Bullying and Obesity in Children

Apparently, bullying can keep overweight kids from exercising. A recent study was published which looked at 100 children who were overweight or “at risk” for being overweight. They found:

… as rates of peer victimization among overweight kids went up, rates of physical activity went down…

This leads to a pretty sad and vicious cycle, one that needs to stop yet seems very difficult to terminate. In our society today, the concept of overweight is considered a nasty thing. In later childhood and adulthood, people seem to be able to be somewhat “accepting” of those who are plump. However, young children do not have that restraint, and when they encounter something that is considered negative, often they will tease and bully it.

This inconveniently starts plump children on the bad end of a physical and psychological cycle. EX: They gain a little weight and don’t do so well in sports, which causes them to get teased, which causes them to avoid sports which could help them lose weight [insert anything physical in here instead of sports].

But what are we to do? It’s tough, but simply teaching children healthy habits without referring to fat as “evil” is the best way I can think of. Say something positive instead of something negative when referring to healthy habits. For instance, eat this because it will make you grow up big and strong.

The problem still remains that if there are five skinny kids and one fat kid, the fat kid will be teased for being different. What to do about this I do not know (any suggestions?). Interestingly enough, since the rate of overweight children is dramatically rising, maybe one day it will become cool to be fat, and the skinny kids will be teased. It’s a stretch, but hey, it could happen.

Obesity and health issues are huge in our country right now. They are definitely things that we need to take very seriously as a society. On the same token, we have to be careful about giving children the idea that gaining weight is the same as being inferior. So basically, we have to tread the line of being careful to keep our kids fit and healthy, while not encouraging them to point and laugh at those who aren’t. Let me know what you all think!