Exploring the Blogosphere

This week I decided to explore the vast realm that is the blogosphere. I was especially intrigued by a couple of blogs I came across that dealt with the issue of childhood obesity. The first one is by a blogger referred to only as “hbvx713112.” This blogger focuses on the role that parents play, changes that can be made to reduce childhood obesity, as well as gives a quick overview of the topic with a few statistics thrown in. After reading this blog I felt compelled to leave a comment, which can be read either by clicking on this comment link, or by reading it below.

The second blog I came across was presented by Entertainment Consumers Association. This blog dealt with a new PC video game Kaiser Permanente has created that is aimed at promoting healthy attitudes about nutrition and exercise. I had never heard of this before and was so impressed that I felt I needed to leave a comment, which can be read by clicking on this comment link, or by reading it below.


Comment on "Childhood Obesity: Your Kids And Heart Disease!":

Thank you for this post. It is refreshing to hear someone bring up this issue in regards to changes that should be made in the home and modeled by parents. I believe that too often parents look to shift the blame to institutions, such as school, when the focus should be in the home. While I acknowledge the school system must accept its own part of responsibility in the sense of providing healthier options for the kids to choose from, I firmly believe that the attitudes children have toward exercise and food choices begin in the home. If a child sees his/her parent reaching for a bag of potato chips to stave off hunger before dinner, then in that child's mind it is not only okay, but it is how life is.
I think often times parents forget that children are born into this world without any understanding of how things are suppose to be. Children look to their parents for guidance and understanding that they then take out into the world. If they learn that sitting on the couch, watching TV for hours, and munching on chips, cookies, and sodas is how life is in their household, they will associate that with what is normal and will seek it out once outside the home.
I remember one morning when I was in high school and I saw my aunt packing up my 6-year-old cousin’s lunch and she put a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (no problem there), a bag of cheesy Doritos (okay, maybe a problem here), a bag with at least a half dozen Oreo cookies (okay, definitely a problem here), and a can of Coco-Cola (ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!). I was horrified! But at the same time, that one lunch I witnessed being packed explained a lot. My little 6-year-old cousin was overweight. She never seemed to lose her "baby fat" and then just kept gaining weight. Each time I would see her she would be bigger and bigger.
This is why I believe that childhood obesity starts and needs to end in the home. Children eat what is provided to them by parents and what they see their parents eating. Children engage in activities approved by their parents and that their parents participate with them in. Parents need to make the time in the craziness of life to teach and model good behaviors. After all, it's the lives of children that are at stake here. Is there not a better reason to make changes than that?


Comment on "TV News: PC Game Targets Childhood Obesity":

This is a step in the right direction. I have not previewed the game so I cannot comment on the quality, level of engagement and so forth. However, I can say that for a major healthcare corporation to create a game with the goal of improving the attitudes of children toward diet and exercise is huge. This shows that childhood obesity is no longer something people reference in passing or mothers talk about with other mothers at the park. Instead this is heralding a new wave of awareness and action. Perhaps this video game is not going to be the flagship of effectiveness, but it marks a huge step in the right direction. Children of today are immersed in technology and so to create a game they can play and interact with that teaches them something helpful shows that the adults of the world are addressing children at a level they are interested in and can relate to. I also think that the game shutting down after 20 minutes is a great idea. I myself was once a child who was allowed to spend every waking hour in front of a video game machine and looking back it was definitely not healthy. Again, I'm not here to say this is a phenomenal video game that will change the face of obesity; however I think this signals an approach toward really facing and dealing with the issue of childhood obesity that not too long ago people were not willing to acknowledge, let alone take responsibility for. But I must say, I'm intrigued enough to want to see this video game for myself.

After-School Child-Care Programs: A Closer Look at Quality

In a June 2007 study, researchers set out to explore the benefits of having high-quality after-school programs in place for school-age children. The notion of quality tends to be a subjective one, so it is imperative that this term is defined early on. The quality of a program is assessed based on two separate categories. The first focuses on structural features, such as child-to-staff ratios, number of children in a group, qualifications and education level of staff, as well as the training and length of service of the staff. The second focuses on process features, such as youth-adult relationships, youth-adult interactions, variety in program offerings, availability of program resources and activities that promote cognitive engagement, as well as opportunities to promote autonomy and choice. When a community organization seeks to begin a youth program, of any kind, there are eight fundamental principles to guide them:

1. Physical and psychological safety
2. Appropriate structure
3. Supportive relationships
4. Opportunities for meaningful youth involvement
5. Positive social norms
6. Learning-oriented, with skill-building activities
7. Balance of autonomy and structure
8. Connections with school, home, and community

These principles are put forth by a national Committee on Community-Level Programs for Youth. These principles are crucial to developing after-school programs that will promote a wide range of positive developments within children that will arguably affect them throughout the rest of their lives.

The research abstract briefly presented here acts as a springboard to peruse upon the notion of working parents, childcare, and how it all intertwines and affects society as a whole. A poll taken in the year 2003 showed that some 6.5 million children were involved in after-school programs; however an additional 15.3 million children would have participated in after-school programs if they had had access to such programs. These numbers, presumably, have only increased since the 2003 poll data. This leads one to think about the significant portion of the population that is made up of working parents in need of finding after-school programs. This need translates into a race for resources or, in some areas, complete lack thereof aforementioned resources. Parents are placed into positions of just finding programs that are affordable within their budgets and often overlook the more qualitative evaluations of a program. Are their children safe? Are they being treated well? Are the staff nice and this facility clean? These are basic questions that parents on a tight budget ask to insure the well-being of their child. However, the focus should not just be the maintenance of the child’s well-being, but rather the positive enhancement of developing characteristics within that child. The abridged summary of the study presented here showed marked improvement in areas such as work habits, study skills, task persistence, as well as an overall general improved academic performance and overall improved feelings and attitudes.

The current research supports the notion that after-school programs are not all created equal and that there needs to be more expected of these programs. There needs to be affordable after-school child-care that facilitates the growth of a child. No longer will it be acceptable for these programs to simply meet the basic needs of children by supervising from afar, an over-crowded room full of children, providing a snack of cookies and milk, and playing a cartoon movie for the children to watch for hours and hours. Instead, a new standard of after-school child-care is emerging in the shape of these programs that have quality-care and overall developmental enhancement at the heart of their mission. These programs will pioneer the way and will take after-school child-care programs to the next level, well beyond the basic needs version mentioned above, and create a new norm that is both affordable and widely available for working parents everywhere.