Overweight and obese children!!!

21June

I do agree that many children are overweight due to lack of exercise/ diet. I'm very lucky that my kids are active and when its good weather they are pushed outside and told go and play. I also restrict their snacks etc and they always ask before they take.

However please dont always judge the parents. I know of children who are very large for their weight and it would be very easy to blame their diet but actually have medical issues. I also know how hard it can get some children to eat healthily especially as I have two children on the autism spectrum and YES they would starve if you did not give them what they would only eat - one of my ending up the dietitians at 18 months as very underweight as she would only eat certain foods. We got told that although it was not the best diet it is better than her starving herself. I know cases of children that have ended up in hospital due to malnourishment due to sensory issues. I know most kids dont fit into this category and thankfully my children do eat a more varied diet but it has taken many years to get to that point but I was that mum feeding my daughter greggs as she was going through only eating suasage rolls stage.

Thank you for that, Are your kids overweight?

Capt_Apollo

good and bad habits start at home.

my brother and i were put a scoop of salad on our plates every night with dinner and were expected to finish it. and not fun salad either, i'm talking lettuce, tomato, onions, and oil and vinegar. no fun dressings or anything. my brother and i cringed with every bite, but we ate it. also most nights before dinner we would eat a carrot and our dessert was usually a sliced up apple or a banana.

having ice cream or cake for dessert was a special occasion kind of thing. actually, cake was a little more common because it would only be fresh homemade cake, so it was "better" for us. McDonalds was a super-special treat, like if we had a half day at school. we would only eat pizza on fridays.

the only junk food in the house was chocolate chip or oreo cookies, which our mother would give us 5-6 of them with a glass of milk after school most days. i mean, my parents weren't that cruel, lol.

of course a lot of my eating habits changed when i got to college and figured out i could eat cheesy fries every night if i wanted.

beccarockslife

wow there is a lot of judgy judgy elitist **** in this thread. Judging people you know no more than seeing them on the street makes you look bad and doesn't affect them one jot.

Kara_xxx

She also said that her 4 year old has also already had four teeth fillings.

My best friend is a senior dentist at a dental school and runs a pediatric clinic. She frequently sees children who need SUBSTANTIAL numbers of extractions due to dental caries quite clearly caused by constant eating of sweets and lack of parental supervision with personal hygiene. My friend is NOT allowed to criticise the parents, only to "advise" that constant cola, sweets and not cleaning their teeth before bed might not be a good plan for their dental health. She had an 9 year old girl who needed to have ALL her milk teeth removed in an attempt to ensure that the second set grew through without caries. I think that's despicable and worthy of a referral to social services, never mind a bit of gentle advice.

21June

I don't think the odd Greggs sausage roll here or there does any harm and kids need more fat % wise than adults but a completely bad diet is lack of control by the parents.

My very skinny kids (they never seemed to be full and yet always stayed very thin like all the kids in our family) were allowed sausage rolls as a treat straight from the shop if we were in town around lunch time (so no more than one or two days a week) but in the house we controlled the three main mains and the snacks until they reached older teens. So a chocolate biscuit would be in their lunch box along with fruit/salad and sandwiches.

I really do think it is parent control that is the issue. If your kids have a weight problem and are old enough to reach into the cupboard/fridge, DONT BUY unhealthy food for them to snack on. Far better than locking cupboards. Have large bowls of fruit and mini snacks like fish sticks etc around, give them packed lunches (including at grandma's) and don't allow them money to spend in shops on junk. By locking things in the cupboard you are increasing the interest of the child in the junk food so don't have anything in the house. Get the grandparents on board too or make alternative childcare arrangements.

Easier said than done with the grandparents, you can choose your friends but can't choose your family but thats another issue.....!

clarechieri

Urgh I hate kids running around restaurants. I actually had a woman come up to me in Costa the other day and say how nice it was to swe kids sitting down at a table and just talking for a change. I was slightly shocked as I've never thought anything of it as that's just how I've brought them up. (There 7, 4 and nearly 2)

As for overweight kids it breaks my heart as I know how it feels to be like that. I know a family who have a daughter my oldests age and she's very big. They where telling me that they can't do anything about it as she keeps making herself sandwiches between meals. I was like Wtf? Why the hell would you be letting a 7yr old help themselves from the fridge anyway? But she also makes her own cups of tea which is a whole other matter.

