FDU Magazine — Winter/Spring 2010 — Volume 18, Number 1
 
Image: Cover - Educating Nurses — Stat!

On the Cover
FDU ranks high among veteran-friendly schools. Several veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan tell how the University is helping them build new lives.

Reflections of Wroxton
Join Dean Nicholas Baldwin as he reflects on his 25 years as head of FDU's first international campus, Wroxton College.

Glory Days for WAMFEST
Bruce Springsteen and poet Robert Pinsky headline WAMFEST: The Words and Music Festival at the College at Florham.

Troubling Trends
Psychology professor Katharine Loeb looks at eating disorders and pediatric obesity and how parents may hold the key to treatment.

Alternative Spring Breaks
Service opportunities make Spring Break rewarding and educational for student volunteers.

Alumni Profile
The Jokes Are on Them!
Arlene, BA'68 (T), and Harlan Jamison, BA'68 (T)

Alumni Profile
A Portrait in Public Service
Harold “Cap” Hollenbeck, BA'61 (R)

Troubling Trends — Pediatric Overweight and Obesity

 

Pediatric Overweight and Obesity

Pediatric overweight and obesity are considered to have reached epidemic proportions, and their treatment is a high public-health priority. Pediatric obesity poses significant risk for development into adult obesity, with potential medical, psychological and social problems.

As with eating disorders, there is no single known cause for obesity in youths, which likely arises from a complex interaction of genetic, behavioral and environmental factors. Parents are in a unique position to shape their children’s home environment in ways that increase the likelihood of healthy eating and regular physical activity, and decrease sedentary behaviors like television viewing.

The home can serve as a potent buffer from the larger, powerfully “toxic environment,” in which lifestyle-based exercise is limited by time constraints, safety concerns, budgetary restrictions (e.g., gym cuts in schools), and in which high-fat, densely caloric foods are relatively inexpensive and readily available, especially in poorer neighborhoods. No child should be left alone to contend with an environment that promotes, rather than protects against obesity, without the help of his or her parents.

Parents can also function as powerful positive models for their children with regard to healthy eating and behaviors. However, they must take care to equally buffer their families from other aspects of the environment, namely the thin-as-ideal aesthetic, with corresponding extreme dieting. For example, rendering all “junk” food and desserts as completely forbidden — as opposed to teaching children to consume these in controlled, limited quantities at appropriate times against the backdrop of a healthy lifestyle — can backfire in the form of sneak eating or even binge eating. When implemented correctly, weight treatments do not make youth more vulnerable to developing eating disorders. Parents should also avoid using food as reward or punishment, and make an effort to implement regular family meals in which healthy food is served and attention is directed to family discussion (as opposed to watching television or checking phone texts and e-mails).

As with eating disorders, family-based treatments offer great promise to help obese adolescents, and prior studies have pointed to this working for younger children. The key again is to recognize that parents and children are not to be blamed and that parents have the primary responsibility to effect change while respecting the developmental needs of their offspring.

With pediatric eating and weight disorders, parents should feel empowered to identify problems, maintain open communication with their children and intervene as necessary. Doing so the right way may transform or even save a child’s life.

next …

 

 


 

No child should be
left alone to
contend with an
environment that
promotes, rather
than protects
against,
obesity without the
help of his or her
parents.

 


 

 

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FDU Magazine is published twice yearly by the Office of Communications and Marketing, Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1000 River Road, H-DH3-14, Teaneck, N.J. 07666.

FDU Magazine welcomes your comments. E-mail Rebecca Maxon, editor, at maxon@fdu.edu.

J. Michael Adams, President; Richard Reiss, Senior Vice President for University Advancement; Angelo Carfagna, Assistant Vice President for University Advancement and Communications; Okang McBride, Director of Alumni Relations; Carol Kuzen Black, Director of Publications/Senior Editor; Rebecca Maxon, Editor and Web Designer; Nina Ovryn, Art Director

Contributors: Nicholas Baldwin, Scott Giglio, Katharine Loeb, Andrew McKay, Tom Nugent, Melissa Payton

Photo/Illustration Credits: David Brabyn, Peter Byron, Benoit Cortet, Gerard DuBois, Jaclyn Chua, Danielle Drombar, John Emerson, ETH-Bibliothek Zurich Image Archive, William Kennedy, Dan Landau, Library of Congress, Librarything, Caroline Malia, Craig Mourton, National Portrait Gallery, Art Petrosemolo, Nick Romanenko, Anassa Tullouch

For a print copy of FDU Magazine, featuring these and other stories, contact Rebecca Maxon, editor, at maxon@fdu.edu.

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