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 just an attempt at derailing and belittling those who actually give a shit and want to discuss the serious and growing problem we have.

It's not other peoples fault that people allow their insecurities to shine through and see folk as these 'special snowflakes' who think they're better parents

I was obese. I had to lose 4 stone to get to where I am. I know how difficult it is. I'm not perfect, I know how easy it is to slip into bad habits and then be left with the affects of them.

I'm not sure why people are so keen to shut down conversation by putting words in peoples mouths and painting people as faux concerned nob heads.

If anyone comes on and says no my kids eat normal food then that just does not compute with the Pointers and Shouters, so

Maybe because its against the laws of thermodynamics but don't let that stop you

i was born in the 70s and Arctic Roll was a god treat. i remember the oohs and ahs when Viennetta first came out. It was seen as a big exotic treat.

*good treat.

McDonalds was a massive treat when I was younger. I would get so excited. Now its a norm for a lot of kids.

Someone upthread mentioned a condition where a child cannot stop eating but never feel full but didnt know what it was called.

Its Prada Willi syndrome.

Horrible horrible thing to have. Families usually have to put locks on cupboards and things.

I had a bit of an epiphany when I went to Japan. Most Japanese people were very slim. However, in the local branches of Starbucks, the Japanese who were tucking into the lattes and muffins, had Western-style muffin tops. My taste for Costa/Starbucks etc has waned since then and I know drink only Americano with a splash of milk.

I am not even a parent - I am a teacher who has real concerns for a high percentage of the children I teach. I really care about them - it's heartbreaking seeing them develop so many weight-related health problems in their formative years. One child who would just fit into the obese category has joint hypermobility syndrome - as do I. The impact the extra weight is having on her is worrying - it's an extra limiting facor the poor girl could do without.

Lots of kids with developemental disabilities have zero impulse control and sensory issues with foods. Mine do. Thankfully they only eat small portions and I make sure they have alot of exercise each day (for their MH) but it's harder for other parents.

That's a shame Dame, especially considering an extra 1lbs of weight can put 4lbs of pressure onto the joints.

Definitely more obese kids around - and was plain to see at sports day.
My ten year old DD has had some lazy days in the summer holidays and definitely getting more of a belly.
It's hard but ultimately our role as parents to teach and support them in getting to healthy weight.
I have an overweight DS and made him start gym, walk to school and bought him a bike in the holiday too.
As well as me trying to get us all to eat healthier as I'm not the best role model if I'm honest!

gone I know a two sets of parents whos children will only eat mcdonalds chicken nuggets, they have to buy boxes of them every day as its the only thing they'll eat. It must be incredibly challenging for them to meet nutritional needs, I can't imagine how difficult it must be tbh

The reason our children are overweight is that the parents are overweight. Fat parents have fat kids.
I agree it's eyeopening about the level of obesity you see outside middle class London, but the issue is the parents.
And that is down to financial inequality.
Blame the politicians.

I've spent some time in rural SW France over the last 30 yrs. Traditionally people were very petite & even though myself & siblings were considered underweight at school in UK (lanky) we fit in. However over the years the supermarkets have grown, convenience food has arrived & in the last few yrs the town got a McDonalds. People are now much fatter, although everyone including 14 yr olds used to smoke.

I try not to judge parents of overweight children & don't consider myself superior at all. My children are likely to be skinny with little effort from me, shame my metabolism has ground to a halt 😒

I'm a bit late to this thread but when I was young, the majority of children just were not overweight. If anything, the vast majority of children at my primary school were underweight.

I remember what kids used to eat back in the early seventies. Breakfast would be porridge or a boiled/poached egg and a slice of toast (no-one really ate cereal back then). School lunches would be an ice-cream scoop of mash potato, a 2.5 inch square piece of egg and bacon pie and a spoonful of peas with "pudding" being a 2 inch square of sponge and custard. Dinner would be meat and two veg with some smattering of chips or another scoop of mash.

All in all, an eight year old might roughly consume somewhere in the region of 800-1000 calories a day.

Now consider that a slice of pizza can be nearly 300 calories. If a child has a slice of pizza and chips for school lunch, you are looking at that meal alone possibly being about 450 calories. Add in a chocolate bar, and that goes up to 650 calories ... and that's just for lunch.

