22% of 4-5 year olds are overweight? How?!

[changing221]

Can someone explain to me how we are living in a society of overweight 4 year olds? I'm not trying to be goady or holier than thou, I'm genuinely interested.

What is the cause of these fat 4-5 year olds??
Where is it all going wrong for these children who are now likely to be overweight or obese well in to adulthood.

FWIW I have a 4 year old. We have McDonald's takeaway regularly, sweet treats (danish, cinnamon bun, chocolate, biscuits, cake) daily. Lots of cheese and yogurt, healthy fats, jacket potatoes etc. And she's still on the 25th percentile and a string bean.

Adults buying junk food for children - crisps as a snack, why not veg/fruit or a piece of bread?
Giving them sweet drinks when all they need is water and milk (and then they’ll say «he doesn’t like water», well yes when you showed him there is a sweet alternative…)
Giving them chocolate and sweets when they would be happy with a banana - it is often adults who enjoy the gifting of treats.

It’s not carbs 🙄 no one gets fat eating jacket potatoes and rice. It’s ultra processed foods.

Children take after their parents. If you have obese parents the children will be that way too quite often.

You need to get through to the parents and then children will be healthier.

Our school does snacktime, lunch and then another snacktime. So some kids will be eating 5 times in a day at least.

Thats far more than my generation ever had.

Plus this generation exercise less / walk to school less.

Is it really any wonder that some kids are overweight? What surprises me, is that its a surprise to others that there is a problem.

Many, many times I have seen a child in a pushchair with a bottle of soda in their hands. The bottle is usually a lurid ( appealing) colour and shaped with a dip in the middle to facilitate the small hand holding it, and a sports bottle top so not a drop is spilled. Maybe parents of these overweight children don’t realise that they are drinking massive amounts of calories. Can’t be doing their teeth any good either.

@TuftyMarmoset

It’s not carbs 🙄 no one gets fat eating jacket potatoes and rice. It’s ultra processed foods.

And drinks.

Look at the rise in children having masses of teeth out in dental hospitals. Those are from sugary drinks. I think the “going out for a coffee” culture which actually means “going out for some sugary, milky thing with syrup on top and cake on the side” doesn’t help at all. Lots of kids here with baby chinos and massive gingerbread man biscuits.

Our school does snacktime, lunch and then another snacktime. So some kids will be eating 5 times in a day at least.

Schools snacks are pretty much always fruit though?

It's obvious isn't it

Lock down. Kids can't walk to school. Can't run around and play

Mins working from home freight t o juggle life Quick food etc

And I can't blame them.

Hopefully as thing normalise it will get back to the old figures.

And also healthy food is time consuming and expensive

And please dont lecture me on a chicken can last a week and lentils etc.

No one in real
Life has time for that.

We have a playground next to the primary school, i've spent many hours there!

If you look at the kids the majority of the youngest (reception) are a healthy weight.

By year 6 the majority are overweight/obese.

These children are being constantly overfed, on this current trajectory by early adulthood they will be suffering from mobility and health issues.

I think we're failing our kids and each other.

@whenwillthemadnessend

It's obvious isn't it

Lock down. Kids can't walk to school. Can't run around and play

Mins working from home freight t o juggle life Quick food etc

And I can't blame them.

Hopefully as thing normalise it will get back to the old figures.

And also healthy food is time consuming and expensive

And please dont lecture me on a chicken can last a week and lentils etc.

No one in real
Life has time for that.

Kids were bigger before lockdown though. This isn’t a new problem.

I believe the main problem is, mums and dads dont know anymore how to cook.As far as I am aware,cooking lessons for kids have long been abolished.I volunteered for the foodbank and it was evident,with more knowledge of nutrition and how to cook a healthy meal on low budget, there would be less food poverty.the middle class kids get ferried everywhere and dont exercise enough.

I'd like to add that lockdown may have had a big impact but the trend was there to see before.

Blaming lockdown isn't the solution!

Read Mumsnet.

Children are given snacks at every opportunity:

School pick up, when something might be boring, when something might hurt or be uncomfortable, after doing something difficult, if they say they're hungry before a meal, etc, etc.

'Treats' are no longer something special that happens once or twice a week, more likely several times a day.

