CHILDHOOD OBESITY
Replies
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It makes me especiallly sad when some of the kids you see are so so young,
at the younger ages the parents have full control of what they feed their children the majority of the time.0 -
There are very very few conditions that cause children to be overweight, and diabetes is not one of them, if anything, type 2 diabetes is caused by diet, not the other way around. I work in child health and in almost all cases children who are very overweight are overfed and don't take enough exercise, that is the bottom line.
Parents have no idea about portion sizes and how little a child needs in comparison with an adult, a childs stomach is the size of it's own fist, and if overfed it will grow, and thus need more to fill it, and thus feel more hungry...a vicious circle. Many parents 'love' with food, reward with food, use food as a way to pacify etc
Food does not equal love...I never reward my children or grandchildren with food or sweets, love is taking care of someone, not feeding them, its just that so many parents think that by feeding their child 'well' they are being good parents, it does not work like that, and it breaks my heart at how well intentioned so many women are, they will sit with me telling me their child eats next to nothing, when the child is clearly over weight, unfit and does not do enough activity...We are trying to educate parents, but there is a great deal of resistance and anger
I agree with this. I still remember getting milkshakes with Mum after school once when I was upset because I came last (again) in a school running race. I just don't think she realised and admitting I was overweight might implicate her in some way - that is not an easy thing for somebody who genuinely loves their child to do. Even now she says I don't need to lose weight. It's OK though - yes I think I missed out on some things other kids did because I was overweight - but hey - life is all an experience and buying single figured size clothing wouldn't feel nearly so awesome if I had been this skinny all my life!0 -
I took my son to a children's party today, it was at one I those fun factory kids places and was all catered for and yoour not actualy allowed to take your own stuff in.
In my opinion the food was pretty crap to start with, the basic kids party food , but fine what ever rs just a one off type thing.
But there was a woman there who had taken a heap of stuff in her handbag, her two kids were noticeably a lot bigger than the others there, every time they went to get a drink she would fill their glasses with coke or soft drink even though they seemed perfectly happy with the water the other kids were having,
And when it came time for them all to sit at the tables and eat their food, her kids were happy to have the same as the others, but she piled their plated up with stuff from her hand bag like crisps and Lollies.
I found this really sad.
The kids were all about 5Years old at the party
That's horrible! :frown: That's 100% the parent's doing, not the poor child's.0 -
Thyroid problems and diabetes can make a child obese
Diabetes doesnt make a child obese, being obese increases the likelihood of having diabetes (type 2 that is). Its cause and effect. Also its a common misconception that only fat people can get type II diabetes. Diabetes would only increase the likelihood of gaining weight, not cause weight gain. It can easily be counteracted by good diet and regular exercise like in anyone.
I have been diagnosed as pre-diabetic and have an underactive thyroid and have never been heavier than 120lbs. Again exercise and good diet counteract any weight that I should have gained from the conditions- also without the help of medication.
People who blame medical conditions infuriate me.0 -
I'm with you we can control what our children eat and their activity levels. I have a cousin who is 17 and was never taught to eat properly, she already has type II diabetes. Her parents were always to afraid to help her take control. While I don't think we should push kids to the point of disordered eating etc, you have to be a parent. As for hypothyroid etc, yes get checked for things like that but know that ultimately it is the responsibilty to get the kid eating right and moving more.0
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I agree. It is awful to see an obese 2 or 3 year old toddler. They are not responsible for their food choices. Healthy eating initiatives in school are a waste of time too because, once again, the government is placing responsibility on the wrong shoulders - the kids! Parents need to be educated on healthy eating. When you buy a dog you learn about what you feed it and how much for god's sake! I was at the zoo a few years ago and saw a mother with her very obese child looking at monkeys. The child had a huge bag of crisps and he was about to throw one over to the monkeys. The mother grabbed his arm and told him not too. When the kid asked why, she responded, "because crisps are not good for them and will make them ill". Eh, so it's not OK to give an animal one but it is OK for your 6 or 7 year old child to have a whole family-sized pack to himself???It makes me especiallly sad when some of the kids you see are so so young,
at the younger ages the parents have full control of what they feed their children the majority of the time.0 -
There are very very few conditions that cause children to be overweight, and diabetes is not one of them, if anything, type 2 diabetes is caused by diet, not the other way around. I work in child health and in almost all cases children who are very overweight are overfed and don't take enough exercise, that is the bottom line.
