CHILDHOOD OBESITY - Fat children have up to six times more high blood pressure risk: Figures lead to doctors calling for taskforce to tackle child obesity

Fat children have up to six times more high blood pressure risk: Figures lead to doctors calling for taskforce to tackle child obesity

• Body representing GPs warns an entire generation will be ‘destroyed’ by junk food and sugary drinks
• Young obese girls have the biggest problem of getting heart disease
• One in three children is obese by time they leave primary school in the UK
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By JENNY HOPE, DAILY MAIL MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT

PUBLISHED: 22:55 GMT, 31 August 2014 | UPDATED: 10:58 GMT, 1 September 2014

Children who are obese are up to six times more at risk of high blood pressure – an adult condition commonly linked to heart disease, warn specialists.

Young obese girls have the biggest problem, with a 5.9-fold chance of developing it compared with those of healthy weight, while the risk is four times greater for obese boys.

The study from Germany also shows that children and teenagers who are overweight are more likely to have high blood pressure readings.

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The study from Germany also shows that children and teenagers who are 

overweight are more likely to have high blood pressure readings (File photos)

Experts say the findings are ‘alarming’, given that one in three children is overweight and obese by the time they leave primary school in the UK.

They come as doctors called for the creation of an emergency taskforce to tackle ‘the rising epidemic’ of childhood obesity, similar to the Government’s Cobra panel which deals with terrorism and national disasters.

The professional body representing GPs has warned that an entire generation will be ‘destroyed’ by a diet of junk food and sugary drinks unless urgent action is taken.

In an open letter to the Chief Medical Officer for England, Professor Dame Sally Davies, the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and 11 linked organisations said a national Child Obesity Action Group (COAG) should be formed as ‘a matter of urgency’.

Doctors, nurses, midwives, dieticians, dentists and schools would collaborate to try to prevent obesity and improve treatment services to stop children developing health problems in later life.

Dr Richard Roope, RCGP clinical lead for cancer, said: ‘For the first time, we have a generation of patients who may predecease their parents. Only three per cent of the public associate weight with cancer, yet, after smoking, obesity is the biggest reversible factor in cancers.’

Stark evidence of the link between body fat and ill-health, even in young children, was released yesterday (sun) by researchers running a Family Heart Study in Nuremberg, Germany.

It included 22,051 children and adolescents aged three to 18 years from ‘health-conscious’ families whose blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference and body fat percentage was measured.

They found that compared with normal weight children and adolescents, the risk of prehypertension (which precedes a condition needing medical treatment) was significantly higher in youngsters with high BMI scores.

The prevalence of high blood pressure increased in boys and girls as body weight went up, based on averages among the groups at the age of seven years and again at 14 years.

Hypertension in normal weight boys was 5.7 per cent, rising to 10.4 per cent for the overweight and 18.6 per cent in obese boys.

The researchers found the prevalence of hypertension was highest in obese girls at 24.4 per cent, and 9 per cent in the overweight compared with five per cent in those of normal weight.

Prof Schwandt said ‘The risk of having hypertension is 5.9 time higher for an obese girls and 4.3 times higher for an obese boy than for normal-weight young people.’

He released the data yesterday (sun) at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) meeting in Barcelona.

Hypertension was a blood pressure reading over the 95th percentile of the blood pressure curve for children and adolescents. The diagnosis was based on several measurements on separate days and on repeated estimations with the child sitting quietly for five minutes.

Professor Empar Lurbe, professor of paediatrics at the University of Valencia, Spain, told the meeting: ‘Blood pressure in children increases with age and body size.

Our study clearly shows that the fatter young people are, the greater their risk of prehypertension and hypertension. Any weight loss they can achieve will help reduce their risk 

‘This makes it impossible to use a single blood pressure level to define hypertension, as we do in adults.’

Professor Schwandt said ‘Our study clearly shows that the fatter young people are, the greater their risk of prehypertension and hypertension. Any weight loss they can achieve will help reduce their risk.

‘This is of great importance because of the ongoing rise in the prevalence of hypertension and overweight/obesity in young people and the tracking of childhood overweight into adulthood.’

