To be shocked at how many overweight kids there are here?

[glasgowsfinest]

Have got my fireproof hat in place, here goes...! I'm currently at a Butlin's-type holiday park on the south coast. As you can imagine, it's jammed full of kids of all ages. I'm genuinely shocked at how many of them, from pre-schoolers to older teens, are significantly overweight. I don't think puppy fat can be used as an excuse for all of them. Thinking back to my childhood, overweight kids were the exception, not the rule, but now it seems the opposite. I have two children who by no means have a perfect diet, and eat more chocolate and watch more TV than I thought I'd allow, but they're active too and don't seen to have any fat on them at all! Maybe they're just "lucky", I don't know. But the sheer numbers of chunky kids made me feel quite sad.

Well thats ok Mysterious .............if they are doing p words Ive got one

Pissheads.

Why bring up cigarettes and alcohol? Irrelevant. When a third of the 8 year olds in dds class are lighting up fags after school provided by their parents then I would be concerned about that . But they are not are they? It's bad food and too much of it.

KeRALA One of the local junior schools here has had to confiscate cannabis...................its 2017 not 1985.

I don't think anyone on this thread is denying that a small percentage of children are overweight for medical reasons.

But on this thread most people are talking about the vast majority who are overweight because of too great a calorie intake. This is a problem which needs to be tackled as a society.

demented if that is a genuime question of how to get your DS to slim down, then the answer is not to give him huge portions ( which you say he does get) and not to let him have bowls of cereal afterwards.

Many MNERs drink thats why they dont want it brought up.

Yes, there are many other ways to be unhealthy but you can't include them all on one thread... And I see lots of threads on smoking and drinking. Being offended here, doesn't change the fact that obesity is a problem. It is. Something needs to change. Are you a bad person if you're obese? Of course not. Are you any less important as a person? Again, of course not. Sometimes, truth isn't palatable. If someone hadnt bluntly told me that I was dangerously underweight, if someone hadnt been concerned enough to say something that I certainly didn't want to hear then I'd be dead. They weren't skinny shaming, they were concerned. My life was changed because people cared enough to say the things I didn't want to hear. And I made choices to work through very complex psychological issues and V then to continue to rethink my whole behaviour/mindset about diet and lifestyle. It took years and took dedication and willpower and a hell of a lot of time and support (personally and professionally) to get on track. I have every sympathy with people who struggle with food and weight issues both under and overweight but things CAN change in most cases and the beginning is to accept responsibility and do what you can. None here is saying it's easy but for most people things can change.

YANBU.

And it's the parents fault.

Some of them are indirectly abusing their children. All of them are failing their children. Socioeconomics, politics and marketing are all excuses. Fair play if you want to use those excuses for your own health. But your child's?

Pathetic.

I think a lot of the trouble is that kids who've always been fed on pizzas, burgers and chips, etc., just don't like the taste of healthier, home cooked food, and if they've not been given vegetables from the word go, quite a few just don't like them and won't eat them.

So even if parents are willing to cook healthier food, it's not going to last long if their kids keep turning their noses up.

Also, it does irritate me when people say that healthy eating is expensive. It doesn't have to be. There are plenty of cheap, healthy meals available for anyone willing to spend a little time and effort. But again, anyone willing to bother is going to lose heart quite quickly if the family don't like them.

I have not read anything remotely smug, sanctimonious or fat shaming on this thread. Am I missing something?

Its portion size and snacking. I grew up in the seventies. Snacking between meals was unheard of. You got 3 meals a day and nothing in between. Maybe 2 biscuits after dinner if there were any
We were never met from school with snacks as it would spoil our dinner
We never got snacks on the way to school or for morning break
We werent allowed more than 2 biscuits , that was greedy
We got sweets/crisps on a friday with our pocket money
We walked everywhere, we played in the local park virtually every day. we went to the swimming baths of a weekend

I'm overweight. I have a skinny child. I was a skinny child. My child may well be an overweight adult partly due to his genes and partly to do with society, the normalisation of obesity, the massive over availability of junk food absolutely everywhere you look. It is not fat shaming to be angry at a society that is full of junk food everywhere you turn, than churns out cheap food and snacks as a way of powering the economy and that normalises obesity through vanity sizing. I am despera

It is fat shaming because there are many many ways that people can be unhealthy.

Why do people feel the need to constantly bring up "health issues" or "special needs" to try and deter from the point?

Look, the fact is, the vast majority of overweight people, be that children or adults, are overweight because they eat too much, for whatever reason, and don't exercise enough, for whatever reason. Plain and simple.

I got totally flamed on MN for wanting to talk to my DP about the weight/ size of his DD. she was at the time same measurements as me and I am a size 16 and a good foot and a half taller. Now she has slimmed down a bit as is looking better for it.

there are a lot more overweight kids than there used to be. when I was in year 5 we had a new girl join and she was HUGE, we all played running and active type games and she couldn't keep up, unfortunately we were rather cruel to her (which I regret). in my DS's year (about 15 kids in total, v. rural school) I'd say its a 50/50 split.

Me and DH were recently discussing whether cheese was very expensive in the seventies. We both have strong memories of being absolutely forbidden by our mums to take more than the tiniest slivver. My kids scoff chunks of cheese. Similarly being told to only have a small glass of milk or the rare treat of orange juice. Meals were quite abstemious and plain by today's standards.

A glass of orange juice (Britvic) was a starter in some restaurants!

You are correct Tinkly a lot of 1970's food was plain and boring - it was hard to overeat - in fact, I spent most of my childhood actively avoiding my mum's boiled cabbage. She made a fab crumble though which we were only allowed on Sundays. Food just wasn't about the way it is today and it was very expensive.

When I got to the age of 8 my weight started to creep up, I was secretly eating biscuits and rubbish. I think I was a comfort eater. We weren't poor or rich just a normal working family. My mum made me join the swimming club and in months I was thinner, healthier and happier.

I remember Britvic from when i was a little kid.

Absolutely Time. Juice still feels like a big indulgence to me. But food on the whole was less rich and luxurious and tempting in the sixties and seventies. We ate lots of meat and two veg. There was no big temptation to gorge more because of the utter deliciousnes.