Sugarlicious - why are your kids getting so fat?

[velvett]

Obesity crisis 'will lead to children having their stomachs stapled

Primary school children could soon be undergoing stomach-stapling surgery as Britain's obesity epidemic worsens, a senior medical director has warned.

Increasing numbers of young children are becoming obeseSteve Ryan, of Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool, said "significant numbers" of children aged two and three were being classed as obese. Conditions normally seen in middle age, such as Type 2 diabetes and sleep apnoea, were increasingly common among teenagers, he warned.

Mr Ryan said it is was "almost certain" that surgeons will have to staple children's stomachs within a few years.

At present, weight-loss surgery is only performed on adults when all other methods have failed. Although the procedure can lead to complications, Dr Ryan believes that for some children it will prove the best option.

"In the not too distant future I think we will be starting to consider surgery on children who are grossly overweight," he said. "In adults it is one of the things that can be very effective indeed, but it is a drastic step.

"Clearly you are not going to dive in and do that for children without a lot of careful consideration, but it would be an option. We have not performed any procedures yet, but a hospital like this one would probably be asked to. I would say it is almost certain."

Dr Ryan said the number of overweight children coming to Alder Hey from the surrounding area had risen dramatically in the past decade.

"There are more and more overweight children, and significant numbers of these are obese from a very young age – two to three years old," he said. "When I was a paediatrician starting out in 1991 there were very few children who were overweight, but that has changed and we are starting to see complications resulting from this."

Of the increasing number of cases of Type 2 diabetes in children, Mr Ryan said: "It is hugely common in people over 50 but we are starting to see it in teenagers. It is a huge worry because when I started it just didn't happen."

He added: "We are also starting to see breathing difficulties in overweight children. They are suffering from conditions that usually only affect adults, such as sleep apnoea, which requires sufferers to wear a mask over their nose or mouth at night.

"For the first time, we are having to give these masks to children. It is here and we are having to deal with it."


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1961633/Obesity-crisis-'will-lead-to-children-having-their-stomachs-stapled'.html

 

[EnderJE]

Obesity crisis 'will lead to children having their stomachs stapled

Because they idolize the American lifestyle...

 

[Beachboy6294]

They are cutting PE out of some schools and all the fast food and video games.

 

[EnderJE]

They are cutting PE out of some schools and all the fast food and video games.

Not PE!

 

[velvett]

...from the same site...

Obesity kills child aged three

A grossly overweight three-year-old child died from heart failure in hospital, a damning report on the scale of the country's obesity epidemic says today.

The Commons report issues a warning that obese children as young as eight are being diagnosed with adult onset diabetes. Others suffer serious sleep disorders because they are "choking on their own fat" at night.

The report condemns the promotion of junk food to young children
The Government and the National Health Service are severely criticised for failing to tackle the crisis, while the food industry is condemned for cynically promoting junk food to children as young as three.

A voluntary ban on junk food advertisements during children's television programmes and a simple system of traffic light health labels for food are needed, the report says.

MPs want children to do a minimum of three hours' physical education a week in school and be given better cookery lessons to help reduce their preference for high fat, high salt convenience food. They also want children's weight to be regularly monitored at school.

The long-awaited report paints a bleak picture of the country's health. Obesity has risen fourfold in 25 years, it says. Three quarters of adults are overweight, with 22 per cent clinically obese.

Obesity has grown faster in England than anywhere else in Europe, with childhood obesity tripling in 20 years.

Among the evidence collected by MPs was an account of life in a London obesity clinic for children.

Dr Sheila McKenzie, a consultant paediatrician at the Royal London Hospital, said that waiting lists there were 11 months long and growing.

"In the past two years one child at the age of three has died of heart failure secondary to extreme obesity," she told the inquiry.

Four other children were being treated for apnoea, a sleep disorder caused when airways are blocked by folds of fat.

"In other words, they are being choked by their fat," she said. "Were we able to study all severely obese children, I am confident we would identify many more with obstructive sleep apnoea."

Dr Tim Barrett, of Birmingham Children's Hospital, said he had seen a super-obese child aged eight with type 2 adult onset diabetes.

The report says that obesity costs the health service £7.4 billion a year in treatment for heart disease, diabetes - which can cause blindness and the loss of limbs, kidney failure, brittle bone disease, tumours and psychological damage. Obesity is now the second biggest avoidable cause of cancer after smoking.

The report says: "Should the gloomier scenarios relating to obesity turn out to be true, the sight of amputees will become much more familiar in the streets.

"There will be many more blind people. There will be huge demand for kidney dialysis. The positive trends of recent decades in combating heart disease, partly the consequence of the decline in smoking, will be reversed.

"Indeed, this will be the first generation in which children die before their parents as a consequence of obesity."

David Hinchliffe, the chairman of the Commons health committee, said the report was an urgent warning to the Government.

"The devastating consequences of the epidemic of obesity are likely to have a profound impact over the next century." he said.

"Obesity will soon supersede tobacco as the greatest cause of premature death. It is staggering to realise that, on present trends, half of all children in England in 2020 could be obese."

John Reid, the Health Secretary, defended the Government's record in the fight against obesity.

"We share the committee's concern about the seriousness of obesity," he said. "It is one of the key issues which will be addressed in our White Paper on public health this year.

"We recognise that these issues are not just a matter for government; they involve individuals and the choices they make, as well as the food and leisure industry."

The Department of Health was working closely with other departments to encourage people to eat more nutritious food and take more exercise, he said.

The food and drink industry also defended itself against criticism in the report.

Martin Paterson, the deputy director general of the Food and Drink Federation, said: "The entire food and drink chain, from farmers to caterers, is clear that our industry must be a part of the solution.

"However, the obesity problem is complex and multi-faceted; there are no quick fixes.

"Any action taken must be based on sound science and we need Government, industry and all stakeholders to work together with a commitment to achieving real results over the long term."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/digitallife/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2004/06/02/ecnfat27.xml

 

[Beachboy6294]

Not PE!

Lol!! I haven't seen that video in a long time.

 

[needtogetarmy]

hmmm