Fatty Liver in Children: Sweet things should be kept away from adults as well as children because it harms health in many ways. It would probably not be wrong to call sugar 'sweet poison', it can cause fatty liver. The amount of added sugar in packed food available in India is higher as compared to other countries, which can increase fat in the liver of even 9-year-old children. In the meeting of pediatricians and hepatologists in Mumbai, the focus was on the dangers of sugar intake.
Sugar is the enemy of children
“Sugar is a major culprit that gets converted into fat inside the liver,” Dr. Aabha Nagral told TOI. In overweight children or adults, this fat is unable to be metabolized due to pre-existing conditions like insulin resistance. Fatty liver is traditionally associated with alcoholics, but in the 1980s, doctors discovered that despite being non-alcoholic, excess fat was accumulating in the liver. This is how 'Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease' (NAFLD) got its name.
Fatty liver is common in obese children
NAFLD causes scarring, fibrosis, cirrhosis, or cancer. In the XXL generation, the age of onset of fatty liver has greatly decreased and its incidence is increasing. In a study conducted at the BMC-run Nair Hospital near Mumbai Central Railway Station, 62% of children found to be overweight or obese had fatty liver. The study, published in the indexed medical journal 'Annals of Hepatology', included 616 school children aged 11 to 15, of whom 198 were found to be overweight or obese.
Why is this disease increasing?
Dr Nehal Shah, president of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics, told TOI, "Lack of exercise, lack of rest, and easy access to junk food since Covid has increased the risk of obesity among young children. There is an increase in obesity in children with a body mass index of more than 25. We need to be cautious about fatty liver in our children.
Do not feed sugar to small children
Dr. Nehal further said, "According to IAP guidelines, salt should not be given to children up to one year and sugar should not be given to children up to 2 years. No parent is aware of fatty liver until the child experiences stomach ache or constipation. Do not go to the doctor with the complaint of fatty liver. Since its symptoms are not visible in the beginning, parents do not take fatty liver so seriously.
