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?

But those slim children of the 50's and 60's grew up to be overweight and obese adults. The highest levels of obesity are in 45-74 years olds

Probably cos that's when they become grandparents and lose all sense of restraint and go from parents who told u go bugger off and play to feeders who think.the second a baby can hold something it's time for the utter shite to come out...

only half joking

@gottagetmoving

What an ignorant post. That’s not at all what anyone’s been saying as far as I can see. Shallow thinking.

The point is this isn’t the 50s. As @giles said, there is food available everywhere now. It needs to be tackled in a different way.

Obesity is a massive problem and nobody should minimise that. We now seem to have gone on to discuss HOW we tackle it. Not whether or not it should be tackled.

I think you should rtft again, properly as your post indicates you’ve massively misunderstood what people are saying. Silly sausage.

But those slim children of the 50's and 60's grew up to be overweight and obese adults. The highest levels of obesity are in 45-74 years olds.

I wondered if someone might mention this. I know the post is about children but if everyone is so knowledgable about it all then why are the adults even more obese?

I think if you can microwave a meal it is easy enough to then do a steamed veg bag or frozen veg or tinned sweetcorn/beans. Yes it would be harder to get the veg in the main meal, but it would be a choice between say lasagna with bread and butter or the above veg or cucumber or tomato. You can even get prepped carrot etc frozen or in fridge area. Healthier snacks.
I think the issue is getting into a routine or expectation. And that happens even with toddlers. My nearly 3yo ties to get crisps out of the cupboard and grab the apples off the counter etc. It is becoming like an addiction to her. Same with biscuits at playgroup. I let her have 2 but then she tantrums, which i ignore.
Re the 5'4 and 10st, well it depends on frame i think. I would be/feel pretty heavy. But there was a thread about this and everyone was different.

I think the school ones are done on bmi centile and this is based on the kid's height and weight.
But as a PP said this changes it from what they do in the red books where is is implied same percentile for both is ok
because by school age 99th weight centile equates to high bmi centile even if you are also 99th for height.

I wonder though if children who will be very tall are more likely to have a larger frame etc than a same height older child who will only be small. Are bones bigger/denser etc.
Also i think i read extra food can make kids taller but also have puberty earlier so they dont end up taller in the end.

I suspect that as well as the 24/7 availability of food, the nature of children's more sedentary lifestyle has a huge part to play.
Many kids have the option to play on consoles or watch tv instead of playing out like they used to. A massive increase in road traffic means that playing out in the street is now basically impossible for most children.

Many children now seem to be driven to school. My neighbours drive their kids to school. It is an 8 minute walk.

Well an extra biscuit a day for 70+ years is certainly going to add up. Previously people would have died before that age. Also being at home and snacking.
I heard a parent say their kids was going to 4 parties one weekend. Would they habe had any non-party food. But otoh a lot of parties have carrots/cu/fruit etc plus soft play/bouncy castle so would depend on what they choose.
It is possible to not have the school birthday sweets/puddings etc.

Also i think i read extra food can make kids taller but also have puberty earlier so they dont end up taller in the end.

This is true. Children who are tall when they are young are more likely to end up overweight. If they are overfed they grow taller at first, but once they stop growing taller they start putting more weight on. I have a friend whose kids were very tall for their age when young, and although they looked a little stocky, they did not look that fat. Their parents always said they were just naturally really tall (even though mum is only 5”2’ and dad is 5”8’), but as they are getting older their classmates are starting to catch up with them height wise, and they are starting to get more chubby.

exercise has very little to do with it. Its the massive portions of food they eat and the constant snacking. Its fine to be hungry.

Of course, but equally of course exercise has an impact. A lot of primary aged kids are already very sedentary, so naturally they need to eat less than say, my kids, who as re on the move all day every day.

giles yes exactly! When my kids go round to my parents it's a constant stream of Do you want a biscuit? Do you want a milkshake? Do you want a bun? Do you want a cake? Literally on and on until they cave, even if they don't want it. They get fed up of it. All I can think of is that when we were kids a McDonalds or cake were a rare treat, but its now so ubiquitous and cheap that they can give 'treats' all the time. My DM also constantly criticized my breastfeeding because 'you cant tell how much they are getting'. Yet me and my DB were positively skinny children. We only got fat when we left home. She certainly didn't feed us constantly all day with crap like she does to my kids!

