Statistics compiled by the U.S. Center for Disease Control have shown that 31% of San Antonio residents are obese and 65% are overweight, prompting the American Obesity Association to dub the Texas town “the fattest city in the U.S.” To remedy this troubling trend, doctors and health care professionals are attempting to treat obesity by focusing on the diet and exercise habits of San Antonio’s smallest citizens. They feel that instilling proper eating and exercise habits in children as early as 0-3 years old is vital in the fight against obesity. It is believed that enforcing these habits during the important formative years will increase their chances of staying fit and eating healthy as they grow, habits they hope will continue as they become adults.

This trend could prove to be very helpful in a city where obesity levels far exceed national norms, even among the very young. This fact was concluded following a study conducted by the University of Texas Department of Pediatrics of 7200 children in San Antonio, from kindergarten through 12^th grade. A more recent study of low-income children under the age of three in San Antonio, Corpus Christi and Austin found that 35% were overweight and obese, and at risk for diabetes and other serious health problems, including heart disease.

Programs such as Bienestar in San Antonio are being developed to help children lose weight and avoid future health problems by improving their diet and increasing physical activity. However, in order to build proper diet and exercise habits during childhood, “it’s going to take physicians to support the idea, and it’s going to take parents to carry it out by setting a good model for their children,” according to Dr. Henry McGill, a pathologist at the Southwestern Foundation for Biomedical Research.

He also supports the idea that the best way to help children is through healthier diets and more exercise, rather than with medication after complications have already arisen. This is important as children grow through adolescence and into adulthood, as research is showing that overweight children are suffering physically as well as psychologically. By early adolescence, overweight children are “significantly sadder, lonelier, and more nervous” than children with normal weights, and they may also be more susceptible to alcohol and tobacco use as teens.

Experts in the field of childhood obesity agree that the solution lies in the actions of the parents. Parents have to be realistic and admit that their child may be obese, and they also have to be determined to do something before bad habits are formed. Nutritionist Peggy Visio, a special project coordinator at the University of Texas Health Science center at San Antonio, believes in working through adults rather than children, because “ if you just teach the child, it puts all the burden on them…you can’t send the child home to teach the family.”