Childhood Obesity News would like to wish you a safe and joyful holiday.
We will return tomorrow with a regular post.
Image source: evgenyb/123RF Stock Photo
Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News looked at an article from The Guardian that referenced a study whose logical process and conclusions have been criticized. Research from the University of Oxford misstated that about 20% of COVID-19 survivors develop a new psychiatric illness.
For anyone interested, Jeremy Arnold explains in detail how those researchers boggled up their numbers. Without becoming unnecessarily involved in that, we will quote Arnold as saying,
[…] getting COVID is worse for one’s mental health than not getting COVID.
That is indisputable and does not undermine the point that relates to obesity, which is that any onset of mental disturbance, whether first-time or episodic, is likely to make the victim more vulnerable to a variety of harmful consequences, including eating disorders.
This is especially true when the illness coincides with societal circumstances that either prevent people from getting enough nutritious food, or that encourage the stockpiling and hoarding of food.
The Emily Program is a University of Minnesota Medical School Affiliate whose website warns of the “scarcity mindset that prompts even those without eating disorders to stock up on the food they can access,” and also says,
[N]o two people have the same eating disorder, but all do have certain things in common… Your eating disorder will always try to find reasons to use disordered behaviors.
The combination of all these hazardous and disorienting factors can have significant results, including the development of habits and maladaptive behaviors that can be passed along to children.
In people who previously recovered from self-destructive behaviors like binge-eating, the stressors can promote a recurrence, and people can also develop new mental/emotional disorders. In addition, this can happen not only to actual COVID-19 patients, but to people who live in fear of catching the disease because they must keep working, or who can’t help being exposed to people who might be actively shedding the virus. Many people currently exist in a state of fear just as real and palpable as the terror experienced by those who live under the constant threat of being blown up by missiles.
From press interviews, online forums, and social media threads, we learn that medical personnel and support staff are at the end of their mental and emotional resources. As hospitals reach capacity, workers who up until now have been compassionate and caring amaze even themselves by suggesting that any mask-refuser who contracts the virus should be denied treatment.
From respiratory therapists to hospital custodians, some have not seen their own children for weeks or months, and inwardly boil with anger at the uncaring, heedless strangers who caught the virus for selfish, unjustifiable reasons. Doctors are flabbergasted when patients, with their last dying breaths, insist that COVID-19 is a hoax. Nurses who spend seemingly endless shifts bundled up in protective layers are afraid to unmask long enough to eat a hasty lunch. How will this visceral fear affect a person’s future relationship with food and eating?
Your responses and feedback are welcome!
Source: “Psychiatric Illness Prevalence in COVID Survivors and COVID Experts,” SubStack.com, 11/11/20
Source: “Advice for those struggling with an eating disorder during COVID-19,” EmilyProgram.com, 03/26/20
Image by John Lambert Pearson/CC BY 2.0
COVID-19 is not satisfied by leaving survivors with a motley collection of residual physical symptoms, including some that could potentially hang around for the rest of their lives. No, it also attacks the psyche.
For The Guardian, Nicola Davis writes,
A study from researchers at the University of Oxford and NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre found that nearly one in five people who have had Covid-19 were diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder — such as anxiety, depression or insomnia — within three months of testing positive for the virus.
The experience has been even worse for those who already suffered from depression, because when they learned how difficult it would be just to get tested, their emotional health immediately went into decline. There is also the issue of test reliability, which depends on factors over which a patient has no control. Some people have come down with the illness after having been disbelieved, misdiagnosed, or simply forced to work despite being sick.
When diagnosed, some people whose mental health had always been stable began to have panic attacks for the first time. One woman who was interviewed revealed that it took two months for her doctor to admit she had COVID-19. Another responded by drawing up suicide plans. These included a list of “put your affairs in order” type chores that would need to be done before removing herself from life, and a list of people who would have to be notified afterward.
