Jane wakes up about 60 to 80 times a night just to breathe. Like most people with obstructive sleep apnea, Jane repeatedly stops breathing when she sleeps. Her eyes frequently hurt when looking at something far away; she has constant headaches and is always followed by a rushing sound in her ears.

These are common symptoms of Pseudotumor cerebri. It is a neurological disorder that results in a build up of cerebrospinal fluid around the brain and spinal cord causing serious intracranial pressure. Then there is hypertension, more commonly known as chronically high blood pressure. Jane has that too.

She also has to prick her fingertip with a needle everyday to check her blood glucose level. Jane has Type II diabetes and has to make sure her glucose level is normal so she doesn’t suffer from kidney or blood vessel damage. Jane has to sit in a booth at a restaurant and can’t pull down her tray table when she flies on an airplane.

Why is Jane plagued with so many problems? Jane is 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighs 310 pounds, giving her a body mass index of about 51.6. She is considered by almost all medical standards as morbidly obese. Jane is only 16-years-old.

Jane is not real but she is representative of the 15 percent of obese adolescents in the United States. The American Obesity Association defined adolescence as 12 to 19 years old.

According to Australia’s Sunday Mail, children as young as 14 are having gastric bypass surgery in an attempt to lose weight.

In America, the Texas Children’s hospital performs a laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. It is a procedure that staples the small, upper stomach pouch and restricts the amount of food a person can consume.

A middle school child can undergo the same surgery that American Idol judge Randy Jackson had when he was 47. This is scary. Childhood obesity has reached such epidemic proportions that teenagers are going under the knife for procedures more common amongst adults three times their age.

How did kids get this obese? Parents. Yes, there are genetic predispositions to weight gain and slower metabolism.

Those genetic factors do not account for nearly one in five children having a body mass index at or above the 95 percentile.

Children are born tabula rosa: a clean slate. They don’t know McDonalds from Subway or a Twinkie from a NutraGrain bar. It is the parents, those directly responsible for the welfare of their children, who introduce these novel food concepts.

Habits are made in early years and when a parent serves fries instead of peas it is easy to see where their child’s nutritional priorities are going to lie.

Parents who provide their son or daughter only with fat or processed foods are abusive. Frankly, they are slowly killing their children with calories and trans fats.

Sedentary behavior is another main cause of obesity. Parents need to encourage kids to get up and do something. A child sitting on the couch, mesmerized by a glowing screen is not an active child. Play catch, get them a soccer ball, take them swimming, it doesn’t take that much imagination.

Obese children and adolescents feel the weight of their problem at a tender age. Consequences of childhood obesity will follow a girl or boy to adulthood. These mothers and fathers should be ashamed.

By refusing to properly watch and regulate their child’s nutrition and exercise these parents have made their children susceptible to a whirlwind of health problems and societal stigma.

They have put them at risk for heart disease, osteoarthritis and stroke. Children have to go as far as invasive surgical procedures to correct the heavy damage.

This obesity epidemic is greatly facilitated by parental ignorance and indifference. A parent that so severely endangers their child’s health and welfare is nothing but neglectful.

Columnist: Margeaux Corby - 02/15/07