Government wanting to weigh children

[birthdaybelle]

Anyone see this on Jeremy Vine this morning? Loads of backlash (rightly so!) about children's mental health and eating disorders etc. But what stands out to me is another bloody bashing of every day people trying to feed their kids on meagre wages or benefits.

More shame piled on to us because on top of everything else, our kids are fat.

Yes, well you can say 'they should/shouldn't eat X, Y or Z' or 'children shouldn't have to be weaned off junk food' as much and as loudly as you like, but the truth of the matter is that eating habits are hard to change and people don't want to stop eating what they like and find it very hard to make their children do so

I think to a degree we can all agree with that. But at least parents should acknowledge it rather than kick off at the school for sending a letter, run to the papers with a child clearly im.xlothes several sizes bigger than their age in an attempt to make them look normal.sized ( and you can tell that have done this often becuase the sleeves or legs are too long and it's generally just a baggy outfit). We can agree there's numerous circumstances that contribute but ultimately they could always just give them a bit less food and make them walk a bit more.

Its surely not a surprise when you drive to the school thats a ten minute walk away, and greet your child with sweets crisps or soda that they get overweight.

There are surely things that can be done that dont cost anything, dont require lots of time or giving much up at all.

My mother in law deliberately took my DC to McDonalds when they were little as she thought I wouldn’t take them there (In fact I had taken them there but would prefer to feed them elsewhere generally). She now gives them giant bags of sweets whenever she sees them. I hope if and when i’m a grandparent i wouldn’t go out of my way to feed my grandchildren fast food or deliberately try and undermine parents trying to feed their children healthily.

Fruit and veg is cheap and play parks are free
That's all you need
Everyone can access the Internet or the library as I'm sure someone will say that they can't afford the Internet or a computer/smartphone
There should be no excuses for obesity in children it's down to the parents
And if your child has got to the stage where you are being told in a letter then you should be ashamed of yourself because it's your fault your child is overweight

And I know some kids are fussy etc and I have actually heard somone say on MN that their child had learning difficulties and would only eat macdonalds but he/she was only wanting what he/she had already had or they wouldn't be asking for it

All these kinds of threads do is get people to make excuses when they should be taking responsibility for themselves and especially their children

the truth of the matter is that eating habits are hard to change and people don't want to stop eating what they like and find it very hard to make their children do so

That's all very well, but then they should be made aware in no uncertain terms that they are setting their children up for a miserable childhood and a lifetime of ill health. We all say that we'd do anything for our kids...Is that anything except boil a carrot or a lentil occasionally?

Yes, I prefer pizza to lentil stew and overindulge on chocolate sometimes...But I try to minimise this as much as possible and eat healthily around DC because I know how we eat will form his eating habits. And small children don't really need sweets, crisps, juice or fizzy drinks...The longer you can delay giving them these things, the better.

@lazylinguist

Good healthy non fattening food is not expensive

I agree. It's easily affordable to me, plus I'm a good cook and I love fruit, vegetables and pulses. I'm still overweight though. Persuading people to eat healthy stuff is only one part of the challenge. Persuading them to stop eating unhealthy stuff is much harder. Sadly the carrots and lentils don't cancel out the sweets, doughnuts and crisps.
If you put a couple of raw carrots and a big slice of luxury chocolate cake in front of a hungry person, which instruction would they find harder to obey - 'eat the carrots' or 'don't eat the cake'? No contest.

You don't need to persuade them to stop eating unhealthy stuff though. You need to persuade them to stop eating so much of it.

Of course carrots and lentils don't cancel out the sweets, doughnuts and crisps and no-one expects them to.

If you put a couple of raw carrots and a big slice of luxury chocolate cake in front of a hungry person, which instruction would they find harder to obey - 'eat the carrots' or 'don't eat the cake'? No contest.

But who does that? And even if they did, why would it matter if they have an otherwise healthy and varied diet?

This is where moderation comes in. It's unhelpful to teach our kids they can never eat cakes and sweets etc in order to stay at a healthy weight.

