While going through the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, I came upon this article, and it
got my attention for a variety of reasons:
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/23998939.html?page=2&c=y
You don’t need to read hard data from the Centers for Disease Control or the
National Institutes of Health to know that obesity among kids is a very real
public health concern. All you have to do is spend some time at a beach, a mall,
school or kids sporting event. Everybody has their own theories as to how we
have reached this sorry state of affairs in this country: too much time on the
computer, too much junk food, too much fast food, too much time in front of the
TV, not enough time playing, no recess, parents, the schools,paranoid parents
keeping their kids inside, cereal and candy companies and the kids themselves.
Childhood obesity is probably the ONE ill that has NOT been blamed on President
Bush.(Wait, there’s still a few months)
One of my biggest complaints with the American Healthcare system-and I have
worked in hospitals, been a camp nurse and worked in managed care companies-is
that we have become really good at treating the symptom, but not going after the
real underlying cause. I have worked as a camp nurse 7 of the past 8 summers.
You would be stunned at the amazing variety of anti-depressants,
anti-psychotics, attention deficit medications, allergy and asthma medications
that children as young as 7 years of age are taking.
The American Academy of Pediatrics drives how a lot of pediatric care is
implemented in this country. With the AAP’s decision to start kids as young as 8
years of age on cholesterol lowering drugs to battle their clogged hearts from
their obesity, this would appear to be another example of taking a pill to solve
a problem. I guess that it just seems too hard for parents to pull the plug on
the TV or computer, get the kids outside at the park playing…no, better give
the kid another medication to take. That will solve the problem.
This recent decision by the AAP is a band aid solution to a bigger problem. It’s
funny how children’s issues are a lot like physical fitness, people want a
solution to the problem that does not involve actual work. The AAP would be
doing parents and kids a much greater service if they actually took a tough-love
approach with parents, instead of giving hope that putting obese 8 year old kids
on an anti-cholesterol pill is going to be a cure for their ill and insure a
long and healthy life. It’s hard to believe that a group of such well-educated
and well-meaning people can create such a bad precedent.
It won’t be that long before we start seeing commercials during kids cartoons
advertising Lipitor and other cholesterol medicines for kids.
Have we really become this fat and lazy in the United States that we we have to come up with a pill solution for everything?
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