Sweet drinks/fruit juice offered all the time when it used to be water, with a sweet drink or fruit juice as an occasional treat. I don't like fizzy drinks so I don't buy them. When I said that on MN I was told I was depriving my poor DCs! (One still doesn't like them, the other has one as a treat from time to time.)

The endless message is drummed into children that food is something that cheers you up, relieves boredom, rewards effort or stoicism.

Portion size has become distorted. Nowadays what would satisfy me as a child, or my children, is considered mean.

As PP said, perception of body size has become distorted. I am the same size as I was 40 years ago (perhaps a little more cuddly round the middle). Then I was a normal size 12, now I am a 'skinny' size 8.

I volunteered for the foodbank and it was evident,with more knowledge of nutrition and how to cook a healthy meal on low budget, there would be less food poverty.

You must have realised that food budget is more complicated than not knowing how to cook lentils. It’s not being able to afford the electric to run the oven, not having a big freezer for cheap frozen veg, not having any space or equipment in the kitchen, being totally exhausted from the mental load of being poor…

Genetics can play a part.
I have two children. One hovers between the 50-80th centile and had done since birth (usually 50th but goes through a fatter phase just before growth spurts). The other is on the 3rd centile. The smaller one eats the same amount at meals, and more treats then the larger one.

Poverty surely pays a massive role.
Obesity used to be a disease of the rich. Now, the cheap processed food is readily available and cheaper than healthy alternatives.

Why the incredulity?

Some parents don't care enough. My children have sweet treats etc and like pizza as much as the next child but I'm very upfront with them about why they need to eat their vegetables and can't just eat crisps and sweets and that we can't always have pasta for dinner.

Healthy food is expensive but so is junk food. You don't see a lot of fat kids with healthy sized active parents though so it is a society thing. My children
did a schools choir thing recently and there was a noticeable difference between schools, - more deprived areas = larger children (on average).

Hopefully as thing normalise it will get back to the old figures.
OPs figures are the old figures they're not caused by lockdown, lockdown may have pushed it up slightly, but it was already shit before hand.
in 2017/18, an estimated 22.4% of children aged 4 to 5 in England were overweight, a similar percentage to 2016/17 (22.6%)
in 2017/18, the percentage of children aged 10 to 11 who were overweight was 34.3%, a similar percentage to 2016/17 (34.2%)

I think many kids just don't move enough any more so don't need the number of calories they're consuming.

Some people seem to think I'm torturing DD by 'making' her walk 1.5 miles to school. It's really not torture and she only sleeps well if she's had some exercise.

One PE lesson at school at week, a bit of running around the playground and then getting home and sitting your backside on the sofa for 4 hours is nowhere near enough activity for a 4 year old to be healthy.

Also, I think you can get away with the kids having treats if their diet is generally varied and they're getting the nutrients they need. They're also less likely to gorge on snacks if their meals are sound.

And it seems that children (and adults) can't do anything without a snack. It seems that things aren't enjoyable in their own right, food has to be added.

Going to the park for an hour? Take a snack.
Going to the cinema or theatre? Take a snack.
Going to a theme park? Take a snack. (Not lunch to have at lunchtime, but snacks for the visit.)

I don't think childrens clothes sizes help. If your 4yo fits 4-5 size clothes, you think they are fine. But some of the clothes are massive (and parents complain they are too small)

But mostly, everyone has lost sight of normal.

There are often threads that pop up on MN asking "Is my toddler's diet ok" and a list of things they feed their 2-3 year old on an average day. The total amount of food is usually more than what I eat as an adult.

However the vast majority of replies on those threads are all normalising the diet with "looks normal", "toddlers are growing and need the calories", "sounds perfectly fine". It is absolutely and utterly taboo to suggest that someone is feeding their small child too much. The meal plans are often not unhealthy, but simply vast portion sizes and extremely frequent meals and snacks.

Each time I read one of those threads I immediately think this is exactly why 1/4 of children are obese and will have lifelong struggles with food.

I blame pe lessons

a) not enough of it, should be at least half an hour daily
b) how pe lessons are run. i.e. half the time is spent changing clothes and then sitting around listening to insteuctions instead of actually moving.

Our school does snacktime, lunch and then another snacktime. So some kids will be eating 5 times in a day at least.

Schools snacks are pretty much always fruit though?

Yes, but it still sends the message that they need to eat every 2 hours.