Overweight and obese children!!!

The older I get and the more evidence i see I truly beleive that obesity is a form of malnutrition. The pre packeged foods and junk being put on store shelves is basically empty calories devoid of actual nutrition.

When these empty calories are consumed they do not satisfy the nutrition the body actually needs and the body knows this, so it tells the brain you need to eat more, when all that is available is more empty calories the empty useless calories build and build and the whole time the body isnt getting what it needs which leads to more and more health problems and the hunger is never satiated.

All I have done is cut sugar out of my diet, and tried to get the majority of my calories from as fresh a source as I can, ie fresh veggies fruits and no packaged anything. I've dropped 40 pounds in the last six months with in my opinion very little effort.

I don't know, I have mixed feelings. Of course parents have to take responsibility and sometimes with overweight kids they have neglected to do this, or are just very ill informed. BUT, I was an overweight child, and my family did try to help, but even though I was a kid I still had my own mind and autonomy and I found ways to overeat. I think when the child is very young it is hard not to solely blame the parent, but even from quite young kids, they are able to sneak in the cupboards (i did!) which is why it gets extreme like putting locks on. Kids can be clever and find ways. By the time they are going to school alone, it gets very hard to control and you can't really restrict a child's entire freedom.

I think also parents find it hard to see their child as overweight. My mother was like that, she thinks I was too perfect, haha! I think parents have to set a good example (by that I do NOT mean overweight people are bad parents though), give the child access to healthy food and exercise and try and do what they can, but I do think it is hard if the child really seems to have a big urge to eat.
xxxx

My 14 yr old daughter is overweight- 5'9 and about 200lbs right now. We couldn't figure out what was going on- I need to lose weight but we don't have a lot of junk in our house and what junk we do have i keep in my room in a locked box because my daughter used to binge eat in the middle of the night (side affect of some meds she was on for ADHD). I would make and send my daughters lunch to school with her (school food here is crap), all stuff she likes but healthy foods. I found out in June that a friend of hers would bring in huge amount of candy and junk food every day (7-8 candy bags, bags of chips, 6 pack of soda etc) and share it with her friends. My daughter was eating 2 candy bars, drinking 2 sodas and eating handfuls of chips ALONG with her lunch every day. In the month and a half since I have found out my daughter has dropped 10lbs..... I feel like a complete failure as a parent for her being as big as she is yet there is really NOTHING I can do to keep her from eating all this junk her friend brings to school. BTW last Sept she was 5'7 and weighed 160. On the flip side of that my son is 8 yrs old 4'4 and 64lbs- which puts him right where he should be.

My daughter also doesn't get to sit in front of the tv or a computer all day- I make both of my kids spend as much time outside as the weather allows. I limit video games ta a few hours a week (usually only when we are in the car or after dark) there is NO tv allowed between 10Am and 8PM during summer time, she also doesn't have a cell phone to sit and text her friends all day long- she will sit and read outside or draw for hours if my attention is on something else and I don't catch her. She loves to walk to the library and does so several times a week as well as walks to the store if I need something (each only a 1/4 to 1/3 mile round trip), and will spend hours playing in the pool.

Not every child who is overweight or obese is the parents fault- I hate being overweight and have tried very hard to provide good, healthy food for my children. I know what it feels like to be "skinny" and what it feels like to be "fat" (I am at my heaviest ever yet when I was 17 I was only 125).

On the flip side of this coin I do know parents who feed their kids crap, an old neighbor has a child who is about 4 and weighs 140lbs- the mom and grandma are quite heavy (both over 350 and less than 5'4), so I do know why people get angry at the parents of kids who are overweight. All I am trying to say is to not judge the parents by the kids weight- there may be factors you don't know. Now kids with horrible manners... judge the parents (as long as it isn't the horrible teen years when kids to whatever they can to make their parents look bad).

My daughter was eating 2 candy bars, drinking 2 sodas and eating handfuls of chips ALONG with her lunch every day. In the month and a half since I have found out my daughter has dropped 10lbs..... I feel like a complete failure as a parent for her being as big as she is yet there is really NOTHING I can do to keep her from eating all this junk her friend brings to school. BTW last Sept she was 5'7 and weighed 160. On the flip side of that my son is 8 yrs old 4'4 and 64lbs- which puts him right where he should be.

