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Dear Oakland Parents,
We are writing you this letter to empower you to take care of your child’s health. As a role model for your child you should give them the best example of life which is what we consume everyday. Child obesity is a big dilemma in America, 1 in 5 children have obesity ages of 6 to 19 year olds (CDC Healthy schools), we want to eliminate the amount of children who are obese. As a parent you have the ability to change or limit what your child eats, also to take responsibility to decide if your family should eat outside or eat homemade food. Also, encouraging yourself to eat more healthier will then motivate your child to do the same. Our goal for the Oakland Parents, we want to make a change on child obesity across the country and in our community. We want to encourage every parent/ guardian to bring awareness on child obesity.
Child obesity is when a kid has extra pounds and often start to gain weight, that were once considered adult problems but often now they consider it dangerous for children health. The health problems our kid could have will be developing serious conditions including Heart disease,Type 2 diabetes, Bone and joint disease including an estimated 300,000 premature deaths in the US. A problem that will cause this will the fact that kids go to school and they don’t eat healthy food that help them throughout the day. Including when they get home they may be really hungry and try to eat a lot and that’s bad for us. The people that are harmed will be childrens that are obese because they get oppressed by they own friends or just the people around them, sometimes you’ll oppress yourself and make you feel less by the fact on how you look. When it sayings “Many obese children become obese adults, especially if one or both parents are obese. Childhood obesity can also lead to poor self-esteem and depression”. This is saying how they get dismal or harm by the fact that is just not them that are obese but also the parents and this will also be a cause of them being obese because their parents are not taking care of how they eat. To add on child obesity leads to interpersonal and internalized oppression because the community around them make them feel excluded by their appearance and health since their not at the weight they should be. When their oppressed interpersonally they may start to believe and it’ll lead to internalized oppression. If they develop internalized oppression they might give up and like they stated in the website it leads to depression and low self-esteem which is not good for them or the parents because it’ll be a huge change for all of them. Some people may not be aware of how dehumanizing oppression may be for the children people may be unconscious of what those words make them feel but it’s important to think twice be of the effects of their words. People that will benefit from this are business owner because we are eating the food that they make instead of making healthy food at home that will be better for our health.
A way child obesity should change is by using education. Education is important to use while addressing child obesity because you as the parents will be informed and educated on how to stop and avoid their child from facing more health issue when their adults. Child obesity is a big challenge to communities a way it had been address is with programs for example while researching child obesity we came across a website named “WHO”( World Health Organization). This organization helps inform and it acknowledges the issue. Some of the things they talked about is Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. With programs it’s helping know more about the effects, challenges , and etc. Informing the parents is important because it’ll get the kids in a steady spot so that they won’t have to experience child obesity. While doing more research on a website it talked about how nurse can help address child obesity by informing you the parents about the health risk. In the articled they stated, “Nurses should work with all members of the multidisciplinary team in addressing childhood obesity as it is a major health issue with long-term mobidities” (Rabbitt,Coyne). This is saying that it’s important for nurse to address the issue because it’s a big health issue that is not address as much as it should be. If communities come together to help raise more awareness on child obesity. Raising awareness is important because it shows that issue is important and should be addressed and change. As my partner mentioned earlier child obesity may lead to internalized oppression and depression and if communities find ways to change it and address it the chance of child getting child obesity won’t be as high and they have a lower chance of developing depression. While also reading another article it shows you how you can educated others and gain more knowledge on child obesity. In the article they mentioned, “ Family, peers, schools, neighborhoods, time spent with television and other electronic media, the availability of fresh food markets, and genetics all can play a role. Past research has shown that for prevention and treatment strategies to be effective, they must address multiple factors” (National heart,lung,and blood institute). Them saying that everybody can play a role and help address child obesity. They as well agree that’s there’s multiple things that’s should be addressed so if we educated you in a way where they receive all the information they need it impacts the issue una way as well.