Even after ostensibly recovering from the virus, people become more forgetful, or experience “brain fog.” They feel as if they have aged a decade or more, and can never recover the energy level they used to take for granted.
Another source of emotional distress can be the belief differentials between couples, family members, friends, and roommates. People who prefer caution may be mocked, belittled, and even bullied into proving their courage and their commitment to ideals like autonomy and freedom.
A guy can be convinced to go bar-hopping by the fear that if his girl goes out alone, well, anything might happen. If your girlfriend meets someone who isn’t scared of an invisible little bug, and if she goes home with that brave hero, and decides that what her life needs is a devil-may-care fellow with no boundaries — well, it’s your own fault, really. Yes, some people actually do play those dangerous games with their partners’ emotions, resulting in more unnecessary sickness and death.
An insidiously cruel example of taunting can occur for religious reasons. People can be shamed into taking unwise chances because to play it safe would leave them vulnerable to charges of false or insufficient faith.
The point here is, every type of negative emotion can bring up latent eating disorders, or cause disordered eating to blossom in someone who never had that particular problem before. Mental and emotional stress will break down all rational food habits and burn every good intention to the ground. Grownups lose control over their actions and set a terrible example for their children.
Trapped inside with unhappy kids, they experience despair and think, “What’s the use? The only thing I have to give them right now is that stockpile of cookies in the old army trunk. Why not? Who cares? What difference does it make? We may not live through this crisis anyway. If we do, we’ll worry about the extra pounds then.” Needless to say, this is not a solution to anything.
Your responses and feedback are welcome!
Source: “‘I began to lose hope’: the people living with post-Covid psychiatric disorders,” TheGuardian.com, 11/10/20
Image by Jernej Furman/CC BY 2.0
In Britain, just like everywhere else, “cases of anxiety, depression and behavioral and eating disorders have risen.” The Department of Education has made a comprehensive effort to define exactly which aspects of lockdown are the most deleterious to people between the ages of five and 24.
Of course, it didn’t take a panel of experts. Any random person could probably name the factors that are most destructive to mental health — “isolation from friends, learning from home and worrying about family members.”
No one denies the catching the virus can be terrible, even fatal. And spreading it to others is almost as bad. But many health professionals are preoccupied with concern over the long-term effects of the numerous threats to mental health. One of those threats of course is obesity. By now it has become clear that the earlier in a child’s life obesity gains a foothold, the more difficult it will be to combat. And the longer a child remains obese, the higher the likelihood is that the condition will persist into adulthood.
One of the most heartbreaking aspects of any extended lockdown scenario is that even the people who believe that “something must be done” are unable to agree on the extent and severity of measures they want their society to take. Other factors, like political agendas, cannot be ignored, and so become conflated with the precautions and rules associated with the pandemic.
In London, class, religion, and race apparently have not provided hot-headed kids with enough reasons for hate, so they started slaughtering each other based on their postcodes, or what Americans call zip codes. It is just one more example, like the American Crips and Bloods, of deadly animus between two groups between whom outsiders are unable to discern a scintilla of difference.
So the British ban on outdoor sports upsets at least two different constituencies — the parents who worry that without exercise, their children will become irrevocably fat; and the adults who fear that, without outdoor sports to drain off their explosive energy, the youth will continue to kill each other in their insane postcode wars. Social worker Ashley Levien told reporter Nosheen Iqbal,
Football is an energy release and a safe space for these young people, away from postcode violence and difficulties at home. A lot of them might have invisible disabilities, like dyslexia and ADHD, and it’s already been difficult to re-engage them since the first lockdown. Our young people are resilient, but they’re the ones who will feel this the most.
Then, there are the people who still believe that children can neither contract nor spread the virus, and who blame all the precautionary rules they hate on a misguided desire to protect the geriatric citizens “who have already lived their lives.” When adults talk crackpot nonsense like this, hearing it can’t be doing the kids any good, either.