Have you spoken to the school about this? Surely by doing so they could then contact the parents of this child? Failing that tell your daughter to find some new friends....

putting kids on diets is just sick.
your son is not overweight, it doesn`t matter if they`re a little on the chubby side when they`re still young and growing as long as that stops when they`re fully grown.

What a load of rubbish. We now see levels of paediatric obesity that cause joint and bone deformities such as tibia vara which are incredibly complicated and painful to correct. how can you say that's not a problem, when kids get so fat at such a young age that their little growing legs are bending in places they shouldn't because of the weight they carry????? :explode:

Yes I talked to both the school and the girls parents- the school can do nothing, the parents just don't care they give the girl $20 every day to buy whatever she wants and then ignore her. She came to our house for a sleep over in June and was shocked to see spagetti that didn't come from a can or sauce that didn't come from a jar. Apperently her parents don't cook and veggies aren't something she is exposed to at home.

My 14 yr old daughter is overweight- 5'9 and about 200lbs right now. We couldn't figure out what was going on- I need to lose weight but we don't have a lot of junk in our house and what junk we do have i keep in my room in a locked box because my daughter used to binge eat in the middle of the night (side affect of some meds she was on for ADHD). I would make and send my daughters lunch to school with her (school food here is crap), all stuff she likes but healthy foods. I found out in June that a friend of hers would bring in huge amount of candy and junk food every day (7-8 candy bags, bags of chips, 6 pack of soda etc) and share it with her friends. My daughter was eating 2 candy bars, drinking 2 sodas and eating handfuls of chips ALONG with her lunch every day. In the month and a half since I have found out my daughter has dropped 10lbs..... I feel like a complete failure as a parent for her being as big as she is yet there is really NOTHING I can do to keep her from eating all this junk her friend brings to school. BTW last Sept she was 5'7 and weighed 160. On the flip side of that my son is 8 yrs old 4'4 and 64lbs- which puts him right where he should be.

My daughter also doesn't get to sit in front of the tv or a computer all day- I make both of my kids spend as much time outside as the weather allows. I limit video games ta a few hours a week (usually only when we are in the car or after dark) there is NO tv allowed between 10Am and 8PM during summer time, she also doesn't have a cell phone to sit and text her friends all day long- she will sit and read outside or draw for hours if my attention is on something else and I don't catch her. She loves to walk to the library and does so several times a week as well as walks to the store if I need something (each only a 1/4 to 1/3 mile round trip), and will spend hours playing in the pool.

Not every child who is overweight or obese is the parents fault- I hate being overweight and have tried very hard to provide good, healthy food for my children. I know what it feels like to be "skinny" and what it feels like to be "fat" (I am at my heaviest ever yet when I was 17 I was only 125).

On the flip side of this coin I do know parents who feed their kids crap, an old neighbor has a child who is about 4 and weighs 140lbs- the mom and grandma are quite heavy (both over 350 and less than 5'4), so I do know why people get angry at the parents of kids who are overweight. All I am trying to say is to not judge the parents by the kids weight- there may be factors you don't know. Now kids with horrible manners... judge the parents (as long as it isn't the horrible teen years when kids to whatever they can to make their parents look bad).

I know how you feel. My 13yo daughter went to secondary school a healthy weight, then started piling on weight. We have discovered in the 2 years she has been there, she quite happily finishes her friends' lunches. So I feed her healthily here, send her to school with a packed lunch, and she still manages to find a way to sneak food and get bigger. She's 5'5 and 150lbs which isn't hideously overweight, but when you look at her siblings and what she used to be the difference really shows. My 12yo son is 5'3 and 80lbs, for example! It is so hard when they are not around to get them to make healthy decisions.

