An overwhelming 61% of the American adult population is overweight. Even more alarming, our children are rapidly growing more obese and overweight too. Since the 70s, the percentage of overweight kids and adolescents in the U.S. has more than doubled, the same as for adults. Today, 25% of our children are overweight, with 10% between the ages of 2 and 5 and 15% between 6 and 19.  On the whole, children are spending less time being "kids," i.e., playing outside and exercising - and spending more time the way most American adults do - in front of TV, playing video games or surfing the Internet. Added to the problem is the fact that most American families have less time to prepare nutritious meals and have become addicted to high-calorie sodas.

When the BMI for your child's age is between*...
95th percentile or above - obesity
85th and 94th percentiles - overweight
5th and 85th percentile - normal weight
below 5th percentile - underweight
*In addition to the above criteria, family history, eating habits, calorie intake and health conditions are considered.

Facts on Obesity
Obesity is defined as an excessive accumulation of body fat, while childhood obesity is a weight-for-height in excess of 120 percent of the ideal. However, skinfold measures are more accurate determinants. Cutoff points on growth charts, established by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), help identify overweight and obese children.

Possible Cause
“Energy is neither created nor destroyed” is a basic universal principle. Whenever there is an imbalance between energy intake and output, obesity or malnutrition result. And, just as with adult obesity, excessive weight in children involves many factors.

The most common cause is high calorie intake with lower calories used in the form of physical activity. As already mentioned, children are spending more time playing with electronic games and less time actively playing outside. In addition, watching television is a major contributor. An addiction to high-calorie fruit drinks and sodas and our nation's fast food also adds to high calorie intake. In fact, today's fast food suppliers tend to target advertising at children and conspire with Hollywood media to send them the wrong message. Other causes include family history and genetic factors. Studies show a higher risk of obesity among kids whose parents are obese, as well as the fact that genetic factors influence our pattern of fat distribution and response to overeating. On rare occasions, medical conditions like hypothyroidism and adrenal gland malfunction lead to obesity.

A Serious Problem
Overweight adolescents have a 70% chance of becoming overweight or obese adults. This increases to 80% if one or more parent is overweight or obese. Unfortunately, the effects of obesity are both physiological and psychological. The immediate consequence of excessive weight for many children is social discrimination, as evidenced by the lower chance of being picked forteam sports and class activities. In addition, children that are overweight often have the social stigma of being "dumb" and unable to enter the best colleges. These factors also contribute to poor self-esteem and depression. What may be more serious, however, is the fact that overweight and obese children often experience early development of Type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome (high cholesterol, abdominal obesity, insulin resistance and high blood pressure), sleep apnea, increased asthma symptoms, early puberty and menstrual irregularities and infertility, just to name a few of the physiological effects.

What Can We Do?
An "ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” seems appropriate when dealing with obesity. Everyone can attest that gaining the weight is so easy, but losing it is much more difficult. Once overweight, most people get stuck in a vicious cycle of losing and gaining it back, never seeing a big change and eventually giving up. We say children are the future of the nation. If this is true, then we must wake up and take action at a grassroot level to keep our nation from becoming more obese. The family is the building block of society, so the change must start there. Adults must set the example by making the right food choices.

• Starting at infancy, promote breastfeeding, recognize the of signals of satiety and delay introduction of solid foods.
• Teach children to drink water with meals, instead of juices and soda. 
• As American schools get rid of junk foods from the cafeteria and school grounds, so too, they should also ban the use of video games.
• Physical education should be mandatory for all grades.
• Along with physical education, school should introduce nutrition education.
• Parents and media, too, should educate in regard to nutrition.
• Families should change their eating behavior, slowing the rate of eating, limiting the time and place for eating and cease using foods as rewards or incentives.
• Avoid buying high-calorie foods, just because they are cheap.
• Along with making better food choices, increase activities that involve the whole family in physical exercise that everyone enjoys.
• Provide a safe environment for children and their friends to play actively: encourage swimming, biking, skating, ball sports and other fun activities.
• Reduce the amount of time you and your family spend in sedentary activities, such as watching TV or playing video games.
• Limit TV time to less than two hours a day

When all else fails, medical or surgical treatment should be sought, with surgery being the last resort for children.

Dr. Jayaraj Salimath, a Board certified surgeon at Mid Illini Surgical Associates in Peoria, is the Medical Director of the Methodist Medical Center's Weight Loss & Surgery Center