The method we will take to reach the goal is helping parents like you through direct service to show you the right path to help your children. We will inform you through social media, also posters or letters will be put to let you know about our meeting; dates and time. The meetings will be taken at school to show you how to maintain a healthy life for you and your child. To begin, we will bring awareness to parents in the community,through our Instagram account, @obesity.child, we will also use social media to get the help and support from different communities. Furthermore, we will create partnerships with an organization that is also preventing child obesity like California Center for Public Health Advocacy, the organization we will inform you [the parent] on the risks of child obesity and how to eat healthier for examples like meal prep that include all the nutrients they need. We will also like to sell fruits and healthier foods in school to over power junkfood. Moreover, to better spread the word use the tag #ChangeChildObesity to make it clear that we are making a change. To be successful we need the full participation of parents and community members. Our method is also to show and give families healthy meals, in order for them to know what actually is healthy and unhealthy. Teaching both parents/ families will help new generations to take healthy food decisions to decrease the amount of obesity in the US. We know that with the help of our community we can help any child who is obese and make a better more healthier community. For this to work we need you as a parent to attend the meetings and participate to making healthy decisions. You participating means you try your best to support child obesity in and out the meetings. Also, for this to work we need you to tell more of the parents about the issue so they come out and support child obesity. It’s important that we empower everybody to support the issue and raise more awareness to be empathic for the children. To raise more awareness we will make poster for parents and students to acknowledge child obesity.
In order for this to work we need you and the parents to support our decision and try to bring the community together to #changechildobesity. We appreciate if you would try hard to inform other members in the community of how serious child obesity is #informothers. We hoped you enjoyed reading our ideas on how to change child Obesity.
Sincerely,
Anahi Alvarez, María Molina, Evelin Espinoza
Sources:
Blasingame, Tabitha N. “Addressing Childhood Obesity with Education.” Journal of Childhood
Obesity, IMedPub, 26 June 2017,
childhood-obesity.imedpub.com/addressing-childhood-obesity-with-education.php?
aid=19540.
This article talks about how we can be educated about healthy health choice so we lower the risk of you getting obesity. It’s so about how a person can educated friends and family. It acknowledges that some people aren’t informed so it give you more knowledge on the issue.
CDC. “Obesity Facts | Healthy Schools | CDC.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 29 Jan. 2018, www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/obesity/facts.htm.
This article is about child obesity in the USA. This also talks about the Body mass index (BMI) which helps measure the person’s height and weight. The method helps to know exactly if the person is overweight. The article also talks about obesity, what causes it and also what we can do to change.
“Childhood Obesity.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 5 Dec. 2018, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/childhood-obesity/symptoms-causes/syc-20354827.
This source is trustful because it comes from a clinic and tell you information that a doctor could give you, it also doesn’t have a bias opinion.
Griffin, R. Morgan. “Obesity and Early Puberty:
What’s the Risk?” WebMD, WebMD,
www.webmd.com/children/features/obesity#1.
This source is based on child obese risk and what could cost them. the source could be truthful because it talks about preventing it and what could make it better the fact that it talks about risk.
“Obesity.” Stanford Health Care (SHC) –
Stanford Medical Center,
stanfordhealthcare.org/medical-conditions/healthy-living/obesity.html.
This article is about child obesity and how could it be prevented or the problems you could have. This source is is strong because it comes from a healthy care clinic.
“Obesity Begins Early.” Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, www.nichd.nih.gov/about/overview/directors_corner/prev_updates/022614.
This is saying how kids start going to school and they start eating a lot of food that’s bad for your body. This is strong source because I could relate the fact that we don’t get good food when we at school we just eat ships or not eat at all .
Rabbitt, Aifric. “Childhood Obesity: Nurses’ Role in Addressing the Epidemic.”
British Journal of Nursing, 16 Aug. 2013, www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/abs/10.12968/bjon.2012.21.12.731.
This article is about how nurse help the parents understand child obesity and how they should address it. This source is a strong because it talks but how its should and is being addressed. This source acknowledges how people who work in a jobs such as nursing should be able to help others know they Health risk and challenges of child obesity.
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Destiny, this was a great article. I think that schools should implement more nutrition education too since the child obesity rates in America continue to rise. I think you made many good points and I especially like how you also offered solutions. One question I have would be how would this apply to lower economic classes since healthy food is a little more expensive and less accessible. Overall I enjoyed your article thank you for sharing this piece.
