According to Cattelino, Bina, Skanjeti, & Calandri, (2015), childhood overweight and obesity are related to major health problem and costs to society. Children and adolescent who are overweight are more likely to become overweight or obese in adulthood and are at a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, endocrine and metabolic disturbances, debilitating health problems, and psychological problems (Cattelino, Bina, Skanjeti & Calandri, 2015). Children who are severely underweight or malnourish tend to have serious health problem too. It is very important for healthcare provider to be aware and attentive when caring for patients who are overweight and underweight because these problems can also affect developmental milestones.

Health Issues Relevant to the Child Selected

For week 3 discussion, I have chosen to discuss on this 12-year-old girl who is an underweight as her parents. An underweight child could be determined through the percentile range. The qualifications of an underweight child are found in the bottom 5th percentile in comparison to their height (Cleveland Clinic, 2016). Any child that is underweight does not enable them to be in paralleled to children of the same age group. It is essential to monitor a child at age 2 or after to see how the weight, height and BMI to know if the percentile of the BMI is less than being in bottom of the 5th. If it does, it leads to the child underweight (Cleveland Clinic, 2016). Children who are underweight children they experience a deficiency in growth for short and long terms; including being unhealthy often because of insufficient of protein, nutrients, and calories Children who are above age also become underweight based upon how they eat less food continuously. Health concern could be another cause by the intake of medications which stops the desire for food. (Cleveland Clinic, 2016). It is imperative for families to eat in unison which will motivates their children to eat.

Additional Assessment

In the life of the 12-year old girl who is underweight as her parents, could come from a family that is financially perishing. Maybe the parents are poor and the only way out in feeding the family is providing unhealthy meal which are affordable but cheap and not nutritional. Sometimes it is the unusually eating habits that is in the family. The unhealthy habits of the child could be discussed by communicating with the parents to know the child activities daily both at school and home. It is important as a provider to the cause being underweight in a family as your patient is part of the family. You need to get the child involved in this discussion to hear her view and gives her the opportunity to ask question for further explanation. During this conversation as a provider, you will know why the child is underweight. In this meeting, you hear from this teen if she is experiencing any peers pressure and how to encourage her.

Three Specific Questions

1.Can you tell kinds and types of foods do you like and regularly eat? How many times a day do you eat and how much?

2.How much physical activity do you participate in a day?

3. Do you have any concern about your child eating and weight loss?

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/2016/06/dietiti…

Two Proactive Strategies

First would referred referred this family to a dietician who will teach them how to eat healthy and how to adapt healthy lifestyle changes. I also would provide the family with the resources within the local community of where to obtain free or low-cost meals if their situation is of financial issues. The second strategy I would recommend will be to encourage the parents to have the child take part in grocery shopping, menu planning, and preparing meals as having the child engaged can help in developing better nutritional habits for the child as well as the parents.

References

Cleveland Clinic (2016). A dietitian’s best advice if your child is underweight: Q&A offers parents insight and tips. Retrieved from https://health.clevelandclinic.org/2016/06/dietiti…

Cattelino, E., Bina, M., Skanjeti, A. M., & Calandri, E. (2015). Anthropometric characteristics

of primary school-aged children: accuracy of perception and differences by gender, age

and BMI. Child: Care, Health & Development, 41(6), 1098-1105. doi:10.1111/cch.12216