To think we have lost sight of what teh correct weight for a child is

[sassysally]

All these parents have gone, outraged to the mostly national press because they don't think their child has an ounce of fat on them, and the newspapers have published them,but to me are all clearly too heavy

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For some that will be the truth. For others they will just serve as a reminder to be aware and be able to stop and think about subtle changes that could be made without singling out the children.

This is done in reception after all. My dds are 7 and 3 and don't eat off adult sized plates so id be surprised if there were huge amounts of 4/5 yr olds eating adult sized meals of adult plates so a reduction in portion size would be so noticeable.

And everyone would benefit from extra time out side exercising.

I like some of your suggestions too, however the taxing of processed food would penalise those who hae very little money and just don't know how to cook from fresh. I'd love to see a return of proper home economics so children can learn how to cook for themselves and maybe even be teach their parents some ideas.

It's just like evey idea though isn't it. Works for some back fires and makes it worse for others. I expect we all wish we knew what the ultimate solution really was as we all want the same thing.

It's been pointed out to me that my ds (8) is underweight. He appears to be very skinny, all ribs are visible, not an ounce of fat on him.
He has a humongous appetite and will happily eat an adult sized portion and more.
He is also very active.

He was weighed recently and is on the 50th centile for height and weight.

People have very skewed views on healthy weight.

I remember when my DD was in reception and the weighing and measuring scheme was introduced I was horrified, I looked around the school playground and only noticed 2 or 3 children that looked a bit overweight, I couldn't see what all the fuss was about, 6 years on and obesity is a real problem, I'd say around 30% of the children are unhealthily overweight.

My poor DD really struggles with her self esteem because the majority of her friends are obese, at just turned 11 years old she worries that she doesn't have breasts or shapely thighs like her friends. I've privately told her that she doesn't have a problem and that lots of her classmates will struggle with their weight when they're older but it's little consolation to her at the moment. When the year 6 weighing and measuring session came up she got herself into such a state over it I withdrew her, she was convinced she'd be taken into care for being too thin.

She's pretty much the same shape I was as a child, my mum was and still is overweight and always insisted on "feeding me up", I was prescribed complan type supplements to build up my weight, and was frogmarched into boots every week for a weight check, I was never allowed to leave food even when I was full and consequently I have carried those food issues into my thirties and am now fat.

I'm not sure how is the best way to deal with the obesity problem, when I look around at a lot of children nowadays I'm reminded of the humans in the "Wall-E" film, sadly I think it's becoming a reality and it needs to be addressed

Is it partly a lack of self control?

Are children these days taught self control, and deferred gratification?

People, including kids, want instant gratification. That is our culture. Peckish? In the 50s, 60s or 70s parents would have said "no harm in being hungry, just wait until suppertime", these days peckishness seems to be something that needs to be addressed straightaway (middle class parents whip out carrot sticks, humous and crackers, other MC patents whip out crisps or biscuits, and the poorer parents whip out crisps, biscuits AND fizzy drinks....)

Snacking during the day is not necessarily a problem and it may be healthier than eating larger meals in one go, when the person is so hungry that by the time they feel full they have already eaten more than they should have.

The problem is when children are still expected to eat a full meal, or snack in high fast burning calories. And that includes fruit, which is full of sugar.

I think the clear your plate expectation has a lot to answer for as children don't learn to stop when they are full.

Some restaurant kids meals are rediculously big yet you still hear parents insisting they eat it all, often with the threat if they don't they won't get a pudding.

Fucking hell what are these parents doing
Parading their children around in the press

How awful for the children

The parents should have the intelligence to realise that medically they need to keep an eye on their child's weight and not turn it into a huge deal

What idiots

Snacking is a new invention that started in the late 1970s and was an invention of the sweet and chocolate manufactors.

I wonder why it has been such a successful invention for the sweet industry and who has suffered as a result.

Cutting out snacking between meals would prevent children from ingesting 2100 extra calories per week, a whole extra days calory intake for an adult.

But it would also cost the food industry millions of pounds and that is why it is not suggested as a solution as those same industry giants have enormous influence on our governments

A lot of posters on here have mentioned the fact that their children appeared overweight before a growth spurt. Did they then become skinny and is this recognised as a way that children grow?

I had too naturally skinny children with very good appetites and I don't remember them ever putting on weight before increasing in height. They just always looked skinny. And yes I do realise how fortunate we were to not have to worry about portion control.

I do think life style played a part too. I didn't drive until they were in their teens, so we walked a lot and they always seemed to be on the go. The eldest in particular is a real fidget - feet moving even when sitting down.

In the summer when I was child, we left the house in the morning and were only really expected back for meals. We burnt off calories on a daily basis without the need for organised activities. It's obviously very different now.

Of course snacking isn't a new invention. My school used to sell crisps in the breaks. That was in the 60's. Most of the kids used to have them (I didn't because my mum couldn't afford them). Most of the other kids had sweets and chocolate as well.
Some children were underweight because they didn't get enough to eat, and even people who were better off couldn't afford to overeat to the extent they can today.
IMO and experience, the main difference is in activity levels. Most people, including children, are less physically active nowadays, and haven't reducd calories to account for this.

