Childhood obesity

I feel like just reading about your son’s diet made me gain a stone! It’s great this has not yet affected his weight and his teeth but you are running a very high risk.

Are you just waiting for someone to tell you your kid isn't fat because they're wealthy? Because that's ridiculous.

You kid isn't fat yet. But you are putting them on the track for a lifetime of misery and struggles with their weight.

It is interesting. I live in New Zealand and the difference in the frequency of obesity between European and Asian vs Polynesian children is staggering. The latter are far more likely to be obese. It is not movement- they're equally active, actually my son's Polynesian friends are always on their bikes, playing rugby, running around (New Zealand schools also provide a lot more opportunity to be active than schools in Europe). It is definitely food - but there's also some sort of genetic predisposition too.
My son eats however much he wants and pretty much whatever he wants (always homemade meals, sometimes eating out in restaurants, no fast food, but always some dessert such as some icecream) and is a very skinny child. Yes he moves a lot, is forever kicking the ball, walking everywhere but so do others and he is still among the skinniest. He loves food and different flavours, and loves trying new things, but naturally does not have a huge appetite and prefers say cheese or meat or fruit to carbs.

I lot of good explanations from posters that the op is choosing to purposefully ignore. Very weird thread about obese Childfree from poor backgrounds.

That’s what you took away from that whole post 🤣 like I said if you are getting it wrong despite your money and education then people from lower incoming families and single parent families are also going to get it wrong.

Many PPs, including me, have explained why.

They do, why do you think they dont?

Also, I can only comment on one other country with confidence, in Spain the Spanish are generally slim and have less overweight or obesity, but the immigrant populations from Africa and Latin America have significant obesity issues.

But you said you’re educated enough yet you aren’t giving your child a healthy diet. Giving him chocolate after school and after dinner isn’t healthy, eating chicken nuggets and pizza even if they aren’t the cheap brands are still UPF. Teacake dripping with butter for breakfast everyday isn’t healthy either. You also said he likes a Subway and McDonalds which again are all UPF. You drive him 10 mins to school, when you could walk and don’t go for family walks. So again all this you do despite being educated and middle class enough to know this isn’t healthy. So if you can’t get it right how are people in lower incomes going to get it right?

A lot of these problems are caused due to time and not having family help or having to pay for childcare. It’s quicker to give chicken nuggets and pizza after working a long day than cooking a homemade meal, especially of you are a single parent. You come from a two parent family, have a car and yet are still giving your child UPF, surely you can see it’s not down to education.

Sort of

But many immigrants who are in poor cramped housing tend to share food, utensils, ovens, money etc etc, so will be able to buy enough fresh stuff to use up in one go without it going off and then share with the next family and so on and so on, they're also more inclined to have simple basic foods/soups/stews on repeat, something which is greeted with horror on many threads here about lack of variety.

Its difficult to do if you are poor, cooking for 2 adults and a child, no where to store things or share costs with and can only buy at Asda in massive packs of fruit and veg

Both my kids have ASD one also has hypermobility low muscle tone and a serious heart condition that she needs a pacemaker so uses a wheelchair part time. She’s also Gluten free and VERY fussy with food. My other child will eat anything really and both of them have very mixed diets. However I have never made them clear their plates or restricted snacks or anything and they have worked out for themselves when they are full and they actually don’t snack often and both are tall and slim. I have friends who have placed so many restrictions on what their children can and can’t have that the minute they are out of their parents sight they are stuffing their faces because they are not allowed xyz at home so they buy it when they are out at school and socialising etc )age range is 12-18

Those people are eating more junk. Your child also eats lots of junk, but most people in your socio economic group don’t feed their kids the same diet that you do. Your child will be fat eventually if you keep letting him eat junk and staring at screens.

A lot of it is just eating crap.

At the supermarket I see overweight parents with their overweight kids buying bottles of fizzy pop and pizza.

Its for convenience cooking and that they don’t know how many calories they’re consuming. We are also a nation of overweight people so its not as noticable when a child or adult is overweight- only as they become very overweight and start to stand out.

Well crunchy things are nice to eat, sweet things are nice to eat,salty things are nice to eat. So that’s what all the snack food panders to. It’s so available and relatively cheap. Hard to resist.

Very true. A lot of very healthy foods (veg, pulses, whole chicken etc, apples) are still very cheap. It just takes time and effort to cook them. When you're poor and stressed you still have a choice to do cooking or doom scroll.

If obesity is to do with poverty rather than overeating, why are all those on weight loss injections talking about it 'switching off food noise'?

WLI make people eat less not better and that's why they lose weight.

But by your own admission from what you feed him it isn’t exactly healthy and he’s not doing exercises, hence the reply’s about his diet. So why are you still feeding him that kind of food?

You’ve failed to answer my question about your education/job or your husband. You’ve asked a question as to why childhood obesity happens in lower income families and not yours and you’ve been given plenty of answers. Childhood obesity isn’t due to lack of education, surely there are plenty of people who are overweight and obese, like yourself who have access to resources which lower income people don’t. So what’s their/your excuse?