The month of September is dedicated to help fight and raise awareness about childhood obesity.

National Childhood Obesity Month began in September of 2010 and Monica Nyman, with the St. Louis Dairy Council, explains the month gives local communities a chance to find solutions to fix the problem. She says First Lady Michelle Obama has been in the forefront of fighting the epidemic.

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Childhood obesity has gained in great numbers over the last three decades and Nyman says kids who are overweight will be more likely to remain that way into adulthood. Obesity could lead to many health problems as one gets older.

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One of the major reasons for the recent wave of childhood obesity is larger portion sizes of food, a lack of excercise, and technology. Most kids do not receive the necessary amount of physical activity that they did 10-20 years ago which means children don't get the opportunities to burn off the calories they take in when eating.

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Nyman says most kids only need to have a maximum time 1-2 hours of TV or computer time a day.

For more information on National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, you can visit www.stldairycouncil.org.