Stress takes a terrible toll even on parents who are perfectly willing to stay home and spend a lot of quality time with their kids — which would be great — except that there is no money coming in. Artist Amie Jordan told the reporter of her seven-year-old son’s panic attacks and extensive crying jags:
I do make a point of never letting him see if I’m struggling. I’ll go without to make sure he has food and clothes and whatever it is he needs… [T]he stress about the money is having an effect on him because he’s worrying about me.
That level of stress can bring out latent eating disorders and other mental illnesses, now and later. Even if a person doesn’t have enough food to indulge in binge-eating at the present time, the stage is being set for food- and eating-related problems far into the future.
Your responses and feedback are welcome!
Source: “‘I just want to be with my friends’: how will children cope with being cooped up again in second lockdown?,” TheGuardian.com, 11/08/20
Image by Maheen Fatima/Public Domain
When regular schedules are not followed and customary activities are put aside, it’s a lot like traveling or being on vacation. Somehow, we fool ourselves into believing that the normal rules do not apply. In the realm of internal rationalization, many people are able to tell themselves half-joking lies, for instance, that road food and vacation meals don’t really contain calories like regular food, eaten sitting down at home.
For IndiaToday.in, journalist Ridhi Kale interviewed personal trainer Aashu Kumar Jaivir, who reminds us that part of the problem with working at home, including going to school at home, is that the mind slips into vacation mode.
But adaptability is the primary human survival trait, and that is very true here. Most people do not have “normal” lives these days, and the sooner we adapt to that unfortunate reality, the better off we are. More importantly, the better off our kids are.
Jaivir names two very basic fixes: get up in the morning, and drink a lot of water. Sleep is necessary and wonderful, but there is such a thing as too much of it. It is, conversely, difficult to take in too much water. Most people don’t drink enough. Being stuck at home with a convenient restroom is an ideal circumstance for optimal hydration. People who never really gave it a lot of thought can experiment with drinking a sufficient amount of water, discover the benefits, and maybe even let the hydration habit continue, if life ever returns to what we fondly think of as normal.
In the exercise department, Jaivir recommends short, intense workouts:
His advice: perform 20 minutes of plyometrics (jumps) and calisthenics (resistance training with your own body weight) every day.
Another medical professional, Dr. Sameer Kalani, points out that serotonin levels in the body are imbalanced by depression and anxiety. Next thing you know, you’re fat. Obviously, anything that can reduce anxiety and depression is helpful.
Stop right there, reader! Don’t let that sentence just slide on by!
We all know that word “anything” turns the whole proposition into a lie. Millions of people turn to food as a cure for depression. Millions of people convince themselves that their anxiety will be alleviated by a nice bowl of Day-Glo orange-coated macaroni and a pint of ice cream. But the relief lasts only as long as it takes to eat the stuff. Dr. Kalani points out a related and very insidious phenomenon:
During the lockdown, everyone’s focus has shifted to the kitchen, to create delicious grub after watching video after video of tempting foods being prepared.
Because of the all-pervasive effects of the pandemic, far too many people find themselves with extra time on their hands. The impulse to explore new areas of knowledge and learn new skills is very admirable. But maybe it should not be kitchen-related. Lots of people are getting into cooking, and not the most optimal kind. This is not the time to create the ultimate chocolate cheesecake. If only more interest could be pushed in the direction of preparing veggies.
Better yet, pull that old acoustic guitar out of the closet and watch some basic instruction videos instead. Learning to play a musical instrument can occupy the mind, satisfy the soul, and most of all, keep the hands busy. So can needlepoint and cross-stitch.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and maybe even teaching a child how to play poker is better than letting him stew in boredom. Childhood Obesity News has published several posts with suggestions for time-consuming activities. If ever there was a time to encourage a child’s slightest interest in anything besides food, it is now.
Your responses and feedback are welcome!
