Bariatric ambulances

[mutznutz]

Whilst it's a shocking sign of the times that ambulance bosses are having to spend a fortune on wider ambulances and bigger, stronger stretchers to ferry obese people to hospital...what about the paramedics?

If the obesity rate continues to rise as fast as it is, then surely ambulance crews are going to have to eventually become stronger or risk putting patient's lives at risk by being unable to carry the stretcher or doing themselves an injury?

Where does this leave all the more slightly built trained professionals?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12287880

I know several people who refuse to acknowledge that their kids are getting fat.
the are all big boned, have puppy fat or take after aunty mary's side of the family.

It is nothing of the sort. The kid is fat due to eating his/her way through a six pack of walkers everyday.

My dh is a firefighter and has been called several times to help paramedics move obese patients.

Once they had to take a guy on the back of a flat bed truck ( I kid you not) Not very dignified. They once spent almost a whole day getting a guy down several flights of stairs in a block of flats with no working life. Not the best use of public money.

lift

Lift or Life works...sadly

It is sad and my nana was fat 30 years ago so I'm sure I could have gone that way too, indeed in our family there does seem to be a chubby stage around 12-15 but then you come out the other side like a lovely butterfly
However I do agree we are kidding ourselves, my mum had a pair of size 10 jeans from the 70's I wanted to borrow for a party, now I was an 8-10 at the time and couldn't get them over my bum.
We are clearly all getting fatter and I'm not sure even being a size 12-14 (which I currently am) is anything to be proud of, by 1970's standard I bet I'm an 18.

I agree with mutznutz and I think our perception of what is fat/thin/normal has changed dramatically in recent decades. In my mother or grandmother's generation I would probably have been considered slightly plump (I'm a short-ish size 10), however now I seem to be considered quite slim compared to all the women of my height wearing size 16+. Which is fine for my vanity :) but meaningless really.

I think it's even more pronounced with children, we're losing sight of what a normal weight child looks like. I've seen people post on MN outraged that their child has been measured as 'overweight' by the school nurse or GP, and posted pictures of the DD to prove that she isn't. And I've looked and thought - well, maybe if she was a 40 year old woman those proportions would be normal, but for a 7 year old girl? Little kids for the most part are supposed to be skinny.

Interestingly there seems to be a similar thing with dogs and puppies, people starting to think that a normal healthy pup (i.e. is actually painfully thin and overfeeding accordingly...

(sorry, don't know what happened to that last sentence but you get the general idea...)

Good post Ephiny I agree that our perceptions have changed over the years.

Actually, it's in the news today that UK women are the fattest in Western Europe. I really wonder why that is? We're not the only ones in Western Europe with Takeaways, Computers, Consoles, Cars etc....

www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8301147/Britain-has-fattest-women-in-mainland-Western-Europe.html

I went to a meeting at DD's school recently for the top year of primary, and was shocked to see the size many of the kids, some of whom I hadn't seen for a while. Looking back at my school photos from this age, the kids I remember as fat are just normal by today's standards - there was no-one the size of the 7 or 8 biggest kids at the meeting. What their parents think of their size I have no idea - hard to ask, really, "Don't you think you child is rather overweight?"

BTW I've always been a size 12 - weird though, because 25 years ago I was 9 stone and size 12, now I'm 10 1/4 stone and still size 12. In fact I bought a size 10 skirt in White Stuff the other day . I certainly wouldn't fit into the size 12 jeans I had in my 20's.

Yes - same here. My wedding dress (more than 20 years old) is a size 12. It doesn't go anywhere near me, which is unsurprising as I'm more than a stone heavier but still apparently a 12

I think elasticated waist bands..leggings/trackie bottoms etc are the spawn of the devil lol as they tend to 'grow' with our waist lines.

As someone in The Telegraph article comments said, perhaps it is time to tax fatty food.

It appears that it has helped cut the numbers of smokers.

Ciggies and booze are taxed. If the government needs extra revenue (which it does), why won't it add the same tax levy on foods high in salt and sugar and fat?

This would have several benefits:

1. Foods masquerading as healthy, when in fact they are high in salt/sugar/fat would be exposed
2. The extra revenue can be used to pay for these bariatric ambulances and other equipment
3. Like ciggies and booze, the tax may encourage some to give up these foods.

I still do think that, instinctively, the majority of people try their hardest to maintain a healthy weight because they know that's what is best.

Going back to the example of the bed-ridden obese, perhaps the slimming saboteurs who bring these high fat foods to the bed-ridden obese should be brought bang to rights. What the hell are they thinking? Brings a new meaning to the phrase, "killing me softly."

No way should they tax fatty foods. We're already living in rip off Britain. Why should anyone have to pay for someone elses greed or lack of willpower?

I don't even sit on the bus anymore because i am super aware of my size.
Sometimes i don't even get the bus because it is too full and i know i will squash people even more.
I walk when i can, despite having a lot of hip and foot pain ( which were not caused by my weight ) but it hasn't helped it IYKWIM.

I actually had to go cry in the teminal toliets after my Honeymoon because i could hear the woman behind me, snigger when i had to ask for the seatbelt extender.

