What are the causes of obesity in children?

Childhood obesity has been increasing exponentially over the past few years. There are multiple causes of obesity in children which can be enumerated as follows-

• Diet- There has been a trend of consuming high calorie processed food which has replaced the traditional dietary choices. These are easily accessible, cheap and cause craving and addiction. These dietary choices in children especially when not curtailed by adults lead to increasing obesity.
• Lack of physical exercise- children these days are glued to their screens including laptops, television , mobile phones , etc. They prefer video games to sports and there is a lack of facility in most schools and residential areas for proper sporting activities. This causes a slow down of metabolism and consequent weight gain.
• Genetics- It has been observed that obesity runs in families and children of obese parents have almost a 50% chance of being obese. Dietary and lifestyle factors also play a role because family members tend to share similar food habits and eating patterns.
• Hormonal factors- deficiency of certain hormones such as growth hormone, thyroid hormone and sex hormones can lead to obesity especially in growing children. These need to identified by performing certain tests and then treated by consultation with an endocrinologist.
• Environmental and lifestyle factors- In the age of technology and automation, manual labour has become minuscule which leads to lesser burning of calories. In addition, there is caloric surplus because of high calorie, processed food which promotes weight gain