to think that people who feed their kids junk to the point they are obese should be visited by social services?!

[sawdusty]

It makes me so angry when you see these morbidly obese children (fat from food, not any other medical reason) waddling around and there mums buying them more bars of chocolate and packets of crips, wtf are they DOING?!

[3beagles]

Would it be in terrible taste to offer you a ?

[sawdusty]

[grin}

[sawdusty]

oops, I mean

[GypsyMoth]

its not so much the food....as lack of exercises.....too much time in front of various screens,xbox,tv,comp etc.....

[Longtalljosie]

Who are these people of which you speak? Are you watching Panorama?

If not, how do you know there's no medical reason?

And even assuming you know that, the whole country is ill-educated on nutrition. No-one sets out to make their child obese.

[everybodysgotone]

TIP: If you see a fat kid chase them. It's for their own benefit. If everyone did this they'd be no fat kids

[sawdusty]

Ummm, no I disagree, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that chocolate, crips and junk food make you fat. There are A LOT of information drives by schools and the NHS to educate people about food

[Goblinchild]

So long as the teachers don't have to get involved, I don't care. Chase them with rabid weasels until they lose a stone, make the parents pay a fine for every kilo over their ideal weight.
Just don't expect the schools to check children's lunches.

[reallytired]

I don't think social services have the resources.

However support for families with overweight children is pitiful. Its a pity that there can't be more school nurses who could have the time to assist families in learning healthy eating habits.

Many families make the mistake of pushing their children into the trap of Yo-yo dieting. This makes the problem worse. It takes a long time for a growing child to lose wieght safety.

My son used to be overweight and our GP refused to refer him to a dietitan. I felt totally and uttterly helpless as a mother.

My son is the right weight for his height now, but it took a lot of books from the library and exercise as a family to make this achievable. Its not easy.

I doult a social worker would know how to help a child lose weigh safely. They aren't trained in this area. There are worse things that happen to children than being a bit overweight.

[gapbear]

How do you know professionals aren't involved?

[sawdusty]

I mean children who are dangerously obese, not just overweight. I guess perhaps social servies have enough on their plates but can't really think who else would deal with a situation like this. By the way only 1% of obese children have an underlying medical condition causing it and no, big bones doesn't count

[sawdusty]

I would imagine if they were involved the children would start to loose a bit of weight..

[Bue]

PMSL at everybodysgotone

[Alouiseg]

Can't possibly be medical! No obesity in starvation zones in the world.

[salizchap]

There just isn´t enough support for overweight people, of any age. Trying to lose weight is harder than quitting smoking, and there is no effective help at all.

When I went to the GP about my weight, I was told to go to the Nurse, who just weighed me, told me my BMI, said I was obese and urgently needed to lose some weight, warned me of the dangers (all of this I already knew). Then she just gave me a photocopied list of red amber green listed foods (which I already knew), and told me to eat more green foods and less red and amber (which I already knew).

Nothing about what to do to beat the cravings and stop comfort eating, no helpful hints about menu planning, or how to healthily feed a family on just £20 a week when you work full time but earn very little.

I got put on the "exercise on referal", went to the local leisure centre, to be told that they only do it during the day time from monday to friday. So obviously, fat people aren't meant to work, then. Oh, but I can pay to go to the gym in the evenings, if I have the money (which I don't).

Thankfully my DS has no weight issues. Because I am sure I would get no more help with that as I did with my own weight problem.

[sawdusty]

Not sure what more the NHS can do short of going to peoples houses and cooking their meals for them and sitting around to make sure they don't pop open a box of pringles, there has to be personal responsibility at some point, surely?!?! And why a gym? Jogging or an excercise video is just as effective

[sawdusty]

I'm sorry I don't want to sound like a bitch I just really feel peope should start taking some personal responsibility

[begonyabampot]

I really wonder how these kids get so overweight - what are they eating? When we were little, there were only about 2 or 3 kids in my year at primary that I remember as being sort of bigger. All my nieces, nephews, my kids are all skinny nminnies and aren't that interested in food, though they'd eat loads of sweets/coke etc if I let them.

[TinselinaBumSquash]

It doesn't help that more and more people are leaving home these days not knowing how to cook a healthy meal.

[salizchap]

Personal responsibility is much easier when you have plenty of money to pay for good food, fat-clubs, and gym memberships.

The NHS could provide free weigh-watchers style service. They could provide free exercise clubs. In the long run it would save them money in treating the health problems associated with obesity.

[SofaKitten]

I lot of overeating is to do with emotional issues.
Healthy eating guidelines don't help the low esteem/unhealthy thought processes that CAUSE over eating, which then reinforce the low self esteem.

However, the NHS can't help really with the low esteem/emotion bit. They can only say what you should eat and how much of what.

It's not as simple as "just eat less and move around more" for a lot of people.

I have been anorexic and bulimic and was in hospital with binge eaters. Food can be a very complex issue!

[begonyabampot]

oh, and as for parents who don't set out to make their kids bigger, my neighbour was just complaining today that her Ds (6yrs) is losing his 'lovely healthy look' (fat to me) that he had gained earlier this year. Remember noticing that he had piled it on only to have her tell me proudly how 'healthy he was looking now' and how 'skinny' my kids were looking. I get on with my neighbour but we have totally different ideas as to what is healthy.

[salizchap]

Oh, and jogging is the worst type of exercise for someone who is severely overweight! It puts a lot of strain on joints and the back. I tried it, and ended up laid off with a bad back and ankle.

[fulltimeworkingmum]

Sawdusty - agree with you totally. A few weeks ago, our DD came home with a lunch bag which was identical on the outtside but OMG, was COMPLETELY different on the inside. Whoever owned this particular bag had had a packet of corn snacks, a cheese string, a packet of mini gem biscuits and a fruit shoot. I was horrified and then sad that an adult had supplied a child with this rubbish. I admit that this may have been a frantic mum on a bad day but cannot help but think this was the norm, especially after the nursery staff apologised for the mix-up and siad that they should have known it was not DD's bag.. People need to expect that if they feed their children high fat, high calorie, low nutrition food regularly from an early age then they are setting them up with poor dietary habits for life and poor health in middle and old age.