Does it really matter if children are overweight

[ivykaty44]

does it matter if other peoples children are over weight?

if your children are a healthy weight then why are people so concerned with other peoples dc weight, if they are over or under isn't it just best to mind your own business unless you are asked for help in the matter?

of course it matters, if children are being fed the 3 "C's" constantly (chips, crisps and chocolate), then its the children who ultimately suffer, the will be the ones living with high cholesterol, over weight, possible diabetes and heart attacks etc...

we have a "right" to help those children, and hopefully the parent will listen, if not, then its our common sense to intervene if at all possible, be it by offering leaflets, parental classes, cooking classes, etc...

I am Ellen! A non identifiable meat based product. I'm 0.2% meat and have 460g of salt and 75kg of fat which saturates. OH YEAAAAAH! (I think the rest is bread crumbs but it could be dried poo and tadpoles.)

Yummy.

slightly off-topic, but what exactly can you do about a child that is tubby and has a ferocious appetite?

My DS is 7 and does at least 12 hours of intense exercise every week (on top of the games he does at school). He does Rugby, Footie, Tennis, Swimming and trampolining every week, and usually something else thrown in on top (this weekend it was cricket and horseriding). He usually comes in the top 3 at every race on sports days and the like, and is pretty good at all the sports he does.

And yet. He is by far the chubbiest child in his class and is always asking for food. He is hungry all the time and eats like a horse, and we are really struggling to keep him in check. His diet is probably better in quality than most children (no crisps/cakes/sweets/chocolate except at parties, no juices or fizzy drinks, very good quality cooked lunch at prep school, lots of good protein such as eggs, grilled chicken and fish), but the sheer quantity he gets through is (to my mind) excessive, and he is starting to look chubby relative to his peers. But how to control a hungry child? Any tips? If we simply restrict him he is like a caged animal waiting for food, but if we don't he can go through a whole fruit bowl in the course of an afternoon and still be nagging us for more.

As adults DH and I know how to control carbs/calories/processed food to get a good balance, but you simply can't do that with a child who will always be out on play dates or eating at school, and we are at the point that we simply don't have any more hours between school and bedtime to cram more exercise into him to balance it out.

He's currently bang on the 91st centile.

Advice?

Firstly, have him checked for thyroid. There is also a condition - can't remember the exact name: Praxi-Willy or something similar. Not common but it means that the child is constantly hungry. It is unlikely though so don't worry. He is only 7 and lots of children do go this stage - he may just be before a growth spurt.....

In fact, I think you are doing all you can re diet and exercise. You need to have a medical check-up and the doctor can give you some proper professional advice....

It won't be Prader-Willi, that also means fairly obvious learning disability, StillSquiffy. And I have the same problem with my DS3 (80th centile) who's nothing like his lean brothers. Hungry all the time. Lots of water to drink and loads of fruit for snacks, and a packed lunch that I control. But he's still not getting any leaner.

Thanks for comments. Had a quick google and it won't be prader-willi because he's just been assessed as being quite significantly above average IQ (we were checking for dyslexia).

However the googling in the last 15 minutes as a result of your comments did throw up ADHD as a suspected factor, which was interesting because what I had always thought was just a bit of hyperactivity in him turns out to be (according to the same assessment we had done) mild ADHD. So your comments have pointed me in a direction I hadn't thought of before. It never occurred to me that hyperactivity could be linked to overeating (seems completely counter-intuitive to me, especially as I was hyper as a child and exceptionally skinny), so I now have another path to sniff round

That is odd, StillSquiffy. My DS2 has ASD and is bordering on hyperactive, but he's the very thin one. Let's hope you get some help with it, in that case. Not holding out much hope....

My DGD turned 8 in January and we regularly get comment like "Gosh isn't she small".

I think she is actually just about right. It's just that there appears to be so many overweight DCs around. (In my opinion).

Some are already developing breast fat at that age.

I wonder what a parent would say if I said "Gosh isn't she fat" about their DD

It does matter if children are overweight. I'm not talking about body shape or growth spurt chub, but if an 8 year old boy is sporting man boobs, there's a problem. If an 8 year old girl has a double chin and a pot belly, there's a problem. Weighing children at school coincides with the overall physical health check, not just weighing a child to see how over/under weight they are.

Overweight children will struggle the rest of their life with weight, which causes a host of problems, mental and physical, I'm sure doesn't need to be listed here and obesity related diseases are hemorrhaging the healthcare system and is expected to rise.

Just check out her BMI, I'm sure she'll be in the healthy range. NHS BMI calcuator. Ideal BMI varies with age, and this calculator takes that into account.

You might want to consider the GI side of things - the balance of slow release energy vs quick release stuff (basically whole food vs simpler/more processed food). It could be that an adjustment there might help him feel fuller for longer. Slowing down mealtimes can help too - if you eat more slowly you feel fuller and so eat less, encouraging drinking more water can help too. Or if there is some hyperactivity it could be that eating is a bit of a boredom thing - ie it is something to do, especially if it is the sensory side that is appealing to him, so more the enjoyment of eating than the feeling of being hungry IYSWIM.

