Overweight children

[netherlee]

My OH owns a small clothes shop that has lots of childrens stuff (schoolwear, brownie/cub, sports, fashion clothes etc.). He said recently he is rather irked at the number of parents who comment that they have to buy larger sizes (eg age 9-10 for a 7 year old). Sites like M&S are similarly strewn with such comments. The sizes are all in line with average sizes of children or slightly bigger, but of course he doesn't retort that the real problem is the child is overweight. He has also had at least one child needing a smaller size because they are very healthy (usually a very sporty child who is careful with what they eat). Its a lose lose.

So are we BU to think parents should just watch childrens health a little more rather than moan to shop staff just doing their job?

Life styles have changed, the reality is we aren't all going to start walking and cycling like we used to.

For many the local schools and village shops aren't there anymore to walk to. If there is a shop on the corner it's stupidly expensive.

Most Mothers work, they don't have two hours a day to go back and forwards to school. My mum didn't, but from 7 we all went On Our Own. I can't see that happening today.

DCs have more interesting things to do than wander aimless about outside, I'm not sure that's such a bad thing. Honestly how often were you bored as a child, don't say never, because I won't believe you.

Some DCs are, undoubtably unhealthy over weight, some of my friends were probably too thin.

However, the reality is we cannot turn the clock back and I'm not certain we want to.

Aaa ah bang whizz, but that sounds like a fashion thing. Even school clothes are susceptible to the vagaries of fashion. Everything is very slim fit at the moment, so a size bigger may well be smaller. This is a conversation that myself and dh have on a regular and tedious basis.

DH: shirts from so and so don't fit anymore, they are all to tight
Me: that's because fashions have changed and everything is much closer fitting at the moment, but it will come round again
DH < 2 weeks later> shirts from so and so.....
Me: we had this conversation a fortnight ago
Dh: etc etc

So what your basically saying then startail is we have to accept children being overweight and obese as society has created the problem. Surely it's better for society to change to tackle things instead of letting future generations see obesity and as such the problems which come with it as normal?

I have one son who is extremely skinny and another who is a little bit chubby round the middle in my opinion. The chubbier one is 9 and in age 9-10 clothes exactly. 8-9 from M and S is too short in the arms and he is not that massively tall or long-limbed.

My chubbier child has a much bigger appetite than the skinny one, is constantly hungry and getting self 'snacks' etc (and I feel I can hardly ban crackers although I've banned puddings etc but that is a tough one when his brother is practically wasting away!!)

Sirzy I didn't read startail as saying that exactly? More that there is not the will on the part of governments and institutions to change anything and a massive culture of fear which means that children don't get to do anything on their own, run around etc. They are largely sedentary creatures now. This is clearly not a good thing but I think it is to a certain extent bigger than parents (! excuse turn of phrase). Most parents have to work and particularly when it comes to teenagers, you cannot control food choice.

Have to say that where I live in deprived area of London, there are a few obese children but FAR more obese teenagers. The scattering of fried chicken, chocolate and crisp wrappers strewn on the roads would explain why. I don't think it is largely parents providing this food. And you can't stop teenagers buying food they want when you're not looking. Obviously the 'answer' is to give teenagers a strictly balanced packed lunch every day but really how many parents are going to do that? Does that make them responsible for the obesity epidemic?

YABU. DS is tall and skinny, and to find clothes that fit his arms and legs I often have to go up in sizes, and they end up looking baggy. To be outside the average doesn't automatically make you overweight.

Parents can play a key role though. To try to find other things to blame is wrong it's up to parents to educate children in the importance of a balanced diet and active lifestyle. It's also up to schools and other organisations to reinforce the idea and provide opportunities.

To simply accept the fact that people are getting bigger is only going to make issues worse. Too many parents get defensive at the idea their child is overweight instead of stopping to think why that may be

I'm not saying we should except obese DCs, but yes I think we do have to accept the reality is that they are bigger than we were.

They are also taller and have bigger feet. That's probably also true of most of us if we look at our parents.

I'm actually slightly shorter than DM, but my DSIS, DSIL and most of my friends weren't. DD1 is taller than me and her DFs are either taller than their mums already or will be by 17.

So I don't think everything about modern living can be 100% bad and unhealthy.

The one think that could be improved, relatively easily, is after school activities for Y6-Y9 (10-14 girls).

If you are not 'sporty' the amount of recreational sport very small.

DD1 would have done, aquarobics, water polo, or some other fun swimming, but there is nothing, if you don't race.

She trampoline a bit, but the coach left and she felt too tall to do gym with tiny Y4s. School sets for sport and they do fun aerobics and dance and swimming for the non competitive ones, but it's not enough.

They need lunch time clubs and after school groups that do "active, but non competitive things.'