Tam Fry, from the UK’s National Obesity Forum, said ‘It’s alarming. This demonstrates that obesity is no longer a timebomb; it is a crisis which is escalating every day.

‘We need to stop children getting fat in the first place, because fat children become fat adults and as this study shows, even before then they are suffering from major health risks.

‘When it comes to high blood pressure, which vastly increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes, it is likely that the foods being eaten by obese children are not helping; crisps piled high in salt, and so forth.

‘This has to be wake-up call. We are looking at a situation in which children are buried before their parents, the obesity crisis in Britain is horrifying.’

Professor Pedro Marques-Vidal, head of the ESC’s preventive health group, said doctors were ‘definitely not’ advocating that blood pressure drugs be given to children.

He said there was evidence that losing weight could reverse high blood pressure and it was vital that parents and schools worked together to combat the problem.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk

CHILDHOOD OBESITY - Give children smaller plates at mealtimes to restrict their food and cut obesity, says top health officia

Give children smaller plates at mealtimes to restrict their food and cut obesity, says top health official 

• Public Health England chief Duncan Selbie gives stark warning to parents
• The number of people with diabetes could treble in 20 years, he says
• He also hints at measures to tackle smoking in the home in front of children 
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By PRESS ASSOCIATION and DAMIEN GAYLE FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 07:01 GMT, 23 August 2014 | UPDATED: 14:56 GMT, 23 August 2014

Give your children their dinner on smaller plates to stop them from getting too fat, a top public official has said.

Duncan Selbie, head of Public Health England, warned that unless young people ate less and exercised more millions would suffer from poor health adults.

More than a third of schoolchildren in year six now rank as overweight, according to official statistics, and the number of people with diabetes in Britain could treble in the next 20 years, warned Mr Selbie. 

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Scale-busting: A health chief says giving children smaller plates at mealtimes would help to tackle obesity

He told the Daily Telegraph he learned a simple example of how to stop children getting fat from a Manchester mother who had been raised on the idea that one should always clear one's plate.

'The child (her son) was overweight at school, and it was a definite problem,' he said.

'The prescription was that they brought them smaller plates. The child was back on track: he went on to be ahead of the class.'

Just last month official figures showed nearly one in 10 four to five-year-olds starting school in England were obese, rising to almost one in five among youngsters getting ready to start secondary.

The growing obesity crisis among the nation's children has led to school uniform suppliers stocking XXXXXXXXL trousers with 50 inch waistlines to meet demand.

Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, said this week that their research shows that in the next 15-20 years 50 per cent of the entire UK population will be overweight.

He said: 'It really is an an appalling situation we find ourselves in and very disturbing that we are seeing school uniforms going up to waist sizes of 50 inches.

'Unfortunately, a significant amount of adults do not eat properly and this is passed down to their children.

'Something drastic needs to be done to combat this.'

Anti-obesity advert: 'Rewind the Future - Stop the Cycle'

'Adults don't eat properly and pass this on to their children': Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, said this week that research 

shows that in the next 15-20 years 50 per cent of the UK population will be overweight

The Health and Social Care Information Centre said 45.1million prescription items - including insulin, anti-diabetic drugs and monitoring devices for the condition - were handed out to patients in England last year.

That is a more than 50 per cent rise on the number prescribed in 2005/6.

In a wide-ranging interview Mr Selbie also told the Telegraph minimum pricing for alcohol should be introduced and more fizzy drinks should be made sugar-free.

He praised the bans introduced on smoking in public places and in cars with children on board, but added that it is likely smoking in the home in front of children will be looked at next.

Referring to the rise in cases of tuberculosis, Mr Selbie said it was because the UK is such an 'open nation'.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk

CHILD OBESITY - Kids' Rates of Severe Obesity Are Troubling, Researchers Say

By Bahar Gholipour, Staff Writer | April 07, 2014 04:00pm ET


The obesity rate in children hasn't declined in recent years, and severe obesity may even be on the rise, a new study has found. The findings follow a recent report showing a decline in obesity in young children.

