A father of three morbidly obese children in Gujarat says his children are victims of a botched up weight-loss surgery and he can go to extreme steps like selling his kidney to fund their recovery.
A Poor Man’s Burden
Rameshbhai Nandwana, a labourer in Una (Gujarat) claims that his three children underwent weight-loss surgery in Ahmedabad almost a year ago. The surgery was funded by the government of Gujarat that had ‘buckled’ under media glare.
Apparently, these kids – unfairly called ‘sumo’kids by many – lost a few kilos each in the initial days after surgery.
Yogita, the six-year-old girl went from 36 to 33 kg, the three-year-old boy Harsh lost two kilos from his 16 kg weight and another daughter, four-year-old Anisha who weighed 47 kg shed four kg.
Botched Up Surgery
But immediately the weight gain began and on a rebound has been piling up even faster than before says the father. The family is worried about the morbid obesity of the kids who apparently were deprived of post-surgical supervision and care.
Shockingly, the father wants to now fund another ‘corrective’ surgery.
A Scary Trend
The trend of obesity among rural children is on the rise, says a report The Quint published earlier, based on studies by the Indian Council of Medical Research.
Some of the obesity increases among the poor are surely due to what’s come to be known as the “thrifty phenotype” or the “Barker” hypothesis (after a late British epidemiologist), a now-proven postulate that persons who are undernourished during the foetal period, or the first two years of life, suffer biologic dysfunction as adults, including an inability to properly oxidise fat.
Commonly seen photos of an overweight mother feeding her undernourished child often suggest that the mother herself had been malnourished in her early years.
Worrisome Tendencies?
But, additionally, some of the same factors precipitating overweight and obesity in more affluent individuals also have a role with low-income families: the tendency to calm a crying child with sweets, the insidious effect of omnipresent processed foods filled with sugar and trans fats and their aggressive advertising (a downside of India’s continued integration into global food markets), alcohol, tobacco, and a more sedentary lifestyle than had earlier been the case.
Although there is no reliable national data, there is evidence from local studies that childhood obesity is growing in India, with poorer children as affected as rich children.
(With inputs from AP/Newsflare.)
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