Interventions for Childhood Obesity Program

This article discusses effective interventions for childhood obesity program including changes in school activities, community-based initiatives, health education classes, and more. It also highlights the importance of breastfeeding in preventing obesity in children.

Running head: INTERVENTIONS FOR CHILDHOOD OBESITY PROGRAM
INTERVENTIONS FOR CHILDHOOD OBESITY PROGRAM
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INTERVENTIONS FOR CHILDHOOD OBESITY PROGRAM
One of the most important interventions that would bring out the best benefit for the
health of the children is changes in school activities and initiatives. Developing knowledge about
obesity, its impacts on health and future complicacies should be included in the education
curriculum. Development of their knowledge would help them to be careful about the food
choices they make (Campbell et al., 2016). Secondly, the school should also promote physical
activities session where children would get the scope of being physically active and undertake
exercises for at least 30 minutes. This would help in the burning of the calories and keeping them
fit. Moreover, the school authorities should make sure that the food choices they introduce in the
canteen should be such that they would be nutrient rich and less calorigenic.
One of the other interventions would be also community based where the residential
communities can arrange for different sports sessions in the evenings after the students come
back from school. Most of the present day scenarios show that children remain more engaged in
social media, computer games, televisions and others. The increased screen time is also
contributed to lack of opportunities of the burning of calories and hence accumulation of fat
(Blake-lamb et al., 2016). Therefore, more exercise based sports session, dancing sessions and
others introduced, the parents can keep their children engaged in the activities and hence lessen
down the chances of childhood obesity.
Health education classes should be arranged by the community heads where different
nutritionists, dieticians, healthcare educators and similar other health professionals would come
as guests. They would be educating the parents along with their children in simple language
about the different foods they need to take, foods they need to avoid, and impacts of each food
on health, the future impacts that would result and others (Lobstein et al., 2015). This would be
an effective medium of spreading awareness. This would be making parents careful about the

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INTERVENTIONS FOR CHILDHOOD OBESITY PROGRAM
choices they make for their children. Moreover, at the same time interest and colorful pamphlets
would be developed so that it attracts the attention of the children and their parents. Important
information would be included with different illustrations and images that would help the
children and the parents to develop knowledge as well.
Another very important arena that needs to be considered is the programs and the
different advertisements that are broadcasted on the televisions, you-tube channels as well as on
the social cites. A large number of children are seen to be influenced by the advertisements of
fast foods, chips, sweetened beverages and many others. All these create interest in them in ways
by which they tend to ask their parents or try to buy themselves the fast foods and beverages.
Moreover, the culture that is shared by such entertainment advertisements develop a sense
among the older children where they take it as a lifestyle factor that shows “coolness” among
friends and others (Pigeot et al., 2015). Therefore such advertisements should be completely
should prohibited that influences children in a negative way. The broadcasting corporation
should keep filters for entertainment programs that promote unhealthy lifestyles.
WHO is of the opinion that increased evidences have shown that breast-feeding to be one
of the procedures by which mothers can prevent obesity in their children. Researches are
conducted that have shown women who have breastfed their children were at a lower risk for
development of obesity than those individuals who have not breastfed their children (Gortmaker
et al., 2015). Therefore, it becomes very important for the professionals to educate women who
are pregnant or are new mothers to learn about the important for breastfeeding and thereby
reduce the chances of children suffering from obesity.

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INTERVENTIONS FOR CHILDHOOD OBESITY PROGRAM
References:
Blake-Lamb, T. L., Locks, L. M., Perkins, M. E., Baidal, J. A. W., Cheng, E. R., & Taveras, E.
M. (2016). Interventions for childhood obesity in the first 1,000 days a systematic
review. American journal of preventive medicine, 50(6), 780-789.
Campbell, K. J., Hesketh, K. D., McNaughton, S. A., Ball, K., McCallum, Z., Lynch, J., &
Crawford, D. A. (2016). The extended Infant Feeding, Activity and Nutrition Trial
(InFANT Extend) Program: a cluster-randomized controlled trial of an early intervention
to prevent childhood obesity. BMC Public Health, 16(1), 166.
Gortmaker, S. L., Wang, Y. C., Long, M. W., Giles, C. M., Ward, Z. J., Barrett, J. L., ... &
Cradock, A. L. (2015). Three interventions that reduce childhood obesity are projected to
save more than they cost to implement. Health Affairs, 34(11), 1932-1939.
Lobstein, T., Jackson-Leach, R., Moodie, M. L., Hall, K. D., Gortmaker, S. L., Swinburn, B.
A., ... & McPherson, K. (2015). Child and adolescent obesity: part of a bigger
picture. The Lancet, 385(9986), 2510-2520.
Pigeot, I., Baranowski, T., De Henauw, S., IDEFICS Intervention Study Group, & IDEFICS
consortium. (2015). The IDEFICS intervention trial to prevent childhood obesity: design
and study methods. Obesity reviews, 16, 4-15.