Childhood Obesity Is The Number One Health Concern Among Parents

In America about one in three adolescents are overweight or obese. Topping smoking and drug abuse, childhood obesity is the number one health concern among parents. How to know if your child is overweight? You can do it yourself by inputting your child 's weight and height into a body mass calculator (BMI). Once you get the child 's BMI, you compare it to a child BMI chart. Underweight is BMI below the 5th percentile, normal-weight is BMI at the 5th and less than the 85th percentile, overweight is BMI at the 85th and below the 95th percentiles, and obese is BMI at or above the 95th percentile. Childhood obesity takes a emotional toll on children. In some children genetics do play a roll in them being obese. It can cause minor to major health problems. Obesity can also be prevented a number of ways. The emotional toll obesity take on a child 's life. For example, a child that is overweight maybe prone to low self esteem that stems from being bullied or teased. This in turn makes kids unhappy with their appearance. Which will make them more likely to become depressed, develop unhealthy dieting habits, eating disorders, and be more at risk for substance abuse (‘Overweight and obesity’, 2012). Overweight children are less likely to want to be involved in school related activities. Childhood obesity can also take a toll on parents of obese children. It can make the parents put a child on a diet or make them exercise more. Doing that could possibly hurt the child without…