Today, in the United States, the amount of overweight and obese children has doubled in the past thirty years. Obesity may be caused from numerous things, from poor diet to media marketing, but it is an issue that needs to be addressed. Obese children may have serious health concerns, many of those concerns were only seen in adults. It is important for nurses to work with families and health care providers to help promote healthy weight in children and end this problem facing our youth. ("Overweight Children and Adolescents")
Childhood obesity is a very real problem today. It places children as risk for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, asthma, sleep apnea, and social discrimination. It has been found that obese children have higher cholesterol …show more content…
The first thing would be to calculate the patient’s BMI and identify possible health factors. The health factors that are of concern are any that interfere with nutrition or physical activity. After that has been established, it would be good to arrange a further evaluation with their primary health care physician. The next thing would be to talk directly with the patient about how/what they understand and think of their health status. The focus here should be about their health and wellness, not just their weight. While the nurse is talking with the patient, he/she can assess for food preferences, cultural practices, and food habits. It would even benefit to find out what the patient already knows and if that have tried to address the issue before. This would keep the nurse from repeating things the patient already knows and allow the nurse to find different approaches to help the patient. The last thing the nurse would want to assess is about the child’s physical activity. It is good to know what the patient likes to do or is willing to do and if there are any challenges, both physical and perceived. At this point nutrition and wellness tools, like let’s go and food pyramid worksheets, may be used. It is important to remember to collaborate with the other staff involved in the child’s care and work with the child to create reasonable goals. ("Nursing Guidelines") Some of the realistic and reasonable goals are; 1-2 lbs/ week weight loss, focus on health and feeling better, have a support network, encourage to use of a food/activity journal where the child can write down what was consumed and any activity they did, as well as their feelings and attitude towards the day, and encourage the child to participate in planning family meals and help prepare them. (“Nursing
Childhood obesity is a very real problem today. It places children as risk for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, asthma, sleep apnea, and social discrimination. It has been found that obese children have higher cholesterol …show more content…
The first thing would be to calculate the patient’s BMI and identify possible health factors. The health factors that are of concern are any that interfere with nutrition or physical activity. After that has been established, it would be good to arrange a further evaluation with their primary health care physician. The next thing would be to talk directly with the patient about how/what they understand and think of their health status. The focus here should be about their health and wellness, not just their weight. While the nurse is talking with the patient, he/she can assess for food preferences, cultural practices, and food habits. It would even benefit to find out what the patient already knows and if that have tried to address the issue before. This would keep the nurse from repeating things the patient already knows and allow the nurse to find different approaches to help the patient. The last thing the nurse would want to assess is about the child’s physical activity. It is good to know what the patient likes to do or is willing to do and if there are any challenges, both physical and perceived. At this point nutrition and wellness tools, like let’s go and food pyramid worksheets, may be used. It is important to remember to collaborate with the other staff involved in the child’s care and work with the child to create reasonable goals. ("Nursing Guidelines") Some of the realistic and reasonable goals are; 1-2 lbs/ week weight loss, focus on health and feeling better, have a support network, encourage to use of a food/activity journal where the child can write down what was consumed and any activity they did, as well as their feelings and attitude towards the day, and encourage the child to participate in planning family meals and help prepare them. (“Nursing