Obesity and birthday parties

[Currywurstmitpommes]

I have been obese all my life and I’m determined that my DCs grow up a healthy weight and so I try very hard to make their diet the best that I can. We do have occasional sweets and junk food in our house but it isn’t often and portions of it are limited.

Now though DC1 has reached Reception age and is being invited to numerous parties. 30 children in the class and most are having whole class parties. It’s nearly one a week! And at nearly all of them there are loads of sweets, junk food and a whole load more in the party bags.

If this carries on through primary it does make me wonder if this is one of the factors behind our obesity crisis?

1 birthday party a week does not make a child obese. Consistency is key in healthy living, if you're children are eating healthily every day and having one day where they eat some birthday cake and crisps, it's not going to make them obese. What will make them obese is if they eat this type of stuff in large quantities every day.

Obese children are obese because their parents consistently feed them shit (obviously excluding any health conditions or medications). Obese children are not obese because they eat cake at a birthday party once a week.

Have you actually been to these parties?
My ds is year 1 most parties in the last 18 months have had party bags with a couple sweets and a bit of cake no catering at these parties apart from the odd few food isn't the norm

Even if it were every week, in reality one tummy full of sugary junk once a week when the rest of the week if full of exercise and a balanced diet won't harm them. The key is not making sweets etc such a special treat food that when they are freely available they gorge on them and when they can buy their own they binge on them.

There's no reason restaurant food has to be terrible - even pubs tend to offer baked potatoes, rice etc instead of chips etc. Family celebrations is just about portion control. You're taking 1 "unhealthy" meal, 2 at a push, out of 21

Dont make junk food seem so exciting, by working so hard to keep them away from it all you do is make it that much more exciting and desirable, keep everything in moderation and ensure they get out side to play and run about to burn off all that sugar

Obesity is about what u do everyday rather than the occasional party. Chuck contents of partybag in a tin and dole out a treat a couple times a week. IME dcs running around at a party don’t eat that much

oh and please for the love of god DONT talk about fattening foods and getting fat and needing exercise or foods making you fat etc or you risk them growing up always stressing about their weight and worried they will be fat

Also obesity is more prevalent in deprived Areas where parents often don’t have the cash or space to host birthday parties so your theory doesn’t stack up

ha really?
no because they no when to stop at a certain point.
no because they have balance throughout the rest of their diet.
no they are restricted to punishing amounts at home so don't feel they need to binge at party whre there is "treat" foods.
no because they are running around like devils!
no.

In YR ours had pretty balanced party food - sandwiches, some crisps and a fairy cake yes but also carrot/cucumber/cherry toms, and often fruit. No fizzy drinks. People were also pretty careful about not overloading the party bags with sweets.

Now they're older there are more nuggets'n'chips and sweetie cones, but only a handful of parties a year.

I'm also surprised to hear that 100% of children in the class had fillings, because I would not expect anything like 100% of 8 year olds to have seen a dentist.

You are looking to blame others for your poor parenting. Treat your child not to cake up.

That's so great that you're making sure your kids don't go through what you did! Being obese is horrible (I am at the moment for the first time in my life).

I don't think that birthday parties cause obesity though because most 90/00s kids (when I was growing up) were not obese but we still had birthday parties full of cake and sweets and then party bags to follow.

My Mum used to tell me before each birthday party that I could have three sugary/savoury snacks whilst there e.g. one biscuit, one cake and one handful of crisps AND any fruit/veg snacks that I liked and that seemed to work so you could try it?

My son is also in reception and also goes to about 1 party a week and food is definitely the norm. I have never been to a kids party with no food (and I’ve been to a lot). It’s usually something like sandwiches, crisps, fruit and a small piece of cake. Don’t think it’s the root cause of the obesity epidemic!

I have never restricted what my son eats and he chooses to eat a very balanced diet. I don’t understand why people think cheap junk food is a “treat” and pass that mentality on to their kids.

OP I really don’t think you need to worry about parties. They’ll diminish in frequency a lot after reception and year 1 in my experience.

I don't think it is an important factor. Things that make a big difference:

The weight of both parents in the home - are they overweight?
Whether you cook from scratch and know what your children are eating.
No fizzy drinks, not much juice, drink water.
Lots of activity every day, running around at the park, sports, learning to ride a bike, swimming etc.
Limit TV.

What makes children fat:
Parents who are overweight who don't recognise their children are overweight / obese - this is a big issue for health professionals who have to have those delicate conversations with parents.
Too much screen time /inactivity.
Junk food, large portions and unhealthy snacks in day to day life - not a once pw party.
Parents who do not know what is in the food they are eating - especially in ready meals.
Fizzy / sugary drinks.

Ladylapsang absolutely parents not having the self awareness their dcs are fat. Witness the number of threads on MN where someone has got a letter from the national measurement programme saying their child is overweight. Parents protest the letter is incorrect for the following reasons: they only eat minute amounts, they are very tall, bmi doesn’t work for their dcs, obesity experts are Nazis, school dinners are the cause of obesity and their dcs have pack lunches. Lots of other posters pile in to reinforce deluded OPs view

Treats tend to be things like home made pizza please don’t see any foods as ‘treats’. Food is food, not treats/rewards. This is how people end up growing up with a poor relationship with food. They end up ‘rewarding’ themselves with a slice of cake/chocolate bar after a hard day at work/putting the kids to bed, etc.

The best thing you can do is help your DC establish a positive relationship with food. Make vegetables,salads,etc delicious and tasty rather than ‘bad’ food they HAVE to eat in order to get ‘good’ food (pizza) as a ‘treat’.

Can't live in same area as me. It's all carrot sticks and cucumber and water round here. Ridiculous but I make up for it when's it's my turn by practically tipping sweets on the table. Parties don't make kids fat. Eating too much of the wrong foods and not moving enough makes kids fat.

Yabu. It's about moderation, and more importantly teaching dc how to moderate, not restriction.

I agree that food shouldn't be labeled a treat, but it is about learning that some foods can be every day/ meal and others aren't.

It isn't only obese parents force feeding crap that have overweight dc. Ime once dc hit teens/ adulthood and parents can't enforce food rules, it's those who were overly restricted as dc, and therefore have no self control about junk who become overweight too.

Plus agree with pps that young dc should be exercising more than enough to burn it off.