Factors Contributing to Toddler Obesity

This assignment examines the factors contributing to toddler obesity, including biological, maternal, and environmental influences. The study reviews research on preconception lifestyle, fetal development, and post-delivery nutrition, highlighting their impact on childhood overweight. It also discusses ethical considerations for future research, such as racial diversity and genetic risk factors.

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ASSESSMENT 32018 TEMPLATE
NSG2NMR (2018) Assessment 3: individual report
Student First Name:
Student Surname:
Student ID Number:
Facilitator Name:
Site/Clinical School:
TOTAL Word Count: 2,000 +/- 10%
Excludes: reference list, appended search history
Includes: in-text citations
DUE DATE:
Identify a clinical issue and propose a research question about this clinical issue(approx.
word count 100)
Obesity in Toddlers
Obesity in very young children is a common health issue. It occurs when the toddler`s BMI
(height and weight ratio) is above the child`s age. Many factors have been linked with obesity
in toddlers, including genetics, overall lifestyle habits, and inadequate body exercises among
other contributing factors.
The health effects of toddler obesity are similar to those in adults. Short term risks of toddler
obesity include; risks to cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure and cholesterol,
respiratory problems such as asthma and joint complications. Long term risks include severe
obesity during adulthood, very high risks of acquiring type II diabetes or cancer. The general
physiological effects that have been reported among toddlers with obesity are deep anxiety,
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depression and lower self-esteem later in life, when the child`s emotions can be easily
expressed.
Research question
What are the maternal factors that cause obesity in toddlers?
Conduct a literature search (using Medline AND CINAHL databases) and identify
literature relevant to the research question. APPEND THE SEARCH HISTORY TO
THE ASSIGNMENT
Write a Literature Review that describes what is already known about your research
question(approx. word count 1,500)
The toddlers diet is a contributing factor to obesity for example poor diets and feeding the
toddler huge food portions with a fatty nutritional profile. Research says that children who are
fed below 4 years of age are likely to be obsessed later in life. Before birth, obesity is likely to
manifest in the young child if the parents are obese (Hassink, 2016).
Physical inactivity of very young children also causes overweight and obesity. Most parents
under estimate the physical exercise phenomenon in toddlers such as engaging the in adequate
play environment and simple outdoor actions. Through assessment of these factors, the
overweight condition can be prevented for example by breastfeeding young children, keeping
them active and ensuring a general healthy habit from throughout. The research will focus on
maternal issues related to obesity in toddlers in a detailed literature review.
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Literature Review
Toddler obesity has over time been though as an unfortunate failure of self-restraint to
controlling the level of consumption of carbohydrates. On the contrary, research has
established that obesity in toddlers has more complex and much deeper causes than first
thought. Maternal factors of toddler obesity are of study interest in the nursing sector. There
are various risk factors that comprise maternal factors which cause this condition. Firstly,
biological factors such as pregnancy problems, maternal diabetes, delivery method, foetal
growth and gestational age at birth play a critical role in toddler’s propensity to add excess
weight. In addition, parental factors such as pre-pregnancy BMI of the mother, gestational
weight increase, diet and nutrition of the mother, maternal stress, age at delivery, and paternal
factors have been shown to influence obesity in toddlers. Finally, environmental and
community factors including prenatal health care and ecological pollutant exposure
respectively, tobacco use of the mother, prenatal substance use, and medication shape the
toddler’s trajectory of gain of weight and general body fatness (Chaildez, 2016).
Toddler obesity has also been shown to be associated with diabetes, mother obesity, and other
chronic conditions. As such, it is evident that toddler obesity has developmental origins
including preconception, foetal and infant developmental periods. During each of these stages,
multiple factors have been established to have significant impacts on toddler obesity. These
factors including basic prenatal and developmental influences on toddler obesity are outlined
in the next section.
Biological factors
Uterus offers warmth, nutrients and hormones which are fundamental to foetal development.
Fluctuations in any of these conditions at sensitive periods of foetal development result in
toddler obesity. Six key biological factors which cause toddler obesity include maternal
gestational obesity, pregnancy complications, delivery method, maternal BMI, diet and
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nutrition, and maternal stress.
Maternal Gestational Diabetes
The condition causes excessive gain of weight to the foetus and the “assumption “is that the
infant gets over fed due to increased high exposure to glucose, amino acids, plasma
concentration and free fatty acids (Garcia,2016). Higher insulin levels in the foetus raises the
body fat and causes increased body size at birth. The long term effects are higher appetite and
elevated energy metabolism.
