When to get kids tested for serious diseases

I cannot believe it may be necessary to get 9-year-olds tested for high blood pressure, high cholesterol and Type 2 Diabetes. It's sad that we have gotten to this point as a society. I just wanted to pass along this information because I don't think most parents know about this recommendation.

FROM CNN:

Unfortunately, as obesity becomes more common among children, diseases once thought to be primarily a problem of adulthood are showing up in kids. For this reason, children should be screened for medical complications of obesity, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Not everyone agrees when you should start screening your children, but the latest recommendation is to test cholesterol between 9 and 11 years old and then again between 17 and 21. Ask your pediatrician for his or her opinion based on your child’s BMI. Blood pressure can be measured with a cuff at the doctor’s office, and diabetes and high cholesterol can be checked with simple blood tests.

These tests may include blood sugar, hemoglobin A1c and insulin levels for diabetes; a lipid panel (such as cholesterol and triglycerides) which, along with blood pressure, is a marker for heart disease; and tests for liver problems that can occur with obesity.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

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WOW! Have you seen the new childhood obesity ads?

Have you seen the new ads targeting parents of children who are obese? They are very bold. I am not sure what I think about them. I know they must be offensive to some people. But I also know they will catch parents' attention. The ads are on-line and being shown on television stations in Georgia because they were created by the Georgia Children's Health Alliance.

Here is one of the pictures from the Strong4Life website--where you can also see the video HERE.
I am curious to see whether it's effective at curbing childhood obesity. It's certainly different.

According to CNN, The Obesity Action Committee wrote a strong statement against the bold campaign for fear of obese kids getting tormented even more.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

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It's your fault Mom

Moms, if you have a teenager who is obese, a new study shows it may be because of your poor relationship with your son or daughter. Yikes! That's hard to hear. Childhood obesity is growing at such a rapid rate, I would hate to think it was my fault my child is suffering. Obviously, this isn't the case with every obese child and mom, but it's certainly something to think about.

Here's a snippet of the story from Yahoo News: Toddlers who have poor relationships with their moms are more likely to pack on extra pounds as they grow up, a new U.S. study shows.

Tracking nearly 1,000 kids into their teens, researchers found more than a quarter of those who scored lowest on mother-child relationship tests as toddlers went on to become obese at age 15.

By contrast, only 13 percent of the children who had a good relationship with their mother became obese. While that doesn't prove cause and effect, researchers say other work has shown links between children's emotional and intellectual development and how they interact with their mother at a young age.

According to Sarah E. Anderson, who worked on the new study, it's possible that a stressful childhood could make a lasting impression on kids' brains.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

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Curbing Childhood Obesity

My new job as a pharmaceutical sales specialist has really opened my eyes to the health care crisis and the obesity epidemic. I really wish there was a clear cut, effective way to prevent all kids from struggling with weight gain that will later lead to heart disease and diabetes. Teaching kids about nutrition and exercise at a young age seems to be the best option right now. I wish it were more effective. I feel like either 1. kids are not educated on how to be healthy or 2. kids aren't listening. It may be a combination of both. It's too bad. It is scary.

FROM CNN: Teaching middle school students about nutrition and exercise appears to reap healthy rewards.

The program designed at the university of Michigan instructed almost 600 kids on making healthy diet choices, getting 150 minutes of exercise a week and cutting T.V. and computer time.

Four years later, students had lowered their average cholesterol, reduced their resting heart rates and most continued to make health-conscious decisions.

Researchers say programs like this could have a huge impact on long-term obesity rates as well as reducing diabetes and heart disease as students age.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

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Obese 3rd Grader taken from Mom

I want to know what you think. Should kids who are obese be taken away from their parents? It seems crazy, but some medical experts say in some cases, that is what need to be done.

FROM ABCNEWS: A Cleveland third grader who weighed more than 200 pounds was taken from his mother after officials reportedly said she did not do enough to help the boy, who suffered from a weight-related health issue, to lose weight.

Officials first became aware of the boy’s weight after his mother took him to the hospital last year while he was having breathing problems, the newspaper reported. The child was diagnosed with sleep apnea and began to be monitored by social workers while he was enrolled in a program called “Healthy Kids, Healthy Weight” at the Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital.


The boy lost a few pounds, but recently began to gain some back, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported. At that point, the Department of Children and Family Services asked a juvenile court for custody of the boy, citing his soaring weight as a form of medical neglect, according to the newspaper.