My 14 yr old daughter is overweight- 5'9 and about 200lbs right now. We couldn't figure out what was going on- I need to lose weight but we don't have a lot of junk in our house and what junk we do have i keep in my room in a locked box because my daughter used to binge eat in the middle of the night (side affect of some meds she was on for ADHD). I would make and send my daughters lunch to school with her (school food here is crap), all stuff she likes but healthy foods. I found out in June that a friend of hers would bring in huge amount of candy and junk food every day (7-8 candy bags, bags of chips, 6 pack of soda etc) and share it with her friends. My daughter was eating 2 candy bars, drinking 2 sodas and eating handfuls of chips ALONG with her lunch every day. In the month and a half since I have found out my daughter has dropped 10lbs..... I feel like a complete failure as a parent for her being as big as she is yet there is really NOTHING I can do to keep her from eating all this junk her friend brings to school. BTW last Sept she was 5'7 and weighed 160. On the flip side of that my son is 8 yrs old 4'4 and 64lbs- which puts him right where he should be.

My daughter also doesn't get to sit in front of the tv or a computer all day- I make both of my kids spend as much time outside as the weather allows. I limit video games ta a few hours a week (usually only when we are in the car or after dark) there is NO tv allowed between 10Am and 8PM during summer time, she also doesn't have a cell phone to sit and text her friends all day long- she will sit and read outside or draw for hours if my attention is on something else and I don't catch her. She loves to walk to the library and does so several times a week as well as walks to the store if I need something (each only a 1/4 to 1/3 mile round trip), and will spend hours playing in the pool.

Not every child who is overweight or obese is the parents fault- I hate being overweight and have tried very hard to provide good, healthy food for my children. I know what it feels like to be "skinny" and what it feels like to be "fat" (I am at my heaviest ever yet when I was 17 I was only 125).

On the flip side of this coin I do know parents who feed their kids crap, an old neighbor has a child who is about 4 and weighs 140lbs- the mom and grandma are quite heavy (both over 350 and less than 5'4), so I do know why people get angry at the parents of kids who are overweight. All I am trying to say is to not judge the parents by the kids weight- there may be factors you don't know. Now kids with horrible manners... judge the parents (as long as it isn't the horrible teen years when kids to whatever they can to make their parents look bad).

I know how you feel. My 13yo daughter went to secondary school a healthy weight, then started piling on weight. We have discovered in the 2 years she has been there, she quite happily finishes her friends' lunches. So I feed her healthily here, send her to school with a packed lunch, and she still manages to find a way to sneak food and get bigger. She's 5'5 and 150lbs which isn't hideously overweight, but when you look at her siblings and what she used to be the difference really shows. My 12yo son is 5'3 and 80lbs, for example! It is so hard when they are not around to get them to make healthy decisions.

Do you know why she eats so much? If you can try and control it now before she gets bigger (actually I should say if your daughter can try and control it). Does she talk to you about her weight, if she is happy with it or not? Being overweight/obese is in your younger years would really hold you back in life.

My grand daughter is over weight for her age, she is almost 5 and weighs somewhere around 65 pounds... before you start blaming the parents she has a lot going against her which attributes to her weight.. she was diognosed with ashma last year shortly after her 4th birthday, spent 4 days in ICU during her first hospital stay of 7 days and a few months later another 4 days in the hospital. The meds they give her cause her to retain fluid and as my son calls her " she turns into an eating machine" it's all about the foods they give her during these times that matter I guess. Her mom is overweight (Obese) as is her intire family so she has genitics against her also. They are trying to do what is best for Hayden, dance and swimming for exercise, getting rid of the junk she eats in the house, one of the biggest I suggested is all the juice boxes, nothing but empty calories... since she will be starting 4K in a few weeks I am worried that she will be the kid that gets picked on, and it breaks my heart, she's really proud right now though, she has lost 4 pounds since they reduced the steriods she needs to take which is exciting and it's sad that at almost 5 she realizes her weight is a problem. she told me not to try and pick her up like I do her older cousins, she's too heavy... I love my little girl..

I feel sorry for her. Perhaps natural therapies may work for the asthma. Sometimes no choice but to take steroids. My son was on steroids too for a while.

I'm too busy to read the original post or any of the replies. Time is money!

But based on the title, I can tell exactly what the point is.

To be clear, overweight and obese children are fantastic and actually ideal.

My thoughts:

-ample sized roasting pan
-3 chopped potatoes
-2 chopped onions
-4 diced cloves of garlic
-3 tablespoons of oil (the fat is a natural moistener when it cooks, but this helps crisp the skin)
-sprinkle rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper, and cinnamon
-3 boxes of stove top stuffing, insert before cooking

30 min/lb at 350 degrees. Remember to baste frequently.