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.

When I grew up in the 70s/80s we were always up the corner shop buying sweets/chocolate/crisps even fizzy panda pop drinks/lilt etc but we spent all day out on our bikes or walking around, climbing trees etc so burnt it all off.

Yep. My diet wasn't brilliant as a child in the 80s. Our dinners were reasonably decent home-cooked meals but we did have an after school snack of a packet of crisps or a couple of biscuits, and I used to drink gallons of juice!

On a Saturday we'd go to Safeway and us kids would throw a heap of junk into the trolley and go home and gorge on it!

I was one of those kids people congratulated for having such a 'good' appetite. It wasn't good it was shocking. At 5 or 6 I could wolf down a 3 course adult's meal at our local Italian restaurant; I wouldn't be able to eat that much now. At home, I'd not only have seconds at mealtimes, but thirds if there was any left. I ate a huge amount.

Because I wasn't chubby everyone thought it was ok, but by the time I was 8 I was as tall as my sister 2 years older than me and then stopped growing upwards at 11 and grew out instead and became overweight for my height very quickly.

I am being really careful with my DD. I make sure all her meals have enough protein. We do have sweet stuff as part of our regular diet, but it's absolutely everything in moderation, and she drinks water unless she goes to a party or we have people over for a special occasion. She does have a big appetite but at the moment offsets bigger portions (of main meals, not puddings or snacks) than most 4 year olds need with a lot of exercise.

I'm trying very hard for her not to follow in my footsteps but I know some people around us think I should lighten up and let her eat more junk!

There's huge pressure on parents over food, I see this because one of my kids has allergies. My kids aren't allowed drinks other than milk or water, we take water bottles everywhere. If we are out, I don't frequently by them biscuits or ice creams. I do get the occassional packet of crisps. In restaurants, they have water only and rarely have desserts. A lot of this is down to my DS special diet, I get frequent remarks about how I am mean, from relatives and friends.

From the age of 3 other relatives try to give my child adult portions, or even larger than adult portions, and criticise me when I say no. A lot of people use over feeding as a way of showing love unfortunately.

It feels like a fight NOT to eat the ultra processed food. 🤷That's the power of marketing.

Perhaps 'the school run' should literally become that; parent and child running to school together.

They were having a daily mile in some Scottish schools. Do not know if that's still a thing.

Ultra processed foods. Our council were recently congratulating themselves on the reintroduction of chicken poppers, hotdogs and vegetarian sausage rolls to the school lunches.
Increased car use.
Less outdoor exercise.
Snacks.
It’s multi factorial.

Can't the parents say no blush Or just not buy it?

If my DC come grocery shopping with us, they'll ask for a treat and they are always allowed to put a packet of biscuits or crisps or donuts in the trolley, but they're still slim kids. One biscuit or small pack of crisps isn't going to make a difference, but these overweight DC must be getting bought this stuff daily?

yes yes, you are such a wonderful parent and everyone else is shit.

@KrispyKale

They were having a daily mile in some Scottish schools. Do not know if that's still a thing.

Yes, DS was in reception last year and they did that then. I wasn't sure if that was just a lockdown thing though. Great idea I thought.

Our school have PE twice a week and frequent long walks though the forest so I'm surprised so many are saying they only do PE for one hour a week in some schools.

As PP have said, I think food is the main issue but I certainly think the fact that most children are driven everywhere now must be a factor. Obviously because people are busy and trying to get to work on time, so not pointing the finger.

Re the daily mile, meant to say we're in NE England.

Oh that's good to hear.

A thread like this is always going to get someone's back up but that doesn't mean it should not be spoken about.

You will get the usual excuses..He is big boned/it's puppy fat/my side are just bigger people/it's in his genes/he will grow out of it. Never the amount of the calibre of the food. Some of the above posters are correct, there were fuck all fat kids in the 70's. FUCK ALL compared to now. So what does that tell you?