In the new study, which included data from about 27,000 children ages 2 to 19 in all parts of the Unites States, researchers examined changes in the rate of different classes of obesity, including severe obesity, between 1999 and 2012.

They found an upward trend in all rates of obesity in U.S. children over the study period, including the rate of severe obesity, in which children either have a body mass index (BMI) greater than 35, or they weigh at least 20 percent greater than that of children already considered to be obese.

"An increase in more severe forms of obesity in children is particularly troubling," said study researcher Asheley Cockrell Skinner, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. "Extreme obesity is more clearly associated with heart disease and diabetes risk in children and adolescents, and is more difficult to treat."

However, the results didn't show a significant change — neither a decline nor an increase — in overall rates of obesity in the most recent years of the study, between 2009 and 2012, suggesting that the trend of rising obesity may now be stabilizing.

In 2011 to 2012, more than 32 percent of children ages 2 to 19 were overweight, 17 percent were obese and about 8 percent were severely obese, according to the study, published today (April 7) in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

The findings appear to contradict the results of a recent study that found a decline in obesity among low-income preschoolers. That study used the same data set as the current study, but it looked at a shorter time period.

"Both our study and the prior one used the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. However, the earlier study examined only the last decade, while we make use of all available years — from 1999 to 2012," Skinner said. "In 2003, there was an unusual uptick in obesity among young children, which led to the appearance of a significant decline. However, when we look at the bigger picture, that change is not there."

Moreover, examining only the overall rates of obesity would mask upward trends of the less common but more dangerous form of severe obesity over time, the researchers said.

In the study, children who had a BMI greater than 85 percent of their peers' were considered overweight, and children who had a BMI greater than 95 percent of children of their same age and gender were considered obese.

Severe forms of obesity are called class 2 and class 3 obesity, and are defined as having a BMI greater than 35 or 40, respectively.

For example, a 10-year-old boy of average height for his age (4 feet 6 inches) would be considered obese if he weighed 95 pounds. He would be considered Class 2 obese if he weighed 115 pounds and class 3 obese if he weighed 130 pounds.

In 2012, 5 to 6 percent of children were class 2 obese, and about 2 percent were class 3 obese, the researchers estimated.

Source: http://www.livescience.com/44658-severe-obesity-children.html

CHILD OBESITY - Colombia's fattest baby who weighs the same as a six-year-old rescued by charity after mother said she kept feeding him every time he cried

Colombia's fattest baby who weighs the same as a six-year-old rescued by charity after mother said she kept feeding him every time he cried 

• Eight-month-old Santiago Mendoza weighs 3.1stone - 19.7kg
• His mother Eunice Fandiño asked charity for help treat his obesity
• Santiago has now been flown to Bogota for emergency treatment

By LEE MORAN and JILL REILLY

PUBLISHED: 14:57 GMT, 19 March 2014 | UPDATED: 18:05 GMT, 19 March 2014

Colombia's most obese baby - who weighs the same as a six-year-old child - has been ‘rescued’ by a charity so he can undergo life-saving treatment.

Santiago Mendoza, eight months, already tips the scales at 3.1-stone, was flown from his home in the northeastern city of Valledupar to the capital Bogota on Sunday.

Volunteers from Medellin-based Chubby Hearts foundation (Gorditos de Corazon) stepped in to transport the boy after his mother Eunice Fandiño wrote in asking for help.

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Colombia's most obese baby Santiago Mendoz (pictured with therapist Salvador Palacios) - who weighs the same as a six-year-old child - has been 'rescued' by a charity so he can undergo life-saving treatment

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He was flown from his home in the northeastern city of Valledupar to the capital Bogota on Sunday

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Santiago has suffered medical complications due to his weight since he was born, and has already been hospitalised on several occasions

She confessed that her own ‘ignorance’ had led to her son's unhealthy weight gain and that, every time he cried, she gave him food or milk to calm down.

‘He was born with an anxiety, so if he cried I just fed him,’ she added.

 

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Caracol Radio reports that Santiago has suffered medical complications due to his weight since he was born, and has already been hospitalised on several occasions.