MessyLittlePanda

I used to work with overweight kids aged 8-16.

Some had never tried any fruit and veg. I mean, ANY. Everything they ate was varying shades of brown, and the only vegetables were baked beans. That's got to be parental choices and poor school food, mainly - teens have more control over what they eat, sure, but kids don't do the family shopping do they?

The other factor was poverty. Junk is cheap, and a lot of parents are not well educated about how they can make healthy balanced meals for less money - they perceive healthier food to be more expensive, and a lot of healthier items (leaner meat, for example) are more expensive, but they don't realise the food goes further. The kids were eating a lot of sugar and fat, but were frequently hungry, because junk doesn't fill you for long.

Educating the kids is one thing but the parents and sometimes wider family need to be educated also, encouraging families to be active together, parents to support their kids in playing for sport teams or clubs - a lot of parents we worked with couldn't be bothered with getting up early on a weekend for example to take their kids to play football, rugby, swimming club, whatever. I used to do swimming as a kid and I remember getting up at silly o'clock to go to swimming galas on the weekend - a lot of these parents won't do it, it's not money with all of them, though that is a factor for some, but they see weekends as their down time because often they are working hard in the week, so doing sports or taking the kids to do physical activities isn't a priority. Working parents often don't feel they see much of their kids, so they see these sorts of activities as eating into "family time" but "family time" tends to centre around watching TV and not really talking to one another, or going to KFC and having a family bucket. Working parents also tended to feel more guilt about spending less time with the kids and were more likely to buy more "treat foods" for the family. So it was about re-educating parents in how they can spend quality time with the kids, make nice healthy meals and get the kids involved, thereby spending more time together, or get out and do activities in the local area either for the kids or together. And seeing how positively their kids responded to achieving things in sport or physical activity often changed their minds about the idea of them joining clubs or teams.

paulkillen1

A local TV presenter did a feature on over weight kids in Northern Ireland. It was startling, that social services would very quickly check up on you if your child was under weight but NO ONE says boo if they are over weight. A University in England did a big piece of research, (mentioned here) with a south american tride of forest Indiginous population who only hunter gather foods, with no mechanisation at all. They found that even though they were active all day their metobolic rates were the same as us in Euro world.
The findings ....they didnt eat much !!!! apparently our bodies are hard wired to need only a certain amount of food. We eat way more than our bodies need, no matter how much we exercise.

21June

I used to work with overweight kids aged 8-16.

Some had never tried any fruit and veg. I mean, ANY. Everything they ate was varying shades of brown, and the only vegetables were baked beans. That's got to be parental choices and poor school food, mainly - teens have more control over what they eat, sure, but kids don't do the family shopping do they?

The other factor was poverty. Junk is cheap, and a lot of parents are not well educated about how they can make healthy balanced meals for less money - they perceive healthier food to be more expensive, and a lot of healthier items (leaner meat, for example) are more expensive, but they don't realise the food goes further. The kids were eating a lot of sugar and fat, but were frequently hungry, because junk doesn't fill you for long.

Educating the kids is one thing but the parents and sometimes wider family need to be educated also, encouraging families to be active together, parents to support their kids in playing for sport teams or clubs - a lot of parents we worked with couldn't be bothered with getting up early on a weekend for example to take their kids to play football, rugby, swimming club, whatever. I used to do swimming as a kid and I remember getting up at silly o'clock to go to swimming galas on the weekend - a lot of these parents won't do it, it's not money with all of them, though that is a factor for some, but they see weekends as their down time because often they are working hard in the week, so doing sports or taking the kids to do physical activities isn't a priority. Working parents often don't feel they see much of their kids, so they see these sorts of activities as eating into "family time" but "family time" tends to centre around watching TV and not really talking to one another, or going to KFC and having a family bucket. Working parents also tended to feel more guilt about spending less time with the kids and were more likely to buy more "treat foods" for the family. So it was about re-educating parents in how they can spend quality time with the kids, make nice healthy meals and get the kids involved, thereby spending more time together, or get out and do activities in the local area either for the kids or together. And seeing how positively their kids responded to achieving things in sport or physical activity often changed their minds about the idea of them joining clubs or teams.