I don't think anyone agrees that it's good for children to be obese but the original gist of this thread was about clothes sizes. My Dd could be a bit slimmer, but even then, girls trousers and especially jeans, won't go near her, because they are designed for children who don't have curves! To take an 11 year old shopping and not be able to get jeans like her friends have is heartbreaking. I control her eating as best I can and she takes plenty of exercise, but I can't chop her hips and boobs off!

If anyone knows where I can get nice curvy jeans that won't be miles too long, that would be fab!

3monkeys - can you not buy her womens sizes and then if needed take them up?

Startail - I agree, that was when I lost interest in exercising because I wasn't good enough to be on the competitive teams at school it seemed that school almost didn't care. It was around then I started putting on weight and vicious cycle began! From 10/11 onwards is probably when young girls need to be encouraged to be active most considering the changes their body goes through naturally

Childhood obesity flattened out from 2009 apparently so perhaps all that lecturing parents about responsibility got through ;)
sadly though the problem as a whole will never be completely solved just by telling parents they are stupid and naughty. ( Though undoubtedly some of them are.)

Apparently the rapid increase in early puberty among girls is to do with the increase in high-calorie foods and general childhood weight, and this is a common thing, not just restricted to obese children. We mostly all eat a lot of mass-produced, mislabeled crap these days, even the 'thin'. So unfortunately this isn't a job parents can do by themselves, unless they go back to the land and grow all their own food or are rich enough to shop only in health food shops.

At any rate childhood sizing has now been revised upwards just like adult sizing. I was a size 14 at age 16 (slightly fatter than I am now but somewhat firmer :)) and I am now a 10 and sometimes an 8 (in M and S). Ridiculous.

YABU - especially to presume that children don't fit in their right age clothes because they are overweight!
DD1 fit in her age clothes, however DD2 does not. I have just had to buy her an age 12 school trousers and she is 8. She is not fat though!

DD is 5'5" and wears ladies size 10/ 12. She is the same height and clothes size as two of her Aunts.
She has just turned 10 years old by the way.
I really must stop feeding her mustn't I OP?

You also say that in M&S The sizes are all in line with average sizes of children or slightly bigger Disagree with 'slightly bigger' but go along with 'average'.
So if we were all the same size and shape and average we would all fit nicely. Have another .

I disagree with slightly bigger as well. The trousers are way too short and way too wide. And I know loads of mumsnetters agree because there have been umpteen posts on here about it.

Hmm. My friend with the medically overweight child thinks it's ridiculous that he is classed as overweight.
And very few (maybe one?) person on here has actually described their child as "chubby".
And yet we have several parents on here who say their children are having to wear clothes not just one, but two or three sizes above their age.
There is some denial going on here. I am sorry, but there must be.
Mrs Louis Theroux-your ten year old has the same height and clothes size as me.
I could certainly shift a stone a few pounds. Size 10/12, even for an adult is not even particularly slim anymore.

Some children are very tall though. We need to differentiate between those who need a larger size because of their height or because of their weight.

HI Ifnot, it was me who said ds1 is a bit chubby. He probably isn't medically overweight. He's in the 'right' size clothes for age 9-10 but they fit fairly snugly.

I do worry because i know all about obesogenic foods and he has such a big appetite and all for the wrong things. Before he was chubby I used to allow the odd treat like any (?) other parent but now I'm withdrawing them. It's v hard though because I don't want him to feel self-conscious and 'monitored', and sometimes kids go do through a slightly chubby phase (I was bigger when young.. but not at 9).

True Bunbaker.
I can see for myself that children are getting a lot fatter though, and was looking through old photo albums of myself and siblings, on holidays etc, and I was surprised at how skinny my brothers were, and how slim I looked,by today's standards, even though I was definitely at the chunkier end of the scale in my class, if not the chunkiest.
Interestingly, my bros, while all tall and broad, have not a beer gut or love handle between them. The bastards.

Ifnot yes I'd go so far as to say that size 10-12 can conceal quite a bit of flesh, certainly does on me. On my thinner days when no one would ever describe me as a sylph, I can fit an 8, but only in shops like m and s where sizing is huge. I would say my measurements are 37-28-38/9 on a fairly good day. That is not thin.

If the daughter mentioned above is 6 feet tall it does make a difference, I'm only about 5 foot 6.

I BALLOONED as a teenager IfNot. That was in the 80s. I couldn't stop eating, and expanded and expanded. It was a constant battle until my mid 30s when for whatever reason my appetite went down.

Ah, OK domesticgoddess. It's probably a good idea to very subtly monitor what he eats. It is difficult because you don't want him to feel bad.
My parents put me on a diet when I was really little, because I was a greedyguts, and they were worried I would just get enourmous!
I don't think I was aware of this at the time though.

When I say diet, btw, I just mean they hid the cake!

yes ifnot I already have to hide stuff from him. It seems very hard on his brother who is skin and bone, never to have a biscuit or whatever because ds1 would then have to have one... etc. But I stopped buying them and trying to avoid all the other stuff he is obsessed with (red meat... sigh. total ill health fest)

I wish they would hide the cake now...