Parents have no idea about portion sizes and how little a child needs in comparison with an adult, a childs stomach is the size of it's own fist, and if overfed it will grow, and thus need more to fill it, and thus feel more hungry...a vicious circle. Many parents 'love' with food, reward with food, use food as a way to pacify etc
Food does not equal love...I never reward my children or grandchildren with food or sweets, love is taking care of someone, not feeding them, its just that so many parents think that by feeding their child 'well' they are being good parents, it does not work like that, and it breaks my heart at how well intentioned so many women are, they will sit with me telling me their child eats next to nothing, when the child is clearly over weight, unfit and does not do enough activity...We are trying to educate parents, but there is a great deal of resistance and anger
this ^^0 -
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I was bigger as a child, but not fat really, but when I got to my teens I put on loads of weight and I got really big. I don't know why really as my mum has always made healthy food and we never had take-aways, plus she didn't learn to drive until I was 14 so we walked everywhere, and I did swimming, badminton etc.
I did lose loads of weight when I went to university, but I hardly ate at all, and walked or cycled everywhere,
My parents are overweight - my dad is massive - and both my grandmas were overweight etc. I have to work incredibly hard at being thinner, as do my brother and sister. I've put weight on over the past few years from having 2 children close together, but have managed to lose it again. I am just predisposed to weight gain unfortunately.
It does scare me that my children will end up overweight, but I think I know a lot now about nutrition and exercise. Luckily, so far, my kids are both tall and slim. My 3 year old is way above average height, and underweight for his height. He doesn't eat a lot, and won't even eat chocolate! The only thing he asks for when we go to the supermarket is alpro soya chocolate milkshake and yoghurt! His favourite foods (apart from milkshake and yoghurt!) are baked beans, scrambled egg, broccoli, banana, chicken, fishcakes, melon and tuna!
My 16 month old will eat anything, but she loves fruit and veg, so she is easy to give healthy meals to. She really loves peas, grapes, carrots, strawberries, fishcakes and banana.
Both children are incredibly active and my son can walk for miles. He stopped sitting in a stroller not long after he turned 2. I hardly ever use my car because we just walk everywhere.
So I do think it's up to parents to lead by example, and obviously parents are in charge of what their children eat, and it upsets me when you see a child sitting in a stroller eating Mcdonalds fries, but I also think that some kids will be overweight no matter what. I will be making sure my kids continue to be active and as soon as they're old enough they'll do some sort of lessons. My son will start gymnastics soon as he loves it.0 -
This is a hard one
- some parents are just irresponsible
- some children eat secretly (thinking high school age here)
- some refuse to eat certain foods... - thinking my little sisters friend here, shes really skinny, but will only eat pizza, chicken, crisps, chips, and chocolate...
- emotional eating can apply to children as well as adults
- sometimes guilt = chocolate and sweeties
the last two apply to me i was tiny with waist length blonde hair till i was about 7, then stuff happened in the family and i started to refuse to go to school, i was dragged there in tears every day, "you can have this... or that.... or anything if you will just go to school... "
you cant tar everyone with the same brush... parents have a hard enough job as it is sometimes...0 -
I was bigger as a child, but not fat really, but when I got to my teens I put on loads of weight and I got really big. I don't know why really as my mum has always made healthy food and we never had take-aways, plus she didn't learn to drive until I was 14 so we walked everywhere, and I did swimming, badminton etc.
I did lose loads of weight when I went to university, but I hardly ate at all, and walked or cycled everywhere,
My parents are overweight - my dad is massive - and both my grandmas were overweight etc. I have to work incredibly hard at being thinner, as do my brother and sister. I've put weight on over the past few years from having 2 children close together, but have managed to lose it again. I am just predisposed to weight gain unfortunately.
It does scare me that my children will end up overweight, but I think I know a lot now about nutrition and exercise. Luckily, so far, my kids are both tall and slim. My 3 year old is way above average height, and underweight for his height. He doesn't eat a lot, and won't even eat chocolate! The only thing he asks for when we go to the supermarket is alpro soya chocolate milkshake and yoghurt! His favourite foods (apart from milkshake and yoghurt!) are baked beans, scrambled egg, broccoli, banana, chicken, fishcakes, melon and tuna!