Well said! but what about the common sense thing and recognising if your children and/or yourself are overweight?

Flab2fitfi

I do agree that many children are overweight due to lack of exercise/ diet. I'm very lucky that my kids are active and when its good weather they are pushed outside and told go and play. I also restrict their snacks etc and they always ask before they take.

However please dont always judge the parents. I know of children who are very large for their weight and it would be very easy to blame their diet but actually have medical issues. I also know how hard it can get some children to eat healthily especially as I have two children on the autism spectrum and YES they would starve if you did not give them what they would only eat - one of my ending up the dietitians at 18 months as very underweight as she would only eat certain foods. We got told that although it was not the best diet it is better than her starving herself. I know cases of children that have ended up in hospital due to malnourishment due to sensory issues. I know most kids dont fit into this category and thankfully my children do eat a more varied diet but it has taken many years to get to that point but I was that mum feeding my daughter greggs as she was going through only eating suasage rolls stage.

Thank you for that, Are your kids overweight?

I'm very lucky that mine are not. the ones without food issues eat very healthily and my oldest is very active which burns off some his terrible diet - he is slowly trying more foods but can be a struggle to get him to eat anything fruit/veg wise. My daughter is still underweight but getting closer to normal now - we have worked pout that we have to give her a small piece of our meal and she will try it and she is does eat more but some days she just does not want anything. We also dont have access to car during the day so they have to walk everywhere as I'm to tight to pay for the bus.

Flab2fitfi

I used to work with overweight kids aged 8-16.

Some had never tried any fruit and veg. I mean, ANY. Everything they ate was varying shades of brown, and the only vegetables were baked beans. That's got to be parental choices and poor school food, mainly - teens have more control over what they eat, sure, but kids don't do the family shopping do they?

I must admit I watched a tv programme on this once and could not believe that some parents did not know how to cook or what many fruit and veg were. I realise that I was very lucky to be bought up by dad who the only thing he fried was chips and eggs and he would experiment with all sorts.

MessyLittlePanda

My best friend is a senior dentist at a dental school and runs a pediatric clinic. She frequently sees children who need SUBSTANTIAL numbers of extractions due to dental caries quite clearly caused by constant eating of sweets and lack of parental supervision with personal hygiene. My friend is NOT allowed to criticise the parents, only to "advise" that constant cola, sweets and not cleaning their teeth before bed might not be a good plan for their dental health. She had an 9 year old girl who needed to have ALL her milk teeth removed in an attempt to ensure that the second set grew through without caries. I think that's despicable and worthy of a referral to social services, never mind a bit of gentle advice.

My ex-partner's daughter had this - most of her milk teeth filled or removed because they were so rotten. One of the reasons we broke up was his parenting style - if princess didn't want to do anything, such as eat anything other than nuggets and chips, drink anything other than coke, clean her teeth, tidy her toys away - she didn't have to do it. She ate sweets whenever she wanted. He didn't even wake up when she had to have 5 teeth removed and a filling in an ADULT tooth at the age of 11. She developed chronic constipation because her diet was so bad, she always had stomach ache, and that didn't wake him or his ex wife up to improve her diet and get her drinking more water. I couldn't bear it and as a step parent I had very little influence other than making suggestions and offering to help with a healthier lifestyle. Sometimes he would try, but he couldn't bear her being unhappy so would inevitably give in and she'd be back on the crap.

heatheramara

THANK YOU!!

My son is also "on the spectrum" and I have agonized over his relationship with food his whole life. There was literally a time when he would only eat chicken breast--and then he suddenly stopped eating it one day and actually threw up when I tried to make him swallow it.

