Do clumsy kids make obese adults?
Categories: Kids 5-7, Kids 8-11, Health & safety, Eating & nutrition, Development, In the news, Environment, Education
I was pretty much a klutz growing up. In fact, I still am. But I'm not obese (although in the last two months of my pregnancy I do feel rather large!). Is there any real connection between the two? Perhaps so, if we're to believe the findings of another recent study.
According to a new report on Reuters, there is a growing pool of evidence suggesting such a link between children with poor cognitive function and adults with type 2 diabetes or who are obese. A study of British children between the ages of seven and eleven (that started in 1958) yielded the results: those with the worst congitive skills were also the most likely to be obese later in life. Researchers were quick to point out these children were no larger than the rest of the kids at the time, meaning weight was not to blame for their being clumsy.
In fact, factors such as body mass at childhood and social class were both taken into account and adjusted. The findings were still solid. So what causes the link (if indeed there realy is one)? Well, that is the question, isn;t it? Researchers considered smoking during pregnancy a possibility as well as children not getting enough exercise during childhood--which is critical to developing fine motor skills.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sabrina 8-15-2008 @ 5:01PM
I don't think so! I was very clumsy as a child, despite my mom's attempt to get me into ballet to learn balance. While I was never the thinnest child among my peers, I was never obese then, and I am not obese now. Discounting pregnancies I have never gone beyond a size 12 (I'm 5'8" tall) and I'm currently a size 8, so I doubt that's obese. What a clumsy child makes is a clumsy adult who has learned to laugh at herself.
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Kelly 8-15-2008 @ 7:48PM
Having poor cognitive skills doesn't mean being clumsy. It means being a slow learner. The study seems to be linking a low intelligence with a propensity for becoming obese.
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meredith 8-15-2008 @ 9:46PM
What a crock. You get fat because you overeat and do not exercise enough to burn your caloric intake. Can we please all just understand that? I know because I AM fat and I DO eat too much and no study will ever solve why I became this way.
Please people, stop wasting your time looking for the magic button that will stop childhood obesity. Remove High Fructose Corn Syrup from our food. Do away with Saturated Fats. Teach your kids how to eat and lead by example.
Give fat people health care EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE FAT. Help people who don't have the education and money to know how nutrition works. And for pete's sake, stop doing ridiculous studies that waste time and money.
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kansanpoker 8-15-2008 @ 10:53PM
well, i was a very obese child when i younger. I made myself that way ,it wasn’t because I didn’t exercise. I just ate way too much, and my parents loved baking and buying sweets. But i also had coordination problems, which made it hard for my eyes to focus and for me to walk right, but i have a very high IQ. I can honestly say , when i moved out of my parents home at the age of 20. I have lost over 40 lbs and im getting into the best shape of my life all within a year. so from personal experience I can see some truth to this , but it’s a far out idea.
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Jan Bay 8-16-2008 @ 12:00AM
I was very clumsy when I was a kid and the results were that I didn't feel that confident and didn't want to take part in sports or active games because of being afraid of humiliating myself.
So, I could see reasons why the two would be connected. In my case, they finally figured out that I my eyesight was poor and once that was corrected, things were considerably better.
Jan from http://www.unique-baby-gear-ideas.com/
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clumsy 8-16-2008 @ 1:18AM
One of my children tends to move slowly and keep to a non-challenging walking. So while her sister gets lots of practice hiking around, climbing, balancing, running, etc., she develops large-muscle coordination skills more slowly (though her small-muscle skills and intelligence are superior). She also happens to be heavier - from birth, and not due to different eating habits. I have pushed her to walk over more types of surfaces and longer distances, and this has improved her coordination, which in turn makes her more motivated to move.
I don't feel my daughter's weight is caused by clumsiness or vice versa; but maybe there is one genetic trait that causes BOTH a tendency to be heavy AND a tendency to be sedentary.
I didn't read the study, but this is the second time I've read a column about it, and each time I find myself scratching my head. What is their logic in interpreting their results? If you are clumsy you will become stupid and that will make you fat? Or that fat people are usually clumsy and stupid? It's either poorly reasoned or poorly written, and either way, it's not useful.
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Tamyu 8-17-2008 @ 5:27AM
Hmm.... I think there is some truth in this. While I`m not in the obese range, I`m certainly not thin. It`s not from over eating, I watch my calories and eat less than 1800kcal a day... But rather from way too little physical activity.
I was a clumsy child. Not overly, but enough not to be picked for sports games, etc. Enough that other kids would giggle at me if I screwed up or tripped. That led me to avoid physical activities, and to think of them as something highly unpleasant. I find exercise something horrifying and demeaning to this day. Even though I am no longer particularly clumsy, and even though I know that it`s not going to happen, I am terrified of going to the gym and having everyone laugh at me. I`m terrified of going jogging and having something criticize my running style, just as adults did when I was a child.
If physical activity is associated with something highly unpleasant (bullying, being laughed at, etc) even when you`ve grown up those links are going to remain. You`re not all that likely to seek out an activity that you found depressing as a child. I doubt I`d feel the way I do about sports and physical activity now if I had been good at them when I was a child. If I had been praised instead of criticized for every attempt... I might have actually enjoyed running around.
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Kam Wilson 9-21-2008 @ 1:26PM
While a lot of factors may be part of the puzzle, I personally think a large piece may be the psychological factors of being a klutz. If you aren't as mentally savvy as other kids, don't get as high of grades, or are always dropping something, bumping something, or just not as coordinated as other kids, you're sure to be a major attraction for teasing from all the other kids in school. And kids can be cruel!
Very likely, the social pressures and social mistreatment can cause these kids to look for something to soothe their aching hearts. Thus they learn to turn to food--early. That stress relief habit likely plays a big part later on in life when they aren't as active and the weight starts piling on.
Just my opinion...
Kam from http://www.squidoo.com/calorieshiftingdiets
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