Are parents responsible for the rise of diabetes in children?

The Kenya Diabetes Management and Information Centre, DMI marked the annual walk on Saturday and a similar one expected to take place in Mombasa coming Saturday.

The foundation aims at helping children with diabetes by provision of insulin and also creating awareness among children.

Diabetes develop when the body has insufficient insulin or ineffectively unable to use insulin and causes high blood sugar.

Obesity, a condition where the body has excess fat is a major cause for diabetes type 2, and is caused by taking meals high in calorie content and failure to burn the calories in physical exercises and energy output.

In children, if not hereditary, obesity occurs when parents ignorantly feed their children on junk foods, majorly sold in fast food outlets and some from popular food chains, whose compliance with human safety standards is not verified.

Parents allow children to have their choice of food and so they choose the palatable meals whose consumption parents find classy over vegetables.

Urban parents are the most affected; they prefer ready foods in bid to save time for other activities. It is a common thing for parents to take home a pack of fries and chicken to their children as the children awaits the common meal.

Some parents choose not to exercise direct control over children’s eating habits, with some even encouraging them to eat to their satisfaction. Children can never have a wise choice of food, after all what they are looking for is satisfaction.

It is not disputable that most parents do not observe healthy eating practices. In a recent study done by the Ministry of Health, 90 per cent of Kenyans do not eat fruits and vegetables as recommended by nutritionists.