Question

case scenario: 5-year-old Asian Girl of normal weight with obese parents who is Home Schooled.

• explanation of the health issues and risks that are relevant to this child.
• Describe additional information you would need in order to further assess his or her weight-related health.
• Think about how you could gather this information in a sensitive fashion.
• Taking into account the parents’ potential sensitivities, list at least three specific questions you would ask about the child to gather more information.
• Provide at least two strategies you could employ to encourage the parents or caregivers to be proactive about their child’s health and weight.

Answer 1

Health issues and risk

The child is at risk of various health issues such as:

* Childhood Obesity: Obesity is a state of being obese due to an excess of body fat. One of the main risk factor of Childhood Obesity is Genetic factors. As the child's parents are suffering with Obesity , she also has the chance of Childhood Obesity and the home schooling practice may make her vulnerable to obesity as the activity level is low in them.

* low self esteem Stress, sadness : The child may prone to low self esteem, sadness and stress as she is not facing the day to day challenges, activities that a child can face only in classrooms and with class mates (that makes them strong).  Also by facing the different questions from others regarding the reasons of home schooling, its effect may put the child into sadness and stress .

* Less abdiminal and upper body muscle strength: Some research show that the children, who are under home schooling, have less abdominal and upper body muscle strength when comparing with the school going children.

Additional information needed for assessing weight- related health.

* child's weight and height to calculate BMI

* Any significant past medical or surgical history for the child and family medical history.

Gathering information:

we can gather information regarding the child's health from parents. Off course parents might be concerned with their child' s present health and future risk. Health worker can assure the parents that the child now is in healthy weight range and also inform them about the potential risks of child's health and weight. Explaining the risk factors of Childhood Obesity and its negative effects on health can help to make the parents concern about their child's health and they may willing to give answers to any question from health worker regarding the child's health.

Specific question to ask about the child

1. Has the child been limited to do any of the activities that need some energy (skating,running bike riding, lifting etc), due to health problems .?

2 .Do the child show abnormal eating behaviours like binge eating or excessive dislike to food items or craving for certain food items .?

3. Do you take your child to out door games and other socialization situation.? , if yes , how much time per week the child spent outside or out door games.?

Strategies to encourage the parents:

* A healthy balanced diet for family, according to My Plate guidelines ( inclusion of grains and vegetables and fruits)

* Don't give the meals and snacks while watching TV or computer.

* Encourage outdoor games and sports.

* Encourage the child to drink more water.

* Involve the child also in buying vegetables and other healthy food items and planning the diet of the family.

* limit sugar and sweetened items in the diet and include lean meat and fish in the diet.