Your children will follow your example

This summer, public health officials hope to have a rough idea of how many of the state’s third-graders are overweight or obese. The goal is to help children before they develop weight-related problems such as high blood pressure or even diabetes.

In November, state health officials weighed and measured about 2,500 of the state’s third-graders for the first time. In the Treasure Valley and surrounding areas, students were measured in Nampa, Melba, Caldwell, Boise, Donnelly and McCall, said Joseph Pollard, program surveillance specialist for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare’s Bureau of Community and Environmental Health.

Third-graders are a logical group to measure, Pollard said. "Generally, it’s a good age to do that because they are past their childhood growth spurts but are pre-pubescent."

Getting the data is important, health officials say.

"Inactivity and unhealthy eating is a huge epidemic, and not just for our kids, but for our families," said David Duro, chief operating officer for the Treasure Valley YMCA.

Nationwide, about a third of U.S. kids in ninth grade and up are overweight or on the verge, placing them at risk for early onset of diabetes, high blood pressure and other obesity-related illnesses once mostly reserved for their aging parents.

Idaho kids’ obesity rates are only slightly lower than the national average. Most states do not routinely measure young kids, although the obesity epidemic is prompting more to do so. The scariest news for parents might be this nugget many health experts toss around: The current generation of kids might be the first to have shorter lifespans than their parents because of weight-related health problems. That message is on an information sheet from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

The solution, Duro said, never changes: Eat right and exercise. But parents can’t just preach. They have to make good food choices themselves and move around a little each day. That’s hard because with each passing year, machines take over more of the physical labor we used to do, leaving us with fewer and fewer reasons to move.

Duro gets a reminder of the role of machinery in our lives every day when he comes home from work and pulls into his garage. "I don’t even have to open my own garage door," he said. "A machine does it for me."

His No. 1 tip is to get moving with your whole family. And make it fun. Don’t call it exercise because the word alone bores most kids. Try inserting humor. Walk the dog every day, even if you don’t have a dog, he said. "Take a leash and drag it behind you," he said.

YMCAs in Canyon and Ada counties are in the midst of a complex national effort called the The Gulick Project to try to attract members who normally steer clear of workout facilities, Duro said.

A couple of ideas under construction or being implemented, such as shorter workout classes that don’t wear newcomers out. "When it’s an hour and you are just tired and sore and just don’t feel good, that’s a huge barrier to overcome," Duro said.

Another element is hiring some staff members who look "normal," not like intimidating workout animals, and who listen rather than tell new members what to do. Working out doesn’t have to be a formula, Duro said. "When it comes down to it, you just need to keep doing it, whatever it is."

There’s no one reason for the epidemic of obesity, said Dr. Austin Graham, a family physician with Mercy Physicians Group in Nampa.

"We are seeing adult diseases develop in kids at this point," Graham said. Here are some problems Graham sees:

Too much screen time. Too much television, too much computer time and too much time playing video games, all couch activities. Limit kids to two hours a day or less, depending on their ages.

Too many restaurant meals. This is a tough one that reflects fundamental changes in our society. Women aren’t home cooking. They’re working full time, just like their husbands, and they’re too tired to cook when they get home. One alternative: Let family members take turns fixing healthy meals.

Graham and Duro agreed kids will gain healthy habits only if their parents show them how. "It’s a change just like anything else, and change is hard, but we really need to help those we love make that change," Duro said.

The evils of soda. If you do one thing to give your kids a healthier diet, some experts say to cut out sweetened soft drinks, or at least cut back on them.

One 12-ounce can of soda has 100 to 150 calories, give or take. Some have 9 to 10 teaspoons of sugar, as much as experts recommend you consume in an entire day. Drinking soda increases a child’s risk of obesity by 60 percent over the long haul.

"It is completely unusable calories for the body," said Deb Twedt, cardiac community education coordinator at St. Luke’s Boise Regional Medical Center. "It turns into fat very quickly."