As we have seen, obesity is a huge issue within the United States especially in children. There is no doubt that we as a population need to start taking action in combating childhood obesity before it is too late. Easy steps people can make are to avoid going through drive throughs on a weekly basis, focus on buying only fresh foods, and having their kids be engaged in some sort of physical activity daily. To discover more useful resources on how to combat childhood obesity read below.
Sources You Can Trust:
The organization behind this website is called Healthline which is a health information site that provides physical and mental health facets for all types of people. From their online website, to their apps, healthline can provide helpful tips and information regarding any topic you need.
In the childhood obesity section ten easy steps to take action in reducing your child’s risk of developing childhood obesity are listed which include: becoming more active, eating a healthier diet, using portion control, and removing temptations. For any parents who need help jumpstarting their household in efforts to reduce their child’s risk of obesity, check out health line’s tips.
Preventing Childhood Obesity: Tips for Parents
This website was created by the New York State Department of Health and commissioned by Howard Zucker M.D. who has worked in the medical field for numerous years and has done countless research on different epidemics within the world including obesity.
This website gives parents signs to look out for in their children that might put them at a greater risk of becoming obese. The website also lists different examples of proper portion sizes for all categories of food. This source could benefit any parent who needs help giving their child the proper amount of food on a day to day basis.
Scary News About Childhood Obesity:
A blog written by Claire McCarthy, MD from Harvard Health Publishing, about the latest data regarding childhood obesity explained that the trends of it within the United States have jumped significantly in the past two years. Claire McCarthy is a primary care pediatrician at Boston Children’s Hospital and also writes about health and parenting for the Huffington Post.
Her blog explained how susceptible certain ethnicities and genders are to becoming obese at young ages. She also discussed the steps that parents need to take in order to know if their children are at risk of becoming or already are obese. This data would be good for parents to refer to if they suspect their child to have symptoms of becoming obese. Everyone should be aware of the symptoms and know how to take action if those symptoms arise.
Sources To Be On The Lookout For:
This public Facebook page was created by a random mother in an attempt to have somewhere for other parents to share their thoughts, concerns, and knowledge on childhood obesity. Although this Facebook page might contain some what resourceful information on how to combat childhood obesity, it is an overall non credible source because of its lack of validity.
Just like Facebook accounts, Instagram accounts also serve as an outlet to publish information to the public. Unfortunately, instead of having their posts contain accurate, useful information, the different account pages serve for the primary reason of being a social media platform for people to communicate and attract followers rather than solve an issue at hand.
Just like certain Facebook and Instagram posts, Pinterest boards are created by people within the general population with the goal of promoting personal knowledge on a given subject. Most of the time you can’t figure out who posted the board and therefore can’t check to see if what their promoting is credible information.
Not to mention that when you go on Pinterest and type “childhood obesity” into the search bar, after clicking on one of the numerous boards with a statistic relating to childhood obesity, there is very little elaboration on how a parent can help reduce the risk of their child becoming obese. These Pinterest boards have a lack of validity and therefore can’t always be trusted when dealing with serious situations like battling childhood obesity.
Take Aways:
Parents should be on the look out for credible sources when trying to improve the quality of their kid’s lives regarding childhood obesity. When searching for credible sources first look at websites and blogs which are funded from health promotion agencies.
There are thousands of resources in the world that might portray relevant information, however you should always make sure a credible author can back up what they’re saying. With the right resources and the right steps parents around the world can combat the issue of childhood obesity one home cooked meal at a time.
Healthy Choices 