Source: “The lockdown fab to flab phenomenon,” IndiaToday.in, 08/23/20
Image by star5212/CC BY-SA 2.0
Great Britain has been making valiant efforts to preserve the mental health of its children and teens, but the shortage of resources and trained counselors, plus the fact that many families do not have internet access at home, have combined to stymie the professionals and politicians who want to help.
What is that to us? The sad truth is that in many ways, the English seem to care more about some things than Americans do. Children’s states of mind are important, especially to doctors and others in the business of preventing childhood obesity, and the kids’ anxiety levels are going nowhere but up.
It doesn’t take much, in some cases, to upset a child enough that she or he veers onto a path that can lead to no good place. Here is The Guardian‘s Science Editor, Ian Sample, reporting on the work done by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) since March, when the coronavirus caused the first lockdown to be called:
Calls to the charity’s ChildLine service reached nearly 43,000 between March and October, with mental health worries making up more than a third of all its counseling sessions… Some children had developed eating disorders such as binge eating and bulimia for the first time, while others with existing eating disorders had reported worse symptoms or had relapsed…
Before the lockdown, the NSPCC provided an average of 335 counseling sessions per month that dealt with eating and body image disorders. After March, that total averaged 443 per month, for an increase of 32%.
For a variety of reasons, children often hide emotional distress from their parents, and with access to other relatives and friends cut off, the helpline might be the only outlet they have for negative feelings. Having been culturally conditioned to believe that depression is not manly, boys tend to find it especially difficult to deal with. The potential is always there, to channel or convert any negative emotions into anger, and in a lockdown situation, a chronically enraged male is not the ideal companion.
The current NSPCC campaign is called Nobody is Normal, a fact that adults often forget in their own search for ways to fit into the world, and tame the world’s ability to damage the self. Over at VeryWellMind.com, psychologist Lauren Muhlheim suggests creating a framework for normalcy by establishing routines.
In what we used to think of as normal times, the idea of being regimented in this manner was pretty boring, or even objectionable. But setting out a blueprint for doing things in certain ways, at designated times, can promote a feeling of grounded-ness that people need in unsettling circumstances. Rather than being perceived as stifling, routine can help a person get a grip on free-floating anxiety and tether it down. And that goes double, triple, and quadruple for children. Muhlheim advises parents,
Most people do better with structure. Create a routine that involves getting up, getting dressed, and doing something every day that feels productive. Your new routine should include your mealtimes — this is very important for everyone, but also people with either current or past disordered eating behaviors.
The psychologist also suggests limiting the time spent in front of a mirror. Even if you are only hanging out by yourself, treat yourself with the same respect you would show another person, by staying clean and at least minimally presentable. Muhlheim writes,
You may want to just hang out in your pajamas all day and not get dressed. That’s okay. But if you find that it makes you feel worse about your body, then consider getting dressed…
Your responses and feedback are welcome!
Source: “NSPCC warns of lockdown’s toll on children’s mental health,” TheGuardian.com, 11/08/20
Source: “Eating Disorders During the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic,” VeryWellMind.com, 03/30/20
Image by Ganesh Dhamodkar/CC BY 2.0
We were looking at the predictions made back in June by Dr. Gavin Morgan, about the toll that school closures would take on the physical and mental health of children. He suggested that in addition to obesity and COVID-19, a third pandemic would join the crew, this one being PTSD. The United States has a lot else going on, but in Great Britain, one contingent of journalists keeps a pretty close eye on what is happening with the children, and what they see is not encouraging.
Also, back in early summer, when coronavirus had barely even gotten off to a running start, columnist Gaby Hinsliff warned that a whole generation of children could be scarred. Reminding readers of how children are “sticklers for routine,” she gave examples of some real kids who were already thrown off balance by their disjointed lives, like a little boy whose day-care center reopened after making adjustments to its facilities. Although he had severely missed the place, starting there again was even more distressing because it was another change, and he had had enough change to last him for a while.
