Fatty tissue is in everyone. It helps us to save heat, protects internal organs from trauma and stabilizes their position, nourishes the nervous system. But when it becomes too much, doctors talk about obesity. In 98% of cases obesity is associated with an imbalance between energy absorption and its loss. Absorption is by food, and loss by movement.
If a child eats a lot and moves little, he has every chance to swim with fat. In some cases, obesity in children can be associated with endocrine disorders (diabetes, thyroid disease, etc.).
Attention to the tables
In the second year of life, the body weight is determined by the formulas proposed by the Soviet pediatricians IM Vorontsov and AV Mazurin. The weight of the child's body is 5 years = 19 kg. For each missing year up to 5 years, 2 kg is deducted, and for each subsequent 3 kg is added. For example, in the third year of the baby's life, the weight of the child's body is calculated as follows: from 19 kg it is necessary to take 2 kg for the fourth year and another minus two kilograms - it turns out 15 kg.
If earlier full children were in principle a rarity, then over the last 30 years it became apparent with the naked eye that there is a worldwide tendency to increase the number of such children. What is the reason?
We are what we eat. And what do our children eat?
Our food is becoming more oily, sweet and refined. The reason for this - the need to feed the well-fed, satiated people delicious. Nobody wants, there is an acidic village cottage cheese, if there is an industrial analogue in a convenient box, sweet, and even long-term storage. But the more complex the industrial product, the more it contains fat and carbohydrates. For comparison: in dietary (seemingly) crackers - 10% fat content (in ordinary bread - 1-2% fat), in glazed curds - 25-30% fat (in the village cottage cheese - 10%), in chips the fat content reaches 30% . In addition, it became economically profitable to grow poultry and meat on mixed fodder, containing a huge amount of hormones. The beast is growing and gaining weight faster, which means less money is spent on it. Getting into a growing body, anabolic steroids cause an accelerated increase in body weight due to the accumulation of an increased amount of fat and water. Only producers forget that the same picture occurs with children eating this hormone-saturated meat, after which our children suffer from excess weight in metabolic disorders.
All children love sweet and beautifully packaged products - this is the part that manufacturers count on. But advertising does not just advise, there are these products - it creates a culture of their consumption. Do not children have happiness without bars, crisps, crackers ?!
Overfeeding
Overfeeding the baby, the parents render him a disservice: the child has an increase in the number of fat cells, and the body weight increases. It is known to you that obesity can be "earned" even during infancy, but the early increase in weight can be affected by the fat content of the mother's milk and the appetite of the baby (the frequency of application to the breast), but it is artificial feeding that can lead to overfeeding when the concentration of the dry formula is increased.
Less sleep - eat more
Obesity can be associated with a lack of sleep. It is estimated that children who had less than 10 hours of nighttime sleep were 3.5 times more likely to have excess weight compared to children who slept for 12 hours or more. It turns out that lack of sleep leads to a decrease in the level of the hormone, which stimulates metabolism and reduces the feeling of hunger, but increases the concentration of the hormone that increases hunger.
Children should play. But outdoor games in the courtyard have now supplanted the computer and the PSP. This leads not only to a reduction in energy consumption, but also to an increase in food intake. If we draw an analogy with the animal world, the animal either moves in search of food, or eats it, and in this case is in relative motor rest. And the kids, receiving uncontrolled use of the computer and consoles, are confined to one place - the motor activity tends to zero, during which excess weight in the case of metabolic disorders can not be avoided.
Allergy to weight loss
Paradox, but this is so: kids can grow stout, resisting attempts by parents to rid them of this fullness.
The situation is aggravated by the fact that their children "jam" with their depressions with sweets.
What causes obesity?
- constipation;
- weakness of the musculoskeletal system (flat feet, weak abdominal muscles, violation of posture). Such children are immunocompromised, therefore they are sick more often than their peers with normal weight.
If you do not cure obesity in childhood, adolescents have endocrine disorders. Appears hyperinsulinism. The fact is that fat cells feed on glucose, which is supplied by the pancreas enzyme - insulin. Accordingly, the more the child becomes fuller, the more insulin is produced. Insulin, in turn, stimulates appetite, there is a desire to more and more, as a result of which the weight grows. As a result (usually - in the transition age), insulin-dependent diabetes can begin.
What we are going to do?
The treatment is carried out together with a pediatrician, an endocrinologist and a nutritionist. Carbohydrate metabolism is checked (fasting blood for sugar on an empty stomach, and insulin secretion is checked after eating), check the kidney function, liver function, study the hormone spectrum, thyroid function, reaction to insulin, direct to ECG, x-ray of brushes and x-ray of the skull biological age), etc.
If the obesity is not caused by any disease, but results from a wrong way of life, the child is prescribed a diet for weight loss. The goal of treating preschoolers should be to "maintain" weight, or to maintain it, rather than lose it.This strategy allows the child to add centimeters, not kilograms. "Children need to lose weight from the age of 7. At the same time, weight loss must be very slow and stable - from one and a half kg to 500 g per month The methods of maintaining weight or losing weight are exactly the same as in adults.The child should eat healthy food and increase his physical activity.The simplest in winter is sledging, skating, skiing, swimming in the pool, in summer - small hiking, cycling, the same skating rink - only already covered.
The critical component of weight loss, especially for children, is any physical activity. It not only burns calories, but also forms muscles, strengthens bones, helps children to sleep well at night. How to increase the level of activity of your child?
Limit the time in front of the TV and computer to 2 hours a day.
Choose the classes that your kid likes. Does he love nature? You often go for walks. If you want the baby to move more, be yourself active. Go up the stairs on foot, not on the elevator. Think of such active activities that the whole family can do together.
Turn household chores into family entertainment. Who will rip out more weeds in the garden? Who will collect more garbage on the site?
Prevention of obesity
In the first and second month of life with a six-time feeding, the average daily volume of a child's food is 800 g (ml) per day, that is, 120-150 g (ml) at a time. From the second month of life to the year, the average daily volume of the baby's food is 900-1000 g (ml). From year to year and a half - 1200.
Often breastmilk can be too fat, or too much, and the baby has a good appetite. And then it will grow stiff in front of your eyes. In such cases, it is necessary to enter the feeding according to the regime, and not on demand, observing a three-hour interval between meals.