My 16 month old will eat anything, but she loves fruit and veg, so she is easy to give healthy meals to. She really loves peas, grapes, carrots, strawberries, fishcakes and banana.
Both children are incredibly active and my son can walk for miles. He stopped sitting in a stroller not long after he turned 2. I hardly ever use my car because we just walk everywhere.
So I do think it's up to parents to lead by example, and obviously parents are in charge of what their children eat, and it upsets me when you see a child sitting in a stroller eating Mcdonalds fries, but I also think that some kids will be overweight no matter what. I will be making sure my kids continue to be active and as soon as they're old enough they'll do some sort of lessons. My son will start gymnastics soon as he loves it.
And your kids will thank you for it. Well done on some great parenting there Dawnie. Wish there were more, responsible parents like you...0 -
The thing I find is that its portion size more than anything, as people do try to feed good things to their children, healthy stuff has calories too, and a massive plate of healthy food is a massive plate, and although its healthy, its still calories that will turn into fat on a child and then once those fat pockets are laid down, all their lives they will have to be more careful over what they eat, because the fat cells are sitting waiting to be filled right back up again.
I am much more aware of my own portion sizes, and when I compare what I used to eat and what I eat now, I know I was eating far too much...not anything to do with good or bad, just TOO MUCH
and to top it all, I did too little.
Children can eat Mrdonalds, its fine, they just should have them now and again, and only a happy meal, not a big meal...and they need protein the size of their palm, and a fist size portion of carb and a fist size portion of veg or fruit
get a small plate for your child, a small bowl, a small mug....they are small..they need to eat less than you think. Nobody is fat in places where there are famine, and i know that is not the issue, but NOBODY is overweight without eating too much, even if its just fruit and veg, if you eat too many calories and don't burn enough, you gain weight.
Most overweight children come from overweight families, although this is not always true, and they are overweight not because of what they eat, but how much.0 -
I completely agree. I think many kids are now emotionally turning to food for many reasons (a whole other post topic) and parenting is a tough job at the best of times. My issue is with the parents of 2 or 3 year old obese toddlers. How on earth can that happen? Who buys the food? Who decides what the child eats? The parents of course.This is a hard one
- some parents are just irresponsible
- some children eat secretly (thinking high school age here)
- some refuse to eat certain foods... - thinking my little sisters friend here, shes really skinny, but will only eat pizza, chicken, crisps, chips, and chocolate...
- emotional eating can apply to children as well as adults
- sometimes guilt = chocolate and sweeties
the last two apply to me i was tiny with waist length blonde hair till i was about 7, then stuff happened in the family and i started to refuse to go to school, i was dragged there in tears every day, "you can have this... or that.... or anything if you will just go to school... "
you cant judge everyone with the same brush... parents have a hard enough job as it is sometimes...0 -
Some kids are obese because of bad parenting, other are most certainly not.
My oldest brother, for instance. He was overweight the day he was born and was the fat kid at his school every year thereafter. I lived in the same house with him. I saw what our mother fed us. We didn't eat sweets because we were poor, basically. We ate all the same things (normal stuff, and NEVER huge portions) and I was never overweight as a child. Our other two brothers were downright skinny. Neither one of *them* worked out purposely or played team sports. So why were we all OK and he was not? Explain that with the BS bad parenting excuse.
My mother still blames part of his problems on a special "diet" his pediatrician put him on where he basically ordered her to overfeed him as a baby (in 1971, when doctors were more quack than anything.) She thinks it screwed with his metabolism at a critical point. He's also pretty short for a guy. But incidentally, he has less of a weight problem as an adult than he did as a child/teen, with basically the same lifestyle. Some kids are just fat and then they grow out of it for whatever reason.0 -
These are really good... iv seen the one before but find myself watching it again anyway lol
(i went to leeds met!)0 -
This is an extremely complicated issue, but one of them is the desire to protect your children from accidents and crime, and the way society punishes parents who do not watch or control their children all the time.