At a government hearing, Alain Gregoire of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance described the plight of new mothers, echoed here by the reporter:
Imagine the loneliness of maternity leave with no grandparents swooping in to take the baby for a bit, no cafes to hang out in, no playgroups for finding others in the same boat and clinging to them.
Bad enough for the mums, but for a baby who spent his or her earliest months with only a parent or two adjusting to other relatives and strangers can be a difficult transition. Here and there a spot of brightness could be found — “even surly 15-year-olds may eventually be bored enough to talk to their parents” — but the whole scene is no joke for toddlers who have now missed out on “an entire developmental stage’s worth of learning to share, play and listen with other toddlers, which is half the battle in getting ready for school.”
Last month, The Guardian journalists Sarah Marsh and Amelia Hill collected figures having to do with the precipitous rise in sleep problems, self-harm, and of course, eating disorders caused by school closings and the necessity to stay home all the time. A survey found that at least one-quarter of the young people who responded felt unable to cope. Many reported struggling to think clearly, and one-third had experienced panic attacks.
Sleeping pill prescriptions for teenagers went up by 30% since COVID-19-related isolation. Some were worried that they would be unable to continue their educations, and others resented the fact that all the work they had already put in seemed destined to be wasted. There was talk of a “lost generation.”
Britain has not nearly enough trained counselors to meet the need. Parents seeking government help for their children’s various problems face long waiting lists, and by long we mean a year or more. Even clinics where those with money can pay, are hard-pressed to handle the influx of clients:
One of the largest private eating disorder services reported a 71% rise in admissions in September compared with the same period a year ago… A survey of 61 secondary school children from […] a charity that offers counseling in schools, shows self-harm reports rose 77% […] and suicide ideation increased by 81% […] over the last two months.
Needless to say, every emotional and psychological problem that has been known to lead to obesity, is worse.
Your responses and feedback are welcome!
Source: “A generation of children could be scarred by the coronavirus pandemic,” TheGuardian.com, 06/13/20
Source: “Figures lay bare toll of pandemic on UK children’s mental health,” TheGuardian.com, 10/21/20
Image by danielle_blue/CC BY-SA 2.0
One difference between today and six months ago is, some people have gotten over the idea that children can neither catch nor transmit the novel coronavirus. Another difference is that grownups are increasingly aware of the drawbacks of not having in-person school.
None of the patchwork solutions is satisfactory. If kids go to school, the danger is constant. If they are kept home for distance learning or parental schooling, they are constantly underfoot, to no one’s satisfaction. If the school has a part-time schedule, parents lucky enough to be employed have to figure out how to navigate around that and still make a living.
Even back in June, predictions were being made of catastrophic results from school closures. British educational psychologist Dr. Gavin Morgan felt that whatever difficulties the lack of school attendance was already causing were nothing compared to the long-range negative effects. He told The Guardian,
Teachers are already familiar with the six-week dip that occurs in child development over the summer break — amplify this to six months or more and the problems are considerable… A sustained period away from school will reinforce inequalities between children, for instance a growing digital divide with some able to access remote learning with effective IT and good broadband, which others can’t.
In other words, the gap widens between the haves and the have-nots. This isn’t just a financial thing. Even if the home environment is bleak and unrewarding, some kids manage to eke out an adequate emotional existence by forming bonds with classmates or even teachers, which Morgan describes as “incredibly important for their mental health and wellbeing.” With a closed school, that’s all gone. With a masked and socially-distanced part-time school, a faint vestige of sustaining warmth might remain, but it’s nothing like the old days.
On top of everything else, COVID-19 is not an equal-opportunity oppressor. Non-white children are statistically more likely to catch it. Obese children are more likely to catch it. Kids whose nutritional needs are not met will end up in worse shape than those who at least have access to vegetables now and then.
Fortunately, most children probably will not catch the contagion. But even without getting actually sick, Dr. Morgan predicted that the ones who don’t have any kind of outlet or any appropriate place to play and run would be more deprived.
