to ask why would you overfeed your child?

It is always horrible to see a child who is potentially unwell for whatever reason - sickness, weight related, mental health concerns, parental struggles etc, I understand that, weight is often an outward sign of all of the above - however your naive, arrogant, passive aggressive “I don’t understand” is self serving attention seeking and perhaps you should get out more and be in touch with reality, you may find it helps answer your concerns. You have time on your hands to post so maybe some charity volunteering with vulnerable children. I work in a corporate role 50 plus hours a week, single parent with 2 children but dedicate time each week to help children who need a little extra support …… similar community volunteering make you less judgemental and open to help those who may need it

You’re not interested in why nor are you silently judging. Here you are telling everyone so you can feel bolstered in their judgement.

Nobody knows their situation, nobody should judge.

My compassion is plentiful and for the child and its health, including future health. Of course the child is mistreated if not given decent food in the right amounts. So many on here dismissing basic care as a necessity for children.

How do you know they're being mistreated. Assumption. Really naive to think that no professional has noticed either.
Takes a village to raise a child yes but the compassion is thin on the ground here.

Children being mistreated is everyone's business. "It takes a village to raise a child" ...

I have owned restaurants in the past and more recently a bistro cafe. They would order their 3 year old a full English, I would always say, ‘oh that’s a lot of food’ they would always reply with ‘ don’t worry they will eat it’ they didn’t understand what I meant. Making children fat is abuse, a fat child is a fat adult.

I know someone like this. She has 3 children of her own who are quite overweight. She posts their lives constantly on social media (has done from birth -several posts a day) including the meals. They are huge portions and very high carb and sugar. I’m surprised no one has commented thus far. I think she feeds them what they want because she absolutely loves them to bits. This is her giving love. Other than the diet she is a brilliant mum. To be clear, the children are not SEN and are very intelligent.

Well is says it says fairly early on in the OP:

‘She is always on her buggy which suggest they live nearby so could potentially walk but never ever do. At pick ups is the same, straight from nursery into buggy.’

so quite a lot.

My mum grew up in a house where food was not always available. They often went to bed hungry and she often talks about fainting as a child and not having the energy to play. Their birthday treat was having a full tummy.

She married a farmer who promised her food would always be abundant, and she fed us constantly, in her eyes 'being a good parent means your child never feels hunger'.

We were all big, some much larger than others. Some of us have overcome it now, and some have not.

Fat kids are often signs that there is something lacking with the parent. Knowledge on what healthy food is, the ability to recognize their children are overweight and knowing what to do about it.

Part of my job involves helping parents provide healthy food for children, and you know what, it's tough out there. Generally, people are doing their best with what they have. Money goes further and it takes far less energy to cook beige freezer food than it does fresh healthy food which may be rejected.

what has that got to do with anything in this topic?!

As grossly overfed child myself, obese at the age of 4 and six stones at the age of 6 and a lifetime struggle with weight, I would be very concerned for this little girl. There is a possibility that she has health problems that might involve cortico-steroids, these are notorious for causing hunger, weight gain and ’moon face.’ Are there any school health ’milestone checks’ these days? Otherwise I don’t think outside interference would be kindly received.

I agree with you OP, it is so sad and I always wonder why people do this to their children. But as others have said, it is often lack of education, or denial. Processed food is designed to be addictive sadly

My daughter has just told me about one of her classmates because she is genuinely worried about them, and thinks they may be very unwell. They were late to a lesson on the top floor of the school because of the stairs, and arrived red, sweating and so breathless they were still panting several minutes later. Apparently PE lessons are very difficult. At lunch they often take 2 or 3 desserts and always get seconds, or ask their friends to get some on their behalf when the staff cut them off. It's so hard to know what to do. Apparently they do extra PE sessions and food intake is monitored at school as far as possible, but it's impacting their education and health now. I wish there was an easy solution.

The answer is it's absolutely none of your business. Maybe take up some hobbies to occupy your mind.

He is absolutely huge and I genuinely do not know what the answer is as he has so many professionals involved who must feel like they are talking to a brick wall.

It's often a lack of education and knowledge on what to eat.

Though I found you post title goody. The 'you' doesn't apply to me. My children are very slim and eat healthily.

They should be learning these skills at home! Not everything is the governments fault.

to answer your question OP it’s probably a combination of feeding the child to keep them quiet and that so many people in society want to eat all the bad shit because they like it and why shouldn’t they have it? nobody should tell them what to do or pass judgement etc. this attitude is then passed down to their children.

I used to get people suggesting I was underfeeding my child. The child who has always been exactly the right weight for their height. That isn't to say they didn't eat their fair share of rubbish. I think some people just can't see what a healthy weight looks like anymore. There also seems to be a huge culture of snacks now rather than meals (which I'm happy to include 11am/3pm drink and biscuits or fruit in). Just constant eating of rice cakes and fruit pouches etc.

My son is SEN. We do our best (banana porridge for breakfast, no sweets etc), but he won't touch any vegetables and his only fruit is bananas. He's officially overweight, but he's super strong and much more muscular than his brother, so when I mentioned it to my GP she just laughed. I'm also still using pushchair on and off as he's super fast, but such a danger to himself running into the road. I know some of this isn't ideal, but sometimes you just have to do what you can to make it possible to hold down a job and keep a household functioning. You could always try being friendly to the mum and keeping your thoughts to yourself. You never know, you might be able to gently help. I'm sure she is aware... Perhaps just exhausted...

Cousin's DW always used to get upset that DD would feed her own DD (cousin's GD) a very unhealthy diet. A huge amount of carbs, amongst other things, which resulted in the child being very obese. The DD is now 30 and is still very obese. It must be severely impacting her health. Oddly enough, the older half-sister is an average weight, so not quite sure what went on there.

I have three kids. We only drink water. We eat homemade meals together as a family at the table every breakfast and dinner. We rarely have dessert other than fruit or yoghurt. We never order takeaway. We are vegetarian. We have sweets once a week. My kids do an activity afterschool 4 nights a week - dancing, gymnastics, football, swimming etc. we walk to school and back each day and do lots of active activities at the weekend, often swimming again, climbing wall, days out walking around the zoo etc. Two of my kids are a perfect weight for their height, one is quite overweight. Overweight people aren’t all lazy chocolate scoffers.

Its what people eat though, isn't it? Not just how much. in fact if their food was nutrient-dense and not just empty calories junk, they would eat less anyway as the food would be more sustaining. And its not just about weight. unhealthy eating causes all kinds of terrible health problems. Imo its cruel to not feed a child properly.

I have a young child who is overweight according to his BMI although he doesn’t really look it (or am I in denial?😂) and another young child who is underweight. It’s a nightmare trying to feed one up whilst trying to slim the other one down. I try and do lots of exercise with them.
I guess you don’t know another persons situation until you’ve walked in their shoes.

@ColdWaterDipper my ds was overweight as a young child, though he had a healthy diet. He has ASD and also bilateral sensory processing disorder which makes him uncoordinated. It was a struggle for him at primary school as he couldn't catch a ball, was useless at football and the other children used to deliberately bully him to do things that meant he'd fall over! He was also non verbal until he was about 7 when we started paying for private speech therapy. At age 11 he was awarded scholarships to 2 public schools and decided to go for the 'sporty' all boys one. It was the making of him, they encouraged him to find his sport and now he is at university he is paid by the university to mentor other students who need help getting active.

Also schools encourage parents to attend classes for support and to educate them as many aren't always aware. I helped with some of these and the,sessions were always supportive, kind and informative.