Obesity is a heath condition where the person has an abnormally large amount of fat for their height. Obesity in children is defined by how much the child exceeds the recommended weight for his or her age. Generally, a child is  overweight if he or she is 20 percent above the recomme- nded weight.

Causes:- Childhood obesity can be caused by emotional, physiological, and familial factors. There is, however a small percentage of genetic factors that can also cause childhood obesity such as problems of the thyroid. Overweight and obesity result from an energy imbalance. This involves eating too many calories and not getting enough physical activity. High calorie foods are more easily available today than ever before. Although, the main cause of obesity is simply the fact that kids eat too much and don’t exercise enough. Many factors, usually working in combination, increase a child’s risk of being overweight. Eating a large amount of high calorie foods, like fast foods, baked foods, and vending machine snacks certainly contributes to weight gain. Exacerbating the problem are trends in eating patterns favouring more and more convenience foods, of which fast foods are the most harmful. Fast foods are high in fat, sodium, and sugar while low in essential nutrients. The consumption of fast foods has a direct impact on the increase in childhood obesity among children and youth.

When buying  groceries, the parents should focus on buying more fruits and vegetables. Most of children’s’ time is often spent on the couch watching television or playing game consoles or sitting in front of the computer searching the web. However, one of the most debated causes of child obesity is whether or not being exposed to advertising of foods with high fat content, high caloric intakes.

Effect:- With obesity becoming more and more of a problem each year, the population is going to suffer from a catastrophic health emergency. He or she suffers health and social problems. Because of this, weight related health problems like diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease and depression are becoming much more common.  Not only does excess weight lead to medical and psychosocial disorders in children, there is a strong link between childhood obesity and adult obesity. Now days, laziness is a common trait, found in kids because of obesity.

This growing problem requires a great deal more attention and action than it has received. This epidemic is sweeping over our children that will inevitably drive them to an early grave. We must take action to better the health of the over weight and obese children in our care.