There already were not enough school psychologists, and if school schedules ever “normalize” again, the need for psychological help will be even more difficult to meet than before. Dr. Morgan wrote,
The most vulnerable children are being affected the most from missing school. For many youngsters, school is the most stable and secure part of their lives…
Months away from school will mean that emerging developmental problems are missed by educational psychologists, opportunities for early intervention will be lost, resulting in greater damage to children that will require longer and more costly interventions.
It comes as no surprise that obesity is one of those emerging developmental problems. The responsibilities and efforts of schools to monitor obesity have never been satisfactory to all parties, but at least there was a chance that a knowledgeable adult with some authority might “see something and say something.”
Obesity tracking is important, but now we have a situation where isolation, financial stress, and many other factors combine to make serious harm and abuse more likely to happen and less likely to be noticed and reported to child welfare authorities. And then, Dr. Morgan lays this shocker on us:
Evidence from previous pandemic studies show that children isolated or quarantined are more likely to develop acute stress disorder, attachment disorder and grief. In studies from across the world, 30% of children met the clinical criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Your responses and feedback are welcome!
Source: “Children’s mental health will suffer irreparably if schools don’t reopen soon,” TheGuardian.com, 06/20/20
Image by Pete/CC BY 2.0
No one wants to hear this, but it looks like we are in for a long, cold dark winter of isolation. There is an ongoing debate over sheltering in place. Is it worse for a lone person, or for someone stuck inside with family members they may love, but don’t particularly want to be in 24/7 contact with?
The answer is, both. Loneliness and the lack of social stimulation can lead to bad problems, but at this point, many parents would rather be marooned on an iceberg or an asteroid than spend another day with their beloved offspring. The most famous quotation from Jean-Paul Sartre is, “Hell is other people,” and many parents are muttering under their breath right now, “I can attest to that. The old philosopher must have known my kids.”
We hope to prevent children from gaining inappropriate weight because, aside from the increased risk of having a bad time with COVID-19, obesity is, in and of itself, a very unhealthy condition with many adverse consequences. Keeping children away from other people causes problems on every level. Unable to interact with relatives outside the nuclear family, distanced from their friends, kids are emotionally deprived. Parents have their own problems and sometimes, regrettably, parents are the problem. At any rate, emotional turmoil is a notorious obesity villain.
Without diversions like park visits, movies, or even tagging along to the grocery store, children are B-O-R-E-D. Boredom is, notoriously, a cause of recreational eating, otherwise known as eatertainment.
Obesity is far from being the only problem created by the necessity to observe greater or lesser levels of separation. For the title of “Worst COVID-19 Co-Conspirator,” obesity is in competition with a lot of other serious players. However, a lot of the other inconveniences and tragedies caused by the virus also contribute to obesity. The virus has both direct and indirect effects on the obesity pandemic. The other problems somehow manage to find ways to contribute to obesity by providing emotional deprivation, boredom, or both.
Kids are missing meals and don’t have the technology they need for remote learning but do have nightmares, and sometimes they wet their beds. They are living in more poverty, missing their vaccinations, seeing their dental and other medical needs (including childhood obesity monitoring) set aside. Child abuse is rampant, orphanages are short-staffed, foster parents are afraid to take kids, and the adoption process is bottlenecked.
According to research curated by two venerable institutions, children make up 11.3% of America’s infected population. That’s based on a total of 927,518, which is inching up on a million pretty fast. Typically, issues receive more attention when numbers exceed a million. For bringing this to our attention, these are the people to thank, and the linked page is the place to find a trove of information:
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association are collaborating to collect and share all publicly available data from states on child COVID-19.
Your responses and feedback are welcome!
Source: “Children and COVID-19: State-Level Data Report,” AAP.org 11/05/20
Image by Kurt Bauschardt/CC BY-SA 2.0
Here we are, in our worst relationship yet with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2, as the organism is familiarly known. This tiny creature is still with America, now more than ever before.