The consequential effect due to paternal diabetes as a contributing factor to toddler obesity
has not yet been identified. The mother may have a constant or normal glucose level but an
increase glycaemia index during pregnancy is a risk to children obesity during other stages of
growth. A proper diabetic treatment during pregnancy and post pregnancy has been shown to
eliminate toddler obesity or gain of weight as the child grows.
Pregnancy Complications (Buckely, 2016).
Research indicates that there is a high link between maternal obesity and toddler obesity. The
higher the weight of the pregnant mother, the higher the risk of toddler obesity (Cerdo,2018).
For example, a 24kg weight gain in pregnant mothers causes an extra 147g weight gain to an
infant at birth. The condition is caused by increased fats to the foetus due to higher calories
which elevate the energy metabolism during development. Fat is deposited in form of an
adipose layer in major organs of the foetus such as the heart, liver and muscle (Maville, 2009).
Non-fats cells also synthesize peptides, hormones, cytokines and chemokine at increased
levels which have an impact on the local body physiology and general pathology effect on
toddler obesity.
Toddler obesity increases the susceptibility to chronic metabolic disorders such as asthma and
diabetes (Chi, 2017). There are also risks to the pregnant mother during this circumstance such
as high blood pressure, risks of caesarean delivery, cardiovascular diseases and type II
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diabetes. Maternal obesity during pregnancy can also cause gestational diabetes which
influences toddler obesity through the parameters described above.
Delivery Method
Caesarean section delivery has a direct impact on over nutrition in toddlers, which causes
obesity if not closely monitored.
Maternal Pre – Pregnancy BMI
Maternal height was measured in the first follow up at three months post – partum which was
classified in accordance to the WHO guidelines (Hassink, 2016). The categories included,
underweight which was (< 18.5 kg / m2), Normal weight at (18.5 – 24.9 kg / m2) and obese
which was considered to be (30.0 kg / m2). According to the above findings then it was easy to
analyse the riskiness of a toddler being obese (Chaildez, 2009). Recommendations were that
the doctors should introduce effective measures to reduce the maternal overweight in a certain
period before pre – conceptual. Also there should be considerations of the long term effects on
the maternal – child outcomes. To further evaluate the effects of maternal pre – pregnancy
body mass index (preBMI) and gestational weight gain (GWG) on neonatal birth weight
(NBW), we did a research survey on a population of Australian healthy pregnant women. This
research also attempted to guide on different ways controlling weight in pregnancy.
The research focused on 3772 pregnant women. The population was classified under the
following categories; underweight, normal weight, overweight and obesity. The NBW
differences were tested among the four categories. Multivariate analysis was conducted in
order to investigate the effects of maternal pre – BMI, GWG, and NBW. One of the findings
was that NBW increased with an increase in maternal pre – BMI level denoted at (p< 0.05) but
overweight and obesity with (p > 0.05) was not affected. The analysis further indicated that pre
– BMI level and GWG were positively correlated with NBW (Hassink, 2016). This was
denoted as (p<0.05).
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In comparison with the normal pre – BMI, underweight there was an increase in the ration
odds for the small gestational period (SGA) and the odds ratio decreased in the macrosomia
and large gestational age (LGA). When the results were compared to overweight, they denoted
an opposite outcome. An increase in GWG significantly reduced the SGA risk. This led to an
increase in macrosomia and LGA risks. The analysis also found out that the effects of weight
gain in the first trimester on NBW were different (p<0.05). NBW was affected by maternal pre
– BMI and GWG in a positive way. Extreme conditions of GWG and pre – BMI increased the
risk of giving birth with abnormal weight (Hassink, 2016). The other crucial finding was that
maternal pre – BMI modified the effects of weight gain in each trimester on NBW. There was
a need to validate the GWG guideline for the Australian pregnant women. The existing
recommendations did not favour the Australian women.
Maternal diet and nutrition
The dietary intake during pregnancy and in early childhood always affects child health at
different ages. There was insufficient evidence to support beneficial effect of consuming fatty
acid, caffeine, and sugar (Cerdo, 2016). There was a need to advance studies in prenatal
dietary patterns and plausible mechanisms.
Maternal stress
Stress during pregnancy is one the factors that lead to an increase in obesity of a toddler. There
was a research analysis on different categories of parental stress such as social stress, financial
stress and parenting stress. These factors were closely related to the rate of obesity in
toddlers(Buckely, 2016).