I think snacking plays a part too Ivy. We never had snacks as children and I have never made it part of my dc's routine either (eldest is 27 youngest 11). We eat three meals a day, as toddlers they ate three meals a day and we have pudding on Sunday not after every meal.
None of them are particularly fond of sweets, crisps or chocolate in fact youngest dd dislikes them all and none of them would go and buy any from the shop if they were hungry they'd make themselves toast or cereal.

Snacking is a new invention that started in the late 1970s and was an invention of the sweet and chocolate manufactors

But as a child of the 60s I can assure you that 1/4 lb sweets from the corner shop were regularly consumed, a finger of fudge or a a load of penny chews on the way home from school, crisps, biscuits and cakes were eaten quite liberally.

But we didn't have a car till I was 12, we walked or cycled everywhere.
And we didn't have rice or pasta... far to exotic for my mother!

Snacks in the 60's and 70's used to consist of a biscuit or a sticky bun rather than sweets but we still had them.

Wasn't school milk a snack, albeit a healthy one? It isn't a meal and it dates back long before I went to school and had to suffer it. It wasn't the case we had nothing from breakfast to lunch.

But yes like lots of people, we didn't have a car until I was 9 and certainly I walked to and from school every day, 4 miles a day at secondary school and played out a lot.

Have a look for the sale of crisps and chocolate from the 1960 and 2013 and see if the figures are the same, if the figures of sales per person are the same then I am quite happy to be proved wrong

Im a 60s child and agree with errol. My friends and used to get sweets from the corner shop on the way home school most nights.

Ivykaty You can say that the amount of snacking has exploded since the 70s but you can't possibly say snacking was invented in the 70s. My parents' generation were snacking in the 50s but back then and when I was a child it tended to be homemade goods and a glass of milk after school.

It really depends on what you call snacking. If you have the very narrow definition that is it only sweets and chocolates then yes it might be the case that it is a recent invention but surely the definition of snacking is eating between the three main meals? In that case it has been going on for a lot longer than the late 70's and not always snacking on healthy things. As I say biscuits and buns were more likely to be snack material than chocolate and crisps.

See my parents were still on rationing in the 1950s and snacking was just not part of the culture as there was a lot of food shortages still. Eating everything on your plate was adhered to as there would be no more food until the next meal time.

Sweets came of rationing during the 1950s but the idea of of snacking on biscuits, chocolate bars and crisps everyday wasn't done and not having sweets for fear of ruining a meal was addressed.

Even now the chocolate and sweet industry is increasing sales by approximately 5% each year so it is still a growth industry in more ways than one.

I am not convinced snacking in itself is a problem but what you snack on certainly is. Nobody has ever got fat from eating a carrot between meals, but a packet of crisps a day is a completely different matter.

I also think that people do not adjust their expectations of what a child should then eat at meal times if they have had a snack. If dd has a really active morning running around the park in the rain for hours then she will need to eat something decent between breakfast and lunch. However, she will then eat less at lunch so it balances out.

The common attitude of forcing or cajoling children to eat more then they want and not allowing them to learn to self regulate is really a deep cultural problem that needs to be addressed. Most babies and children will eat as much as they need when they are hungry if you just let them get on with it, but parents are made to feel inadequate if their child isn't seen as a 'good eater'.

I get what you are saying Ivy but my father was evacuated during the war and lived on a small holding for the duration. He talked of eating fruit of the trees and collecting nuts in autumn and that sort of thing. That was all in addition to meals.

I suspect that snacking as a concept came into existence once a majority of the population started having regular meals and whether you had snacks depended on availability and cost whereas now everybody can afford these things.

Exactly Hearmyroar - allowing kids to eat good food to appetite including not eating much at meals if not hungry would be a vast improvement, rather than rewardong clear plates and over eating for 4 or 5 or more years and establishing a need and expectation to over eat and robbong the child of awareness of what their body needs, then suddenly realising they ate over weight and suddenly totally changing the goal posts, rewarding restraint and making the child feel deprived in comparison to siblings and to what they are used to.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00v2c0r
The programming is no longer available, possibly it is on YouTube but it did explain this concept.

Yes YouTube has programming 2 which explains how snacking came into being as we know it now

Fruit and nuts from scavenging isn't the same concept.

Sooner or later the whole calory system will also be turned on its head as it is a very old outdated system that probably has serious flaws and we will find a calory I'd not the same depending on the food it comes from.

Perhaps an on the spot fine for ising the phrases "good eater" or "clean plates all 'round" approvingly or threayening "no pudding unless you eat all your dinner" should be introduced :o

The snacking problem is also that so many leisure activities have a snacking element that has almost become the norm. Go to the park - get an ice cream, go swimming - get sweets from the vending machine, go to the cinema - sweets and popcorn etc etc. We are almost becoming incapable of carrying out any activity without eating around it.

I also wonder what impact the increase of fizzy drinks in most diets has had upon the nations expanding waistlines.