Taking obese children from their families has become a topic of intense debate over the past year after one high-profile pediatric obesity expert made controversial comments in the Journal of the American Medical Association advocating the practice in acute cases.

“In severe instances of childhood obesity, removal from the home may be justifiable, from a legal standpoint, because of imminent health risks and the parents’ chronic failure to address medical problems,” Dr. David Ludwig co-wrote with Lindsey Murtagh, a lawyer and researcher at Harvard’s School of Public Health.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

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Safer School Lunch

I think this is an appropriate topic considering all the school lunch talk this week. I guess I am naive, but I think it's crazy that schools were serving beef from companies with poor safety records in the first place. That should never have been acceptable!

FROM NBC:School lunches should soon be safer -- thanks to new standards from the United States Department of Agriculture. U.S.D.A. officials announced ground beef purchased for federal food and nutrition programs -- including school lunches -- will need to meet new safety standards. Testing protocols will be tightened, samples will be tested more often, and the limits that determine whether meat is acceptable or not will improve.

Companies with long term poor safety records will be ineligible vendors until more research is done. These new standards will be applied to contracts awarded after July 1st, 2010. These new standards are part of a larger overhaul announced in February that are designed to improve the safety of school lunches.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

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Overweight kids on Drugs

Kids who are overweight may not get the same reaction medication as those who are normal weight. I am sure you can see how this could potentially be a problem in a number of situations. It's a scary thought. It's too bad so many families are dealing with obese children.

I heard an interview the other day about parents putting their kids on diets. It sounds so crazy to me because my kids won't eat. I have the hardest time getting them to sit down and eat anything. I am on the opposite end of the spectrum. Maybe that changes as kids get older. I don't know, but childhood obesity is a big problem.

FROM NBC: Children who are obese may process medicine differently than kids considered normal weight. Researchers at the Minnesota College of Pharmacy studied drug metabolism in twenty-five healthy weight and obese children, and found that overweight kids processed drugs at different rates.

This has implications for drug absorption, metabolism and elimination -- and shows some children may be getting too much, or too little, important medication. The researchers plan more studies to learn exactly how drugs are metabolized in obese children. they hope to develop new dosing regiments.

The study was funded by the NIH National Center for Research Resources.

More from Business Weekly
Because of the increase in obesity in the pediatric population, we need to know how being overweight or obese affects how drugs are metabolized in the system," Johnson said.

Johnson and a co-author looked at how both dextromethorphan (the active ingredient in over-the-counter Robitussin DM) and caffeine (delivered via a cola drink) were metabolized by 16 normal-weight and nine obese children, 6 to 10 years old. All of the children were black.

Specifically, the authors measured activity levels of two key enzymes involved in drug metabolism.

They found higher enzyme activity among the obese children who were given caffeine, but not among those who took dextromethorphan.

"This means that there is variability in enzyme activity, which has implications for furthering personalized medicine," said Johnson, who is an assistant professor of experimental and clinical pharmacology at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy. "We might need to take into account a child's physiological condition -- whether they're obese or non-obese -- when determining dosing."

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

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Kids with Chronic Conditions

More kids are being diagnosed with chronic conditions. This article basically says you should take your kids to the doctor more often. It doesn't say why kids have more chronic conditions. Is it toxins in the environment? Parents with bad eating habits? I could go on and on with the possibilities. The last line of this article says boys with obese mothers are more likely to have a chronic condition. Why is that? Isn't that strange. Boys are also more likely to have autism and a plethora of other illnesses. Of course, I have three boys so I pay attention to these things. Has anyone noticed more kids having chronic conditions?

FROM NBC: Chronic health conditions like obesity, asthma, and ongoing physical and mental challenges are described as affecting a child's ability to do things other children their age can do or requires ongoing treatment by a physician lasting more than a year. A new study shows while chronic conditions are increasing for u.s. children, over time many of these conditions improve and often go away.

Jakob Martinson, now two, was diagnosed with a weak airway shortly after birth. Today his chronic condition still requires a trach tube to help his breathing. Lauren Martinson - Jakob's Mother: "When we first brought him home we had to have a video shown to anyone who had any contact with him that would watch him, at all, so they could learn what to expect from a trach, to learn how to suction him, how to take care of him." Jakob is not alone. The numbers of children and their families who deal with physical and behavioral chronic conditions nationwide are increasing.

