USE CURRENT RESOURCE OF NO OLDER THAN 5 YEARS
- Consider the following examples of pediatric patients and their families:
- Overweight 5-year-old boy with overweight parents
- Slightly overweight 10-year-old girl with parents of normal weight
- 5-year-old girl of normal weight with obese parents
- Slightly underweight 8-year-old boy with parents of normal weight
- Severely underweight 12-year-old girl with underweight parents
- Select one of the examples on which to focus for this Discussion. What health issues and
risks may be relevant to the child you selected? - Based on the risks you identified, 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. - Consider how you could encourage parents or caregivers to be proactive toward the
child’s health.
** Write an explanation of the health issues and risks that are relevant to the child you
selected. Describe additional information you would need in order to further assess his or
her weight-related health. 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.
Health Assessment of Children’s Weight
Maintaining body weight has been cited as one way of enhancing ones health. Medical
practitioners recommend for people to have recommendable weights. This discussion on
overweight focuses on an overweight 5-year old boy with overweight parent.
The relevant health issues and risks to the child is to become obese. This risk will lead to
other health risks such as heart problems and diabetes if not managed earlier. To gain full
understanding of the child’s health it is important to calculate the body mass index of the child
according to the international age and sex specific cut- off points for BMI. The body weight, the
height, and the waist circumference are measured (Van Grieken, Renders, Veldhuis, Looman,
Hirasing, & Raat, 2014).
HEALTH ASSESSMENT OF CHILDREN’S WEIGHT 2
This information will be gathered after seeking the approval of the parent. The parent
should give the consent for the child weight to be measured. Sometimes parents may be skeptical
and in such situations, the mother will be made to understand the important of this exercise. The
parents will be encouraged to be proactive towards the child health through presentation of
illustrations and statistics on the cases of overweight and the risks inherent. For instance, cases
where children have developed more complications will be used to influence the parent to be
more concerned about the health of the child. Credible statistics will influence the parent into
taking action. Another way is to ask the parent to visit a medical doctor such as a pediatrician to
be advised on children health.
Additional information that will be required in assessing the health risks of the child
include, the history of the child since birth, the historical information about the family, whether
the family has other cases of overweight and whether any family member developed health risks
as a result of having overweight. Some of the questions that will be asked therefore include, how
long has the child had overweight? Is your family lineage have people that suffer from the
condition? What do you feel about overweight? Have you attempted to visit a medical
practitioner?
HEALTH ASSESSMENT OF CHILDREN’S WEIGHT 3
Reference
Van Grieken, A., Renders C., Veldhuis, L., Looman, C., Hirasing, R., & Raat, H. (2014).
Promotion of a healthy lifestyle among 5-year-old overweight children: health behavior
outcomes of the ‘Be active, eat right’ study. BMC Public Health, 14 (1): 1-23.