Child Obesity

On October 4 of 2006, at a middle school in Dallas, Texas, Jonathan Hernandez and his classmates were told to run sprints, better known as “suicides” during P.E class. One of his classmates, Stephanie Molina, ran next to him and was worried about him because she could tell he couldn’t run much due to his weight. At thirteen years old, Jonathan is five feet and seven inches tall and weighs a remarkable two hundred and forty pounds. He is considered extremely overweight or obese by today’s standards. After thirty minutes of running, he told Stephanie that he was extremely tired. He collapsed right after. Teachers and paramedics attempted to revive Jonathan with CPR. He was later taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead after shortly arriving.1
Doctors state that one probable cause for Jonathan’s death was that he suffered left ventricular hypertrophy2, which is the enlargement of the left side of the heart. This complication is usually found in people who suffer from obesity and Jonathan was considered obese. In the United States today, one out of three children are considered overweight or obese.3   The lack of physical activity and the consumption of unhealthy foods are not the only factors that have resulted in the rise of child obesity in the United States in the last thirty years. Family genetics, an important cause in this epidemic, can increase a child’s chances in becoming overweight or obese.
Obesity is the accumulation of too much body fat stored in the body.4 It can very in children at times because some of them can carry extra pounds and not be considered overweight or obese. Children in this category may have a larger than average body frame which allows them to hold more weight than average. Body Mass Index (BMI) is a method used to help measure the amount of total body fat a person has based on their height and weight. The BMI table5 (figure 1) on the left indicates if a person is underweight, normal weight, overweight or obese. The left... [continues]

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