Childhood Obesity News was hoping to eventually discard many of the saved files on the subject of the depredations this disease is capable of performing. Wouldn’t it be great if all that accumulated research could just be tossed like a used paper mask? There would be more time in which to, for instance, take a closer look at corporations that actively promote childhood obesity.
But no. The numbers of positive cases and of deaths are going up. Governments, whether local, state, or federal, are pressed to intervene. Whether enforcement is lax or severe, parents will continue to cope with the thousand irregularities and inconveniences caused by the need to stay at home. Every family determines the risk level it is comfortable with, and some make choices that lead to bad places.
There are several reasons to keep a child from catching COVID-19. The first is both altruistic and selfish at the same time. Namely, you don’t want your kids to bring it home. Altruistically, you don’t want other family members and associates to catch it. Selfishly, you don’t want to catch it, and also do not want to deal with the fallout when a family member or associate falls victim to the virus. You don’t want the tests, the quarantine, the temperature-taking, the hospital visits, the nursing of sick relatives, the errands to find food and supplies, and you very much don’t want the expense.
Of course, another reason to actively avoid the virus is that you don’t want your child to be sick with this awful, unpredictable, horrible disease that seems to keep coming up with new and unwelcome surprises. Yet another reason to avoid the virus is if your child falls ill with it, she or he will be even more immobile and exercise-deprived than before, and probably gain pounds that are not toned muscle weight. Obesity is a massive problem in and of itself — else there would be no need for the website you are tuned to right now. And obesity creates a tempting target for the virus (see the previous paragraph.)
The virus apparently has a particular taste for fat cells. Producers can make all the fun physical activity videos they want, but the stark fact is, not every home can accommodate exercise. There might be a 96-year-old grandma on the couch, and a night-shift-working dad in one of the bedrooms and a baby in the other. The television might quit, and there is no money to replace it. For many families, the lack of appropriate physical activity space, or any space at all, is an intractable problem.
Another factor that parents have to take into consideration is, well, consideration. Your own kids would happily jump around for hours every day. But… not all COVID-19 patients are hospitalized. What if the downstairs neighbor is suffering through a case of it at home, with raging headaches, a fever, a racking cough, and total body pain? How much overhead thunder is it fair to subject that person to, for the sake of our own kids?
Your responses and feedback are welcome!
Image by Marco Verch/CC BY 2.0
FAQs and Media Requests: Click here…
OVERWEIGHT: What Kids Say explores the obesity problem from the often-overlooked perspective of children struggling with being overweight.
Dr. Robert A. Pretlow is a pediatrician and childhood obesity specialist. He has been researching and spreading awareness on the childhood obesity epidemic in the US for more than a decade.
You can contact Dr. Pretlow at:
Dr. Pretlow’s invited presentation at the American Society of Animal Science 2020 Conference
What’s Causing Obesity in Companion Animals and What Can We Do About It
Dr. Pretlow’s invited presentation at the World Obesity Federation 2019 Conference:
Food/Eating Addiction and the Displacement Mechanism
Dr. Pretlow’s Multi-Center Clinical Trial Kick-off Speech 2018:
Obesity: Tackling the Root Cause
Dr. Pretlow’s 2017 Workshop on
Treatment of Obesity Using the Addiction Model
Dr. Pretlow’s invited presentation for
TEC and UNC 2016
Dr. Pretlow’s invited presentation at the 2015 Obesity Summit in London, UK.
Dr. Pretlow’s invited keynote at the 2014 European Childhood Obesity Group Congress in Salzburg, Austria.
Dr. Pretlow’s presentation at the 2013 European Congress on Obesity in Liverpool, UK.
Dr. Pretlow’s presentation at the 2011 International Conference on Childhood Obesity in Lisbon, Portugal.
Dr. Pretlow’s presentation at the 2010 Uniting Against Childhood Obesity Conference in Houston, TX.