That was for Squiffy (slow posting).

My children are both thin, ds slightly painfully so (his BMI shows him as significantly underweight) whereas dd has a beautiful figure, that to me looks just right for a pre-teen. All of her friends think she is very thin, but her BMI is just fine, she is just tall and quite lean. Some of her friends are really quite overweight, and it is really quite sad to see how much it restricts their lives.

I was a bit of a podgy child - looking at the photos I wasn't remotely fat, just on a slightly bigger scale than the other kids my age - sturdy.

I remember when I would've been about 7 or 8, a much older boy handing out balloons said "that fat girl in the stripy jumper didn't get one". I remember thinking "am I fat?" I asked my mother and she said yes, I was fat, and that was bad and we needed to 'tackle it'.

She started feeding me less than my (thinner), sister. She'd give me different things for dinner (sister would get a cooked dinner, I'd get cottage cheese and carrot sticks), I wasn't allowed seconds or puddings except on saturdays and she'd tut at me if I said I was hungry.

It screwed me up really badly and began a lifetime of issues with food. I wasn't fat at 8 but I certainly was a few years later once I started stealing and hoarding food, spending my pocket money on mars bars etc. At secondary school I ate all the time (we had a tuck shop and vending machines), would buy multipacks of crisps on the way home and hide them.

All this time my mother was getting more and more upset with me, calling me obese and disgusting and nobody would ever want me and I'd be so pretty if. She put me on slimfast when I was 13.

I wish she hadn't told me that fat was a value judgement not a descriptor. Even if I had been overweight, why not get me into a sport of take me for walks or bike rides, instead of making me eat less?

She clearly had issues of her own - when I did lose weight (a stone in three weeks on slimfast), she got really angry with me and then filled the house with cake.

DS1 was a bit podgy compared with his peers - he still has a tummy - he was nudging up to the overweight line on the kids' BMI charts. We've gotten him into martial arts and I started paying more attention to portion sizes - for everyone, not just him. I already cook everything from scratch. He's stayed the same weight since last September and grown two inches and is no longer near the line. But I was really nervous I'd give him a complex (or he'd inherit mine).

Of course if a child is massive for their age there might be a cause for concern, but there should never be shame involved.

Wine That's a shame how your mother dealt with it. There are positive ways to a healthy lifestyle. Both my sisters grew up on processed food from a very young age and my mother said and still says, (they are both morbidly obese now) very damaging stuff to them, which just feeds the mental side of eating disorders, regardless if its to over eat or under eat. I agree, there should never be shame involved.

Portion sizes, I think usually the key, Squiffy, and bulk out meals with fruit/veg when possible. He has to get used to not feeling so full, so letting meals go on a bit (eating slower like someone said).

Don't despair, some fat kids do grow up to be lean and mean. My cousin was a complete tubster into his early teens & now he's so gorgeous, trim & fit (mid 30s).

The OP sounds like my mum! I was a fat child and I am now an adult who struggles with my weight. My parents both have diabetes and weight is a contributory factor. I wish my parents had dealt with my weight when I was a child. I actually ate fairly healthy, but was given enormous portions and encouraged to eat it all up.

Yes it matters.
It matters a lot.
A fat child is far more likely to be fat as an adult and consequentially have health problems as an adult.
That is a fact and can be found easily enough in the literature.
Medical reasons for being fat are very, very rare. As a percentage, tiny!
In clinic a large proportion of our type 2 diabetic children (usually but not always limited to overweight adults in the past) eat crap and don't exercise anywhere near enough.

On the whole, there is no excuse for it!

It may or may not matter to the individual child, but it matters enormously at a population wide basis. Obesity is associated with or a causative factor for many poor health outcomes (which may manifest themselves later in life)

The height/weight measurements in schools have been running since at least 1960s (I think since 1940s) and have provided valuable data upon which health planners work. In the early days, underweight and malnutrition was the problem. Studying changes over the decades, and their rate, allows for planning to meet anticipated demands on the health service in future years.

There will always be genuine outliers (a healthy child at an "unhealthy" weight), but as long term obesity has a cumulative effect over the years, the health planners still need to know this to provide the services needed in 20 years or so when conditions caused/exacerbated by obesity begin to show up.

Those of you that say it does matter, have any of you had direct dialogue with the parents of an overweight dc, of course out of ear shot of the dc? If so what did you say?

For me, when they come in they're patients, so yes I have words with them. If the child is there I will have a conversation about healthy eating in front of them, but don't discuss the weight side of things with them in earshot.
For more detailed help if some parents really don't get that going a whole week with nothing but beige food (eg one parents food diaries for her twin girls showed that their only veg had been baked beans, served twice that week) a dietician is usually a better choice.

You just have to be frank and make the health risks apparent!

Most people don't want to cause their children ill health and if they realise it's a risk, it tends to open their eyes a bit.

A kind, but firm approach works well.

Those who want to change will, those who don't will do as they want anyway