Obesity network helps overweight children

Since 2006 obesity network in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

05/16/2013

More and more children and adolescents have problems with obesity, while young people in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are particularly affected. To help here, there has been since 2006 „Obesity Network“, in which doctors, therapists, associations, offices and health insurance companies have come together with various obesity projects and now offer those affected support in losing weight.

Especially many overweight children from low-income families
In Germany, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is at the top of the league: 13 to 17 percent of overweight and obese (adipose) children and adolescents in Germany live in the northeastern federal state, according to network spokesman Ralf Schiel, pediatrician and head of the Inselklinik Heringsdorf on Usedom the news agency dpa. The reason for this is the physician in particular the social component, because many of the overweight children came from low-income families. In addition, there would be the problem of poor infrastructure in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, because in villages where there was no public transport other than the school bus, adolescents would often have little opportunity, for example, to train regularly in sports clubs.

More than one in ten schoolchildren in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern overweight Overweight among children is still a big problem - because even though there is currently, according to the Robert Koch Institute Berlin nationwide, no further increase in the number of those affected, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania continues to stand out clearly For example, the school entrance examinations of 2009/10 in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania revealed that 12.4 percent of new school children were considered overweight and another 5.5 percent adipose, according to the network's announcement.

Food culture in families is often not true
According to Heike Haase, a doctor at the Schwerin Children's Center and head of the obesity project "Gummibärenbande", a big problem would be that the eating culture in many families is not right. In order to provide active support here, the current six children of the „Gummibärenbande "at the age of 8 to 14 years every 14 days, in order to cook together, to do sports, to talk or to train relaxation techniques - because the idea behind the project is that the children next to „Exchange of experience and the playful imparting of information on nutrition and exercise [...] make positive movement and body experiences here“, so the information of the obesity network. In addition comes the regular check of the weight, because „the children are motivated to run a diet and exercise protocol“, whereby decrease and growth in length would be documented regularly - but this happens in a very sensitive way according to Haase: „It's not about the public weighing, but about a new lifestyle and design of the kids, "said the doctor.

Central task: to strengthen children's self-esteem
Steffi Dunkelmann, pediatrician at the Kurklinik Boltenhagen in Nordwestmecklenburg, is also primarily concerned with strengthening the self-esteem of children and adolescents and thereby creating the basis for a long-term change in diet. Therefore, the physician offers on the one hand assistance in the form of nutritional counseling or purchasing training, on the other hand, sports, games and exercise are an integral part of their therapy. For a successful diet change, however, the parents would have to actively participate - therefore, for network spokesman Ralf Schiel just the advice and training of parents is an important aspect in the context of the treatment of overweight children. For example, according to Schiel, in-patient cures could by no means solve all the weight problems; instead, those affected could only do something about obesity with a changed lifestyle. In order to provide long-term support here as well, Schiel's "TeleAdi" project (telemedical long-term care for children and adolescents with overweight and obesity) aims to provide months of follow-up advice via e-mail and SMS, although the idea seems promising is, because the program will according to the obesity network „Of overweight and obese children and adolescents highly accepted“. (No)