Another Day, Another Childhood Obesity Study that Doesn't Make Sense!!!

Ok............

I can't even begin where I want to begin.........

I am so over it.....

On Yahoo today, I came across an article titled "Can Antibiotics Early in Life Put Your Child at Risk for Obesity?" First thing that comes to my mind is why people are still trying to find things to blame obesity on. This is my problem....

While I do feel there is a problem with obesity, I also feel we (as in the individual/parent) is responsible for it in most cases. Those who suffer from medical conditions that lead to weight gain do no fall in that category due to it being out of their control. But for those, myself included, our weight issues are a result of our own choices.

Children has been getting antibiotics for years and to now try to blame weight gain on the amounts of antibiotics you got as a young child is just ridiculous. Could it simply be that children are becoming less active and eat more unhealthy foods. I mean they do know that that is possible right????? If adults focus on calories in and calories burned, shouldn't it be the same for children? Unless it is for a medical reason, I blame the parents for not properly monitoring their child eating habits and physical activities.

Form the article,

"The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia researchers analyzed the medical records of more than 60,000 children who had seen a primary care doctor at least twice in their first 24 months, and then again after age 2. Of particular interest was how often the pediatric patients had received antibiotics from birth to age 23 months and how that related to their BMI later in childhood."

“An antibiotic kills the bacteria causing the infection that you’re treating, but along the way, it will also kill some of the normal bacteria in your system,” explained Bailey. “A narrow-spectrum antibiotic kills a smaller number of bacteria. So you should take the narrowest-spectrum antibiotic that does that job you need it to do.” Broad-spectrum antibiotics are used only when children are seriously ill, so there’s usually little time for trial and error with these meds, particularly when the first-line antibiotic didn’t eliminate the infection.   

So did the bacteria-fighting meds lower the kids’ defenses against flab?  

The short answer: Yes. The more antibiotics a child took early in life, the more likely he or she was to be obese later on. (This was particularly true among children who had taken the drugs four or more times before age 2.) However, this held true only for overall or broad-spectrum antibiotic use; there was no such link between narrow-spectrum antibiotics and childhood obesity.  

Is it me or are they reaching??? So not all antibiotics will be a factor in obesity???? This is a far fetched study just trying to put the blame on something other than the child parents. As a mother (who has her own weight ups and downs), I am very proactive on the way my daughters eat and get physical activity. I make sure they have a well balanced diet and I do not deprive them of foods we love like chicken nuggets and fries. Their diet mainly consist of eating healthy foods and I also make sure they are very active. It is very important that we teach our children how to maintain a healthy lifestyle from the beginning.

Our lifestyle has a direct influence on our children and it is our responsibility to mold them and give them the proper tools and knowledge to live and maintain a healthy lifestyle for their future.

Read the entire article here.