Pediatric Obesity
Hello everyone!
Semester III of Nurse Practitioner school is well underway! I also recently have made a career move to the emergency department so we may see some shifts in a few of the things that we talk about.
BUT I will still keep it kid focused, because that's why we are all here...RIGHT!?
So, I am working with adults for the first time in my nursing career and honestly, its a little strange. I remember learning about cardiac and cholesterol medications in nursing school and then promptly forgot them all because kiddos don't typically take those kinds of things.
One day at work I was asking myself how all of these adults in the ER got to be the way they are right now: type II diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, histories of strokes and heart attacks, the list goes on and on.
The easy answer is adult lifestyle choices that they have made: smoking, sedentary lifestyles, high amounts of booze, etc.
But I began to wonder what else is going on here. Is it really just choices made after a certain age? Or do genetics and childhood lifestyles come into play as well?
Well, the short answer is: DUH. But seriously, genetics do play a part. But we will save that for another post.
What you and I can do now for our kiddos is watch their habits. It is imperative that we don't lose focus of what is important at home. And that really does include what's for dinner. If you let the rest of your busy life consume you and let food become a backseat thought, your kiddos may pick up some nasty habits that remain unrecognized until they are in their early 40s and they just can't keep the weight off like they used to. A lot of the issues that middle aged adults begin to face in middle age can be traced back to the habits of their parents.
My recommendation to you as parents is to stay strong in the food wars. McDonald's is never a good idea. It teaches your kids that its a good idea for them too when they are adults and when they have their own kids. Take the time to meal plan. There are plenty of easy meal preps that can be done with as little or as much extra time as you have. I implore you to try some good habit formation at home. Our elementary and middle school children are the 65 year old men and women of tomorrow. We begin the process now of determining whether they are going to die young of a heart attack or if they'll still be running marathons at that age.
Semester III of Nurse Practitioner school is well underway! I also recently have made a career move to the emergency department so we may see some shifts in a few of the things that we talk about.
BUT I will still keep it kid focused, because that's why we are all here...RIGHT!?
So, I am working with adults for the first time in my nursing career and honestly, its a little strange. I remember learning about cardiac and cholesterol medications in nursing school and then promptly forgot them all because kiddos don't typically take those kinds of things.
One day at work I was asking myself how all of these adults in the ER got to be the way they are right now: type II diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, histories of strokes and heart attacks, the list goes on and on.
The easy answer is adult lifestyle choices that they have made: smoking, sedentary lifestyles, high amounts of booze, etc.
But I began to wonder what else is going on here. Is it really just choices made after a certain age? Or do genetics and childhood lifestyles come into play as well?
Well, the short answer is: DUH. But seriously, genetics do play a part. But we will save that for another post.
What you and I can do now for our kiddos is watch their habits. It is imperative that we don't lose focus of what is important at home. And that really does include what's for dinner. If you let the rest of your busy life consume you and let food become a backseat thought, your kiddos may pick up some nasty habits that remain unrecognized until they are in their early 40s and they just can't keep the weight off like they used to. A lot of the issues that middle aged adults begin to face in middle age can be traced back to the habits of their parents.
My recommendation to you as parents is to stay strong in the food wars. McDonald's is never a good idea. It teaches your kids that its a good idea for them too when they are adults and when they have their own kids. Take the time to meal plan. There are plenty of easy meal preps that can be done with as little or as much extra time as you have. I implore you to try some good habit formation at home. Our elementary and middle school children are the 65 year old men and women of tomorrow. We begin the process now of determining whether they are going to die young of a heart attack or if they'll still be running marathons at that age.
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