Number of kids identified as obese about to skyrocket
February 8, 2010
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Andrea Gordon
FAMILY ISSUES REPORTER
Major national health groups want Canada to adopt new guidelines to monitor development of babies and children that will end up identifying more Canadian kids as overweight or obese.
In a statement to be released Monday, associations representing physicians, dietitians and nurses recommend widespread use of new growth charts developed by the World Health Organization in 2006, which they say is "the prescribed gold standard."
They also support use of the WHO guidelines for children 5 to 19 that were released in 2007.
"This is a more accurate representation of a child's growth," said Dr. Leslie Rourke, spokesperson for the College of Family Physicians of Canada, one of the four groups calling for the change. Rourke already uses the WHO charts in her practice in St. John's, Nfld.
The other three groups are the Canadian Paediatric Society, Dietitians of Canada and Community Health Nurses of Canada. The Public Health Agency of Canada also endorses the new system.
The WHO standards for children to age 5 were based on more than 8,000 children from six countries who were considered to be in "optimal environments" for healthy growth. They had mothers who breast-fed and didn't smoke and they received proper nutrition and regular health care.
The old charts, from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and still in common use across Canada, were based on samples of different children in the U.S. rather than longitudinal monitoring.
But most agree the new system may end up highlighting a growing problem of childhood obesity in Canada. About 17 per cent of children are overweight and 9 per cent are obese, according to the Canadian Health Measurements Survey released last month by Statistics Canada and the Public Health Agency. Among 15- to 19-year-olds, 31 per cent of boys and 25 per cent of girls were overweight in 2009.
"More kids are going to be identified as potentially obese," Tanis Fenton, a registered dietitian in Alberta, said Sunday.
But she said having objective evidence will give parents and health-care professionals a better chance to intervene earlier when a child is showing unhealthy weight gain.
Another big change in the new standard will affect infants. While previous measurements were based primarily on babies fed formula, the new WHO charts are based on babies who breast-fed for four to six months.
Rourke says breast-fed babies tend to gain weight more quickly in the first six months and after that gain more slowly than babies on formula, so they are typically taller and lighter.
Samantha Leeson, a Georgetown doula and lactation specialist, said she welcomes the change because breast-feeding mothers are often advised to supplement with formula if their babies aren't in synch with the current growth charts.
At a time when all major health organizations recommend exclusive breast-feeding for six months, and then continuing, along with food, up to two years, it makes sense to adopt standards reflecting that, she said.
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