Jeanne Van Cleave, M.D., - MassGeneral Hospital for Children, Boston: "We found that obesity was especially prevalent, asthma is prevalent as well, learning behavior disorders are also prevalent other chronic conditions that were included in the study are increasing in rates as well." Dr. Jeanne Van Cleave from mass general hospital for children, in Boston and Co-authors studied three nationally representative groups of children, age two through eight from 1988 to 2006. each group was followed for up to six years. Jeanne Van Cleave, M.D., - MassGeneral Hospital for Children, Boston: "Children we studied in the late 80's had rates of chronic conditions over the course of childhood of about 30 percent and this has increased to about 50 percent in the recent years."

Jeanne Van Cleave, M.D., - MassGeneral Hospital for Children, Boston "The most surprising thing was that half of the chronic conditions in our study population eventually resolved, we didn't think that we would find that because of our notion of chronic conditions being somewhat more permanent than what we saw in the study." Lauren Martinson - Jakob's Mother "For chronic conditions there's always a light at the end of the road."

Jeanne Van Cleave, M.D., - MassGeneral Hospital for Children, Boston "It really speaks to the need for children to have ongoing care especially with a primary care physician's office, where a lot of these conditions are detected and treated."

Researchers say that being a boy and also having an obese mother were associated with children having a chronic condition.

The study appears in this week's JAMA, Journal of the American Medical Association.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen
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Fast Food banned near Schools

I registered my son for preschool today! It was so exciting and a little bitter sweet. My baby is going to a real school next year! It's hard to believe. We got to meet his new teacher and she even took him to the classroom. He seems much more excited than he was when we pulled up. We stood outside for awhile waiting for him to be comfortable.

When we drove away, I looked for a fast food restaurant-which was nowhere to be found. I was happy about that! Here's why:

FROM ABC: Local authorities closed down the first fast food restaurant in London for being located too Close to a school. New rules are going into effect in London in an attempt to fight
Childhood obesity.

The restaurant in Leytonstone, in East London, was accused of breaking new rules which ban hot food outlets near schools, parks or playgrounds. The ban also covers take-out restaurants that are within 300 yards of each other and puts a limit on total numbers of restaurants in the center of town.

The town council says they had to implement the ban to fight childhood obesity and because too many fast food joints were popping up around the community. One million British youth are expected to be obese by 2010.

Clyde Loakes from the Town Council said, "They wanted us to do something. they wanted us to specifically to say enough is enough, close these places down, come up with some policies
that will enable you to do that, and that's what we've done. we're not going to tolerate them near schools, parks, playgrounds, youth centers, for a whole range of issues, not least because we're really concerned around obesity and our young people."

Is there a fast food restaurant by your child's school? What do you think about that?

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

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Kids on Potent Drugs

Kids with high cholesterol? Doesn't that sound crazy? I would imagine there are steps parents can take to prevent the kids from going on statins. I don't think any parent wants their child on medication for the rest of their lives. That's a scary thought!

FROM CNN: The high rate of childhood obesity in the U.S. has prompted some pediatricians to start screening kids for high cholesterol. 

Take a deep breath. Maddie Zacks is only 9 and she's already been tested twice because of a family History of heart disease. What we're looking for is the results of your lab. Pediatricians like Dr. Jennifer Shu recommend the blood tests for certain Youngsters ages 2 to 10.

The children who are most concerning are those who are already overweight or Obese or if they have family history of early heart disease. If a child's cholesterol is high, what do you do about it?
Doctors point to lifestyle changes such as daily exercise and eating a healthy Diet.
As a last resort, a small percentage of children might be prescribed a Cholesterol-lowering drug called a statin.

Putting a child or even a teenager on a statin is a major step because that individual may require statin therapy for the rest of their life. Something maddie doesn't have to worry about after getting some good news. Your total cholesterol is awesome, it is 148. Is that average?It is better than average, you're a super star.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

Teenagers and Food

From ABC:

The federal government has had a look at young people's diets-- not just what they put in their mouths-- but also the steady diet of advertising-- spoon fed them by the food industry. A study out finds that-- in both cases-- the kids are on overload.

We've all seen them- commercials that blur the lines between products-- but do these ads encourage kids to eat fattening, sugary snacks? Concerned by the growing rates of childhood obesity- lawmakers ordered an investigation into the marketing practices of the nation's leading companies. In a report released this week, the Federal Trade Commission found that the largest food and beverage companies spent about $1.6 billion in 2006 marketing to children.

