Healthy Kids: Addressing Childhood Obesity

Today’s topic has become a common theme in recent decades, but it’s helpful to talk about what the scientific literature is showing so we can make good choices for our families. Globally, we continue to see a rise in overweight and obese children. This information is pretty well known, but, for me, the interesting part is that children generally grew in a healthy manner, meaning their height and weight increased proportionally so they maintained a healthy weight until age 5. But during the school years, they started to either gain too much weight or too little height for healthy growth.

So, the question that begs to be asked is, why does this trend start after age 5 and not before? We know that a child’s height and weight are indicators of the quality of their diet and living environment, as well as being predictive of future health and well-being. So the answer to this question reinforces the importance of promoting healthy growth across all developmental years.