When I grew up I would walk to school every morning, and home every day. It was a 30 minute walk in each direction, and the only kids to go to school by car were the kids whose parents drove in that direction at the right time anyway - which were not many. Later, when I went to school further away, I'd walk to the bus, or ride my bike.
I'd also walk the same distance again later in the day (or ride the bike) for band practice, girl scouts, etc. To meet friends I walked all around the neighbourhood, and when hanging out we were mostly outdoors. I ate anything I could get my hands on, and was so skinny the school nurse was worried about me. We were all skinny, except a couple of girls who were a bit more controlled and pampered - and one who was one of the top elite swimmers in our country, but she was all muscle.
Today, letting children and youths be that uncontrolled is just about unthinkable. We don't let them roam as we did, we drive them to school because it's too dangerous to walk (because of all the other parents driving their kids to school), we make play-dates and take them there, we worry about them being out on their own.
Add to this the much higher degree of hidden carbohydrates and calories in meals, the lack of knowledge about the connection between cooking and nutrition, and the easy access to soda and sweets (sweets were for Saturdays, cakes for birthdays, white bread for sick old women with no teeth), and we are well on our way to childhood obesity, before we get started on talking about neglect and abuse. Actually, in many countries parents treating their children the way I grew up would be accused of neglect, and we'd all be saved by some well-meaning agency.
I don't want to claim things were better back then. We may have had a bit too much of a free reign. But things were different, and it was really had to become obese when you were walking, running or hiking 2-3 hours every day, for duties and for fun.0 -
Of course there will always be cases where bad diet is not the cause, in the same way as not all overweight adults are overweight from an unhealthy lifestyle. However cases like your brother's are the exception, not the rule.Some kids are obese because of bad parenting, other are most certainly not.
My oldest brother, for instance. He was overweight the day he was born and was the fat kid at his school every year thereafter. I lived in the same house with him. I saw what our mother fed us. We didn't eat sweets because we were poor, basically. We ate all the same things (normal stuff, and NEVER huge portions) and I was never overweight as a child. Our other two brothers were downright skinny. Neither one of *them* worked out purposely or played team sports. So why were we all OK and he was not? Explain that with the BS bad parenting excuse.
My mother still blames part of his problems on a special "diet" his pediatrician put him on where he basically ordered her to overfeed him as a baby (in 1971, when doctors were more quack than anything.) She thinks it screwed with his metabolism at a critical point. He's also pretty short for a guy. But incidentally, he has less of a weight problem as an adult than he did as a child/teen, with basically the same lifestyle. Some kids are just fat and then they grow out of it for whatever reason.0 -
While I agree with parenting skills /education being the major contributor to childhood obesity, our school cafeteria was an empty carb fat fest of food.
Secondly, our phys ed /gym classes were all about competing against others instead of recreational /weight training. Wouldn't you have loved to have gone to gym in primary school and danced to the wiggles rather than being the clumsy kid at dodge ball or jump rope? wouldn't Junior High Gym have been more fun with gearing up for a charity 5k rather than "just" seeing who had the best time to go to the district track meet? Heck, a few zumba classes thrown in? Our schools are coming a long way, and I love sports, but I am all about keeping recreational sports / activities mainstream in our life long learning/enjoyment. We should give kids medals for the number of steps they walk during the school year, or how they have bettered their times. Find a way to help children grow into adults who feel good about staying fit!
I made the junior high basketball team but didn't play sports in high school. My school allowed marching band as our PE hours. We had a health class, but honestly, I think from kindergarten up part of the education should be about those walking for 20 minutes a day and nutrition. And I write emails to our school district and congress expressing my views regularly.
I know schools have come a long way, but it is one thing to read in class about how to be fit, it is another to reinforce in what the school cafeteria serves and what activities are offered in gym class.0 -
There are many factors but in some cases it is not the patents' fault more than it is when a child is anorexic.0
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While I agree with parenting skills /education being the major contributor to childhood obesity, our school cafeteria was an empty carb fat fest of food.
