to think that people who feed their kids junk to the point they are obese should be visited by social services?!

[sawdusty]

It makes me so angry when you see these morbidly obese children (fat from food, not any other medical reason) waddling around and there mums buying them more bars of chocolate and packets of crips, wtf are they DOING?!

OMG you are one patronising lady sawdusty. And I take it you can tell by the type of the waddle whether children are fat because of their diet or because of medical reasons .

What about parents who let their kids play on DSs and Wiis for hours on end? Should SS knock on their doors too?

Or families who pierce babies ears do they need a knock?

Or how about those mums who push their babies in prams with a fag hanging out their mouths?

I take it you are a perfect mother with perfect children........

I don't like the thought of cutting out bread or monitoring what they eat too much. My children eat like horses, one is slim but well built and one is as thin as a rake.
They are very active. Nothing particularly planned but they run around all day. I think that is the answer. A lot of parents can't be bothered to take them to the park, for example.

mostly it is about portion sizes and the quantity of food some kids are allowed to eat

and exercise

and education, of the parents

and processed crap, Iceland food marketed at families, disgusting

Yes, small potions are very important too. I don't mind them asking for seconds, it's better than having too much on the plate to begin with

well my kids are skinny minnies (PIL's recently commented on how skinny they are in a maybe they need to be fed sort of way) and I worry all the time that they are getting healthy food so it's not just a fat kid issue as there are many skinny kids eating too much of the wrong food. guess as kids are generally meant to be skinny then the overweight kids are easier to notice.

So far DD doesn't ask to spend her pocket money on sweets, she'd rather save it for a magazine or fucking shite go go's, but she does get 20p twice a week to spend at Youth Club and buys sweets with it, so maybe that's why?
I also buy treats at the weekend so she doesn't really need to spend her own money on foody things.

I eat the same way myself, treats are for the weekend, protein/carbs are eaten in smallish portions with plenty of veg and salad on the side.

I've never been overweight in my life, and never feel deprived. It also means if I really do fancy something calorific I can have it.
I had cakes with my friend today, which I made.
I've saved one for DD, who doesn't even know I made them, but I wouldn't dream of not saving her one. It's an occasional thing for a weekday though.

Sorry MRsR but had to snigger at 'small potions'

I repeat, I have not cut bread out of my DD's diet, I have stopped having it in the cupboard.
Actually, she can have it every day at school if she wants as they do sandwiches as a choice.
She has school meals and chooses whatever she likes. The menu is sent home but I don't get involved in her lunchtime meal choice, that's up to her.
If she came home and had a slice of toast, fine, but she was gorging on it, and it was creating negativity as I had to say no. Ditto crisps and biscuits.
There's 3 boxes of sweet cereal in the cupboard, that's not a problem as she doesn't gorge on it, or even eat it other than at breakfast, and since last week has been having porridge instead-her choice.

The food was not the problem, the amount was.
She hasn't complained at all about the changes.

Ok. I'll share some of the flaming with sawdusty. Rather than be all PC - if I see a obese mum and dad with obese young children then I also feel a bit angry and definitely sad for the children. Think their might be some denial on here (one poster said she wasn't that big as she is at size 20/22 - sorry but that does sound obese. I would never shout, or make them feel bad about it but yes my judgy pants probably would be on a bit and I doubt I'd be the only one. I at times drink too much and act a bit silly, have thrown up and occasionally got into a state - anyone seeing me like this has every right to raise an eyebrow and think what they like as I admit I sometimes over do it. Yes all kids fat or skinny might not be eating great but obese kids are easier to spot and generally need the help fastest. Flame away - fed up of too much PC crap.

IS your daughter getting enough exercise? At least an hour a day vigorous exercise-running, competitive sport, cycling etc?

Arghh! Is it any wonder the country is becoming obese?! (bangs head against wall)

No, she isn't.
She goes to Youth Club three times a week but they do lots of different things, and not all exercise, in fact mainly not.
She does PE at school twice a week and that's it in winter.
In summer she's out with her friends playing all the time and the food thing is less of an issue, mainly because she's not in the house to snack.

There are no sporting activities that she wants to join, even if I could afford them, and I can't exercise with her as I have brittle asthma.

It's hard, I was only thinking of myself and when I do and don't feel like gorging and I guess I would gorge when in the house/bored. After exercise I wouldn't. I think it might be a lot more of an issue with girls as boys find it easier to be active and generally need more food.

and this is not directed at you muggglewup but when I see overweight families I do wonder how they can afford the vast quantities of food they need to sustain a certain weight.

Fattening food is cheap, fast and filling!

loflo
Are you joking? As far as I'm aware piercing a babies ears, playing on a WI or smoking while pushing a baby in a pram does not seriously jepordise their health by hardening and blocking arteries (coronary artery diseases), causing high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. Nor does it cause emotional problems such as lack of self esteem or depression.

I don't think this has anything to do with being a 'perfect' parent, it is simply not making your child seriously ill from feeding them too much junk, what part of that is so hard to understand?!

But we're the product of a generation of didn't necessarily know the dangers of that new and exciting processed food of the '60s and '70s. Needing food to fuel the hard, manual graft isn't necessary, but we haven't changed our diets accordingly so the puddings and pies still go in. Children in school haven't been taught Home Ec, or how to cook and PE has taken a back-seat.

Many parents simply don't know or understand the rules of nutrition, and the government aren't helping. Their latest Think-Tank of experts to tackle the problem include, now who was it .... ah yes, Pepsi Co, KFC, the big supermarkets, amongst others - including the manufacturers of Turkey Twizzlers.

Yes, there are a lot of overweight people, but they need education not ridicule. And it needs to come from the top down, not rely on some Sleb cook to point out that school meals are shite.

I don't think anyone is ridiculing them , it is something that needs to be taken seriously and in order to do that people need to accept that there is a problem not scream 'fat bashing' every time the subject is brought up

People don't scream 'fat bashing' when it is brought up in a thoughtful & meaningful way - just when people like you start threads saying how it makes them angry to see children waddling.

Er no, not joking. Playing too long on video games can cause seizures, babies ears get infected and passive smoking can cause all sorts of nasty problems too.

And lots of console game play certainly causes self esteem and depression problems. I spend my days working with young people who have parents not brave enough to put boundries in place for such things and they spend all night playing their x boxes and sleeping all day. So should social work be lecturing them too????

Of course children need a balanced diet and should not have too much of anything junk food or otherwise.

But its not about childrens diets you see. Its about your narrow minded assumptions - or is there a part of that thats too hard for you to understand?

The assumption that a very fat child has been fed too much?

"fat from food, not any other medical reason" (Sawdusty, 2010). And you know that how????

My friend has a fat child at the moment. Because he has been very ill in hospital for weeks and his drugs have made him put on weight.

So you would know the difference?

I agree that it is important to listen to people who are obese & who have suffered with obesity in childhood as these are the people who have lived with the condition.

I can understand as well why people may feel that they are being 'got at' in the same way I used to get irritated if someone kept going on about my smoking.

That said, 2 close family members have overcome obesity & I saw how they did it & listen to what they say now. Interestingly both are very intolerant of people who feed their children too much junk food. I don't think either of them are being obnoxious they just genuinely feel upset to see a child suffer.

Considering less than 1% of obesity in children is caused by underlying medical problems there is over a 99% chance that a very fat child is being given too much food dangerously high in fat and sugar.

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