Though we continue to struggle and grapple with moderate and severe malnutrition, the pendulum has swung to other extreme in over 2 decades and we are confronted with obesity in children in no small way. Which truly also is a form of malnutrition! The developed countries show a figure of 18-20%, India is fast catching up. A change in life style and eating habits has lead to this upsurge.
Parents very proudly refer obese children as "Healthy"; the truth cannot be farther than this. The first reaction of the parents is to suggest investigating an obese child is to look for some hormonal imbalance, particularly deficiency of thyroid hormone (hypothyroidism), a view shared by many general practitioners. A rule of thumb is that obesity due to internal ( read hormonal) causes is associated with lack of increase in height of the child, therefore if a child is overweight and his/her height is…