Chubby Hearts director Salvador Palacio González said the child would be evaluated by specialist doctors at the Colina Clinic.

 

Must see: Colombia's fattest baby weighs over THREE STONE

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Caracol Radio reports that Mendoza has suffered medical complications due to his weight since he was born, and has already been hospitalised on several occasions

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Santiago is at risk of suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure and severe problems with his joints in the future

Medics will then try to bring his weight down to a manageable level before submitting him to a series of operations, he added.

‘Likely, what he will need is a long-term treatment, education, healthy food, and when he is older physical activity,’ surgeon Cesar Ernesto Guevar told El Espectador.

‘Otherwise, in the future, he could suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure and severe problems with his joints,’ he added.

Fandiño revealed that she was practically confined to her home as the baby was ‘too heavy’ to take out and about.

But she added that she was ‘optimistic’ about the help she was receiving and has promised to follow the instructions she's given by doctors.

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Chubby Hearts director Salvador Palacio González said medics will then try to bring his weight down to a manageable level before submitting him to a series of operations

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Volunteers from Medellin-based Chubby Hearts foundation (Gorditos de Corazon) stepped in to transport the boy after his mother Eunice Fandiño wrote in asking for help

AROUND THE WORLD: LARGEST TODDLERS AND CHILDREN 

At 132lbs, Lu Hao (below in blue) was already five times the size of a normal child his age when he was aged three. 

The toddler from China eats a staggering three bowls of rice when he sits down for a family meal.

When Lu Hao was born he weighed just 2.6kg (5.7 lbs), however, from the time he was three months old he began to gain weight rapidly.

At 132lbs, Lu Hao (below in blue) was already five times the size of a normal child his age when he was aged three.  Another large baby (left) was an 11-month-old who was already the size of an eight-year-old

In 2009 weighing 23st 2lb at just nine-years-old, Dzhambik Khatokhov was believed to be the world's fattest child

Another large baby (above left) was an 11-month-old who was already the size of an eight-year-old.

The giant baby tipped the scales at a whopping 61lbs 12oz (28kg) and stands four and a half stone larger than his older brother. 

Due to his hefty frame the toddler also has to wear huge nappies.

His mother, Milena Orosco de Agudelo, said her son started ballooning at just two months old.

The baby has had undergone a number of medical examinations which suggest he may have a problem with his endocrine system.

In 2009 weighing 23st 2lb at just nine-years-old, Dzhambik Khatokhov was believed to be the world's fattest child.

But the wrestling fanatic - known as Jambik - insists he is happy with his size and has no intention of losing weight.

Big boy: A woman in China has given birth to a boy weighing 16lbs, seen here next to a normal sized newborn

His mother, Nelya, 42, claims Jambik is like any healthy, growing child and refuses to put him on a diet despite severe health warnings.

This week a Chinese woman gave birth to a 16lbs baby boy at a hospital in Shanwei, southeast China.

Medical staff nicknamed the giant new-born Xiao Pang, which means Little Fat.

It is possible that he is the heaviest baby to be born in China, as the last claimant on the national record weighed ‘only’ 15.5lbs.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2584258/Colombias-obese-baby-rescued-Chubby-Hearts-charity-life-saving-treatment.html#ixzz2wQwPh85a
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CHILHOOD OBESITY - Britain's fattest five-year-old

Britain's fattest five-year-old: Girl is taken into care after her weight ballooned to TEN STONE

• - Girl was at least three times the weight of the average five-year-old
• - She is one of the heaviest five-year-old girls recorded in the UK
• - The girl was taken into care in Newport, south Wales, last year
• - She 'suffers from a genetic condition which causes constant hunger'
• - Child protection experts have labelled the case 'a tragedy'
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By LEON WATSON

PUBLISHED: 10:29 GMT, 8 December 2013 | UPDATED: 17:57 GMT, 8 December 2013

Care: A five-year-old girl was taken into care by social workers after her weight ballooned to more than 10 stone, at least three times what is expected of a healthy child (file picture)

Social workers have taken a girl aged five into care after her weight ballooned to more than 10 stone, it emerged today.

