According to the CDC, childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years. The answer to this vexing problem isn't complicated: health lifestyle habits such as eating healthy and engaging in physical activity, can definitely lower the risk of becoming obese and/or suffering from related diseases.
On Saturday, Healthy Kids Day, the YMCA's national initiative to improve families health and well-being, was celebrated across the country and locally in Tampa's Curtis Hixon Park. That's where vendors from a range of local health organizations distributed information to families who in some cases might not be aware of services that are available for their children right now.
One information table offered young children teddy bears that they could take care of. The idea behind that is to establish comfort with kids who hopefully are more likely to want to go to a doctor's office and seek care that was produced by the members with the USF Pediatrics Department. "We’re trying to simulate what it’s like to go to a doctor’s office thru using teddy bears so kids get more comfortable to going to a doctor and establishing a routine," says Alyssa Kennedy, a third-year medical student at USF.
This article appears in Apr 25 – May 1, 2013.