Unfortunately, he was also saddled with my uber-slow, fat-hoarding metabolism. As he got older, I saw his palette expand gradually and with daily struggles from both me and his father, but his little waistline was also expanding! I have been torn and worried constantly over the desire to set a good example (I have) to be firm in food choices and indulgences (and I have) and to encourage the entire family to get more active (and we have.)

All of that didn't help, though. I kept losing the same 5 pounds over and over again, and so did he. Until, that is, we started the whole30 diet. He's ten years old now, and old enough to reason with. He understands the health issues surrounding obesity, and he also understands that he might not like all the veggies on his plate, but he's d$mned well going to clean it all, anyway...except for the extra bits I put on so that I can "give him a break" later but letting him eat only *half* the tomatoes, and then only if he eats ALL the carrots, green peppers and cucumbers and lettuce. He doesn't like dressing so I never put any on his, not even lemon juice.

Anyway, the upshot is, cutting out dairy, grains, preservatives, added sweeteners of any kinds (including honey), and sticking to it has resulted in consistent weight loss for both of us.

But it's taken 5 years of long, hard searching--struggling at every meal--and daily effort to get here.

So it really irks me when people who have been fortunate not have these struggles start using words like "disgusting" and "child abuse."

Kara_xxx

Well said! but what about the common sense thing and recognising if your children and/or yourself are overweight?

That's the problem... They don't. Studies time and time across various western countries reveal that parents are blind to child obesity and think their size is not a problem. When shown images of healthy weight children they often think they are underweight.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12226744

http://www.bodyandsoul.com.au/parenting+pregnancy/kids+health/parents+blind+to+childhood+obesity,6879

http://healthtopical.com/general-discussion-3/general-3-5779.html

castadiva

When I was a kid, we never had crap in the house. If you wanted a snack you had milk, fruit, vegetables, yogurt, cottage cheese, boiled eggs, whole wheat bread and peanut butter...stuff like that. Occasionally my mom would bake cookies, but she'd never buy those packaged garbage cookies from the store. Soda was a special occasion thing - something served at holiday parties only. No sugar cereals either. Kids eat what they're trained. If parents bring crap into the home, kids will eat it and learn to love it. Poor parenting in my opinion.

Or... the 'treat' foods become forbidden fruit and horrendously attractive, which can lead to eating in secret and serious issues around food. I'm all for moderation, but severely restricting children from eating and drinking things they are aware of friends and classmates having much more frequently can have the opposite effect to that intended.

My family had a similar approach to the one you describe, which led me to sneaking bags of chocolate chips from the baking cupboard, overindulging when my parents weren't around to supervise (at school, parties etc), eating more of the 'special' items when they were available than I would otherwise have done, drinking whole bottles of soda left over from parties and then replacing them with my pocket money etc etc etc, not so much because I wanted the sugar/fat, but because I wanted to be like everyone else in my class, and have the same experiences as they did. Learning to be proud of, and truly embrace your differences is a lesson typically learned much later in life!

Never underestimate kids' need to feel 'normal' and fit in, or their tendency to use differences in others as tools in defining social hierarchies. In retrospect, my mother's home-made muesli bars were probably just as calorific, though with more nutritional value, as a muesli bar from a shop, but the humiliation I felt as a child opening my lunchbox at school to find not a single 'status' shop-bought/recognisable-to-my-friends item was crippling. Yes, severe overweight in kids is a problem, but rigid or socially-exclusionary approaches to eating and food create their own problems too.

21June

I do agree that many children are overweight due to lack of exercise/ diet. I'm very lucky that my kids are active and when its good weather they are pushed outside and told go and play. I also restrict their snacks etc and they always ask before they take.

However please dont always judge the parents. I know of children who are very large for their weight and it would be very easy to blame their diet but actually have medical issues. I also know how hard it can get some children to eat healthily especially as I have two children on the autism spectrum and YES they would starve if you did not give them what they would only eat - one of my ending up the dietitians at 18 months as very underweight as she would only eat certain foods. We got told that although it was not the best diet it is better than her starving herself. I know cases of children that have ended up in hospital due to malnourishment due to sensory issues. I know most kids dont fit into this category and thankfully my children do eat a more varied diet but it has taken many years to get to that point but I was that mum feeding my daughter greggs as she was going through only eating suasage rolls stage.