The child was at least three times the weight of what is expected of a healthy girl and is one of the heaviest five-year-olds recorded in the UK.

She was taken into care in Newport, south Wales, in August last year and is understood to have been tested for a rare genetic condition which causes constant hunger.

Child protection experts have labelled the case 'a tragedy' and expressed disbelief that action was not taken sooner by the local council.

She weighed 10st 5lb when Newport City Council intervened - making her the heaviest boy or girl aged five recorded in an English school since 2008.

Typically girls of that age weigh about three stone, according to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

Newport City Council told The Sunday Times it made the decision to take her into care purely because of the girl's obesity.

Two months later her weight had risen yet further to 10st 10lb, but when she was weighed again this September it had dropped to below eight stone.

However, her Body Mass Index – a measure of weight in comparison to height referred to as BMI – was still roughly double the normal level for a five-year-old child.

Gwent Police were unable to confirm whether arrests were made in connection with the case.

Earlier this year worrying figures were revealed about overweight and obesity among reception class children in Wales.

The Child Measurement Programme for Wales report found that nearly 30 per cent of four and five-year-olds in Gwent are overweight or obese, with the obesity level in this age group at 12.5 per cent, or one-in-eight. 

Figures from the Welsh Health Survey also revealed that across Wales, 35 per cent of under-16s are overweight or obese, including around 19 per cent who are obese.

The survey found nearly three-in-five adults are overweight or obese.

In September, nationwide figures showed Britain's average size is continuing to rise due to a hardcore of overweight individuals who are still getting fatter.

A study, which looked at 160,000 adults in England between 1992 and 2010, found that a quarter of men and a third of women with an existing high BMI – a measure of weight in comparison to height – remain susceptible to substantial weight-gain.

Newport City Council, based in the Civic Centre (pictured) in Newport, south Wales, made the decision to take the girl into care purely because if her obesity

Experts say children who have a high BMI and stay fat are more likely to have high blood pressure, cholesterol and blood insulin levels – all risk factors for heart disease – by the time they reach their mid-teens, say experts.

As part of the National Child Measurement Programme children in reception class (aged four and five) and Year 6 (aged 10 and 11) are weighed and measured at school.

Tam Fry, honorary chairman of the Child Growth Foundation, said the case was tragic.

He told The Sunday Times: 'Since that child was one-year-old she would have been putting on weight, year after year after year. She must have been visible at nursery.

'Who didn't raise their hand and say, "Look, something is going tragically wrong here"?'

Conservative councillor Tom Suller, member of a parenting forum, said: 'It's a sad sign of the times.

'It's really terrible that a child can end up this way through no fault of her own.

'People just don't follow healthy diets at the moment. There are a lot of obese parents out there and their children are ending up exactly the same way.

'There are other children in this sort of state - it's a ticking time bomb.

'At the moment there are so many financial restraints on families that many find it really hard to get the right food.

'A lot of people just think: 'I'll get a KFC tonight and McDonalds tomorrow,' they don't consider the consequences.

'They're in a catch-22 situation and they have no idea how to get off the carousel. I think it's down to councils and schools to make parents aware of the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.

'It's not about the blame game, it's about getting to the root cause.'

Labour councillor Paul Cockeram, Cabinet Member for Social Care and Wellbeing, said: 'It's a sad reflection of society today.

'People just want things which are cheap, easy and quick but there's more to life than fast food and chicken nuggets,

'Maybe it's a poverty thing, perhaps it is cheaper to go into any supermarket and buy three ready meals for a fiver.

'But I think people are lazy as well. Youngsters aren't taught how to cook properly, they don't understand the importance of good wholesome food.

'Noone sits down and has dinner together - everyone just eats in front of the TV. There are obese children all over the place, we're getting to the point where parents are going to out live their children. It's a terrible state of affairs.'

A spokesman for Newport City Council told the paper: 'The wellbeing of children and young people is of paramount importance and at the heart of all the work that is done by our children's services department.

'A thorough and comprehensive assessment of each child and family that we work with is always undertaken. All factors will be considered in any decision that is taken. It would be inappropriate to comment further on this case in the best interests of the child.'