As someone who was malnourished as a baby (and had a malnourished mother during pregnancy) who was then taken in by my grandparents who made me into a Michelin man toddler, I think what's not addressed here is cultural belief. Food = reward and comfort for so many, and the idea of 'treats' when you are struggling for money is generally 'naughty but nice' rather than a quinoa salad. Yet again, this scheme doesn't address the psychological issues at play. I'm sure many of the parents of overweight children have their own issues emotionally with food. It's often seen as love, misguidedly. My weight has yo-yoed up and down by (once) 7 stone over each couple of years in adulthood. I know full well what's bad to eat in terms of weight gain, it's not lack of intelligence but more an eating disorder (eating feelings). Like influence on behaviour, if home doesn't support healthy eating and exercise for a number of complicated reasons, then this is pure lip service in addressing childhood obesity.

I have actually heard somone say on MN that their child had learning difficulties and would only eat macdonalds but he/she was only wanting what he/she had already had or they wouldn't be asking for it

I have two autistic children. One is overweight due to a related medical problem, the other is underweight due to ARFID. Children with neurodevelopment differences and/or cintrol issues around food can be very susceptible to advertising and claims made in adverts. As part of DS care plan I was attending a parent and carer support group and it was fairly common for parents to report that their child has seen an advert for some food or other and had decided that this is what they wanted to eat, nothing else would do. Alongside this, and this is the bit I have personal experience of, is the desperation you feel when your child simply will not eat. You will try food after food after food and when you find something that they will eat you give it to them. People will say "they won't starve" and "they'll eat what's offered once they're hungry enough" but this simply isn't true for children like mine. DS doesn't have enough calories in his diet if left to his own devices so McDonald's isnt particularly an issue for us but he does have chicken dippers several times a week and I can empathise with parents who do have a child who will only eat things like McDonald's. Many people with sensory issues prefer mass produced, processed foods because they tend to have fairly bland tastes and textures so are inoffensive to chew/swallow and they are uniform with nothing hidden and no unexpected surprises or changes.

You don't need to persuade them tostopeating unhealthy stuff though. You need to persuade them to stop eating so much of it

People seem to eat more stuff its its "healthy" though. They think because its low fat they can get away with eating more of it. So whereas one might have a small chocolate brownie and be satisfied. But then go for the low fat low sugar supposedly healthier version and eat 2 or 3. And effectively probably would have been better off with the full fat/sugar version.

Having said that food these days does tend to taste like crap dunno what they have done to it but if you buy a chocolate cake and intend to have a a small piece and same for the kids, it often doesn't live up to expectations and that makes us eat more of it.

Proper nice chocolate cake is so rich you'd struggle to eat more than a couple.of mouthfuls...

Some parents need to stop playing the victim and accept their kids are fat because of what they feed them. Cheap healthy food is available, it is a choice to buy fatty foods. I say that as someone who is overweight.

But really isn’t that all the more reason for parents to as much as possible take the time to build sensible healthy routines when they are young enough that parents are in control?

Absolutely! However, teens tend to rebel. I'm actually happy that mine is rebelling via table manners (and clandestine food), given the possible alternatives.

Some parents need to stop playing the victim and accept their kids are fat because of what they feed them

I never did figure out what they thought kicking off and running off to the papers would do. You cut blame a health scheme for creating food issues then plaster your kids photo in a paper with a "mum furious at fat shaming" headline.

As if fhey aren't then more likely to be the cause for any extra attention the child then gets.

You can opt out. I opt out of school weight checks anyway.

The help is available but we can't force people to accept it.

There is a show where overweight teenagers blame their mothers mainly for their eating habits.

What overweight children are eating and portion size is the issue. It is rarely due to meagre wages or benefits.

Gancanny
If I had a young child who only wanted a chicken nugget because they seen them on TV I would make them chickpea nuggets that looked similar or a homemade burger that so I actually know what is in it
and its not loaded with salt etc
There are families who have autistic children who cannot afford to eat out and their children are not starving so what are they doing?
I don't mean that in a cheeky way I mean there must be ways around just buying them shite
I'm very diet contious and I make sure my family have healthy and nutritious meals but I also allow us to have treats also but in moderation
I don't think macdonalds is the worst thing on earth but if I thought my child would become addicted to it I wouldn't not give it in the first instance
And I'm hoping that she grows up to be sensible around food because if she does want something I will find a healthy alternative so she doesn't miss out and if it is fatty or high sugar she knows she has to only have a little because she will end up too fat

With not having been to school since March, I haven't had the annual ritual of dumping the Change 4 Life pack in the bin after fishing it out of school bags and giving it a scan.

