The most common causes of child obesity include lack of physical activity, unhealthy eating patterns and genetic factors. Sometimes, overweight is caused by a genetic disease or a hormonal disorder.

Its major risk factors are: an unbalanced diet, lack of physical activity, genetics, psychological factors (loneliness, stress or boredom) and social or family factors (eating outside home).

In addition, obese children may develop serious health problems, such as high blood pressure, abnormal blood lipid levels, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus, asthma, skin infections due to inactivity, joint pains, liver disease and neurological disorders.

Social and emotional fallout also can hurt your child. The main ones are low self-esteem, behavior and learning problems, depression, risks to health behaviors (smoking, alcohol, and drugs) and eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder).