Obesity in children with intellectual disabilities

Obesity, Nutrition, And Physical Activity

For people with significant disabilities

This article discusses how physical activity levels can affect individuals with intellectual disabilities. Obesity is defined as “a body mass index of 30 or higher and is calculated by a person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters (Grumstrup & Demchak 2017. P.14).” If you take a look at children with intellectual disabilities, you will notice these children are “2 to 3 times more likely to be obese than the general population (Grumstrup & Demchak 2017. P.15).”  Many factors can come into play when looking for a solution to this problem. Some factors that I have personally noticed throughout my years in the school setting are: medication, mobility, parental involvement, parental knowledge, child involvement in outside activities, and influences from general education peers.  The article discussed a few of these factors I have witnessed in many of my students.

Mobility:

It seems logical that if you have limited mobility your chances to become obese increase significantly. This goes for all humans not just individuals diagnosed with intellectual disabilities. If you live primarily a sedentary life-style, you will inevitably gain weight. This factor may be contributed to “the number of people with ID who use a wheelchair or who otherwise have limited mobility. This factor  could be contributing to the unusually high prevalence of obesity for those with ID due to lower levels of physical activity (Grumstrup & Demchak 2017. P. 15).”

Parental involvement & knowledge:

            “Just as food availability, family eating habits, convenience, preference and peer influence shape nutrition habits of typically developing adolescents, they also influence habits of adolescents with ID (Grumstrup & Demchak 2017. P. 16).” Parents of developing children need to be aware of what they are putting in their bodies and what they are giving to their children. This is even more important for parents of children with intellectual disabilities. Eventually children can grow up and make their own healthy food choices. However, this cannot be said for students with ID. These students might not be capable to make educated/healthy choices as it pertains to their food.. Thus, it is the job of the primary caretaker to make those choices for them.  With this being said, parents of children with ID need to be knowledgeable on healthy eating habits, portion control, and exercise habits.

            I have personally seen the effects this can have on children. I had a parent that would not let her child eat the school breakfast or lunch because she said “it wasn’t nutritious enough.” That same child, would come with over-sized portions of white rice, large peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, fruit snacks, juice boxes and multiple bags of chips. It did not make sense to me how this parent thought this eating style was “healthy.” However, she could have been thinking since I am packing my child’s lunch I know what she is consuming in a day, therefore this is the healthiest option for my child.

Physical activity:

            Physical activity is not only important for the child to receive throughout the school day, but  also be involved in some sort of extracurricular activity outside of the school day. Contacting your local park district and asking them for camps for children with disabilities is one way to get your child active . Also, “various Special Olympics chapters at the state and local levels have developed initiatives to improve food choices, weight, hygiene, strength, flexibility, endurance, exercise and sleep habits (Grumstrup & Demchak 2017. P.17).”

Interaction with general peers:

            “In response to these problems, there have been some recent efforts to examine the role that peers have in motivating children with significant disabilities to develop healthy play and exercise behaviors at a young age (Grumstrup & Demchak 2017. P.17).” I strongly believe in this statement. When I was a classroom aide, we had a group which met once a week, called Peer Buddies.  The idea behind Peer Buddies was to have general education students interact with the students that were in the special education.. Some of the activities would be: playing board games, reading, playing computer games, and doing different activities in the gym. Overall, I observed the special education students mimicking the behaviors of the general education students. Some of our special education students would not participate in their adaptive P.E class, but when it was time for Peer Buddies group, they would follow the positive examples that their peers set for them.

            I agree with this article in the fact there are many factors which can attribute to the obesity rate in children diagnosed with intellectual disabilities. I think the article could have gone into more details on solutions to these issues. However, I enjoyed reading this article because I was able to relate it to my own real life experiences.

Grumstrup, B., & Demchak, M. (2017). Obesity, Nutrition, and Physical Activity for People with Significant Disabilities. Physical Disabilities: Education And Related Services, 36(1), 13-28.