The advice in that is pretty poor, with the main focus on substituting foods for more processed, synthetic substitutes. The lifestyle advocated is worse than the ones mine have, and that's not worthy of blogging about.

There is space for more custom advice depending on the family's issue, cost-effective ideas, quick ideas for the time poor, portion size, reward culture.

The poverty issues and medical/ developmental issues are real, but they still account for a small proportion of overweight and obese children.

In my county, there are areas where 26% of y6s are obese and a further 15% overweight. When 41% of children weigh more than is deemed healthy, it's no wonder parents don't see it. It is their normal! But even in the lowest areas in the county/ country, it's still 13% obese and 12% overweight and a quarter of children weighing more than they need.

You can opt out. I opt out of school weight checks anyway

I don’t know why you would do this. I’m a KS2 teacher and have noticed the parents of already-obese children are very likely to opt out of the checks at school, which probably makes the true scale of childhood obesity even worse than the statistics show.

Just on the new turn the thread has taken some children will starve before eating anything that isn’t a safe food for them. It may not be a massively common issue but it does happen. If your lucky those foods will be calorific enough and ideally nutrient dense enough they can maintain their weight (or can with the food and a supplement). For others like DS that means they end up having to be tube fed to keep them alive.

Proper nice chocolate cake is so rich you'd struggle to eat more than a couple.of mouthfuls...

I think you underestimate people.

You don't need to persuade them to stop eating unhealthy stuff though. You need to persuade them to stop eating so much of it.

True. I entirely agree that what people need to be persuaded to do is eat a healthy diet with plenty of fruit, veg, good protein and unprocessed carbs, with occasional treats. Everyone knows that's what we should all be doing. But people know this and don't do it (or make their children do it) even though they know the effects on health and life-expectancy.

Did many people actually follow the 5 a Day advice? Nope. The Eat Well Plate? The Change 4 Life? No. How do you persuade people to change their habits? No idea tbh.

Proper nice chocolate cake is so rich you'd struggle to eat more than a couple.of mouthfuls.

I've rarely heard anything less true. I'm not sure I even know anyone over the age of 3 who would be incapable of eating a whole slice of chocolate cake.

I always go for the lemon, chocolate cake is always a bit much

I also think gateaux is overrated and Nutella tatses like crap now. I'm clearly abnormal

Sirzy

What is a safe food? How could a macdonald become one of these? A safe food must be something that they have initally been given by their parents?

It must be horrible having your DS not eating anything so having to be drip fed but like you say this is very uncommon and does not account for the majority of obese or overweight children

And I hope you are getting help with your DS food issues as it sounds like a nightmare

When children are weighed at school only the nurse sees the weight. The child just stands on a black pad and steps off. There is absolutely no shaming going on. When heights are recorded the child can see what their height is, as can anyone else in the room.

Quite often I won't see a child once they go into KS2, then one day I'll go to the other side of the school and bump into them. I'm often surprised at how much weight children put on between Reception and Y6. If children were malnourished and underweight rather than overweight for what ever reason the government needs to know, so I'm all for height and weight checks. I wish they'd bring back hearing tests and keep my fingers crossed they don't do away with sight tests.

@40andginger

Sirzy

What is a safe food? How could a macdonald become one of these? A safe food must be something that they have initally been given by their parents?

It must be horrible having your DS not eating anything so having to be drip fed but like you say this is very uncommon and does not account for the majority of obese or overweight children

And I hope you are getting help with your DS food issues as it sounds like a nightmare

For lots of children it’s bland beige foods. Things like chicken nuggets which are predictable and never change. For my DS is bowls of fruit once a day if lucky.

And as for help. There isn’t any!

Oh so it's okay to shame the parent as long as the child never hears it from them! Shame on the government. Of course it's aimed at parents on low incomes who are trying to make good decisions for their children. Thank god I left the UK years ago...calorie counting and fat shaming kids via their parents!! Ffs, are things not bad enough right. Jesus. Allowing your kids to get weighed..you should tell your kids that the school don't give a shit about you..not now, not ever. Jesus.