Definitely a correlation between boredom and overeating.

Gottagermoving of course some parents, probably quite a lot, are in complete denial but I still say that genetics play a part in this. I also think - and I will probably get flamed - that half this crap food shouldn’t even be available. Chocolate breakfast cereal?! I just don’t get it. It’s like giving kids sweets for breakfast.

I definitely think there needs to be more education - nutrition, cookery lessons, exercise and the role of physical activity in staying healthy .

Interestingly enough the post war generation were taught to eat everything on their plates as a reaction to wartime food deprivation. That may account for why many became overweight adults though this is also the time at which the metabolism starts to slow.

@RhubarbRhubarbRhubarbRhubarb

Or the other theory; We used to only have three meals a day and no snacks. That must be it!

Well, I grew up in a three meals, from scratch family and were all bfed for ages. My siblings and I all struggle to stay a healthy weight. I am a healthy bmi now, but haven’t always been and was a massive teen. One of my siblings is constantly, very overweight and the other is always a bit overweight

On the flip side I ate appallingly at school. Someone upthread mentioned their child/relative said their high school canteen was pure grease. I ate greasy pizza every day for breakfast, greasy chips covered with salt and vinegar, we also had ice cream and slush puppy machines and I had one or the other every day and every day after school I'd go to the chip shop for a bag of chips or a McDonalds. I always used to stuff my face with biscuits and pizza at home in between meals yet I was (and still am) very underweight. It's just the way some people are.

biscuits and crisps that was meant to say. I have pizza on the brain it seems Mmm, that school pizza was so nice, I'd do anything to go back and have a slice.

My Mum is bloody shocking with my kids. I end up really losing my patience with her but she rolls her eyes and ignores me. Mil was the same. I remember trying to feed DS1 when he was about 6mo and MIL was dancing behind me with a cornetto. They both frowned upon me breastfeeding longer than a couple of months old (my mum is horrified i still bf my 19mo) as surely there's more goodness in formula and you never know if they've had enough etc.

I think a lot of the food issues today are to do with the post war generations attitude to food. My parents, their friends and my PILs never had a good word to say about it. Miserable food, being constantly hungry, the men eating all the meat and the kids having sugar on bread and butter or some condensed milk fordinner. I don't know anyone of them who thought food was better in the 50s. When the selections and availability widened they gorged and fed my generation a lot of processed convenience crap. My Mum and MIl just wont/wouldn't have it about sugar, salt and additives being bad for kids.

Children who are tall when they are young are more likely to end up overweight

DD2 was born tall. 60cm long and 9lbs 2oz, when she was born. She looked long and skinny then and still does aged 9. Has always been one of the tallest children and the calculation you can do when they are toddlers showed she might end up 5'9" or 5'10" as an adult. My prediction has always been that she will overtake her sister by the time she's in Y6. DD1 is having a bit of a growth spurt now but I don't think I'll be far off.

DD1 was a whole 10cms shorter and 1lb 2oz lighter. She is one of the shortest in her year, yet is the same height as I was at 13 and I'm 5'7" now, so I think she'll end up above average height at least.

I don't know whether they will be overweight in the future but they seem to be among the slimmer children just now and their BMIs are in the middle of the healthy weight band, and DD2 is often at the lower end.

But those slim children of the 50's and 60's grew up to be overweight and obese adults. The highest levels of obesity are in 45-74 years olds.

45 year olds grew up in the late 70s and 80s not the 50s and 60s!

My mum has such a sweet tooth, but once you are on insulin regularly, ironically it seems then much harder to lose weight and it can make you crave sugar.

She talks about having sugar sandwiches as a child.

The physical size of plates might have something to do with it

I had to actually measure mine as my dietician specified 10" dinner plates. They are 10" - standard IKEA, by the way.

But those slim children of the 50's and 60's grew up to be overweight and obese adults. The highest levels of obesity are in 45-74 years olds

Many of those are inactive. As they get older they move less an most have cars. People don't walk as much as they did. Many people piled on pounds in middle age due to that.

