AIBU to wonder if the obsession with babies' weight gain has a knock-on effect in later childhood?

[dekari]

Saw this on the news this morning: www.itv.com/news/story/2014-07-02/weigh-children-school-year-health-committee-wollaston/

It really struck a chord, as I have had three babies who have bumped along the bottom of the centile chart for weight (and have been pressured into topping up with formula to help them gain). Meanwhile, friends whose kids are at the top end of the chart feel reassured that they are strong and healthy.

Fast-forward a year and the obsession switches to solids and how well your child eats. The measure of "success" here is whether a child will polish off their meals without any fussiness.

I'm not sure exactly when this success turns to failure and your satisfyingly chunky baby becomes a worryingly overweight child but I can't help but think there's a cruel irony here.

Yabu. This is not a new phenomenon but is born of a natural and deep seated desire to see children thrive

The overweight children we're seeing today are due to a surge of cheap, processed and sugar laden foods as well as a lack of education.

They are all different! My LG eats like a horse, she's only 11 months old, but I refuse to feed her any crap. She eats loads of fruit and veg, brown bread, wholemeal pasta etc etc.

I know some of my friends let their kids of similar ages eat loads of crisps, chocolate, chips etc.
One of my friends chastised me for feeding my DD a banana saying 'as if you feed her them! They make far too much mess for my liking' all the while her little girl was sat eating a chocolate bar and getting it everywhere.

I agree with above poster, its not necessarily how much they eat but what they eat.

My DSD is a nightmare with food but DH says that his ex wouldn't cook so she ate a lot of crap. They've also got into a bad habit of bribing her to eat 'just a little bit more' with chocolate treats so now she expects them after EVERY meal.

If you bring them up to eat good food then they will more than likely do so. If you bring them up to eat crap then they will get a taste for it

I had a huge baby, 10 pounds at birth,

BTW not saying that chocolate, chips etc are completely banned, just like adults, every thing in moderation!

Moms have always tended to be obsessed with whether or not their kids eat enough, no?

If kids were due to be weighed every year the parents of fat kids would still tend to be most likely to opt out so as a public monitoring measure it's not brilliant, anyway. Too nanny state for my taste, anyway.

Design cities & towns so that walking or cycling seems like the default, safe & pleasant option, instead.

I stopped going to the HV after practically being accused of smuggling him formula because my exclusively was gaining "far too much weight"

The crunch came when she said "he must be getting extras from somewhere!" Umm, I'm his sole carer and I highly doubt that at five months he's sneaking out in the middle of the night and meeting dubious individuals in the shadows to 'score' SMA...sigh These days he's a strapping boy of two, but eats like a bird. His sister on the other hand is five, about 2" taller than him, about 5lbs heavier and eats like a horse. No doubt on her next check I'll be accused of starving her!!

No I don't think it has a knock on effect in later childhood. That sounds like a bit of buck passing to me.

Parents have always been concerned about their babies milk/food intake because they're so small and vulnerable, it's natural to want them to grow bigger and stronger.

It's been that way since time began but childhood obesity was a rare thing before the 80s.

What has a 'knock on effect' is the vast amounts of food children are being fed, that's seen as normal, the quality of that food and the lack of proper exercise...due mostly to 100s of TV channels, computers, tablets, phones and games consoles.

There wasn't any reason to want to stay indoors all day/evening when I was a kid because it was too bloody boring.

I think it has more to do with the lack of exercise, the country I live in doesn't have especially healthy food for kid, they just seem to eat the same as adults but kids are outside all the time in all weathers and there is no fear of swimming in lakes or the sea or ice skating or sledging/skiing, I think children and adults are given the message that the outside is dangerous in the UK, the amount of children who don't own proper wet weather clothing is shocking when you consider the amount of rain the UK gets, I assume if a child doesn't own wet weather clothing (waterproof all in one suit or trousers+proper waterproof jacket with a wide brimmed rain hat and waterproof gloves and wellie boots rather than an umbrella and non waterproof jacket) they just don't go out in the rain, that can be months!