The Rising of Childhood Obesity
Dawn Chinn
English Composition II
Professor Kristy Nelson
October 22, 2012

The Rising of Childhood Obesity
Childhood obesity is a rapidly rising problem worldwide. Today’s society has approximately 12.5 million obese children and teens and is still on the rise. Children are being easily subjected to the wrong life styles of healthy living due to busy family lives, unhealthy foods being brought into the house and no to low activity. Childhood obesity has a lot struggles that come along with being overweight, these children go through teasing, bullying and social rejection that cause physiological trouble. The states, communities and parents need to come to solutions to help these children before they end up with major health problems.
Research has shown that just in the United States alone childhood obesity has affected approximately 12.5 million children and teens; this is 17% of our population. The children are taught by watching and learning what goes on around them. Studies have shown that over decades and in our population now there are many ways the children are becoming obese. Every family is different; some have busy life styles that will end up bringing home or eating out at fast food restaurants that have made their meals super-sized. Parents buy chips, soda, candy and ice cream and bring them into the house, so their children think it is fine for them to eat since it is there and watch their parents eat them. A research showed that there is no to very little physical activity in children’s lives at home due to all of different game systems that they may have and all the hours of television they watch daily. Research has shown that children and teens spend an average of seven and a half hours a day on computers, cell phones, video games and movies; only four and a half hours are dedicated to watching television. (Robinson TN. Television viewing and childhood obesity. Pediatr Clin North Am 2001; 48 (4): 1017-25) (http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood/problem.html). Physical changes can be made to our children and make a huge difference if they start to get outside more to play and get fresh air. The children have had a big change in their daily physical activities at all schools, they are recommended to have 60 minutes of physical activity a day. The research shows that if the children would meet these standards they would be healthier and understand the importance of movement for their health. Children and parents have recreation centers and parks but need to make sure that there are safe routes for children to take while riding a bike for physical activity to and from the parks and school. Half of our children in the U.S. do not have a park, recreation center or sidewalks to use. (2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (http://www.health.gov/paguidelines/).
Research shows that children that are heavy or obese have physiological problems. Teasing and bullying are very common and severe to children that are obese; this causes children to withdrawal from the world and can lead to suicide or eating disorder that is a disease. Children feel lost, alone, not loved, insecure and ugly. Children suffer from severe emotional problems from all types of teasing and bullying. Over half of the children measure of behavioral and emotional difficulties. These children will endure teasing and bullying on the internet; like Facebook and posting negative pictures.
The research shows that social rejection with obese children have a hard time getting into a group at school if allowed, making friends that actually want to be their friend for them and to use them or as a prank and being able to go to their class mates parties whether it be a birthday party or just a social party. Social rejection and physical activity was collected from teachers, parents and students. Parental depression and life stress was also collected for records.