Child Health Case

Child Health Case

A child’s health is determined majorly by weight. Besides, weight is an important growth indicator used when assessing the growth of children. This paper seeks to discuss the potential health issues and risks facing the child in the case scenario, the additional information that would be important when assessing the child, and the specific questions that the parents would be asked regarding the child’s health. The paper will also discuss strategies for encouraging parents to be proactive about their child’s health.

Health Issues and Risks Relevant to the Child

Generally, various health issues and risks may compromise the child’s health. To begin with, having a mother who is obese genetically predisposes the child to getting childhood obesity. Besides genetics, the family’s eating habits may also impact the child’s weight. For instance, if the mother binge eats and eats more junk food, the child will adopt the habit and eventually become overweight. The other factor of concern would be inactivity. With a mother who is obese, it is definite that there will be limited physical activity, and this would also lead to weight gain and other health problems associated with inactivity (Larque et al., 2019). Consequently, the child is also at risk of nutritional deficiencies if the family eats junk foods with no nutritional value. This is, however, dependent on the child’s nutrition. Lastly, the child may develop dental carries if she is mostly given sugary foods. For this reason, parents need to be watchful of what they eat and the foods they give their children to prevent childhood obesity.

Additional Information Needed to Assess the Child’s Weight-Related Health Further

For further evaluation, more information regarding the child’s health would be relevant. First and foremost, it would be important to find out about the growth trend of the child since birth. This would include the child’s birth weight, length, and growth chart all through the two years. This would help determine if the child’s weight gain has been within the expected normal range for her age. The second information would be about the child’s diet. This would include finding out how long the child was breastfed, the time the child was initiated on supplementary food, and the current daily diet with a twenty-four-hour recall of what the child was fed. Evidence of unhealthy food consumption would confirm the child’s risk of developing childhood obesity.

Since the child is two years old and can be involved in simple physical activities such as playing, it would be important to find out about the child’s physical activity and screen time. According to Fang et al. (2019), children who spend more time on screen are at risk of obesity due to limited physical activity. It is recommended that a child should be involved in simple physical exercise for about 60 minutes a day and screen time reduced for the prevention of obesity (CDC, 2023). This calls for active parental participation. Therefore, other crucial information would be to find out about the parents’ relationship with the child. If there is a disconnect between the child and parents, then the child would be at risk of an unhealthy lifestyle, such as prolonged screen time and unhealthy eating. Other important factors to consider would be the family’s lifestyle, including the family’s eating habits, involvement in physical activity, and access to outdoor facilities where the child can play. As stated previously, the family lifestyle would play a big role in the child’s health. Lastly, it would be important to know if there is a family history of obesity on the maternal and paternal sides to rule out a familial predisposition to obesity.

Risks and Further Information Required to Fully Understand the Child’s Weight-Related Health

The potential risks for the child include genetic predisposition to childhood obesity, dental carries, physical inactivity, and unhealthy eating habits. Genetic predisposition affects the child’s likelihood of becoming obese (Jebelle et al., 2022). If indeed there is a family history of obesity on the mother’s side, then the child would be considered genetically predisposed. The best way to inquire about this would be first to congratulate the parents for maintaining the child’s weight within the normal range and explain that obesity is common in most families before directly inquiring about a family history of obesity from both parents. Making the situation normal will make the parents comfortable to speak about obesity. Consequently, dental carries are also prevalent in children and are attributed to too much consumption of sugary food and snacks. This would be inquired about by asking if the child has ever had any dental procedure done, whether the child visits a dentist, and what type of food the child likes.

Physical inactivity is another issue of concern regarding the state of the mother. As aforementioned, physical activity is generally important for a child’s general health. This would be inquired by asking whether there is an outdoor park where the child can play and how often they take the child to play outside (Jebelle et al., 2022). Additionally, the other question would be about the toy(s) the child likes playing with and how long the child spends watching television programs for children. This would provide adequate information regarding the child’s physical activity. Lastly, as mentioned previously, the child is at risk of adopting unhealthy eating habits from the parents, depending on what she is fed. Inquiring about eating habits would involve asking the parents to outline the child’s feeding routine on a typical day and week. Also, asking the parents if they have a diary guiding their child’s feeding routine would be important.

Three Specific Questions to Ask While Considering the Parents’ and Caregivers’ Sensitivities

While discussing the child’s weight-related health, it would be crucial to factor in the potential sensitivities given the mother is obese. The three specific questions would be tailored to the risk factors described above. The questions would include,

• Can you describe [the child’s name] feeding routine on a typical day?

I would love to know [the child’s name] favourite foods and the foods she dislikes.

• Which outdoor activities does [the child’s name] find fun, and how often does she get to play?

This would help in finding out more about the child’s physical activity.

• How would you describe your family’s daily routine? I would like to understand what your typical day is like for your family.

This will capture more about the parent’s relationship with the child and whether there is a physical exercise routine for the family.

Strategies for Encouraging Parents to Be Proactive in Their Child’s Health and Weight

Ideally, parents and caregivers spend more time with their children and, therefore, have a role to play in a child’s health. The first strategy to employ would be the provision of nutritional guidelines and growth charts to the parents. For instance, the WHO provides guidelines on child feeding recommendations that the parents may refer to while feeding the child (WHO, n.d.). The second strategy would be self-reflection and goal setting. This would involve asking the parents to reflect on their family’s eating habits and physical activity involvement and collaboratively help them develop goals. For instance, it would be important to ask the parents to note down the child’s physical routine and have a dietary diary to help guide them on what is appropriate for the child.

References

CDC. (2023, June 30). How much physical activity do children need? Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/children/index.htm

Fang, K., Mu, M., Liu, K., & He, Y. (2019). Screen time and childhood overweight/obesity: A systematic review and meta‐analysis. Child: Care, Health and Development, 45(5), 744-753. https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.12701

WHO. (n.d.). Infant and young child feeding. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/data/nutrition/nlis/info/infant-and-young-child-feeding

Jebeile, H., Kelly, A. S., O’Malley, G., & Baur, L. A. (2022). Obesity in children and adolescents: epidemiology, causes, assessment, and management. The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-8587(22)00047-X

Larqué, E., Labayen, I., Flodmark, C. E., Lissau, I., Czernin, S., Moreno, L. A., & Widhalm, K. (2019). From conception to infancy—early risk factors for childhood obesity. Nature Reviews Endocrinology, 15(8), 456-478. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41574-019-0219-1

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A 2-year-old normal-weight female who lives with her obese mother and normal-weight father

Assignment (3–4 pages, not including title and reference pages):
Assignment: Child Health Case:
Include the following:

An explanation of the health issues and risks that are relevant to the child you were assigned.
Describe additional information you would need in order to further assess his or her weight-related health.
Identify and describe any risks and consider what further information you would need to gain a full understanding of the child’s health. Think about how you could gather this information in a sensitive fashion.
Taking into account the parents’ and caregivers’ potential sensitivities, list at least three specific questions you would ask about the child to gather more information.
Provide at least two strategies you could employ to encourage the parents or caregivers to be proactive about their child’s health and weight.