What Causes Morbid Obesity in Children?

Presently, incidents of obesity in children are rising fast and they are happening in developed and developing countries alike. There are three perceivable causes of obesity in children.

• Genetic Problem. If one or both parents of a child are obese, there is a great tendency that the child will become obese because of the genetic structure. Aside from the factor of heredity, the child could assimilate the eating habits of the obese parent and because of the genetic anomaly; it becomes easier for the child to get big.
• Sedentary Lifestyle. The present generation of children is becoming less active because they devote most of their time with computers and television, and because of the sedentary lifestyle, children fail to burn the excess calorie intake.
• Hormone Disorder. Another cause of obesity in children, although very rare, is growth hormone disorder. Excessive growth hormone in the blood may cause gigantism in children, which would make them look very big than the normal size of a child in their particular age.  

In the news recently, there is a child in China that at the age of 3 years has grown to a huge 132 lbs weight. The boy’s name is Lu Hao. His parents are becoming very concerned about the child’s health. They say that his appetite is so big and they could not stop him from eating huge portions because he would not stop crying. However, doctors suspect that the boy’s size might have been caused by growth hormone disorder.

Children love to eat and they need to eat a lot. Although, we need to watch what they eat so that we can be sure that they get good nutrition. At the same time, we need to keep them active. Let’s encourage them to play outside the house, run around so they could have exercise too. Keeping them active would help develop their bodies, reinforce their resistance against common disease and keep them from becoming morbidly obese at a young age.

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http://www.democracyforums.com/showthread.php?p=920907