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.

Posting pictures of fat children to fat shame/prove a point is absolutely appalling.

Irene, I agree with most of what you've said but do think we need to aim at parents as part of a whole group of people who are responsible.
The food industry, the government, schools, employers (do they provide access to healthy food in the work place? Do they provide time or encourage employees to be active?)
It's a whole society issue. There needs to be a massive rethink and shake-up that targets more than one group. Ultimately, as adults (not children) we need to know that we are actually responsible for ourselves and most (without health issues) can make choices to stay fit and healthy.

I think portion size is probably an issue. He eats very large portions and if I give him less he says he's still hungry. He "fills up" with cereal and, sometimes, yoghurt, but not keen on the latter.
He has money to buy school lunch because he won't take a packed lunch. Even as a small boy at primary he wouldn't take a packed lunch - we had lots of arguments with the staff as they insisted he had to have a packed lunch which we dutifully made - for him to sit in tears in the dinner hall not eating it and then bring it all home again! I just try and advise him to buy a healthy wrap or baguette and not rubbish but I know he often buys chocolate because I find the wrappers. I can't police him when he's at school, just keep trying to reinforce being healthy. Obviously not working...

The trouble is most of the over weigh low income families shop at discount shops. I've been into one a few times I can come out with 4 shopping bags full of junk food for £10-15! Huge packets of biscuits 4 for £1, cake bars 4 for £1 they've just gone past their best before dates but are still good to eat. This shop is rammed most days, I can see why children are so overweight around here it's a hell of a lot cheaper to give them a packet of biscuits than giving them a piece of fruit.

Eating and good is such a complex psychological issue. One of the kids in my dss school is overweight. His mum insists he has a big appetite and won't survive on smaller portions of food. He can have 20 chicken nuggets to himself. She cooks good from scratch but picks out the vegetables from it because he won't eat them. But she was anorexic as a teenager and really just survived it. It's not just ignorance and poverty. I suspect my mother has some kind of eating disorder. That influenced her bizarre eating habits and get inability to stop herself feeding my children utter crap, even though she would never do anything to harm them deliberately usually.

I visited the US again recently and was pretty shocked at the sheer amount of food served in restaurants. We went to a naice Italian and the food was delicious, but the portions about three times more than DH or I could eat. Apparently, it's expected to get huge portions and people complain if smaller portions are served. We also went to a diner type place where the calories were listed against each dish and there was nothing except a child's salad which was under about 2500 calories. For ONE meal.

If I'm honest, I found the colossal amount of food a bit obscene in a weird way, and I'm noticing it more and more in the UK as well. We have some friends who often host dinner parties and the amount of food they make and dish up is overwhelming. You ask for a small portion and they hand you a giant slab of lasagne, then constantly push bread, chips and extra cheese at you.

I think one of the massive issues is that so many people don't actually realise what overweight or obese looks like. Adults in particular, may see themselves as having 'a bit of a belly' and laughing it off when actually they are clinically overweight or even obese. You don't have to be huge to be overweight or obese.

I bet if lots of people calculated their BMIs they'd be surprised. Aside, of course, from people who work out regularly and have lots of muscle or who have other medical conditions for whom BMI calculators don't work.

Threads like this break my heart (not your fault op) My DD is overweight, very active but overweight nonetheless. We have 4dc and the other three are skinny/ normal weight. I know people look at her and think she eats McDonald's every day yet I see her skinny best friend eating THOUSANDS of calories a day (no exaggeration) and I just think it's so bloody unfair

I think it's an over simplification to say it's just down to poverty and that expressing concerns over childhood obesity is just another form of poor people bashing. A friend of my husband is permanentl skint and his wife hasn't done paid work in years, but she's Italian and so proper home cooked food is part of their culture. So the kids get proper home cooked meals all the time, and are healthy.

Our ready meal culture is definitely part of it. I also think we need to change the way PE is taught in school. My experience of PE at school was, due to resources at school, mostly focussed around team games/ball games (hockey, netball, rugby, football etc). If like me, you were uncoordinated and couldn't throw or catch, and you couldn't run fast, PE was something to be feared, where you would be exposed by o scorn and ridicule by your contemporaries.

So after school I did very little exercise for years. Luckily I'm naturally slightly built anyway and with a metabolism that baffles most of those around me, so I got away with it for a long time.

I've since found loads of types of exercise that suit me that weren't options at school. Rowing at Uni (sadly only available at posh schools....mine was not posh) being one example. It's something that anyone able bodied can do, the basic technique is very easy, and once you've cracked that, it's just a case of improving your stamina and fitness and strength and then your speeds will improve. Middle distance running - anyone can train to do a 10k, and my times have never been that great, but I can manage them and there is a sense of achievement there.

