. Many people blame fast food companies for their own health problems; many blame themselves; some even blame the government. Consequently, a public health group in California asked for the government to declare childhood obesity a state of emergency. I believe that this argument has many sides, and everyone is to blame, some more than others. Parents play the biggest part in this issue. Parents are the most to blame for childhood obesity because parents set the eating patterns for young children, are examples for their children in what they do, and do not always have the time for healthy food.

When a child is young, parents will give him or her certain foods, and the children will tend to like them from there on. This can either help or hinder the child’s life. If the parent gives the child healthy or correctly measured meal servings, they have a better chance of a healthy lifestyle later in life. For example, eating apple slices with peanut butter can be a healthy and well rounded snack, if portions are correct. On the other hand, if a parent feeds their child unhealthy foods, or incorrect portions of a meal, they will have a higher chance of an unhealthy lifestyle. Having fresh fruits or vegetables as a snack is much healthier than having processed, packaged bags of air and chips, like supposedly healthy Sun Chips. Therefore, giving a child healthy foods when young can shape their lifestyle into a healthy one.

The incidences of childhood overweight and obesity has increased substantially and with them the prevalence of the psychiatric health problems that are included in it. So, it Is better to be prepared beforehand rather than regret later on. Besides biological factors, familial interactions and parental behavioral patterns may influence children’s weight development. One factor called longitudinal investigation of children at overweight risk could help to detect significant risk and protective factors. If there are issues at home like domestic abuse or vise versa, that sort of problems do cause problems with the child’s behabiour and weight.

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The study I was looking at was aiming to describe infants’ weight development over time and identify risk and protective factors for the incidence of childhood obesity.

Study design

The study is based on cross sectional study, while on developmental and health-psychological models, the study was considering measurements at three levels: the child, the mom and dadand parent–child-relationship. The major points was to evaluate the psychological, social, and behavioral situation of the parents as well as the physical of the child. Parents were interviewed, filled in questionnaires, and take part in tasks with their child in a feeding and in a playing situation that was held in their research laboratory while they had to the quality of these video-taped parent–child interactions while it is satsifed and analysised by the researchers.

Study population

The population of the study, they ended up presenting “the protocol of a prospective longitudinal study” in which the researchers investigate the families with children aged from 6 months to 47 months. In half of the families at least one parent is obese (risk group), in the other half both parents are normal weight (control group) of the study.

Outcomes

The strength and weaknesses, are quite evident in the article. Strengths of the presented study are the prospective longitudinal design, the multi-informant approach, including the fathers, and the observation of parent-child interaction. A limitation is the variation in children’s age. They do not know if they are actually the age they are been told.

Data collection

At each assessment point, the study was to assess data on three levels: the child, the parents, and the family/environment. On the level of the child, they collect data regarding their physical and development by using age appropriate tests and procedures. On the level of the parents, they assess physical variables as well as their psychological situation. For this purpose, parents are interviewed and they fill in questionnaires while they are recorded. On the level of the family, they are asked to measure parents’ interaction with the child in a play and a feeding situation which is video-taped in our research laboratory which is after analysised

There are also limitations to the study. First, the children in the sample are not all of the same age – they are between 6 and 47 months at the first assessment point. Therefore, it was a neeed to take age into account when interpreting the results. Second, the families of the risk group are recruited because they have at least one obese parent for instance, it could be the mother or the father who is obese, both parents could be obese, or one of them overweight, Depending on the resulting distribution of subgroups, the sample size might be too small to test for all subgroup differences. Third, prior research has identified a number of barriers in recruiting families for obesity clinical trials and willingness to participate in obesity studies seems to be low and different numbers. Therefore, it is challenging to avoid a self- selection bias.

Results

In conclusion, it is apparent that children are vulnerable in the nutritional aspect amid the lack of guidance and support from their parents and the family they are in. However, although this complication is inevitable, there are still solutions which can be implemented, and with monitoring and reinforcement, this difficulty should no longer be a problem in the near future. My question was whether having an obese parents causes their child to be obese, and it turns out to be correct. All the articles and studies I have read and searched indicate that parents are to be blamed, no one else.

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Parents Blamed for Childhood Obesity. (2022, September 27). Edubirdie. Retrieved March 29, 2024, from https://edubirdie.com/examples/parents-blamed-for-childhood-obesity/
“Parents Blamed for Childhood Obesity.” Edubirdie, 27 Sept. 2022, edubirdie.com/examples/parents-blamed-for-childhood-obesity/
Parents Blamed for Childhood Obesity. [online]. Available at: <https://edubirdie.com/examples/parents-blamed-for-childhood-obesity/> [Accessed 29 Mar. 2024].
Parents Blamed for Childhood Obesity [Internet]. Edubirdie. 2022 Sept 27 [cited 2024 Mar 29]. Available from: https://edubirdie.com/examples/parents-blamed-for-childhood-obesity/
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