In the vast majority of cases the parents are to blame, they buy the food, they feed the kids, they choose what to have in the house etc. I do understand it is hard to hear people judging when you have an overweight child and it will make you defensive and make excuses. It's also very hard when you have a faddy or fussy child (not SEN) who has a tantrum whenever they don't get what they want or worse still, refuse to eat unless it's processed crap but surely denying there is a problem or blaming every other thing under the sun is just burying your head in the sand and all the while when you are busy making excuses your child is getting bigger.
It is a huge problem but I do think some parents need to wake up and face reality and try get help to make changes before it is too late and they are teenagers who have eating disorders and are obese. Surely intervention at 4 or 5 years old is preferable.

*Never the amount OR the calibre of the food.

@User13490358923

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.

@User13490358923 I agree with this actually and will happily admit that it’s something I really struggle with myself. I was raised on a diet of convenience foods, and far too much of it. I’ve struggled with my weight my whole life and know that I have an awful relationship with food. The only time I ever remember eating the same meal as a family or even sitting down together for a meal was on Christmas Day. I’m extremely conscious of my toddler DS and his relationship with food. He was born on the 95th centile and has maintained that. He’s bigger than all other kids that I know that are around his age. Yet he genuinely eats the healthiest diet of them all. I’ve meticulously researched portion sizes, he’s genuinely never had a single processed food, never tasted a biscuit/chocolate etc, only drinks water and milk. Every single meal has been homemade from scratch since he started weaning. After reading some of those threads I was actually worried that I was feeding my DS too LITTLE 😳 which can’t possibly be the case when he’s maintaining his centile. I’ve even taken photos of his meals to check with my HV that I’m feeding him appropriate portions 😓

I dunno, my boys are high risk for obesity they have an overweight father and my father is overweight and the boys are big eaters and do like snacks but right now (4, 1) both sit at the 25th centile. I don't feel like its much to do with my parenting to be honest. We minimise snacks...i certainly don't take them out and about with me and we generally don't have access to a car during the day so they walk everywhere. People often comment and say "oh he's so tiny" or "did he manage to walk all the way to the park and back? That's so far" I don't personally feel an hours total walking is a lot for my eldest but I know a lot of 4 year olds wouldn't walk that.

I think it's a number of things but a part of it comes down to sedentary and bored children.

Small children are expected to sit for quite long periods at school. Reception may be free-flow but from Y1 it's quite structured. It would be nice if the free-flow element at schools could continue for longer so kids are up and moving about more at school rather than sitting still at tables or on the floor.

School break-times have been cut so less time to run around.

I'm not sure parents really understand how much exercise their kids need. They should be getting a minimum of 1 hour a day active exercise. 30 minutes of that should be at school but school PE is often woefully inadequate. So that means kids should be doing sports clubs/walking to and from school/cycling/running around at the playground or in the garden for at least an hour a day. It's hard for parents to fit that in, especially when they're working and kids are at a childminder or it's winter and the days are wet and dark.

Sedentary and bored children sitting inside will snack more. More calories consumed, less burnt. It's a vicious circle. Kids having fun at the playground or elsewhere with friends won't be so bothered about snacking.

Mine were all over weight on the nhs BMI chart. Healthy home cooked diet of veggie food but relatively high protein, plenty of fat and lower refined carbs. Walked everywhere and all did sports. Two compete at a national level. Mine just seemed built like brick shit houses - still are. Not registering overweight once they get past about year 5 although the one who was biggest maybe took until year 7. I wonder what would have happened had they sat in gaming and eating loads of junk but ironically as they started to do more of both as teens their weight was just fine.

I am struck by how much fatter the girls become in comparison to the boys. I worry about the lack of exercise in particular and at how few kids who come for tea think vegetables are ordinary food.

It’s the ‘tall toddlers’ that are turning into fat 4-5 year olds. Obesity causes height to be front loaded but parents, even short ones, always think they’re goint to have a six footer and so don’t do anything until the obesity shows itself by way of waistline.

Not necessarily, DD2 was 99th centile when she was born. She was never going to be short and she has never been fat- she's 50th centile now at 12...and 5'9"- 99.9 centile. Neither DH nor I are short but we're not extremely tall either. We aren't quite sure where the height has come from, DD1 is 5'6" at 16.

