Hello everyone. I'm Dr. Shaista Safder.
I'm a pediatric gastroenterologist here at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children
with Orlando Health. I've been here for a little bit over 10 years,
and I love what I do.
I also lead our healthy lifestyle program that deals with children
who are struggling with pediatric obesity.
Our Taboo Topic today is pediatric obesity.
We do have criteria which are measurements based on a child's height and weight
and age. So these are called BMI or body mass index,
and we have percentiles. So for a child based on their age,
based on their height and based on their weight, they plot on the curve.
BMI is useful,
and it is a good screening tool to identify children
who are at risk or developing obesity.
The rates of pediatric obesity in our country are rapidly increasing.
Not just alone in our country. It's a global phenomenon.
The statistics right now is one in five.
Children are struggling with pediatric obesity.
And so this carries a huge burden for our future generations and
needs to be talked about and needs to be addressed, and we need to be prepared.
There are reasons that happen because of your inherent genetics.
There are reasons that are environmental.
There are reasons that are social determinants of health,
which have to do more with income level, education level,
access to food and safe play. Within the United States alone,
the prediction is,
this is actual data that I'm quoting that by 2030,
in less than a decade,
one in two Americans is going to be considered to have obesity,
which is a BMI in an adult greater than 30.
I really feel that children are a reflection of the environment that they are
in, they're raised in. Kids are the best imitators.
If you want your child to do something, don't tell them what to do,
show them what to do. Beat the example. Our goal is a healthy lifestyle.
It is health and healthy habits that we want to have, not just for now,
not just until we get to a goal weight,
but we want to have these habits stay with us for the rest of our lives.
So the American Academy of Pediatrics support these basic rules for
health maintenance for our children. And I call them the five,
two one zero rule.
Five is the number of servings of fruits and vegetables a day.
The rule of two is limiting screen time.
So I'm talking about screen time outside of educational time.
So I'm talking about like all the time they spend on their gaming system and,
you know, watching things on social media.
The rule of one is one hour daily of moderate intensity
physical activity. It gets their heart rate up. The rule of zero,
zero sugary beverages.
The best even for children is water.
The first step is recognizing that it's a problem and not being afraid to talk
about it. Like I said,
it has a lot to do with your own attitude and your own approach to
it. So if you,
as a parent are feeling embarrassed or ashamed and you're not going to bring it
up, you're not helping your child.
You do not have to approach weight issues as something to
do with the physical appearance. I always, you know,
encourage my patients to talk about it as learning how to be
more healthy. And being healthy is not just a number on the scale.
The definition of health is being physically, mentally,
and socially healthy and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
So the emphasis needs to be on how can I get my child healthy?
So when you're starting to have this conversation with your child,
you're going to start off by saying,
we're going to try to get healthy together as a family. It is like all bias.
It is judging somebody because of their weight.
Judging somebody because of their appearance.
Making assumptions about somebody, meaning, Oh, they're just lazy. Oh,
they're just not trying hard. Oh, they're just not motivated.
And I think that bias paints
a picture about somebody that may not be true.
We do not know what the struggles are.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made a bad
situation, exponentially worse.
Like we were talking about the statistics are on the rise.
Pediatric obesity is a real medical health crisis and
issue and with the pandemic and all the uncertainty and all the
unpredictability that the pandemic brought with it,
it really added a layer of complexity with our
children.
The absolute virtual platform of schooling,
their inability to go out anymore,
their inability to just go out and play and be with their peers.
A combination of factors that I think have
contributed in really causing an uptick with our rates of
pediatric obesity.
I'm here to tell all the families who are watching and listening,
please don't be afraid to bring up this topic.
Discuss it with your healthcare provider.
And we here at the healthy lifestyle program at Arnold Palmer Hospital for
Children at Orlando Health are here to help you in your journey.
So thank you everybody for listening and watching.
And I really hope this topic becomes just a little less taboo for you to discuss
We do have criteria which are measurements based on a child's height and weight
and age. So these are called BMI or body mass index,
and we have percentiles. So for a child based on their age,
based on their height and based on their weight, they plot on the curve.
BMI is useful,
and it is a good screening tool to identify children
who are at risk or developing obesity.
The rates of pediatric obesity in our country are rapidly increasing.
Not just alone in our country. It's a global phenomenon.
The statistics right now is one in five.
Children are struggling with pediatric obesity.
And so this carries a huge burden for our future generations and
needs to be talked about and needs to be addressed, and we need to be prepared.
There are reasons that happen because of your inherent genetics.
There are reasons that are environmental.
There are reasons that are social determinants of health,
which have to do more with income level, education level,
access to food and safe play. Within the United States alone,
the prediction is,
this is actual data that I'm quoting that by 2030,
in less than a decade,
one in two Americans is going to be considered to have obesity,
which is a BMI in an adult greater than 30.
I really feel that children are a reflection of the environment that they are
in, they're raised in. Kids are the best imitators.
If you want your child to do something, don't tell them what to do,
show them what to do. Beat the example. Our goal is a healthy lifestyle.
It is health and healthy habits that we want to have, not just for now,
not just until we get to a goal weight,
but we want to have these habits stay with us for the rest of our lives.
So the American Academy of Pediatrics support these basic rules for
health maintenance for our children. And I call them the five,
two one zero rule.
Five is the number of servings of fruits and vegetables a day.
The rule of two is limiting screen time.
So I'm talking about screen time outside of educational time.
So I'm talking about like all the time they spend on their gaming system and,
you know, watching things on social media.
The rule of one is one hour daily of moderate intensity
physical activity. It gets their heart rate up. The rule of zero,
zero sugary beverages.
The best even for children is water.
The first step is recognizing that it's a problem and not being afraid to talk
about it. Like I said,
it has a lot to do with your own attitude and your own approach to
it. So if you,
as a parent are feeling embarrassed or ashamed and you're not going to bring it
up, you're not helping your child.
You do not have to approach weight issues as something to
do with the physical appearance. I always, you know,
encourage my patients to talk about it as learning how to be
more healthy. And being healthy is not just a number on the scale.
The definition of health is being physically, mentally,
and socially healthy and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
So the emphasis needs to be on how can I get my child healthy?
So when you're starting to have this conversation with your child,
you're going to start off by saying,
we're going to try to get healthy together as a family. It is like all bias.
It is judging somebody because of their weight.
Judging somebody because of their appearance.
Making assumptions about somebody, meaning, Oh, they're just lazy. Oh,
they're just not trying hard. Oh, they're just not motivated.
And I think that bias paints
a picture about somebody that may not be true.
We do not know what the struggles are.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made a bad
situation, exponentially worse.
Like we were talking about the statistics are on the rise.
Pediatric obesity is a real medical health crisis and
issue and with the pandemic and all the uncertainty and all the
unpredictability that the pandemic brought with it,
it really added a layer of complexity with our
children.
The absolute virtual platform of schooling,
their inability to go out anymore,
their inability to just go out and play and be with their peers.
A combination of factors that I think have
contributed in really causing an uptick with our rates of
pediatric obesity.
I'm here to tell all the families who are watching and listening,
please don't be afraid to bring up this topic.
Discuss it with yo