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.

That's really interesting wink

I think.its fascinating to see what school meals are like around the world.

For a country so apparently hung up on healthy eating our meals at school are awful. Maybe there's too much choice? Meat option, vegie option, halal and the jacket potato option.

The meat part is often mince or sausages or a curry or casserole where obviously the meat content can be extremely low quality, and quantity. Shredded or in chunks to make it go further.

Perhaps one really good quality option would be better. Maybe even just stick to vegetarian food then everyone can eat it (other dietary requirements catered for obviously) veges all end up with quorn and a shit load if cheese. Which is not good really.

If other countries are able to serve up fresh well cooked nutritious tasty food then why can't we? Our offerings are an embarrassment in many schools.

Maybe the fact they know their parents will be picking them up with a sharing bag of Doritos or some cereal bar leaves little incentive to bother eating much?

YANBU OP. The health implications are really concerning.

These 'low income families'

They get benefit top ups?

I have a friend with 2 seriously obese kids but she won't hear the word diet mentioned ( I kind of understand that ) or promote healthy eating for fear of them becoming anorexic.

Well I don't understand it at all.

When you have two seriously obese children, you make bloody sure to change their diet/portions and get them enough exercise.

Not wanting to hear the word diet mentioned, is pure neglect in this case.

Another related problem is how food is seen as just something to put in our mouths, to keep children quiet and entertained, to fend off real (or imagined) hunger pangs. No real enjoyment of it at all, no celebrating the actual food.

I do realise this will be difficult for busy, cash-poor families, but I did have an interesting experience years ago. I was helping at my DCs school, taking groups of four children aged 5 and 6 for cookery sessions ages. One afternoon, I took them across the school field where we picked apples from an overhanging tree (with permission). Then back into school where I helped them make apple crumble. Ok, so not the healthiest, but we all really enjoyed ourselves. One little girl tasted her portion, looked at me in wonder and said "I didn't know you could make food." She had perhaps always had processed food and ready meals, and had never experienced the actual process before

Don't know where that extra "ages" came from

Giles

I think cultural approaches go further.

We're just back from a weekend in Paris and one thing I noticed was nobody was walking around - apart from tourists - with food, or snacks. Huge queues of schoolchildren, and none of them eating crisps or chugging coke cans, which is what I'd expect to see in the UK. (actually, don't get me started on crisps, I think they should be banned full stop).

None of the adults were walking round with those ridiculous mega-frappucino drinks you see every 3rd person carrying in the UK, so it must filter down....

I am mortified by the posts on here that don't connect adult obesity with childhood obesity, or from posters who think it's OK to give children crisps, biscuits etc. I confess, as a grandma, I am often pestered for these so I just don't keep them in, it's that simple.

Yes with grandparents there often seeks to be some kind if complete personality transplant.

As a kid we weren't really allowed snacks. Maybe 10 pence worth if sweets once a fortnight. We hardly ever had any if these processed potato things. We didn't ear kids meals in restaurants my brother and I shared a main meal between us.

Yet as grandparents the amount if food I've seen them try and get my kids to eat is phenomenal. My dad cab barely go an hour without drawing their attention to s one food or snack item. Even when I say no he gets one for himself and there's s one long drawn out show if eating it

My kids are almost seen as waste disposal offered extra stuff to finish off leftovers he doesn't want to have to keep..

The amount if arguments we have had because within ten mins of being at the park he's telling then they can have ice cream when the get back. Even after just finishing a large meal ..
.we never would have been allowed this as a child

I think portion sizes are a big issue along with the snacking.

My in laws think I am mean because if my older children (6 and 4) have crisps I make them share a bag. To me a bag of crisps is an adult portion so surely children shouldn't be eating a full pack?

Ha yes I'm accused of under feeding my dc.

Cos I make them share Stuff.

Time
Money
Knowledge
Cheap junk food everywhere
(For adults) sedentary jobs
Calories

I'm dieting on 1200 cals and intermittent fasting, have had to cut my calories drastically to lose weight. One of those tiny brownie bites? 120 cals. A choc caramel digestive (and who eats one?!) 80 cals
Pizza - over 1000 cals in some of the standard supermarket ones

So for my calorie intake for the day I can have a pizza and 2 biscuits
It might only take a chocolate bar or a bag of crisps to push you into a calorie surplus

Giles

actually, you make a good point about grandparents & their responsibility.... my DSD has brought her 2 children up as 'snackers' (though they also eat healthy food as their main meals and are very active) and I have my grand-daughter every Thursday morning & grandson during the hols.