Secondly, our phys ed /gym classes were all about competing against others instead of recreational /weight training. Wouldn't you have loved to have gone to gym in primary school and danced to the wiggles rather than being the clumsy kid at dodge ball or jump rope? wouldn't Junior High Gym have been more fun with gearing up for a charity 5k rather than "just" seeing who had the best time to go to the district track meet? Heck, a few zumba classes thrown in? Our schools are coming a long way, and I love sports, but I am all about keeping recreational sports / activities mainstream in our life long learning/enjoyment. We should give kids medals for the number of steps they walk during the school year, or how they have bettered their times. Find a way to help children grow into adults who feel good about staying fit!
I made the junior high basketball team but didn't play sports in high school. My school allowed marching band as our PE hours. We had a health class, but honestly, I think from kindergarten up part of the education should be about those walking for 20 minutes a day and nutrition. And I write emails to our school district and congress expressing my views regularly.
I know schools have come a long way, but it is one thing to read in class about how to be fit, it is another to reinforce in what the school cafeteria serves and what activities are offered in gym class.
i think you have a very valid point and theres so much i wish i could just jump in there and change with the schools.
But parents can still pack their kids lunches and do after school activities.
I guess in high school though kids have thier own ways of doing things and it gets harder.
what i think is the sadder part though is the kids that are becoming obese before they even hit school age.0 -
Not all, but you have your lazy parents, you have your parents who work long hours and don't have time to cook a healthy meal and finally there is so much junk out there compared to 20 years ago, even 10 years. The easier and quicker it is to fix/eat, the more likely people are going to get it.
Just because it's out there and available doesn't mean it's good or healthy for you.0 -
I agree that P.E classes should be made more fun- love the idea of zumba, or actually training for a 5k etc.
However if school isnt providing the child with the knowledge about diet and exercise then it comes down to the parent. I would have been fat if I didnt do afterschool activities- I was doing a class after school every night of the week and weekend. I never got taught about diet and what I shoudl be eating, I taught that myself in my late teens (limited internet when I was younger means not all the information was easily accessible to me). However, it was only the after school classes that stopped me being fat as I was grossy overeating and was only eating processed sugery food. I wish my mum or dad had taught be about diet early on.0 -
Sometimes I'm very suprised at what small awareness some people have about nutrition,
This is not a criticism in anyway nor am I claiming to know a lot,
Just saying something's that I would and a lot I people would consider commen sense, aren't actually common sense to a lot of other people?
Does that make sense or am I just rambling ?0 -
I agree with you about the lack of education we have about nutrition. We have to eat several times a day and everything we eat has a direct affect on our physical and psychological health. We should spend ages in school learning about what we need, how foods affect us, where they come from etc.
When I was 15 I worked in the local takeaways, and every thursday, fri and sat night this little girl used to come in by herself. She would have been max 10 years old, with $5 to buy dinner. A big bag of chips and a potato fritter was about the most she could buy that would fill her up I guess. Three times a week at least and she was very very over weight. It used to break my heart, that her parents didn't know or care or couldn't afford to give her better. In the end I started making her toasted sandwiches and burgers even though she couldn't afford them so she was at least getting meat and veggies as opposed to deep fried carbs all the time. I think it's such a sad problem that there are kids out there who are being set up to struggle with their weight and health all their lives.0 -
It pisses me off. I'm not talking about chubby children. I'm talking about morbidly obese kids. It's absolutely terrible to me. I had a single mom who worked 2 jobs and we never had much money but she ALWAYS made sure we had proper food to eat. She also made sure that we would spend time playing outside and not just sitting on the couch watching tv. I honestly think there is no excuse unless there is a medical issue.0
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Some children have traits that just make them obese. It's not always the parents fault.
i might believe that children have traits that make them more incline to being fat, but not to being obese. i think it is a total form of child abuse. they don't need to starve their kids but there is no reason for childhood obesity. so sad.
Agreed!0 -
While I agree with parenting skills /education being the major contributor to childhood obesity, our school cafeteria was an empty carb fat fest of food.
Secondly, our phys ed /gym classes were all about competing against others instead of recreational /weight training. Wouldn't you have loved to have gone to gym in primary school and danced to the wiggles rather than being the clumsy kid at dodge ball or jump rope? wouldn't Junior High Gym have been more fun with gearing up for a charity 5k rather than "just" seeing who had the best time to go to the district track meet? Heck, a few zumba classes thrown in? Our schools are coming a long way, and I love sports, but I am all about keeping recreational sports / activities mainstream in our life long learning/enjoyment. We should give kids medals for the number of steps they walk during the school year, or how they have bettered their times. Find a way to help children grow into adults who feel good about staying fit!