As a parent of two children who at that age were/are overweight, I think the underlying issues are complex but the reasons are very simple - a diet that is not correctly balanced combined with insufficient exercise.

I could spend hours typing up how we got here. And I could spend hours telling you how we've successfully dealt with it for DS and the efforts we are making for DD (that do seem to be making a difference although it's early days), but I'll simplify it to say it's lifestyle and circumstance. There is no doubt that in our case, if I was a traditional stay at home mother, the chances that either of our children were overweight would have been pretty low. In other cases of overweight children I see on the school run, there are all kinds of reasons. I've seen families who I suspect have a knowledge deficit re healthy eating/cooking. I've seen some who I think use food to compensate for things. I've seen some for whom finances might be the issue. That's what I mean by the underlying issues are complex.

Kids being allowed to eat a load of crap. Too many snacks between meals and not enough exercise. There's also the problem of some parents of obese children just not seeing that their kids are too fat. Maybe because the whole family's overweight?

Oh, and one thing I do feel very very strongly about in the context of older children is that the lack of independence that is so common now is, I believe, a huge issue. Many people on this thread have commented on being out and about on bikes all day etc etc - I don't know a single parent who would allow that today. DS has a friend who is not going to be attending the same high school as him because of an alleyway he would have to walk down to get to school - his mother considers this too dangerous. Incidentally, in the nearly 15 years I have lived here, I have never heard of a single person being attacked/mugged on that alleyway and, as alleyway's go, it's extremely well lit and overlooked by multiple houses. This is in contrast to a small road that people use constantly because it looks wider and more open but is actually badly lit and not overlooked at all - I avoid it outside of the main part of the day b because of the multiple muggings that have taken place there. Basically, our assessment of risk is completely skewed and I think that's messing with our children.

@Mojoj

Kids being allowed to eat a load of crap. Too many snacks between meals and not enough exercise. There's also the problem of some parents of obese children just not seeing that their kids are too fat. Maybe because the whole family's overweight?

I think parents don't want to acknowledge their children are overweight because it is inevitably a judgement on them. And they might have allowed their children to get overweight because they don't have the ability to say no when begged for treats or snacks or it might be because they don't know any better and don't have the skills to prepare healthy meals, but either way, the judgement is there and no one wants that.

@Thatldo

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 agree.

Look back a decade and programs like SureStart were addressing issues like this early. Better parenting skills result in physically and mentally healthy children. Every pound spent early saving thousands in health and social care costs over each lifetime.

These were dismantled because the results weren't immediate, and we had a new government that prioritised social care of the elderly over child and youth services.

We'd have been much better prepared for the pandemic and all that went with it - home learning, child and adult mental health, etc. - if these programs had been a permamntly feature of society.

Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0753541475/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_3VAZYDNZJZ104VQ8XMAY?psc=1&_encoding=UTF8&tag=mumsnetforu03-21

"We are hooked on salt, sugar and fat. These three simple ingredients are used by the major food companies to achieve the greatest allure for the lowest possible cost. Here, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Michael Moss exposes the practices of some of the most recognisable (and profitable) companies and brands of the last half century. He takes us inside the labs where food scientists use cutting-edge technology to calculate the ‘bliss point’ of sugary drinks. He unearths marketing campaigns designed – in a technique adapted from the tobacco industry – to redirect concerns about the health risks of their products, and reveals how the makers of processed foods have chosen, time and again, to increase consumption and profits, while gambling with our health."

Blaming the parents is futile.

Holding the greedy sociopaths who run these companies to account would be a start.

Phone culture.

I watch this day in, day out, on the bus, in parks, everywhere.

Patent glued to phone, doesn’t want to engage or talk to kid in pushchair on the bus, shoves a packet of Wotsits at it.

At the park: parent sits on phone, doesn’t play with kid, kid loiters, gets whiney, out comes a biscuit.

Supermarket queue. Kid in trolley, restive. Parent glued to phone, opens packet of donuts and shoved one at kid, rather than chat and engage.

So much communication time lost, too.

Fizzy, sugary drinks. You see loads of kids wondering around with a bottle of pop instead of water. If they develop the taste early, it’s often all they’ll drink.