To think we’ve lost sight of what a healthy child’s weight should be?

[Winniethepoohandtiggertoo]

Walking through town today as kids were leaving school and I was quite shocked by the size of them (primary kids). But then I noticed that so many of them were overweight that in a way it isn’t surprising that maybe their parents haven’t noticed or realised there is a problem? When I was little kids were skinny things, now it seems the norm for them to be built like shot-putters! I know a few parents with overweight children but they insist they’re ‘strong’ or ‘solid’, or ‘they run around so much they just burn it off’. When so many kids look like theirs it probably isn’t surprising they think that?

I totally agree with you. On my husbands side he has three nieces and nephews, they were so overweight as children. They would eat more at dinner than my husband would ( who works 6 days a week on a building site) It got a stage were we would turn down going to dinner with them or at their house as the amount they ate put us off our food. They would constantly eat two ore more servings in one sitting, ,mother actually proudly told me one day that an 11 years eats the same amount of food as a grown man. They are now in early 20's and late teens. The youngest actually looks like the Michelin man and waddles doesn't walk. I feel so sorry for them. Mother has now series health problems that loosing weight will help enormously. Its not fat shaming or body shaming, its normalizing what healthy should be. Its a life style change.
Recently we went to a mid week showing of panto, it was 8pm in the eve so dinner got before i though would be standard. There was a good few kids at it and i was shocked to see the amount of constant eating at it. There was no sitting back and enjoying the show. It wasnt small bags of sweet either it was the share packets all had one or more each plus large bottles of coke etc. All the way through you could hear the rustling of wrappers and chewing. Like if you had your dinner surely you cant be hungry. Its the next health crisis i think

Why do they need snacks if they are eating healthy nutritious meals? If they do need snacks after exercise then a banana or apple contains trace elements , vitamins , minerals, fibre and natural sugar rather than fat, carbs, salt and refined sugars in crisps chocolate and cake. Even homemade. Daily treats cease to be treats and become normalised into something expected .

Fruit is very sugary and contains a surprising amount of carbs

Statements like this are so unhelpful. Because, no, not all fruit is very sugary and containing a surprising amount of carbs.

Strawberries aren't very sugary at all. Either are peaches. Or blackberries.

So, specify which fruits you think are 'very sugary and high in carbs' rather than trying to demonise it as a food group.

You're part of the problem, OP.

I agree, I do think a big contributor is that many adults are overweight and so their view is skewed.

It’s definitely true that sugary ‘tropical’ fruit seems to have taken the place of an apple or pear. Grapes, pineapple, mango, melon etc all seem to be the go to and parents don’t seem to realise that not only are they very sugary but they don’t replace green veg for nutritional value. Much better to have an apple, broccoli and green beans in a day rather than grapes, pineapple and a satsuma.

My dd is very slim but I probably do let her snack a bit too much. I was the same as a kid though and now I'm on slimming world ☹️

Did I say ‘all fruit’ or did you seriously paraphrase that? 🤔

'Fruit is very sugary and contains a surprising amount of carbs'

Your words, no?

I was surprised when a mom I knew was enraged when the health check in reception said her DD was overweight. The poor girl was practically spherical!

I've been overweight since I was 10 so I am trying really hard to make sure my DCs are a healthy weight.

I think they're ok, DS finds joggers in his size too loose around the waist and he varies between skinny and chunking up before a growth spurt so I think he's ok.

DD is petite but hourglass shape at 14. Size 8 clothes now but flat tummy and small waist so she doesn't seem to be taking after me.

It is shocking how many chunky kids you see though.

Surely worrying about the respective carb content of apples and grapes is an activity for rich, fat adults on low carb diets, not children? The idea that the problem of child obesity (which affects poorer children far more than rich ones) is caused by too much mango and pineapple is frankly laughable and this sort of messaging is likely to be actively harmful.

