To not be surprised our kids are so fat

[Babycham1979]

When they're fed utter crap like this;

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-2957301/What-school-lunches-look-like-world.html

No wonder obesity rates are so high,mand no wonder so many British children are incredibly picky when they're fed processed shite as is evident in these pictures. Imagine some of the pickiest UK children being handed a bowl of miso soup, or prawns, or plantain?!

Is the issue budgetary, or culture? Either way, we're failing our children.

Hold on - so now if we have a healthy BMI we look like teenage boys and 'unwomanly' ?

Bumble - I didn't mean it like that, but for me personally I would look like that and that basing it on the "ideal" weight, not the actual range. Different people carry weight differently and what looks awful onmy body could be stunning on yours

Two other points that have occurred to me:

Most people I know, whose DCs have had a cooked school dinner for lunch, also give them another large cooked dinner in the evening. My DM was shocked at this, when I discussed with her whether I should be doing the same. Her view was that people these days have got obsessed with always needing a full cooked meal, and that when we were kids we quite often had sandwiches for one meal, and a light meal for the other - something like a slice of leftover meat, a bread roll and a quick boil up of whatever veg was lying around!

Also, parents who are overweight often have a distorted view of what 'slim' is. One boy in my DSs class is probably overweight. He is chunky iyswim. His DSis, DM and DF are all very obese. His DM once told me she was thinking of taking him to the doctors as he was so underweight . Totally distorted view of weight.

Plus I have had friends tell me how skinny my DD is. She isn't, she's totally average. Slim, due to growth spurt, but a fairly sturdy frame. My DS is what I would term skinny, like a little bird, all ribs and limbs, slender frame etc.
People forget that kids are meant to be slim, they are growing, they dont have adult curves. They can't be compared to adults.

But if you are only 5ft1 then if your we're 7.5st then surely you wouldn't look like a teenage boy, surely you would just look really 'small' (ie. in proportion but just quite tiny). I have a friend who is probably just about that - she very short and is probably about a 6, but she doesn't look like a teenage boy, she is quite womanly, perfectly in proportion for her height, but just very petite.

I think BMI is far to generous personally

I'm 5ft 3" and apparently the healthy weight range is 7st 6lb - 10st 2lb

Yet if I were to get anywhere near 9st, it would be far to big for me personally, let alone 10st 2lb.

The whole BMI thing is wrong on all levels, for me I feel like I would like a teenage boy - maybe that's just my skewed mind if always having plenty of butt and boobs!! I'm not meaning to criticise any one else.

My friend had a letter sent home from school advising her that her daughter was overweight - there is nothing to her.

I just think the whole idea needs revising

I think BMI is far to generous personally

But BMI doesn't factor in body shape/visceral fat storage. You could be a heavy 'pear' with a healthy waist/height ratio, but be at the top end of the BMI range (who knows, maybe even outside of the upper range). Or you could be well within the BMI range, but be an 'apple', with a not so good waist/height ratio and a propensity to store fat in the wrong places.

Exactly fascicle - it another "one rule fits all" that clearly doesn't

I have two young boys. They eat a lot, and often. But, all home. Made and if they need to snack it's a banana or apple.

Processed, refined foods and TV. All bad.

I will add the letter was sent to my friend after the reception class bmi checks were done so she was 5. She also has food intolerances and is on quite a restricted diet, the nurse advised my friend to feed her items she couldn't eat as it was beneficial to her. The poor kid hasn't an ounce of fat on her

I'm happy as long as my size 12s fit! Have fluctuated between 12/14 for years now, going up to 16 at my biggest after DS1 was born. I feel happy and confident a size 12 and am happy with a bit of podge

I agree with BMI being a bit - and people thinking where you are the range is important -rather than just being in the range.
I'm 5ft 6 in and I am broad - I especially have a really broad back - weightlifter's shoulders.
My under bust measurement has always been something like 38 inch ...even when I was thinnest - with no boobs. (couldn't get a bra in M&S - they didn't do my size - needed something like a 38AA). I was size 14 -16 tops when I was 10-12 bottoms...this was in my 20s - I'd dieted like mad to get to down to 9st 4lb...I thought I still had some to lose.
My BMI healthy weight range is 8st 3lb to 11st 2lb. So I'd be under mid range....but not near the bottom end.