Back then, chocolate, crisps, sodas, and biscuits were all "special treats". Admittedly, I grew up in a very working class northern town, but even the middle class families I knew didn't buy cake, biscuits, chocolate or crisps on a weekly basis. If there was cake, it was because someone had baked it themselves for the end of the week. A bought cake was something you did for a special occasion. A sandwich for lunch was pretty much two slices of bread with a slice of ham or cheese, or a layer of shiphams beef or salmon paste.

We just didn't eat processed food at all; no one really ate pasta either. When I was young, you used to see lines of women queuing up outside at the butchers and greengrocers every day. People ate plain meat or fish and veg with a bit of potato for their tea ... and that was pretty much it. If you were hard-up, you ate cheaper meat cuts (a pie made with stewing beef and offal, say, or some cheap mince fried with onions), sausages or eggs with your veg and potatoes, or maybe you'd have a couple of kippers. My grandfather used to eat tripe with vinegar if he was hungry.

When you consider it, these people were consuming way fewer calories than we do today. The only overweight people I remember in my childhood tended to be wealthy industrialists, landlords, or post-menopausal women that were at home and ate too many vanilla slices from the bakery.

McDonalds was a massive treat when I was younger. I would get so excited. Now its a norm for a lot of kids

The vouchers are even printed on the back of bus tickets now.

We had a load of the money off vouchers on a load We were giving away to customers and of course staff were using too.

There is instant gratification everywhere. Countries all over Europe and elsewhere are beginning to see the effects of fast-food availability. We have stark evidence of it here already but as getout and Burnt said, it's insidiously creeping across the globe.
It is becoming more difficult to take responsibility for our own health when we live in a society where crap food is available 24/7 and on every street corner wherever we go.Our or obesity epidemic is becoming pandemic.

Yes, parents are ultimately responsible. But here's something government can do -- put restrictions around food advertising.

Those ads that make it seem like drinking a can of Pepsi will magically turn you into the most popular teen on the planet or those chocolate bombs you call breakfast cereal is somehow "part of this complete breakfast"!? Make the advertisers put some warning a la drug or cig advertising, like "studies have shown that drinking one can of Pepsi a week will add 15 lbs to an avg adult in one year"

Literally no-one looked like this when I was at school 25-30 years ago

Well they did when I was at school 25-30 years ago.

They didn't.
You maybe had one or two in the class who were overweight and the rest normal sized.
Now it's the other way around.

Yep titanz I know a few like that, along with only drinking squash or chocolate milk, no water.

My DC refuse cooked vegetables or healthier sources of protein or carbs. It's mostly chips/toast and processed things like sausage and chicken nuggets. But they will eat some raw veg and fruits and drink water and eat fortified cereals and take some 'sweety' vitimins or drink alittle vitimins drinks. It's not a great diet but it's better than some kids with send issues I know so if they eat way too much sugar in-between I try not to worry too much and greatful their need to move burns it off and builds the muscle they need to help their hypermobile syndromes.

As babies I struggled with numerous breastfeeding problems for months until they got the hang of it, including extreme breast refusal (but bottle refusal and cmpa made me persist) Interestingly (to me anyways) the HCP say this is common with children with these disabilities, and I have came across parents accounts where this is what they see as the first signs of PDA in hindsight (my 1st is diagnosed my twins will be assessed in time). We finally managed it and then they nursed for years. They basically didn't take to solid food until I let them have things like crisps and pizza and chips and I only gave in each time as I was sick of nursing a preschooler/'s. No matter how I hid veg or got them involved in cooking or made chocolate avacado mouse they never ate enough for me to wean them from the breast until I dished up freezer food. It's just the sensory issues for them.

Disclaimer -not a humble brag before someone accuses me. And I'm not suggesting bf had any effect on their weight other than to keep some on them in the years they turned their nose up at food.

Yes, parents are ultimately responsible. But here's something government can do -- put restrictions around food advertising.

Totally agree. I'm not sure why Britain allows any food advertising, given the current plight of the nation.

One thing I am not keen on is politicians forming committees to categorise foods and trying to define 'snacks' or 'biscuits'. No thanks. Just no advertising. Of course, no one would be willing to say this to Coca Cola.

titanzpeople who say my kids will only eat* drive me insane! If you do not drive to McDonald's every day and buy the nuggets eventually they would eat something else I'm sure!

Oakum There was pasta dishes when i was growing up.

Italian DM

three if they have issues around food then they wouldn't eat something else! Ds can happily go 24 hours or more without anything if the food isn't right. He doesn't seem to get hungry.

There is a great lack of understanding of children with eating issues (at both ends of the scale)