Obese children will soon become adults facing a chronic disease risk such as heart disease and diabetes sooner than obese adults. However, some parents do not think that obesity is a disease as well as whether their children are overweight or underestimate their condition.

So, what causes obesity in children?

According to experts, the main cause of overweight, obesity is an energy imbalance between the calorie intake the body and the calorie used for daily activities. Other common causes include hereditary, lazy, unhealthy eating, or multiple causes. Only a few rare causes are belong to medical, such as hormone problems.

Although weight problems are often family-based, not every children born with a family history of obesity is overweight. Children who have overweight parents, older brothers or sisters have a higher risk of obesity, but this may also involve being affected by eating habits and family activities.

The diet and exercise of a child play a very important role in weight. Today, many children are lazy. Many children spend up to 4 hours a day watching television and devices, tablets and games become more and more popular, the number of hours spent on these "in-home activities" increases.

Today children eat too much fast food, diets at school contain excess of protein, lack of fiber and micronutrients, along with many families giving their children plenty of soft drinks. It is advisable to drink only 1-2 cans/ week because soft drink has a lot of monosaccharide. Just consuming more than 5% of total energy in the day can cause metabolic disorders, fat disorders leading to obesity.

Consequences of obese children

The consequences of overweight children are high risk of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes mellitus due to glucose intolerance, cardiovascular, hypertension, dyslipidemia ... In additions, obesity is also the basis causes sleep apnea, increased intracranial pressure headache, adiposis hepatica or fatty liver inflammation.

Dr. Nguyen Thi Hoa, Specialist II - Head of Nutrition Department at City International Hospital admitted that it is very difficult to prevent and treat obese children because parents do not think that obesity is a disease as well as not known that their children are overweight or underestimated. "Since we do not think obesity is a disease, people are just concerned about preventing overweight and obesity without saying what to do about obesity. Or when surveying school meals, parents always say their children are hard to eat, but when compared to the height and weight in actual, their children have already overweight a few kilograms.

However, the growth rate of children with adult diets will limit the children’ growth and height. It is important for obese children not to use forced diets that lose weight, but try to keep their weight unchanged for many years, during the growth of the child, to limit weight gain. In addition, to increase the height for children, parents also have to provide enough nutrition. The energy intake should be enough for children to grow, not to eat food lack of energy such as candy, soft drinks, snacks...

For the prevention of obesity, the most effective way is to promote healthy eating and physical activity at school, on average 60 minutes a day. In addition, the organization guides the providing meals units to for students to adjust their meal structure, avoiding sugar and fat abuse.

Dr Nguyen Thi Hoa, Specialist II - Head of Nutrition Department has treated of many cases of obesity at City International Hospital in the past year which the major cause is eating habits and the family pampered children, to cure requires a lot of time. Dr. Hoa said that obese children often have weak resistance, when catching normal diseases, it is usually become heavier than normal children.

To overcome the problem of obesity, parents need to take their children to City International Hospital for pediatricians to monitor, consult and provide promptly treatment for children.

? Address: City International Hospital: No. 3, 17A Street, Binh Tri Dong B Ward, Binh Tan District, Ho Chi Minh City (next to Aeon Mall Binh Tan).

Tel: (028) 6280 3333 (Press key 8469) to meet the operator.

? Website: www.cih.com.vn