Obesity is a strange thing. People seem to have no problem with being absolutely vile to a fat person. If it was a smoker or someone with high cholesterol or gingivitis then no-one would dream of accusing them of bringing illness on themselves. People with obesity have an eating disorder. They should not diet, the whole point is that diets do not work. Obese people should eat healthily and exercise.
If the government were actually serious about this they would make it easier for people to exercise, not harder. All our local leisure centres have shut their creches. Then I read an article in our local paper saying they were trying to attract women into the leisure centre. Well goodness me I wonder why women can't make it to the gym?
Cheap, processed food is part of the problem. If they taxed high fructose corn syrup that might go some way to helping. Also bringing back cooking lessons in school.
I am obese. I have lost weight before. It takes a huge amount of effort (minimum 5 times a week for an hour or more in the gym) plus complete focus on food for it to happen for me. I have a toddler. Right now I can't give my body that time. If I had somewhere to park the boy while I did it, or a nanny, or a gp nearby that might be different but I don't, so for now I'm obese.

radio I disagree with a few of your points there.

1. Smokers are always made to feel like second class citizens nowdays and are constantly accused of bringing illness on themselves.

1. Obese/overweight/underweight...we should all eat healthily..then there would be no need for diets. However, for many reasons this doesn't happen so people resort to diets to kickstart what they want to achieve.

1. Money is very tight for all councils. You could argue that no-one actually needs a leisure centre to excercise in..if they are serious about getting fit, they'll do it at home.

1. Cooking lessons at school have been back for ages and healthy school meals available.

If you genuinely are ready to lose weight (hand on heart) then why no excersise at home with your toddler and make it fun?

new2cm - my BF has had a serious back injury from lifting a fat person,he's a paramedic, very common, and god knows where you live but around here there are loads of obese people (and Kids )

radio - 'not horrible to smokers' - I have been fat and a smoker (am now neither) and ime, people are far ruder to smokers, treated like lepers.

Earlier on in the thread someone said that in their local area obesity is not a problem. I think it can depend very much on where you live.

This is not scientific proof by any means and only an observation but there were far more obese children (and super obese adults) at one Center Parcs in comparison to another I have been to. I noticed it both times I went to each.

Not sure why or how it can be helped.

There for the grace of God go I, I could so easily put on weight with the lack of exercise I can take

I don't think they should tax fatty foods but i do think that trans fats should be banned as they are in Denmark for example.
Also it would be nice to see some of the 2 for 1 offers in super markets on fruit and veg instead of the unhealthy stuff.
But most of all i think that people need to start taking responsibility for themselves.
We spend millions on educating people about what's healthy and what's not. You can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

I agree bettybosseye...with all of those points.

Smokers, the over weight.... People love picking on others for a precieved weakness. it's sad.

Personnally, I believe that a large part of the obesity problem is due to the way we work. Most of us are chained to a desk for long hours and low pay - little time allowed to simply move about!

I think that weight can creep up on you though. I was always a size 12-14 until I had DS2 (10 years ago this year), never really lost baby weight and was in an abusive relationship where fat was my protection, the fatter I was the less my Ex bothered with me :(

I am a size 22 now, I hadn't weighed myself for 10 years (I was a size 14 and just under 11 stone then) and was horrified to find I am now 18 stone. I knew I had put weight on, but I had told myself it was no more than 4 stone, 5 at worst. Most overweight people I know have no idea what they weigh, and wear loose/stretchy clothing so don't necessarily 'see' the weight gain.

I am 7 stone overweight, which is a huge and disgusting amount. I know - and am sticking to low fat foods to try and shift it (lost half a stone in first week) however I am under no illusion it will not be easy. I work full time, in a sedentary job where I sit at a desk for 8/9 hours a day, and spend over 2 hours a day commuting. When I get home I am shattered, I can do some housework/cook dinner but going to the gym in an evening, or for a run? I can't see how I could even though I know this would speed up weight loss.

Children are the same. When I was at school 25 years ago, we had school teams for every sport, did PE or games at least twice a week, and out of school spent our time playing out in the streets and fields near where we lived. My DSs have 1 games lesson per week, and this rarely involves any aerobic activity (DS1 in year 8 spends games lessons playing table tennis...well 15 mins playing, the other 45 waiting for a 'turn' on the table). Their schools have no sports teams. DS1 is keen to play rugby, but his teacher hasn't got round to it yet . Neither of the boys have friends in the immediate area, so no-one to 'play out' with. I suspect they are not alone, and this lack of activity at school and home for many children is storing up huge problems for the future.

I don't think it's fair to blame the schools for our children's lack of exercise. If parents don't allow their children to play out, they should at least make sure they take them to the park regularly..go on bike rides with them/skipping/football/play areas..all the things children used to do alone years ago but now (in many cases) are not allowed.

mutz it doesn't work like that. I cannot work out at the level I need to lose weight while you are looking after a toddler. You should be at 8 on the 1 to 10 scale and that's dangerous for the boy. Yes you can fart around doing yoga but it ain't fat burning. I'm talking from experience here. I've lost weight before. It is stupidly hard work for me. I have a heart rate monitor and like I said - I have to work out proper hard 5 days a week - 40 minutes running and an hour in the gym used to be my routine and only that worked.
The only way to exercise with my toddler is to strap him in a pushchair and walk. I can't walk for long periods because of an injury I suffered giving birth.
It's about being able to give it the focus and time as well. I don't have an hour and forty minutes a day to do it so I'm not doing it at the minute. A creche at the leisure centre would and did help me do a bit.

Cooking at school may have been back for ages but there are a generation of women now who didn't get them. We haven't seen the benefits of the lessons come through yet.

Diets are the problem because you change your eating habits temporarily. It is the temporary nature of this change that causes the problems. 90 per cent of diets fail.

Yes smokers are made to feel bad but no-one shouts 'Oi fatty' at a smoker in the street. I've never seen a smoker being abused for exercising. I've never heard of a smoker being watched while they have a cigarette and comments passed on their every drag - it happens in restaurants to fat people. Because fat people look different they are the subject of value judgements and ridicule the whole time. You are making them about me.