There's probably thousands of kids who had similar experiences too me at school and spent years fearing being laughed at if they stepped anywhere near sports field. Many of them will be less lucky than me though and not be able to stay as slim as I did in my lazy years. What we need, imo, is the resources to allow schools to find a sport that suits each child, and give them opportunities to participate and enjoy that sport. That way they will be motivated and do it for fun. Get them into good habits for sustainable active lifestyles.

1kg of carrots 60p
Large broccoli 45p
Bag of apples £1
8 bananas £1.05

Total bull shit that healthy food is prohibitively expensive.

This is from Sainsbury's btw, not regarded as a budget shop.

we've actually had people here posting that bread and dripping is the culprit. FFS. Wake up!! Its not 1955 no one has bread and dripping! This thread is about fat shaming thinly disguised as "concern for the kiddies" you hyprocrites!

My ds's friends buys 20 McNuggets when they go to McDonalds. He's 10.

I agree that the commercial environment fuels obesity. Our local compressives are surrounded by fried chicken outlets. Such easy availability of cheap fattening food makes being slim so much harder.

Part of the problem is that in the U.K. crisps, sweets, biscuits etc are the norm. I read a thread recently where a mum who didn't keep them in the house was shouted at for being 'controlling' and 'creating food issues' when nobody needs such stuff as part of their daily diet.

Bollocks that it's fat shaming.

We were on a daytrip on the weekend to a funfair and I really noticed lots of children who were really overweight. There are not that many in my daughters school. We had only one in my entire school in the 80s and she really stood out.

Bendy, I agree re sports. I loathed PE at school because it seemed designed to make me look a twat and get left out of teams because I was unpopular. As an adult, I enjoy running, gym and hiking amongst other stuff, but my experience of sport at school was wholly negative.

It's Europe too. About a third of the Spanish kids at the water park we went to (non touristy area so majority Spanish) were visibly overweight.

So none of us are allowed to mention this for fear of "fat shaming". Ridiculous we need a strategy to address this we are failing our children if we don't.

Staples, I don't see any fat shaming. Nobody is being awful. It really is true that obesity is a problem. There's no other way to say it. How would you put it? I realty am genuinely concerned for the lovely children I teach who are going towards an early grave unless something changes in their lives. I see the liner in the school yard with the mum handing the kids a tube of Pringles before they even enter school. Something has to change. I say something because I care. I'm not disguising anything... And I'll say again. I know that there are different circumstances where being overweight can't be avoided but they are few and far between.

I notice it locally too, especially some of the teenage girls with stomachs hanging out or really chunky thighs. It's worrying because if you're BMI 30+ at say, 14, you're likely to stay the same or get bigger. Most people do as they get older, so just how overweight will some of these kids be when they are 40 years old?

I do think we've shifted our collective view of what the average person looks like, so:
slim = skinny / anorexic
chubby / slightly overweight = normal
obese = chubby and so on.

I'm not sure these kids realise just how big they are getting because they clearly put effort into their appearance (hair, make-up etc.) but then go out with their stomachs hanging over their trousers. But most of their friends also have flabby stomachs, so it must seem normal.

I'm sure some have real food issues or other things going on, but when you see a big group and a large percentage are really quite fat, it surely has to be down to what & how much they eat for the majority.

I would never rush to judgement on any individual (I've been that person who gained weight due to medication & health issues preventing exercise, so I know first hand that those people exist), but at population level it is worrisome.

I see fat shaming. And an awful lot of people feeling superior and smug

I have a bit of a belly overhang from a 10 stone weight loss. Im a size 14 and a 32HH and am an hourglass with big boobs. I was a size 28 and a 46G.

Im pretty pleased when i look in the mirror. I dont see a 14 as big. I would probably be smaller below waist if i had a tummy tuck. I think its particularly cruel that loose skin is included in weight calculations for people post weight loss.

I also have lipodema in my legs inherited from my gran. So i will never have slim legs but ive made my peace with it.

My dd is 7 years old and overweight. Again like the op, i try my very best to give her s balanced diet, she has treats like other chikdren but i try my best to limit them. I also try to educate her on healthy foid choices and does two extra curricular activities a week as well as pe at school. The trouble is, my dh family are quite big and i think it runs in the family. Im very slim. Nothing i do seems to make a difference.

YY Mysterious Every time i see shaming comments like these on here i often wonder how teetotal me who has never been drunk, would go down making similar comments on the sober threads.

Staples I think the bread and dripping comment was to do with it being real food. Animal fats are not bad for you and the proper bread we had in the old days was far healthier than the Frankenstein food that is in the shops today. A slice of bread and dripping would fill you up properly whereas all the shit we are fed nowadays is filling for about an hour but then exacerbates appetite. If we all ate real food, we would not be in this situation.

I see fat shaming. And an awful lot of people feeling superior and smug

Same. And giving blanket responses to posters who have a bit of genuine personal insight without bothering to really read what they're saying. Because being seen to oppose childhood obesity is far more important than having any real understanding and compassion for the families who it affects.