Thank you for that, Are your kids overweight?

I'm very lucky that mine are not. the ones without food issues eat very healthily and my oldest is very active which burns off some his terrible diet - he is slowly trying more foods but can be a struggle to get him to eat anything fruit/veg wise. My daughter is still underweight but getting closer to normal now - we have worked pout that we have to give her a small piece of our meal and she will try it and she is does eat more but some days she just does not want anything. We also dont have access to car during the day so they have to walk everywhere as I'm to tight to pay for the bus.

Sounds like you're doing your best!

Flab2fitfi

THANK YOU!!

My son is also "on the spectrum" and I have agonized over his relationship with food his whole life. There was literally a time when he would only eat chicken breast--and then he suddenly stopped eating it one day and actually threw up when I tried to make him swallow it.

We used to buy things in bulk and then she would stop eating them - thing is she will eat all her school dinner but not at home - but she wont eat pack lunch at school.

kirsty_mc

This is a very interestesting topic. One which is very close to my own heart. I will open by saying that I am not obese or massively overweight, its vanity lbs I want to loose. I've also never been the "fat kid" in school or the last one to be picked for gym class.

I am 27 years of age and clearly remember my school days being filled with jealosy because other kids had huge "ring pops" or the fizzy space dust. I had some almonds, apples. celery etc etc. I also remember the first time I ever had cola. We were on a family holiday to Floria (Disney World) and we sat down for lunch and my mum ordered me a small coke. I was 11.

These days I am around children who, at 3 or 4 years of age, refuse water or diluted fruit juice because they only like fizzy pop. My boyfriend's nephew is 3 years old and his "favourite" drink is processed strawberry milkshake, with his "favourite" snack of a bag of crisps and a kit kat. He still plays around like any other 3 year old, but I tried to offer him some water and he actually threw it back at me out the cup, delaring he wants "fizz coke, not this".

Are the kids to blame? I think not, children are not educated enough at home or at school to make nutritional choices from an early ages, thats why the adults around them need to be. Should children be fed processed foods pumped full of hormones, chemicals and sugar? Certainly not, but if thats what their parents buy them then the poor mite has no choice.

My boyfriend has a DREADFUL diet all because when he was younger his mother refused to cook any vegetables because she didnt like them. She totally disregarded the fact that he children might, and subconciously turned them against anything green from a young young age.

Personally I feel that parents who feed their children fast foods, frozen processed meals and fizzy drinks should be punished. Its child abuse. It is no more expensive buying fresh, healthy food than it is to buy McDonalds 7 nights a week for your family.

ktsmom430

It seems like there are a lot of comments here by people from the UK. By the media stories in the US I thought this was only a problem in the US.
Judgemental. Fair or unfair. Parents fault, food manufacturers and suppliers, society, one or all of the above? Video games, computers to blame?
Labels. I am an old lady, and just began to really read them when I started on here. Our children are being raised on over processed food with way too much sweeteners, sodium and preservatives added. Who is responsible? Ultimately the parents. Everyone's metabolism is different, even children's I assume. We all know people that can eat anything and not gain. Likewise it seems that all I have to do is look at something and gain weight. Maybe it is something to do with the genes you inherited that makes your metabolism different.
I think it is a combination of things, and the solution is not easy, as many of us folks here know.
Show compassion for the very difficult times all these children, and adults have to face. We are trying to change at MFP, hopefully parents can help their children with this problem.

castadiva

Anyway, the upshot is, cutting out dairy, grains, preservatives, added sweeteners of any kinds (including honey), and sticking to it has resulted in consistent weight loss for both of us.

Um, I'm really glad this has helped with your joint weight-loss, and I can't imagine the challenges you face daily, but have you checked with your son's primary care doctor that cutting out dairy and grains is safe for him when he's so young? Dairy especially? Diets intended for adults sometimes don't provide adequate nutrition for kids, who need higher concentrations of certain elements in their diet. Just a thought.