Sincerely,
Audrey
Anahi, Maria, Evelin,
As an adult that grew up with childhood obesity having obese parents as you describe, I was welling with pride hearing our Nation’s young people taking on this issue. As you describe, I grew up with self-esteem issues and still have body issues even though once I was out of my parents house and away from the constant flow of food I’ve been able to more or less take control of my body and get in better shape. I am curious about the details. When I was in school we had had health class and I remember my mom diving full into the snack wells craze (a line of products that removed fat in snack foods and replaced them with more sugar, artificial sweeteners and thickeners) because its as low fat and fat=bad. I remember being taught that a banana and yogurt was a healthy choice for breakfast, but being in college and noticing that if I ate this at breakfast I’d be hungry 1.5-2 hours later. As I came to find out, my blood sugar was too sensitive to eat this way and avoid over-eating. I wonder, have you investigated the role of Government in subsidizing the standard American’s diet? Have you looked into lobbying for local, State, and Federal policies that subsidize less nutrient dense foods, questionable nutrition advice, and established food producers that may be contributing to childhood obesity? I do think the consumer habits that you represent with your careful thinking about the issue is somewhat moving the ball in the right direction. To provide one example, I remember being a kid (I’m 35 now) and seeing both sides of a long supermarket aisle stocked top-to-bottom with low-fat, high-sugar cereals and my twin brother and I drinking an entire gallon of skim milk with that cereal a day. Now when I go into my local supermarkets cereal makes up less than half an aisle and there’s far fewer people in the checkout lines with skim milk. Instead there’s a huge portion of the grocery store that is devoted to semi-prepared meal with fresh ingredients. I think I’d call this progress, but I wonder about what you all would think.
Dear Anahi, Maria, and Evelin,
I was very interested in your Upstander Proposal, “Child Obesity,” because not only am I a Child and Adolescent major, but I find this to be an extremely important issue for everyone. Child obesity has skyrocketed in recent years, the lack of education, physical exercise, and major advertisement are contributions to this issue. Your comment that, “child obesity leads to interpersonal and internalized oppression because the community around them make them feel excluded by their appearance,” stood out to me. I think this is important to touch up on because not only are children’s health affected, but so are their emotions. The fact that these children are more likely to experience depression and low-self esteem based on either peers picking on them or them comparing themselves to others is disheartening. It goes to show how much of a bigger issue child obesity is. Also, you guys mentioned multiple factors that all affect child obesity. I agree completely, eating healthy and doing physical activity is crucial. Technology has become a huge part of society and children are playing outdoors less as they sit in-front of a tablet or playing video games. By informing parents, they will realize to take action and take their children to at least go out and play some ball. Your post has a great message that does bring awareness and it is true parents need to be educated. Although junk food makes their child happy, a nutritious meal is better for their health in the long run. Thanks for bringing awareness and being advocates for the children who need healthy role models!
Dear Tania,
I appreciate that you took the time out of your day to read our upstander proposal. I also agree with you that child obesity has skyrocketed in a drastic way and if we never address the issue it continue to grow. By informing them it help change because they’ll be more aware. Also its important that they feel supported by their peers and community.
Dear Anahi,
I was incredibly inspired by your words. I was also impressed with the sources you used to support your argument on how to improve rates of child obesity. I think that it is really important that everyone should know ways on improving children’s health because we all want to be healthy. Sometimes, I think we eat what we want to eat because we love the way it tastes, but we forget how unhealthy it may be. Even though I think we could always give ourselves a small, yummy reward, we should also learn to limit ourselves from the unhealthy eating. Or maybe, we could always go out for a run or go meet with our friends for a small game. Thank you for shedding light on an important topic.
And thank you, María Molina, Evelin Espinoza, this is an amazing collaboration.
Dear Destiny, thanks for taking your time and reading our article we really like to inform people just like you so you guys could take care of your health and eat more healthy. Please help us get more people to read it and you should go follow us on our instagram @obesity.child and help spread this out so people could know about child obesity.