to think these children ARE overweight?

[OkMaybeNot]

The schools in my area have just sent out the results of the National Child Measurement Programme.

There are a number of acquaintances/friends on my social media who have posted their child's result online, along with a picture of their child and an angry rant about how their child is as skinny as a rake, not an ounce of fat on them, 'stocky' not 'fat', perfectly healthy etc etc.

But they are. Some of them are very overweight and plainly so. Others may be a little bit chubby and due for a growth spurt or something, but clearly not slim, either.

There are streams of comments underneath these posts agreeing and expressing their disgust and anger. And I'm wondering if everyone's lying, or they genuinely believe that these children are slim?

I know BMI is notoriously squiffy when it comes to kids, and I have seen genuine cases of it being so totally wrong it's laughable, especially when it comes to strong, athletic children. But that isn't the case for these children, at all.

AIBU to think that you owe it to your child to at least consider the results before going on the defensive?

Well my dd eats exactly as much as she likes; not what she likes, as much as she likes of the food I provide. It’s no problem for us, as she doesn’t overeat. And she is on the skinny side. Not me being deluded - she’s on the 3rd centile for her age and height.

It used to really worry me tbh, but I’ve learned never pushed meals on her, because she doesn’t like them 🤷‍♀️. She has a healthy diet, including protein, fruit and veg, but just not 3 square meals a day. Little meals throughout the day. I was told this is what very young children need anyway.

I now am quite happy she is this way as I don’t have to stop her eating!

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/portion-sizes-for-young-children-how-much-should-a-toddler-be-eating-10514403.html

This^^ is re children eating big portions rather than too often and how children shouldn’t be encouraged to eat big portions. This is what we try to do, but the trade off is that dd then eats frequent, smaller meals, which works fine for us.

So many children are overweight these days I think it is easy to look at their peers and see other children the same or fatter and think it’s normal if your child is overweight. It’s not just about snacks it’s about exercise, portion control and not eating a load of beige carbs for breakfast lunch and dinner. DD 7 is always eating but she doesn’t have an ounce of fat on her because she never sits still. I think when she gets older and more stationary we’ll need to think again about snacks but at the moment she needs the good she eats.

*to push

Kids definitely spend too long on their bottoms in front of screens but I also think there is not enough PE in school, especially secondary school. I did it 3 times a week as a teenager, mine do it once a week. For a while my 15yo ds was doing ten pin bowling for PE in school - nothing else. Didn't even raise a sweat....

I do think we've lost the concept of normal weight for children, with a side of sexism to go with it. My DS and DD2 were always skinny but no worse than I was as a child. We had several primary schools and even a doctor on the Children’s Ward when DS was in for a concussion raise concerns about his weight. He was on the 3rd percentile but he was always on the 3rd percentile. To quote the paediatrician, "It's a healthy range and someone has to be at the bottom!". I ended up getting my mother to guve me photos of me at that age to show they would develop out of it. (Puberty changed everything)

By the time DS hit High School no one cared anymore. For DD2 the problems were just beginning..."We've had some staff concerned about her weight...does she have any issues around food?" Oh, FML. They never considered that with her brother!

Being 'ready for your next meal' for up to an hour or so is what i would consider normal hunger. Being very hungry for 3+ hrs and feeling ill and faint and your stomach rumbling so loudly everyone can hear it is not imo

That's not so much a lack of food or snacks though. That's a surely more to do with being fed unsubstantial food and a completely inappropriate routine. A schopl age child is home by what 4? If there's three hours more to wait for tea then that's far too late and the time spent raiding cupboards to keep them.going til then is time that they could be making some scrambled egg on toast or making up sone tuna and putting a salad together.

If a child genuinely can't last between end of lunch (1 ish) and wait til half 4 for tea then you need to look at what they ear for lunch and not feed them.more of the food that's leaving them so hungry as snacks.

For days where there's going to be more of a gap due to a swimming lesson then that's when you send in a more filling lunch or send them in witg a flask of curry and rice or something

But why does it have to be three big meals and not lots of small meals? I agree with providing healthy, filling food for active children of course, but I take issue with anyone who thinks it has to be three meals. I don’t think that’s any healthier and it certainly isn’t what we’re all naturally programmed to do. So I’ll stick to what we do for now.

Just can’t believe that people are posting pics and commenting on social media- those poor kids! That will be nice for them to look back at when they’re older .

Several smaller meals a day is not already to do when they hit school.

The problem is also not that they are given 6 small but well balanced meals a day. It's that their are getting three large yet insubstantial meals and a shit load of crap in between.

Not so easy

I find it annoying that when child to stay with nanny for a week over holidays he comes back four pounds heavier and she swears she has not overfed or given too many treats. The scales do not lie. It takes a couple of weeks or more for him to lose those extra pounds. I suspect he would be fat if she cared for him all of the time. She gives him bread and butter, trowelled on, with his dinner then a stodgy pudding. If I am there I tell him to leave it and tell my dh too.

I often think about how when these kids are older and get Facebook accounts what they will think of the masses of pictures that their parents (some) put on there of them. My friend has several naked pics of her kids in the bath, paddling pool etc. Absolutely fine in your photo album at home but not on Facebook surely? Likewise with this stuff, they will see that one day!

rhubarb

Your meal portion sizes are also probably adjusted due to the less time between meals and there are no snacks as such.

