Children
May Gain Unwanted Weight in Summertime
If you think young children spend their summers running
around and keeping trim, think again. A new study finds that kindergartners
and first-graders put on more weight during summer vacations than during the
school year.
Children are eating more and exercising less when they are
out of the classroom routine, suggests the study in the American
Journal of Public Health.
The extra pounds are not normal growth spurts: During the
summer, children gain weight at twice the rate as during the school year, pushing
some kids into obesity and making overweight children even heavier.
The study authors do not know for sure why kids gain extra
weight during the summer, but they suspect that schools - with their vending
machines and fattening foods - might not be the culprit after all.
"Our research indicates that people may have overstated
the negative influence of schools on children's weight," says study co-author
Brian Powell, Ph.D., a professor of sociology at Indiana University.
Dr. Powell and his colleagues examined a 1998-2000 survey
of 5,380 children in kindergarten and first grade.
The children were weighed twice during each school year,
and the researchers calculated their body mass index (BMI) - a ratio of weight
to height.
The researchers then looked for patterns to see if the children
were most likely to gain weight during the school year or during summer.
The children gained weight at a faster rate - double that
of the rest of the year - during summer. African-American and Latino children,
along with those who were overweight at the beginning of kindergarten, were
most affected by the discrepancy.
"We're not saying all children are getting fat, but they're
moving up," says Dr. Powell. "The extent of their BMI gain is troubling during
the summer."
The researchers note that obesity among kids ages six to
11 has tripled in the last 20 years, to 15 percent.
They also point to earlier studies that found that five-
and six-year-olds with above average BMI and BMI gains are at greater risk
of obesity as adults.
Other researchers have found signs of weight problems among
young children.
In a study released last year that covered the years 1988-1994,
researchers reported that children aged two to seven consumed between 110 and
165 calories more than they needed each day, resulting in a weight gain not
related to growth of almost a pound a year.
Some might assume that the weight gains found in the new
study are just a product of ordinary growth spurts.
But such
spurts should not be seasonal, Dr. Powell says. "Compared
to the summer, schools reduce the problem (of weight gain), or at least buffer
the problem."
The study authors were not able to pinpoint what it is about
school that is better for children when it comes to weight.
But they suspect it has something to do with the controlled
environment inside a school, which makes students eat and exercise at specific
times.
"People criticize schools for having vending machines, but
when you're sitting in class, you don't have the opportunity to get something
out of the vending machine whenever you like," says study lead author Paul
von Hippel, Ph.D., a research statistician at Ohio State University.
But kids at home can eat whenever they like. What should
parents do?
"You need to think about reforms that are going to affect
how kids behave when school is out after the bell rings, like nutrition classes
that emphasize making smart decisions when you're home," says Dr. von Hippel.
Always consult your physician for more information. |
