Is childhood obesity still a big issue?

[Twilightimmortal]

I have just watched a doc on YouTube circa 2011 about childhood obesity and young children getting gastric bands.

In one scene they followed a family around a supermarket and watched as the parents explained their way out of buying healthier foods. Everything was so much cheaper especially the snacks.

Got me thinking that the government and press are not banging on about childhood obesity anymore. If anything its the reverse now. People are struggling to feed their children enough food!

Deprived west London? Or leafy wealthy west London?

How would you know if the kids at holiday club were overweight unless you weighed them all? That programme will have focused on very overweight children not those who are a bit overweight but not extreme.
There are plenty of overweight children around and the cost of living crisis is going to make it worse, not better.

You clearly don't see many children.

Not a nice part live in Harlesden but work mainly around nice parts South Kensington, Camden, Paddington. But also work in more deprived parts such as Harrow and in my local area. Its a mixed bag.

But I started this thread as it doesn't seem to be spoken about like it used to in the press and I don't notice it anymore, even when I went to the seaside. Thats why I asked if it was still a issue. If it is, why is it not mentioned like it used to be.

It’s definitely still a big issue - but it’s so prevalent and a part of life now that’s it’s not really news worthy. It’s definitely not highlighted enough anymore - it’s a really difficult problem to fix and I think people have given up with it for now.
Go into any school, park - and especially outdoor pools where children are not fully clothed - it’s glaringly obvious that being overweight is the norm.

Nice parts of London - parents with big budgets, concerns about healthy eating and getting their children into sport.

Crap parts of London - low budgets, cheap obesogenic food, no money for sports and a cultural concern that children should be 'good eaters'

There is a huge class difference with child obesity

It depends on the individual circumstances I think. For example one of my dc is classed as ‘extremely overweight’ from the nhs calculator BUT is perfectly healthy and doesn’t eat the wrong foods or too much. For the first time I’ve questioned it but the HV luckily understood

Because of the gazillion other ways everything is now going to shit in addition to childhood obesity?

What job do you do OP if you move around areas but work in schools ?

The National Child Measurement Programme2, England – 2020-21 report, published today by NHS Digital, found obesity prevalence among four and five-year-olds in reception classes rose from 9.9% in 2019-20 to 14.4% in 2020-21.
In 2006-07 - the earliest year for which comparable data is available for this age group - obesity rates stood at 9.9%.
Among year 6 pupils, who are aged 10 and 11, obesity prevalence increased from 21.0% in 2019-20 to 25.5% in 2020-21.

The earliest comparable figures for this age group are from 2009-10, when obesity prevalence was 18.7%.
digital.nhs.uk/news/2021/significant-increase-in-obesity-rates-among-primary-aged-children-latest-statistics-show

For example yesterday I worked in holiday club with 40 children and there was one overweight child, thats it. And they weren't obese either.

25% of year 6 children are obese (and still around 14% in the least deprived areas) so it's unlikely that a group of 40 children would have 0 who are obese and only 1 who is overweight. Unless the club was specifically aimed at competitive sports or something, it's more likely that being overweight is now so normal that people don't notice it anymore.

I don't notice it anymore, even when I went to the seaside

There you go, you said it. You work in schools every day, where the stats show that up to 25% of 10-11 year olds are obese nationally, and you no longer notice it.

You’ve normalised overweight children in your mind’s eye.

I live in what is often described as one of the UK most deprived areas. I also work in a well known High St takeaway food establishment, most days there will be families coming in with 2 or 3 children, often all (parents and children) extremely overweight, spending 20/25 quid on High calorie/fat/sugar food.
So the question I ask is , what are these people doing to help themselves?
And how do they afford it while at the same.time pleading poverty?

I find it hard to believe you're not seeing many obese children unless you live in a better paid part of London. Since lockdown there's been a big increase in overweight adults as well, not much chance of exercise and endless time at home to snack has left a lot of people with a weight problem. I'm still trying to wear off the extra half a stone I put on just being furloughed for three months

Diabetes UK put out a press release last month that Type 2 diabetes referrals in children had jumped 50% in the last 5 years so it does seem to remain a problem.

amp.theguardian.com/society/2022/jun/15/child-diabetes-referrals-england-wales-obesity-crisis

There you go, you said it. You work in schools every day, where the stats show that up to 25% of 10-11 year olds are obese nationally, and you no longer notice it.

I also work in a school and day to day, yes, it’s not so noticeable. There are children who stand out as obese - and when they are all wearing the same uniform, which isn’t exactly tight fitting - baggy jumpers, baggy polo tops (parents obviously buy big so the uniform lasts) the rest just look average next to them. But ‘average’ now tends to be somewhat overweight. I realised this the first time I went with a class to swimming. In their uniforms most of the kids just look ‘normal’. But in just swimming shorts and swim suits it was quite a shock to see - and I’m sorry it sounds unkind but I don’t know how else to describe it - the substantial fat rolls on many of them. The children who looked just regular in their uniforms were in fact very clearly overweight. It has become a bizarrely invisible problem I think.

Why don't you look up statistics? That will tell you what you want to know. Or were you just wanting us to mock and bitch about feckless parents and describe just how fat the fattest child we know is? People on here usually fall over themselves to describe children's multiple chins and rolls of fat.

I work in a school and I think the 25% statistic is depressingly probably about right. It’s quite sad. There’s a little girl at my child’s preschool who is huge - it’s possible she has some underlying medical condition, so I try not to judge, but she is clearly obese and it was really sad seeing her running and struggling on their little sports day they did in the summer.

My feeling is that the number of overweight children has increased during the lockdowns, but we also moved during that period so it might be just the case in our new town.

This.

I also keep in mind a family friend who has 3 children. One of the three has always been big. Literally from a baby she was in the top percentiles and has always been large.. the other two are not remotely. They get fed the same. There is no medical condition as such at play, just for whatever reason one has a different frame, metabolism, whatever it is.

This is the situation with one of my dc as I mentioned before - just naturally bigger but the nhs calculator puts her at ‘extremely overweight’ I think at some point she will have a growth spurt and slim down

I read that in a research survey 90% of parents with overweight children didn’t realise their children were overweight until told so.
I think if a child is obese that’s easy enough to see. Overweight is not as obvious to many. It’s just the new normal - people think of it as ‘puppy fat’ I guess, but normal should actually apparently be to have a bit of rib on show.

Everywhere I go I see overweight children. This isn't a judgment - just an observation. They outnumber the non-overweight kids.