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Obese kids get healthier with help

Specialists at Cincinnati Children’s teaching local families how to eat better and increase levels of activity.

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By Marie Rossiter, Staff Writer Updated 8:19 AM Monday, February 22, 2010

Ponytails bouncing, Nina Turner, 10, walked back and forth through the hallways of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital’s Liberty Campus. By her side was exercise technician Amanda Gier, listening attentively to the bubbly girl. With clipboard in hand, Gier kept the conversation going with a series of questions.

“Do you have gym class in your school?”

“Do you have a TV in your room? How many hours a day do you watch it?”

“What sort of activities do you like to do?”

After their 400-meter walk across the hospital’s third-floor hallway, Gier stops to check Nina’s heart rate and make a few notes before she leads Nina back into an exam room where her mother and pediatrician Dr. Bob Siegel are waiting.

Childhood obesity treatment and prevention are Siegel’s specialties. He is the medical director of Cincinnati Children’s Center for Better Health and Nutrition, to help children and their families improve their eating habits and level of activity.

Ohio’s youth are among the nation’s fattest, according to a report released by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The foundation ranked Ohio 15th in the nation in its survey: “F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America.”

“Obesity rates have tripled in the last 30 years,” Siegel said. “One study we did showed that 44 percent of kids are overweight or obese by the time they are 8 to 10 years old. You can’t help but see that obesity is an epidemic.”

Siegel and other local health experts are working together to help children like Nina move in the right direction toward a healthier life.

Childhood obesity result of ‘perfect storm’

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