Not really comparable to what we 're seeing which is kids eating share bags of crisps and turning up to football practice witg big packets of chocolate nibble things and munching through entire packets if choc chip cookies .

On top of breakfast lunch dinner and the massive sundae they just finished at the dessert bar that's just been posed on face book

You can see how area dependent it can be and how the people around you screws your perception of normal. The nursery we go to is in an affluent area and the one pre-school child that is big stands out. Going around school open days you can almost predict the demographics of the school by the weight and look of the kids. It would be interesting to see if there are stats on obesity in private prep schools versus state primary schools. My assumption would be there would be a difference.

It is a lot easier to keep kids active if you have space at home or easy access to green space. There is clearly a link to income there.

One thing I have noticed is there seems to be a lack of interaction with health visitors from toddler years to school. I saw them lots for weighing, general chat until 1. I assume at some point there is supposed to be a 2 year old check but otherwise I doubt I’ll see anyone until immunisations or the school checks. It seems like such an important transition point with little support or opportunities to spot potential issues.

YY @giles. I agree. It’s snacks on top of massive meals which is clearly not right.

That's not so much a lack of food or snacks though. That's a surely more to do with being fed unsubstantial food and a completely inappropriate routine. A school age child is home by what 4? If there's three hours more to wait for tea then that's far too late and the time spent raiding cupboards to keep them.going til then is time that they could be making some scrambled egg on toast or making up sone tuna and putting a salad together.

A lot of children don't eat their evening meal till past 6pm. That's not very late is it? What about all those children whose parents work? They can't be whipping up scrambled eggs on toast at the CMs house or the after school club. They often will have to wait till 6-7pm for their evening meal. Which was mine and my friends experience of after school in the 70s and 80s. Lunch is 11.45 at ds1 and ds2 schools, so it's not lasting from 1pm - 4.30 for a lot of kids its 12-6. So a snack at 3.30 is completely sensible.

The insubstantial food i agree with. It's what we despair with our dc. I'm sure if i could get DS1 to eat scrambled eggs or tuna or salad (or meat or dairy or anything really) then he'd be healthier (not that he's unhealthy - much to everyones surprise). The days he was having school dinners his oat bar at the gate at 3.15 was the first thing he had eaten that day.

User you are right there's not HV interaction from the 28m check until the reception screening. They were considering a pre school check but it's not looking likely. Unfortunately no data for private schools in our area as we aren't commissioned to go into them. I would agree with you though that they're likely to be healthier weights

It must be a false economy as well.

I know things like eggs and meat and hummus and avocado etc can all be expensive. And I know people can be pushed for time for batch cooking. So it is the easy quick and immediately gratifying option to go for the cheap quick and sadky more processed options.

But I do wonder if long term if it really is quicker and cheaper

If less food that keep a you fuller longer but has a larger outlay to start with could actually work out cheaper long term than all the over priced and often nutritionally useless snacks.

I do not understand why people pay nore for tiny individual pre packed stuff though when you can decent into pots/bags etc

Especially the way things are being shrunk. You are just paying for packaging and convenience

But it's not the childminders usually meeting the kids at the school gates with the food. It's the parents/grand parents. So those people are home

Aren't childminders graded on their food provisions too? So snacks are probabky going to be more sensible/healthy as opposed to a tube of Pringles and a milkshake topped with cream at costa on way home

Everyone is so fat these days they've got used to how it looks and re-calibrated their idea of what's actually overweight. Also there is no escaping that fact that if you're child is fat, you're 100% to blame so people get defensive.

The average Brit doesn't have a clue what's healthy. People don't understand anything about gut bacteria and the importance of fermented food to staying slim and healthy, or avoiding polyunsaturated oils and fructose.

I don't think there's any hope when the agencies and public bodies responsible for providing nutritional guidelines are relying on horribly outdated information and the public are either not smart or interested enough to educate themselves.

Children will keep getting fatter.

'YOur child' I mean't! not you're. Why is there no edit button??

the importance of fermented food to staying slim and healthy

You mean like beer and whisky?

Typical modern day portion sizes also seem bigger according to crockery sizes. Plates have got larger.

I have my Gran's and Grandmother's dinner sets; the dinner plates are 3/4 the size of my modern plates. The bowls and glasses are also smaller.

Looking at a 1 portion sized packet of breakfast cereal in modern bowls - it looks as if there's hardly anything in the bowl whereas in the older 60s/70s bowl it looks like a decent sized portion.

Typical modern day portion sizes also seem bigger according to crockery sizes. Plates have got larger

I think this is really significant. I struggle to find small bowls for cereal. I have been tying to find some for camping and they are all so much bigger than the ones we have at home. Most people fill their plates or bowls with food so it is simple to eat less if the plate or bowl is smaller.

i think if a large proportion of children are being seriously overweight, then that needs to be tackled in schools, with diet and excerise promoted to everyone.

I dont think the odd kid in a year group being overweight even very overweight, should be tackled by weighing and sizing up the children individually and sending letters home.
I dont think the odd kid being overweight is even a particularly big problem. There could be many reasons for it, and often it will not be solved by putting the child on any sort of regime.
I would far rather we concentrated on acceptance in these cases as the risk of depression and eating disorders and self hatred in these people is far more of a health issue.

I hate seeing faux concern about the health of these children. Its bollocks. You dont give a shit about their health. You care about their size.