The point is this isn’t the 50s. As @giles said, there is food available everywhere now. It needs to be tackled in a different way

I agree there is far more junk and convenience foods about today, however, there is still the problem of parents attitudes.
Just because food is readily available with more choice doesn't mean you have to gorge on the stuff. A child is at the mercy of parental choices. Isn't it about time they took that responsibility more seriously? It's a cop out to blame availability, it's like a thief blaming the victim for leaving valuables on display to tempt him.

SOME of those people grew up and became obese. I a

Well, seeing as I don’t have any overweight children and am not overweight myself, I am not trying to shift blame anywhere.

And in fact, I never said parents weren’t to blame at all. I said that the “three meals a day and they’ll be thin, just like we were back then” is overly simplistic.

Your tone in that earlier post is a bit goady and aggressive tbh. I see it a lot on these threads. People like to get angry with fat adults and parents of fat children, but I don’t think that anger is particularly helpful.

I appreciate 45 years old grew up after the 50s but unfortunately the age bracket the research had was 45-74. It was actually broken down in chunks of 10 years, but they had more or less the same proportion of obese / overweight in each 10 year chunk from 45 onwards - slightly more towards the 74 end.

Joking aside as far as grandparents go I know first hand the "damage" they can do. With grandparents providing a significant amount if child care it is a big problem.

Anyone who thinks a 18 month -2 yr old toddler can't figure out in a short space of time that there's gonna he someome nutella on toast coming if I don't eat my dinner mummy sent for me is hugely mistaken.

Wish I knew what it was that makes them want to practically feed them til they are sick and get moody woth you for saying no.

Your tone in that earlier post is a bit goady and aggressive tbh. I see it a lot on these threads. People like to get angry with fat adults and parents of fat children, but I don’t think that anger is particularly helpful

I wasn't being goady or aggressive. I was stating an opinion. Also, I'm not angry with anyone, fat or otherwise.
I'm frustrated with the attitude it's always someone or something else's fault if someone is fat. There's always excuses for not taking control of someone's own life or the diet of a child.
I've been fat. From 20 to 27 I was three, probably four stone overweight.
It wasn't my parents fault because they fed me three meals a day and didn't allow constant treats. It wasn't because there was more availability. It was because I was in control of my own diet and got greedy. I was an adult. It was my choices that made me fat.
No one was responsible apart from me. I'm not a saint, I do eat badly occasionally but I take responsibility for that.
There has been lots of education everywhere on this subject but perhaps more is needed because one thing's for sure, manufacturers and retailers won't do much about it.

It wasn't my parents fault because they fed me three meals a day and didn't allow constant treats.

So your parents did exactly what everyone seems to think is the miracle cure for obesity and you were still 3 or 4 stone overweight? But parents who do something differently and also end up with an overweight child, that’s their fault is it? And they should just admit how shit they are and it’s all down to them?

Both of my children get called fat. DS in clothes because he's quite tall so ends up wearing clothes too big around the waist so they make him look husky, and he's got my big round face. DD cause her tummy sticks out and, I've been told, she has no thigh gap (she's 4). Their BMI's are both underweight. Fuck people and their fucked up views about body size.

So your parents did exactly what everyone seems to think is the miracle cure for obesity and you were still 3 or 4 stone overweight? But parents who do something differently and also end up with an overweight child, that’s their fault is it? And they should just admit how shit they are and it’s all down to them?

I must have missed the ones saying three meals a day was a miracle cure??! 😒 That was one part of a range of differences between then and now.
My parents didn't end up with an overweight child. They always had healthy weight children. I became overweight over several years because I was greedy. My sisters never became overweight as adults neither did my brother.
You take what I say to mean people are shit. Why? I don't think they are. I just think they want to carry on the way they are and for some miracle to change theirs or their child's weight.
That doesn't make them shit it makes them delusional.

I was paraphrasing, based on what you’ve been harrumphing about for pages on here.

Apparently, children in the 1950s or 60s were normal weight because their parents were monsters who starved them and didn't care about their feelings. Bastards!
Giving them three meals a day was AWFUL! Today's children couldn't cope with that trauma! Saying No was akin to abuse!

And anyway, my paraphrasing is a lot closer to what you actually said than this^^ is to anything I’ve seen on this thread.

So I don’t really buy your faux wide eyed “I wouldn’t call them shit, why oh why would you think that” .