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.

Yeah I never realised how insidious advertising was until I had kids. My eldest can spot the M Golden Arches straight away & associates the colour purple with chocolate.

three Sorry I didn't mean to confuse matters, I meant children with sensory needs who get very distressed unless they have a particular food. That can't be helped and is very challenging for the parents

However most children do not have that issue so I get where you're coming from completely.

Weird that there's so many restrictions surrounding alcohol, even extreme/nonsensical ones in some instances, yet we have relatively few in place to temper the overall demand for food.

Absolutely PickingOakumFood was seen as fuel and treats were very few and far between. People just couldn't afford it and even if they could they weren't readily available. The culture was completely different in those days and as I said further up thread, it was socially unacceptable to be seen as greedy and people really worried about it.

I can remember being aghast at a child who came to our house and had the temerity to ask for a biscuit – my mother was shocked. This child was then labelled as greedy even though she was in no way shape or form overweight. I am no way an agreement with labelling children, but that's just how it was growing up in the 70s, in my area.

I can remember being aghast at a child who came to our house and had the temerity to ask for a biscuit – my mother was shocked.

I have the same exact memory. It was not the done thing. Now, when my children's friends are over they very frequently roam into the kitchen and ask me for a snack. I am so pleased that they feel welcome in our home, and I wouldn't think too much of someone making my child feel awkward if they asked for a snack while on an extended playdate, but it is a dramatic shift from the 70s and 80s.

Now, when my children's friends are over they very frequently roam into the kitchen and ask me for a snack

I'd drop through the floor. I wouldn't have dreamed of doing this as a kid. Is this what I have to come

I haven't RTFT sorry, but just to mention that I'm a British expat in Scandinavia. When I go "home", I'm shocked by the sheer number of overweight people, children included. It just doesn't seem such a big problem here.

Namechangeroo What are they doing differently in Scandinavia?
Do the children have more exercise at school?
More exercise in general?
Do families sit down properly for meals?
How do the meals differ?

Genuinely curious, as I've also noticed that certain countries don't have as many overweight children as we do
There has to be a reason.

And people can try to get this thread taken down by saying it's fat shaming.
It isn't.
Our children are getting bigger. A high proportion aren't healthy and are overweight to the point of not being able to run around and play for long.
and that's criminal.

Don't worry about the thread getting taken down run - it is not fat shaming despite what a couple of posters think. As a nation, we all need to do something to change the current climate before the situation becomes much, much worse.
Banning all advertising of treating junk food would be a start but only the tip of a very large iceberg.

I'd drop through the floor. I wouldn't have dreamed of doing this as a kid. Is this what I have to come

I don't mind. I'd be most unhappy to know a guest in my home was hungry.

Banning all advertising of treating junk food would be a start but only the tip of a very large iceberg.

Who's going to decide what's junk food... Ban it all.

Wow my daughter is at a school within a deprived area. We are financially secure however. There are only probably 2 children in the year group who are over weight. One being my daughter and the other the daughter of a nurse. The other girls does look like puppy fat though. They're 6 and 7. My daughter is very heavy but not flabby if that makes sense. She's very active (we walk for miles) and doesn't eat a lot. Things arent always as they seem.

we are better parents than you.

There does seem to be an element of that going on.

I also think some are looking at the past with rose tinted glasses on.

runwalk In Scandinavia, fat isn't demonised like it has been here. They do tend to follow the high-fat low-carb diet to a certain extent. Carbs will be coming mostly from vegetables and fruit, rather than pasta, bread and rice. People therefore will reach satiety more quickly and stay fuller for longer.

Yep sirzy my kids just didn't eat until I started serving up the less healthy stuff. And mine are by no means the worst in terms of diet within the kids with send we know.

I did years of home made humous and tahini on oat cakes and avacado fingers. But a bite or two if I was lucky. I tried forcing them to not nurse so much but they lost weight and were miserable. By the time I gave into white toast and jam and crisps and biscuits when eldest was four and twins were three I was underweight both times myself because of the sheer amount of milk they were taking from me. Couldn't very well keep doing that forever so cardboard carbs it was. Luckily with a side of cucumber in our case.

No, your kids cannot eat normal food and still gain weight, you are delusional, we are better parents than you.

Your kids can eat normal food and still gain weight but if they're gaining weight then (with the exception of a small number of medical conditions) they're eating too much of it.

sirzy I've worked in schools with genuine sensory issues with food. I've watched a little girl gipping because the girl next to her had broccoli on her plate.
Im sorry but I do not believe that a need for McDonald's nuggets is the same as this. It's about texture etc some kids are just picky.

runwalkrun I posted earlier in the thread about what one town in Finland did to reduce childhood obesity, this is done all over Finland now. Children get a health check every year at school which includes weighing and measuring and receive personalised advice on their health needs, schools provide a free, healthy meal every day that everyone eats (even if they don't like it, they moan about it but they still eat it as there's literally no other option), the vast majority walk or bike to school every day (parents are discouraged from driving and are usually at work anyway) and there is lots of time for exercise and less time spent sitting down in the classroom.
www.who.int/features/2015/finland-health-in-all-policies/en/

We had pasta in the 70's as well. Plus cereal, in fact we had that for breakfast and supper, so twice a day, with sugar and full fat milk. Not to mention the bread and butter we had for tea. Still skinny though. I don't think it's really down to any specific food, it's just the amount and level of activity thats changed.

YY Piglet Thats why i linked in the 1972 documentary.

Low-fat is a big thing here too DameDoom though lately the focus has shifted to high protein, but fruit and vegetables are important, ever since the 70s when Finland was one of the unhealthiest countries in the world and the government made a huge effort to turn that around by changing the nation's diet (high fat and carb, practically non-existent vegetables), smoking habits and exercise habits. And succeeded, amazingly. Easier to do in Finland where people trust the experts than in the UK where people are a bit more cynical and don't like to be told what to do by the government.

Dame, what are you talking about? Scandinavians eat bread coming out of their ears also potatoes and pasta. Less comvenience food though.

People 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!

True. My biggest dc-feeding accomplishment happened when dd2 was 3yo. She was SO hungry but I had no kid friendly food ready other than oreos and ice cream. So I handed her a bowl of letfover sauteed spinach. She devoured it! To this day, spinach is her favorite veg., in addition to steak and chocolates :(

www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/07/the-sugar-conspiracy-robert-lustig-john-yudkin
Low-fat ersatz food filled with sugar to make it remotely palatable was lauded as the way to a healthier lifestyle. We listened, followed advice and started filling up on sugar and carbs. The messing that this does with blood sugar and insulin means that we are permanently ravenous.

We were fed bad science and are suffering consequences of this.

Yup Caprianna it's bread with every bloody meal here! And potatoes, potatoes all the time (but usually boiled which is healthier)

Yup Caprianna it's bread with every bloody meal here! And potatoes, potatoes all the time (but usually boiled which is healthier)