Did you know that September is Childhood Obesity Awareness Month? According to the CDC, childhood obesity is a complex disease with many contributing factors, including genetics, eating patterns, physical activity levels, and sleep routines. Compared to children with healthy weight, children with obesity are at a higher risk for asthma, sleep apnea, bone and joint problems, type 2 diabetes, and other health issues. Although there is no one solution, there are many ways parents and caregivers can help children have a healthy weight and set up lifelong healthy habits.
If you look at the CDC website here, you can see that they outline 5 ways that families can help reduce the risk of obesity.
- Model a healthy Eating pattern
- Move more as a family
- Set consistent sleep routines
- Replace screen time with family time
- Support obesity prevention in Early Care and Education
- Find a Family Healthy Weight Program
There is ample research that shows exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months and breastfeeding for a year or more is inversely and significantly associated with obesity and percentage of body fat for children. Despite this clear indicator of a way to prevent childhood obesity, it is only mentioned in a cursory fashion in the fifth suggestion on the CDC website. Under suggestion number five they state “Look for ECE settings supporting healthy infant feeding, healthy eating, physical activity, and screen time limits. When looking for ECE programs for your child, ask about policies and practices related to breastfeeding and feeding breast milk to infants, nutrition standards for the food served, access to outdoor physical activity during the day, and how much time the child will spend daily in front of a screen.”
This would be an excellent month to highlight this benefit to breastfeeding in your workplace or community. The benefits to breastfeeding are often lumped into laundry lists. For example, we often hear that breastfeeding helps decrease the chance of ear infections, increases a child’s IQ, and reduces the risk of obesity. But let’s take this month, this moment to really highlight the obesity piece. Maybe if we focus on just one thing, the message will be clearer and heard more easily. What do you think? How can you highlight this specific benefit of breastfeeding during this awareness month?