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Apr 15

Many kids gained extra weight during the pandemic. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing. – The Herald-Times

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People of all ages across the country gained weight during the pandemic, for reasons ranging from being sedentary while working from home to stress snacking. But kids, who often rely on school to provide healthful meals and exercise opportunities, were put in an even tougher spot.

A 2021 study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the rate of of increase in body mass index of children ages 2 to 19 nearly doubled during the pandemic compared withearlier statistics.

Studies from across the country are displaying similar results. Research from the Journal of the American Medical Association from around the same time showed children ages 5 to 11 were most affected by weight gain.

Dr. Jeremy Mescher, a pediatrician with Riley Physicians in Bloomington, said he and his colleagues have seen an increase in patients struggling with weight since the pandemic began. But he doesnt want to focus on the weight gain itself, which is often stigmatized, but rather the underlying causes.

We try to make sure our families understand that we worry more about health than we do size, he said, and our interventions are aimed at reducing the risks of the downstream consequences of increased weight.

When schools shuttered in the early stages of the pandemic, students were left without school-provided breakfast and lunch every day, leaving the burden of food preparation on parents.

Our school districts tried their hardest to continue home delivery and access to school based meals, but there was still likely a reduction in usage, Mescher said.

The pandemic also put a financial strain on many families, leaving them with fewer healthfulfood options and forcing them to rely on convenience foods which are more calorically dense, Mescher said.

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Erin Reynolds, program director at the Ferguson Crestmont Boys and Girls Club, spent 16 months of the pandemic driving around neighborhoods to deliver sack lunches to kids.

The program has 290 members, Reynolds said. Many of thefamilies in the program told her how much they needed the help.

Monroe County has always had food deserts, or areas with limited access to affordable healthful food, Reynolds said. The pandemic only exacerbated the problem.

Closed schools also meant a decline in after-school activities, such as school sports, which is how many students get their exercise, Mescher said. A 2020 study from the National Library of Medicine showed that kids, especially older ones, struggled to regularly exercise at the beginning of the pandemic.

Reynolds said that while she was out driving the neighborhoods every week earlier in the pandemic, she rarely saw kids outside playing, especially since local parks were closed for some time, too.

Although the increase in weight gain could have an effect on long-term public health, Mescher said, it's not too late to make gradualchange.

"It will take time to create new healthy habits, especially for children of an age who may have not had these habits in a pre-pandemic world," he said.

Although nutrition and exercise are important for a healthy lifestyle, it can lead to a slippery slope, especially when only focusing on losing weight.

Christy Duffy is a Bloomington psychologist who runs Under the UmbrellaLLC, which offers treatment for eating disorders. She said she has seen a huge skyrocket in eating disorder concerns in the community and nationwide.

I havent found anybody, even in different states, who hasnt had a lengthy waitlist during the pandemic because demand has gone up so high, shesaid.

Duffy, who doesnt work with younger children but has plenty of teen patients, said that many patients started coming in after the pandemic hit saying they had too much time on their hands and decided to spend it getting healthy, which eventually led to over-exercising and disordered eating habits.

Other patients came in reporting the opposite that the pandemic caused them to sit on their couch and snack all day because the kitchen was accessible at all hours.

Like Mescher, Duffy doesnt let her patients focus solely on weight gain or loss but rather on emotional wellbeing and balanced nutrition.

We want to eat fruits and vegetables, but we also want to eat pizza and dessert, she said.

This could mean, for example, if a patient finds themselves eating entire packs of Oreos in one sitting, the solution could be to keep Oreos in the house more often.

"If you're allowed to have Oreos whenever you want, and you're also eating all the other foods, you won't want toeat all the Oreos," she said.

Another way to help kids form a healthy relationship with food is to involve them in grocery shopping and meal preparation, Mescher said. This will ideally help reduce any food-based anxiety and give them a sense of ownership in meal planning.

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Duffy also said its important to remember that a persons size isnt necessarily an indication of their health.

There are people in all different shapes and sizes that are both healthy and unhealthy, she said. We have anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder, and people usually have an image in their head of what a person in those three categories look like, and thats usually not true.

The incoming data about increased weight gain in children and adults alike can be nerve wracking, Duffy said. Its important to look at the results in context of how the community has been hurting throughout the pandemic, she said, including financially and emotionally.

We live in a culture where we advocate weight loss for pretty much every problem that comes up, but what we know from insane amounts of research is that doesnt work, Duffy said. The weight gain itself isnt the problem. … Just be gentle with yourself.

Contact Herald-Times reporter Christine Stephenson at cstephenson@heraldt.com.

Originally posted here:
Many kids gained extra weight during the pandemic. It isn't necessarily a bad thing. - The Herald-Times

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