Mary Engle with the Federal Trade Commission said, "In 2006, about 80 films, TV shows and video games, were used in marketing food to children and teens." Promotion of movies like "Superman returns" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" were prominent that year. Based on their data, the FTC recommended that companies adhere to nutrition-based standards in their marketing. Even before the report came out, more than a dozen major companies, including ABC News' parent company Disney adopted nutritional guidelines.

Some experts say more companies need to get on board. Margo Wootan with the Center of Science in the Public Interest said, "There needs to be one national nutrition standard for food marketing to kids that all food companies, fast food restaurants, and entertainment companies adopt." The FTC acknowledged that childhood obesity is a complex problem- and can 't be blamed on advertising alone. They said fewer physical education programs and a more sedentary lifestyle are also to blame.

My son in particular is very fascinated with commercials about food on TV. He has asked me for stuff I have never heard of! I have learned NEVER to give in to some things. Otherwise he will ask me for that certain sugary, fattening snack every second of every day. How about you? Are your kids influenced by food marketing?

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

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Childhood Obesity Study

You may have heard about a new study that shows a more positive outlook in the fight against childhood obesity. I must warn you, it's not that great of news, but anything positive is a good sign.

Here's the ABC version of the story:

Childhood obesity is a serious problem that can lead to serious health problems in adulthood. In recent years the number of obese children in the U.S. has increased, but a new study looking at the national trend over the past eight years shows some positive signs.

Brian Gordon is one of thousands who battled a weight problem as a child. He says it wasn't until he became active in sports that the pounds started dropping off. He said, "I gained a lot of weight in middle school and my parents got me into soccer, baseball and wrestling. Things like that."

Doctor Cynthia Ogden is an epidemiologist with the National Center for Health Statistics. She and her colleagues analyzed data from more than eight thousand children and teens ages two through nineteen who participated in national health surveys. Looking at body mass index from 1999 through 2006 they found obesity
levels are stabilizing.

Dr. Cynthia Ogden said, "This was true for boys and for girls. For whites, for African-Americans, for Mexican-Americans, and it was even true when we picked three different levels of high body mass index." 16.3% of U.S. children and teens are considered obese. While the numbers have not increased they also have not decreased, and certain ethnicities continue to be more likely to be obese. Dr.Ogden said,"By race ethnicity particularly among girls we see big disparities where about twenty-eight percent of African-American girls, twenty per cent of Mexican- American girls and about fourteen and a half percent of white teenage girls are overweight or obese."

Alisa Rank is worried about obesity problems. She said,"It's really important to get the education to kids to let them know what can happen if they're not getting exercise in the future. I don't think there's enough emphasis on that."

Dr. Ogden said, "The main concern for teenagers is that if you're too heavy as a teen you're likely to be obese as an adult and that can be a problem." Researchers are encouraged by the findings. they say the public health message remains the same. children and teens need a well balanced diet and regular physical activity.

The study appears this week in JAMA, Journal of the American Medical Association.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

Childhood Obesity

Reuters is reporting the way you raise your kids may not have as much to do with childhood obesity than once thought.

Diet and lifestyle play a far smaller role than genetic factors in determining whether a child becomes overweight, according to a recent British study of twins.

Researchers looking at more than 5,000 pairs of twins wrote in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that genes account for about three-quarters of the differences in a child's waistline and weight.

"Contrary to the widespread assumption that family environment is the key factor in determining weight gain, we found this was not the case," said Jane Wardle, director of Cancer Research UK's Health Behavior Centre, who led the study.

Previous studies have pointed to environmental factors as the main cause of obesity, a major problem worldwide that increases the risk later in life of type-2 diabetes, cancer and heart problems.

The World Health Organization classifies around 400 million people worldwide as obese, including 200 million children under the age of five.

The British team looked at pairs of identical twins who share all their genes and compared their measurements with those of non-identical twins who share only half their genes.

A statistical analysis found that the differences in the children's body mass index and waist circumference were 77 percent attributable to genes and 23 percent due to the environment in which the children were growing up.

BMI is calculated by dividing weight by the square of height.

"These results do not mean that a child with a high complement of 'susceptibility genes' will inevitably become overweight, but that their genetic endowment gives them a stronger predisposition," the researchers said.

The results suggest that parents whose children are at the greatest genetic risk may need support to make sure they provide a healthy environment, the researchers said.

"This study shows that it is wrong to place all the blame for a child's excessive weight gain on the parents," the researchers said.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen