WHO releases new guidelines to manage obesity in children:

WHO releases new guidelines to manage obesity in children:

Context:

• The World Health Organization (WHO) has released new guidelines on how trained professionals can better identify youngsters in need of help.
• These new guidelines are updates for the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI).

World Health Organization (WHO):

• The World Health Organization (WHO), established on 7 April 1948, is the body of the United Nations (UN) responsible for directing and coordinating health.

Its current priorities include managing:

1. communicable diseases, the mitigation of the effects of non-communicable diseases,
2. sexual and reproductive health, development, and ageing,
3. nutrition, food security and healthy eating,
4. occupational health; substance abuse and
5. driving the development of reporting, publications, and networking.
   

What are the guidelines to manage obesity in children provided by the World Health Organisation?

• The WHO guidelines is entitled as “Assessing and managing children at primary healthcare facilities to prevent overweight and obesity in the context of the double burden of malnutrition”.
• The guideline aims to support the efforts to achieve a host of goals such as, the Sustainable Development Goals, the global targets set by the Comprehensive implementation plan on maternal, infant and young child nutrition, and the Global strategy for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health 2016–2030.

The guidelines of WHO are as follows: an overview:

1. WHO has issued guidelines to support primary healthcare workers and identify and manage children who are overweight or obese.
2. Where infants and children are identified as overweight, WHO recommends providing counselling to parents and caregivers on nutrition and physical activity.
3. This can be done by a health worker at primary health-care level, if adequately trained, or at a referral clinic or local hospital.
4. WHO recommends that all infants and children aged less than 5 years presenting to primary health-care facilities should have both weight and height measured.
5. WHO also recommends not to provide formulated supplementary foods on a routine basis to children who are moderately wasted or stunted.

What are the causes of obesity in children?

• Children become overweight and obese for a variety of reasons. Some of them are as follows:

1. The most common cause is genetic factors,
2. lack of physical activity,
3. unhealthy eating patterns,
4. overweight caused by a medical condition such as a hormonal problem and
5. psychological issues may also lead to obesity in some children.

• As a matter of fact, although weight problems run in families, not all children with a family history of obesity will be overweight.

Why is it important to control obesity at an early age?

• Children who are obese have a higher risk of developing health problems. Thus it becomes important to control it at the initial stage. Some of the potential threats involved are as follows:

1. Children and adults who are overweight are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes.
2. Diabetes can lead to eye disease, nerve damage, and kidney dysfunction.
3. High cholesterol and high blood pressure raise the risk of future heart disease in obese children.
4. Asthma is chronic inflammation of the lung’s airways and obesity is the most common comorbidity.