Mothers parenting stress also increased the rate of obesity in toddlers. This kind of
stress is characterized by a dysfunctional child to parent’s relationship which in turn affects the
parenting behaviour. More also stress in toddlers causes hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis
(HPA) and releases more stress hormones. One of these hormones is the glucocorticoids which
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is associated with affects metabolic syndrome and visceral adversity. Generally there is a need
to study more on the maternal stress patterns and plausible mechanisms. Identification of
physical activity patterns helps to promote healthy weight gain.
Delivery Method
Caesarean section delivery has an indirect impact on over nutrition in toddlers, which
causes obesity if not closely monitored. The connection of CS delivery with childhood obesity
is higher Body mass index of the mother which increases the likelihood of overweight in the
infant and obesity at birth and in later life stages. The hypothesis in this findings show that
caesarean delivery is not the main causative factor. It is as a result of maternal obesity or
overweight during pregnancy
How well does the existing literature address your research question?
In answering this question consider if your research question has been a) fully answered,
b) partially answered, or c) not answered at all.
THEN identify a) what further research could be conducted (and its characteristics such
as design, sample, outcome measures) that might provide important information to
answer your research question AND b) what are some ethical considerations that apply
to these possible research studies (approx. word count 400)
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Conclusion
The study review fully acknowledges how maternal factors contribute to obesity of
childhood at a very young age, which has a major effect later during adulthood if untreated.
Biological factors occur due to natural disorders or problems during pregnancy. The toddler
parent or caregiver contributes to childhood overweight due to factors that affect the
biochemistry nature of the infant growth. However, other factors such as paternal aspects,
maternal age at delivery and paternal medication had an insignificant evidence to support their
influence on toddler obesity. Environmental factors surrounding the pregnant mother showed a
significant influence on the condition. For example, tobacco use causes adiposity of the
offspring. Use of hard drugs such as cocaine also causes overweight of the toddler.
Based on the findings of the studies that have been carried out to determine the factors
that cause toddler obesity, it is clear that lifestyle and nutrition factors at the time of
preconception, foetal development, and after delivery have profound effects on toddler
obesity. Despite toddler obesity being common currently, the causative factors occur during
optimal time for carrying out intervention measures. To begin with, women are more receptive
during the preconception period to ensure that they raise healthy infants. As a result, they
would embrace changes in lifestyle aimed at ensuring that the health of the infant is not at
stake. In addition, women would be more willing to initiate changes in lifestyle to after the
birth of the baby to guarantee raising a healthy infant. Clinicians can therefore maximize these
sensitive periods in order to reduce the cases of toddler obesity. For instance, the clinicians
could advise the women to strive for healthy weight prior to conception and set to gain
reasonable weight during pregnancy.
Future research should be conducted to determine if there is any influence of toddler
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obesity on the findings that were found to have low evidence. Research on the intervention
mechanisms, their short term and long term effects in solving the maternal factors should be
done in order to come up with a strong recommendation. The connection of previous
pregnancies and their influence on toddler obesity in subsequent pregnancies would be of key
interest in this research. In addition, the genetic risk factors concerning the father`s influence
on child obesity should also be researched on. Ethical considerations in future research to base
the research on a wide racial diversity for example Whites, Africans, Asians, Europeans and
Hispanics should be ensured in order to base the research arguments and trends on a wide
population scale.
References
Buckley, R (2016). Children obesity. Bloomfield: Mercury Learning & Information.
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Cerdo, T., Ruiz, A., Jauregui, R., Azaryah, T., Torres-Espinola, F, J., Garcia-Valdes, L.,
Teresa, S, M., (2018). Maternal obesity and metabolic potential in offspring during
infancy
Chaildez, V (2009). Toddler feeding practices in Latinos. An early start in obesity prevention.
Chi, D, L., Luu, M., & Chu, F. (2017). A scoping review of epidemiology risk factors for
pediatric obesity: Implications for future.
Garcia-Mantrana, I., & Collado, M, C. (2016). Obesity overweight. The impact on maternal
and milk microbiome.
Hassink, S. G., & In Hampl, S. (2016). Clinical care of the child with obesity: A learner’s
and teacher’s guide.
Maville, J, A., & Huerta, C, G. (2009). Health promotion in nursing. Clifton Park, NY:
Thompson Delmar Learning.
APPENDIX A: Search History of BOTH Medline & CINAHL
[APPEND SEARCH HISTORY HERE. CAN BE EITHER COPY & PASTED FROM WORD DOCUMENT OR A
PRINTSCREEN IMAGE OF SEARCH]
CINAHL search history
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Medline search history
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