DC students weigh in on obesity lessons

DC students weigh in on obesity lessons

Practically everything at River Terrace Elementary in Washington, DC--to what the kids hear, what they eat and what they learn--promotes better health. Why? Just ask the principal. "It definitely is life or death. I look at the homerooms in my building at least half of the children in these classes are heavier than they should be so that seems to be an epidemic and a crisis to me," Shannon Foster said. More schools are battling weight because the extremes cases are no longer an exception. It's estimated four percent of children in the United States are extremely obese. In southern California alone, one study found seven and a third percent of boys and five and half percent of girls had a body mass indexes of over 35. At Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Dr. Thomas Inge operates on a morbidly obese 16 year old. It's his 132nd weight loss surgery on a teenager. "I had acid reflux; had severe sleep apnea; back, knee, hip pain. I couldn't sleep at night," Dustin Holston said. Surgery dramatically changed Holston's life last year. Allowing him to start over 100 lbs lighter and strengthening his weak heart. "I don't think I would have made it to an adult if I wouldn't have done it as a teenager," Holston said. Increasingly younger kids are showing early signs of dangerous trends. Preventable diseases like type 2 diabetes & heart disease are forcing pediatricians to re evaluate their methods. "Somewhere along the line we failed at multiple levels. Over feeding is the culture," Inge said. Doctors at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Center for Better Health and Nutrition are teaching parents and treating kids as young as two years old to fight back against inactivity, marketing and media. While lessons in food and exercise can be fun, the outcomes are deadly serious. "**Be sure to check out what's going on at EducationNation.com**":http://www.educationnation.com//