I made the junior high basketball team but didn't play sports in high school. My school allowed marching band as our PE hours. We had a health class, but honestly, I think from kindergarten up part of the education should be about those walking for 20 minutes a day and nutrition. And I write emails to our school district and congress expressing my views regularly.
I know schools have come a long way, but it is one thing to read in class about how to be fit, it is another to reinforce in what the school cafeteria serves and what activities are offered in gym class.
you are 100% right on!0 -
Parents back then also didn't both have to work outside the home all day, every day. They also didn't keep kids trapped inside all day every day, out of a baseless fear of the world being dangerous (it was actually more dangerous back then than it is now, back then just didn't have the world wide 24 hour news cycle to report it all.) so kids were more active physically, and parents were more involved in their child's lives.
Children are not supposed to get type 2 diabetes!!! That is a new phenomenon caused by early onset obesity, diet and lifestyle. Kids with type 1 diabetes (the type [/u]normally[/u] associated with children) are often thinner than their non-diabetic peers as it's harder to get kids to maintain tight blood sugar control.There are very very few conditions that cause children to be overweight, and diabetes is not one of them, if anything, type 2 diabetes is caused by diet, not the other way around. I work in child health and in almost all cases children who are very overweight are overfed and don't take enough exercise, that is the bottom line.
But why are parents now suddenly unsure about portion size??? How come our parents and their parents before them seemed to have it down to a tee, yet they had little to no knowledge about nutrition? Here we are, living in a time where we have never had so much access to information on nutrition, it's written on packages, on menus, every second TV programme and newspaper/magazine article is nutrition-related and yet parents have never been so dumb about portion size or food choices they make?Parents have no idea about portion sizes and how little a child needs in comparison with an adult, a childs stomach is the size of it's own fist, and if overfed it will grow, and thus need more to fill it, and thus feel more hungry...a vicious circle. Many parents 'love' with food, reward with food, use food as a way to pacify etc
I was overweight because both of my parents worked. I was a latch key kid, my parents had zero control over what I did from the time I left school to the time they got home from work, so I over ate and sat around my house watching tv and playing video games. Can't and my parents for that, as they both needed to work so we weren't homeless. They did what they could.
You can't compare one generation to the next, because society has changed from generation to generation. Heck, only 2-3 generations ago most kids grew up on farms. You can't compare kids growing up on farms doing hard manual labor to kids growing up in the suburbs today, it's just not a fair or equal comparison.0 -
Depends on the age of the child and location. Some children as young as 10 are able to do such simple things as ask for extra portions at school.... buy junk food at vending machines or gas stations... go to fast food places with friends..... Parents can't watch all the time and they can't guarantee their child will listen to them if they advise them on how to eat healthy.
I always think of this guy I grew up with.... he was ALWAYS overweight, pretty much morbidly obese, since when I first knew him in elementary school.... and still is now in college. There were numerous times his mother would talk to my mother about how he was on a diet again, and he would tell me about it on the school bus.... while he was pulling out bags of chips and candy he managed to buy or sneak from the house. His mother never could understand why the diets weren't working.....0 -
Depends on the age of the child and location. Some children as young as 10 are able to do such simple things as ask for extra portions at school.... buy junk food at vending machines or gas stations... go to fast food places with friends..... Parents can't watch all the time and they can't guarantee their child will listen to them if they advise them on how to eat healthy.
I always think of this guy I grew up with.... he was ALWAYS overweight, pretty much morbidly obese, since when I first knew him in elementary school.... and still is now in college. There were numerous times his mother would talk to my mother about how he was on a diet again, and he would tell me about it on the school bus.... while he was pulling out bags of chips and candy he managed to buy or sneak from the house. His mother never could understand why the diets weren't working.....
Yes I can imagine it would depend on a whole truck load of variables.
But I think
It's really sad to see obese kids that must be under the age of 5 and then seeing their parents just feeding them absolute rubbish.0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJkE32xwsO0&feature=channel&list=UL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T24B6T-hp0E
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