When making your summer plans or getting ready for the school season; be prepared and book your summer/school physicals in advance!
What if there was a “medicine” that prevented diabetes, heart disease, orthopedic problems, liver disease, mental health disease, and sleep disorders?
Since all of those conditions are related to obesity, preventing obesity is a vital strategy to reduce the risk of those serious medical problems. Incorporating practical tips into your family lifestyle to prevent obesity is an important pill to swallow!! Pediatricians and other primary care providers have a crucial role in obesity prevention, by screening for overweight and obesity and offering practical tips to help with healthy habits from the very beginning. Early advice and early identification of an unhealthy pattern or growth trend can make a big difference.
It is especially timely to focus on healthy nutrition and physical behaviors because the rate of obesity continues to rise in adults and in children. One in five children are obese and the rates continue to increase, even though there has been more public health focus on obesity and related health behaviors. Family based interventions are being evaluated, and evidence supports the importance of early intervention since high-risk behaviors start at an early age. Children who are obese are likely to remain at risk for later obesity and medical problems related to obesity.
Practical tips for the whole family:
Adapted from Healthychildren.org: Obesity prevention: AAP Policy Explained, by Kelsey Sisti, MD
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/136/1/e275
Skinner, et al. Prevalence of obesity and severe obesity in US children, 1999-2016. Pediatrics 2017:141
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