Introduction
Methods
Subject Recruitment
Demographic and Perceived Weight Questionnaire
Focus Groups
How do you know your child is healthy? |
How do you know your child is at a healthy weight? |
How do you know your child is overweight? |
What do you think about growth charts that are used in the clinical setting to provide weight assessments by health care providers? Are they helpful? Why or why not? |
Have any of you ever talked to a health care provider about your child’s weight? If so, how did it go? Were you satisfied? Why or why not? |
What causes a child to be overweight? |
What can parents do to prevent overweight? |
What can parents do if they have a child who is overweight? |
Analyses
Results
Short Questionnaire
Maternal Perceptions
Definition of Health and Overweight—Theme 1: Health and overweight is defined by a child’s ability to function
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Well, my girl is very healthy, she eats everything I give her, she is neither chubby nor skinny and she is always in the mood for playing, all day |
I think a child is healthy when he runs, jumps, eats well and is not weak |
At the WIC…they say that she’s overweight. But I see her being very active. She likes to run, she does a lot of exercise, and I don’t see her very fat. And they say she’s overweight. This is where I have doubt…that she is overweight |
Definition of Health and Overweight—Theme 2: An overweight child is defined as one with declining physical abilities, who is less, and who tires easily
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If they’re fat and they never do exercise well, if they fall it’s going to be difficult to get up much less run, play, wrestle, or do something because they’re out of shape (compared to non-overweight children). They end up becoming short of breath |
(What are the signs when your child is overweight) He feels tired. He becomes short of breath |
From school to the house she gets really tired, because she is so overweight, she gets very tired when walking and the girl begins to suffocate |
Definition of Health and Overweight: Health Professionals—Theme 3: Mothers acknowledge not being able to determine a healthy weight by body habitus alone and a health professional’s weight assessment is deemed useful
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When they do not gain a lot of weight you cannot tell, when they gain enough then yes the clothes [can tell you.] But when they do not gain a lot like 2 or 3 lb you cannot notice because they have it distributed over their body. A doctor can explain to us when children are normal or when they are overweight |
The doctor because sometimes we cannot tell that a child is gaining weight. Sometimes we prefer to make an appointment for a physical to know if they are well or not. We bring them and the doctors look at the chart of a child and they can tell if a child has gained weight or not or tell us if he is normal. When a child gains weight that is when the doctor explains to us what we can do to help him so that he doesn’t continue to gain more and more weight |
When I take him to the doctor, I am always asking about his weight, his height, if he is fine, because one is always concerned. “Is he eating enough? Am I feeding him properly?” Sometimes you see them thin but it is not because they are not well fed. That is why I am always asking the doctor, every time I take him to his check ups; this is how I convince myself that he is fine |
Etiology—Theme 4: Family role-modeling and psychosocial stress can contribute to a child becoming overweight
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Well, the example one sets, right? As an adult. For example, if I like pizza a lot, my child will also like it a lot, and eat it. And if I don’t like it, they won’t either. It depends on the example and what they get used to |
I imagine violence at home or that the father doesn’t love them or the mother doesn’t love them. They (children) find relief in food. To get full, to fill the emptiness |
I agree (that family stress is important to healthy eating). I have noticed that right now I am having problems with my daughter’s father and as I get more stressed the more I eat. I get an urge to keep eating |
Etiology—Theme 5: Lack of exercise can cause a child to become overweight
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I’ve known and seen children where the mother and father work, paying the one who takes care of them (caregiver) cares for 15 or 20 other children, and (the caregiver) doesn’t have time for each one, they are just sitting watching TV, and eating junk |
We spend most of our time in the house and this is when I have noticed, since they are not doing much exercise this is when one begins to gain weight |
Not doing exercised and eating bad food can contribute to a child being overweight |
Etiology—Theme 6: Excessive fat in a diet can cause a child to become overweight
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Well, what I believe causes overweight is bad nutrition, when one gives them greasy food, what we call junk food, potato chips, too much bread all those sort of things that makes one gain weight |
Food from McDonalds is junk food, food that only makes them fat. I do eat it, but not frequently, only on the weekends |
I think it’s strange because all you hear about is them (schools) getting rid of the potato chips and soda from the school but the food they serve is hamburgers, pizza, and hot dogs (fatty foods) |
Attempts to Manage Childhood Obesity—Theme 7: The most common home intervention to manage obesity in a young child is to control the quantity and types of food children eat
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Her doctor told me the following, that if she continued to gain weight month after month where would we end up. But she is not too overweight, I just need to regulate her diet or control her foods |
My son he is overweight…and now I am with that battle against him. Measuring everything and telling him not as much sweets, “you are going to eat this right now and at night your eating this.” I have a serious problem with him right now. It is a battle when its time to eat |
Take out from the grocery list the cookies and sweets because if they don’t have them at home, they will not be asking for them. (On what a parent can do to help their overweight child.) |
Attempts to Manage Childhood Obesity—Theme 8: Efforts to implement physician recommendations or to change dietary habits are undermined by other caregivers in the home (husbands and grandparents.)
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We are never in agreement in how we nourish our child. The children know that when I take them to the store I do not buy them candy but when he (father) takes them he will always buy them plenty of candy, cheetos, and soda |
When we go to visit my brother, this is once a month, well, their ways of thinking are very different than ours. There is always a lot of candy at their house, cheetos, cookies, sweets, but not in my house, not with me. And my children go over there and they go to the bedroom with the bags of candies and we are always vigilant and my sister in law gets upset, and says “let them eat, leave them alone they are kids.” |
My daughter’s dad he had this fixed idea that my daughter was not eating well and underweight and “too skinny.” But when I take her to the doctor I try to make him understand what the doctors tell me and I show him what they show me and such. I show him so that he understands and so that he will stop feeding me these ideas that my daughter is too skinny |