For the first 3 years, I continued the trend; we had oreos, biscuits, ice-creams, etc - things I never knew existed! - and it was DH who suggested we stop & try to change their eating habits, if only when they are with us. Now they are pointed at carrots, cucumber, any fruit they want, and the drinks have been replaced with milk or water. Lunch is a home-made sandwich & veggies, and we all sit down together. It wasn't as hard as I thought, and now both have stopped even asking for biscuits etc. So if I can do it - and it's far more fun being the indulgent nan, let's face it - then anyone can.

iPads and Phones are another problem. Kids spend too much time on them, adults spend too much time on them, taking them away from other things that they could be doing with their kids.

It is also possible to eat unhealthy food and not get fat. Chips and frozen pizza is fine for tea as long as you haven't been gorging on crap all day.

The classic "but they have just been swimming" or "we have been out on the fresh air it makes you hungry" nonsense.

You do these things as they are good habits to get onto. Good exercise and most importantly fun.

They seem to see it as some kind of opening to be able to snack on stuff.

In the cinema people seem unable to sit for an hour or two without a massive pile of nachos,super sized drink as well as pic n mix

I don't understand that at all

One thing I'm doing with my 6 year old that I hope will help her throughout life is that one day a week she cooks dinner for us all. It's helping her learn what goes into a balanced meal and she's more keen to experiment with different vegetables etc. when she's making it herself - last week she made jacket potatoes with chickpea salad. The plan is that by the time she moves out she'll have a big reportoire of healthy meals she can cook so hopefully she won't resort to frozen pizzas etc. too often when she's on her own.

I agree, MumisRunning. Has food always been sold at the cinema? I wonder when it started.

I'm surprised you're shocked OP. This has been going on for years, and is something I notice every time I go swimming while a school lesson is on. At least half of the children are 'well covered' with a few noticeably overweight.
I have my old class photo from year 6 (?) ie age 10-11, in 1970. Every single child (and the teacher) was visibly thin, and would probably be called skinny nowadays. And this was a poor area, at least by todays standards.
Similarily in my senior school, I can remember an American girl joining when we were 14, and we were all a bit shocked because she wore a size 14 skirt. Every other girl wore a 10 or a 12, and these were old sizes, so probably a 6 or 8 in todays sizes. Just to add, don't mean to be prejudiced about Americans, but this girl was noticeably bigger than the rest of us,though again, not big by todays standards.
Children and young people used to be thin without even having to think about it. Weight wasn't really an issue for the most part, and when it was it would only be a matter of a stone or so, or wanting to remain at the sizes you could buy fashionable clothes, which was 14 in most shops.
Just to add, the relationship between poverty and obesity. I've always found the opposite when I've had financial problems. I lose weight really easily because I can only afford basic food like pasta, potatoes, baked beans, eggs, etc, and everything has to bee portioned out to make as many meals as possible. No extras like wine and snacks.

This kind of thread really makes me sad. My kids are both much larger than "average". They eat a very healthy and varied diet and get tons of exercise. I was also larger than average as a child and am now 5'7" and a fit and healthy size 10-12. If we can accept that adults come in all shapes and sizes why not children?! Having read some of the replies on here I am now wondering how many people look at my kids with pity when we are out and about! They are healthy, happy kids.

I think the chubby ebf baby is a non issue. Two of my four kids had the Michelin man baby look. But all four have grown up to be slim kids and adults.

'I agree, MumisRunning. Has food always been sold at the cinema? I wonder when it started.'

Must have been back when celluloid was invented because my ILs remember food being sold in cinemas even in the 60s. But people didn't have MN to go and bitch about 'chomping' 'slurping' and any other exaggerated adjective that can be deployed to slag off people who eat in cinema.

I think popcorn has always been the cinema staple

Now people stagger in with a full on pile of nachos with all the trimmings. And continue to rustle their way through the film with a constant stream of crisps etc

'This kind of thread really makes me sad. My kids are both much larger than "average". They eat a very healthy and varied diet and get tons of exercise. I was also larger than average as a child and am now 5'7" and a fit and healthy size 10-12. If we can accept that adults come in all shapes and sizes why not children?!'

Don't take it too hard, dolly, these threads all go the same way. A poster comes on expressing 'shock' that 'so many!' are obese, her children certainly aren't. And then there follows hundreds of posts about how it's all the parent's fault, people all eat too much, poor people don't eat lentils and mung beans so they're all fat, my kids are all underweight Olympic athletes, 'back in my day . . . ', it's all the fault of the parents, if you're obese you are going to die tomorrow from some heinous disease but I won't because I'm better than you, benefits are too generous, blah blah blah.

So we associate screens with food

How many screens are in our lives in one form or another

I have parents on my facebook who are currently in uproar because they can't find uniforms to fit their kids. Apparently it's the suppliers fault, not the fault that they've allowed their child to put so much weight on that they need a larger adult size.

All the comments from their friends are just as bad 'aw hun no wonder kids feel bad about themselves these days with tiny sizes' or 'shes a perfect weight!'

The children are obese. It's horrible to see. But there's no telling them. Our society is doomed.