I met some new people -(so they had never seen me bigger and none of them had a weight problem etc) and when I made some comment about shifting the last half stone and they were horrified. I see pictures of myself now and I am shocked - my face is gaunt....my arms and legs are like twigs....I really am too thin.
(And a few months later I did get really ill - nothing to do with weight - but extended bed rest meant the weight piled on and I had more important things to worry about - otherwise I dread to think what state I'd be in if I'd carried on trying to get down to my 'ideal' weight).
I think I should be at the upper end of my BMI limit...
In fact there used to be a chart that had height and weight on it, but it had a choice of 'builds'. I considered myself medium build (why I thought I needed to lose more) but actually I think I probably count as larger...
Maybe when calculating BMI they should take into account widths - as in distance between hip bones and shoulders...

My eldest DS is 11 and the BMI chart classes him as overweight, and I do agree to a point, however he is also quite broad like his Dad and I'm positive once he hits puberty and has a growth spurt this will even out. The last thing I want is him worrying about it

I will probably be in trouble for saying this, but imo the issues in the UK are:

• portion sizes being overly large and then children being trained to finish everything on their plates thus over-riding the body's full signals.

• far, far too many carbs. Before we had DD I never had bread or biscuits in the house as they're horribly addictive, and I try to not always have potatoes, rice or pasta at every meal. Grated cauliflower is a really nice rice substitute (and I generally loathe cauliflower).

• too much convenience food which is high in sugar - especially hidden sugar.

• snacking between meals. It's very habit forming and just makes you hungrier.

It is the case that it's hard to cook healthy food quickly on a budget. A large pack of sausages (often containing bread so carb heavy) from Iceland, with a load of oven chips (more carbs) and some bread & butter on the side (more carbs) is probably cheaper than a bag of apples.

We've lost the knowledge of how to use cheaper cuts of meat (and no local butcher to make suggestions or explain), or make dishes that will last several meals - and with so many working parents it's hard to find the time to do this.

Whenever I'm in the supermarket and see a very obese family, I can predict that their trolley will be stuffed with carb-heavy foods - crisps, biscuits, large loaves of white bread and lots of convenience foods. I'm rarely wrong.

I know it's not always simple especially with children:

I struggle with a child with a medical condition which means she is never hungry (missing the hormone which helps control appetite) - and is also immensely picky. The only vegetables I have ever seen her eat are those disguised in sauces. We tried BLW, but until she was 2.5 years she was 80% breast-fed. The hospital were involved from when she was a year old and said to keep going on the bf as she was at least getting some calories that way.

As a result we have DD on a high fat, high calorie diet - she's still skinny as a rake and you can count her ribs quite easily. She can have as many snacks as she likes - but rarely wants any. I'm the mother trying to cram chocolate donuts into their child on the way to school!

Elfonshelf - I used to work in a supermarket on the tills and as much as people don't like the stereotypes it's so true - the fat customers had trolleys full of crap - ready meals, crisps, biscuits etc. Often we would get into conversations on what they were buying, just general chit chat, and they would say they wished they could buy healthy food, they didn't seem to understand that they had spent £30 on microwave meals and how much they could have made themselves with that money

My eldest DS is 11 and the BMI chart classes him as overweight, and I do agree to a point, however he is also quite broad like his Dad and I'm positive once he hits puberty and has a growth spurt this will even out. The last thing I want is him worrying about it

I agree he shouldn't be the one worrying about it.

But parents often rely on growth spurts to naturally 'sort out' their overweight kids and it doesn't always happen.

Whether a child is due a growth spurt or not, if they're not overeating and under exercising, they won't be overweight.

No I agree Worral and I do monitor what he eats and try and make him exercise/be active as much as possible. I do think there is too much pressure on kids to be a certain way though

Healthy? I don't see a problem with being under pressure to be healthy. It should really be the default.

Young kids have got pressures from every angle, it never occurred to me when I was a kid to worry about my weight etc

I don't see a problem with being under pressure to be healthy

I realise this was just an off-the-cuff comment, but I'm going to point out that for those of us with long-term illnesses - including children - there's a big problem with it. This matters because the pressure does exist, and makes things worse for those who struggle.

Kids shouldn't be under pressure, but their parents certainly should!

So what's the answer then gallic ??

Just forget about a good diet and exercise because it is too much pressure?

I think when your dealing with long term illnesses it becomes even more important to control the factors you can in their health. By encouraging eating well and being as active as possible you are giving the child with the illness some tools to help them control their health as much as possible.

So many people are misinformed about what a healthy diet is for children that is impossible for everyone to get it right. We have the no carb, paleo, vegan, meat and two veg, low calorie, low fat... that eating 'healthily' is a minefield, especially for kids that don't understand the cynicism of food marketing.