In the U.S., childhood obesity is an epidemic. Almost one in five kids between 6 to 19 are overweight - putting them at risk for a host of other illnesses and diseases. Try these 10 steps to cut obesity - and improve your child's future.

Children who are overweight during childhood also have an increased risk of obesity in adulthood and are at greater risk for heart disease, because obesity increases total blood volume, which leads to extra stress on the heart.

Childhood obesity in the United States is at epidemic proportions; nationwide, 19 percent of children ages 6 to 11 and 17 percent of those 12 to 19 are overweight, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Angela Sharkey, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine and a pediatric cardiologist at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Steven M. Lorch, M.D., a former fellow at the School of Medicine now at University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston conducted a study to analyze the hearts of the obese children and those at risk. They used a new tissue Doppler imaging technique called vector velocity imaging which tracks the movement of the heart’s muscular wall. “In the patients who are obese, the rate of motion of heart muscle changed,” Sharkey said. “As a child’s BMIA increases, we see alterations in both the relaxation and contraction phase of the heartbeat. Many of these changes that have been seen in adults were assumed to be from long-standing obesity, but it may be that these changes start much earlier in life than we thought.”

Sharkey said the results of the study give more ammunition to physicians to use in counseling pediatric patients and their parents about the risks of obesity and the need to attain a healthy weight. “Even in teenagers, obesity leads to decreased myocardial performance and abnormal diastolic function,” she said.

There are several factors involved when it comes to your children living heart healthy lives.  This article is geared towards educating you on the many ways you can help promote health and wellness, especially as it relates to heart health, nutrition and physical fitness.

The top ten ways to help your child adopt healthy behaviors:

1. Provide your child with a positive, healthy role model
2. Make family time, active time
3. Get away from video games and television which promote sedentary lifestyles
4. Let your child lead the way in selecting the activity for the family so they are having fun
5. Celebrate your child’s successes, we all love praise
6. Set physical activity and nutritional goals
7. Find positive reinforcements besides candies when a child does something good
8. Get the children involved in preparing meals so they are aware of heart healthy foods
9. Make reading food labels a fun part of the shopping trip
10. Get involved with your child’s health by being proactive about school lunches and recess or physical education in schools

Some fun exercises for children that provide aerobic conditioning are basketball, bicycling, ice-skating, in-line skating, soccer, swimming, tennis, walking, jogging, and running.  Challenge your child to pull up, push up and crunches competition and make strength conditioning fun.  Who can do the best split or lift their leg the highest?  This is a flexibility game!  Pretend one of you is “it” as you walk through a mall and fast walk.  There are ways to make exercise fun and get your child moving to improve the health of the heart as well as live a healthy lifestyle.

Top five ways to get your children to eat more fruits and vegetables:

1. Keep baggies of fruits and vegetables cut up and accessible in the refrigerator or on the counter top.
2. Serve fruits and vegetables at every meal.
3. Be the change – show your children that you enjoy snacking on fruits and vegetables.
4. Make it a game.  Have fun seeing who can eat the widest variety of fruits and veges but steer clear of making the game focused on quantity of food consumed.
5. Keep trying. It takes a while for children to try something new.

Heart health is essential and education begins at a young age.  It is not about making our children self conscious but about teaching them what they can do to help in their health and create good habits for their future. 

By Christina Leon, Staff Writer