Sure. There is hardly anything seasonal to eat from now to June in the UK though. People would traditionally be eating preserved produce, or very little of good nutritional value at all in the early part of the year.

If we are not only supposed to be eating 5+ a day but a huge variety of vegetables and plant based food then we need lots and lots of imported food.

Particularly if beans and pulses should be eaten every day. Many you can't grow here at all.

Yes, quite. The requirements for an active growing child are unsurprisingly not quite the same as a middle aged adult with a desk job.

Yes and then I clearly said tropical fruit. Semantics won’t change the fact what I’m saying is true and I laugh at such statements being deemed ‘actively harmful’ by PP

I think you are right. Two of mine were very, umm, solid, as babies and toddlers. Everyone says it's impossible for babies to overeat but I'm sure mine did. I breast fed them and they fed easily and effectively. Other mums seemed to have babies on their boobs all the time but mine gouged their milk down. When they went on solids I gave them too much food. All healthy but just too much. Once I realised I very very slowly watched what they ate and they grew into their weight.
When kids are little you don't need much extra food for it to be too much.
I mostly didn't let my kids snack unless
They were swimming or occasionally for a treat as I liked them to eat good meals.
All my four kids were good weights as kids and are all slim and healthy adults. They all seem to have a healthy relationship with food.
I think it's really unfair for parents not to watch their kids weight.

YANBU. I really noticed how fat a lot of kids had got post lock down and most haven’t lost weight. Lots of kids did zero exercise and spent a lot of time in screens (not surprising given how much parents had to balance) plus mental health issues that many kids came out of lock down with still haven’t been dealt with.

Theres definitely a class difference and I think this is reflected in clothing. Asda for example- their clothes seem to be huge not in length but width. M&S less so.

Kids need to be moving much much more. Schools don’t have the capacity. Parents should be ensuring their kids get exercise. Depending on resources play football, swim, dance go to walks, martial arts. Family keep fit, playing in the garden. Any opportunity to move should be taken. Good quality food (as good as you can afford) smaller portions. Fast food is an extremely occasional treat.

This really needs addressing otherwise it will likely be a problem all their life

I used to be just over 8 stone until menopause when weight just wouldn’t come off, now around 11 stone, but still slimmer than some younger women I see. The health problems that will effect them. So far I have avoided all the health problems related with obesity. They are storing up problems as they age.

Yes, lockdown was another thing. Shut all the gyms and playgrounds and most of the physical activities kids do become unavailable. Oh look, childhood obesity has gone up. No shit Sherlock.

It's much easier to keep an appropriate calories in-calories out balance if you're relatively well-off, though. If you're working long hours all week in a sedentary job (with an office culture of people bringing cakes and other snacks in), boredom and tiredness make it more difficult to resist unhealthy eating habits than if you don't work or work part-time and can take time out to do a long dog walk a few times a week or go to a gym class. It's not so much about the calories burnt through exercise as about keeping busy and not just reaching for the snacks.

We snack much more as a family when we're at home for the day. That's why we try to get out at least one day at the weekend, and my DC does at least 2-3 days a week of sports or other camps during half-terms and holidays except if we're going away. At camp, the only snacks they get are a healthy mid-morning and afternoon snack of fruit or a cheese stick or something like that and that's it - just like at school, the kids accept it as the rule and are too busy to moan about being hungry. But clearly if you're wfh and have your kids at home moaning about being bored and hungry because the £40-60 per day for holiday childcare is too much of a stretch, then they're likely to get more snacks.

Yes, and it's not just the lack of physical exercise either - also the monotony and boredom.

I agree with snacking. If a young child has balanced meals then unless they are a grazer and have small meals throughout the day they don't need snacks unless they've done something really active. There seems to be a fear of feeling even a tiny bit hungry, I remember if I met with friends from baby group changing bags would have snacks in just in case and offered for bribes. Snacks have become a daily common place thing whereas this didn't used to be the case.

Many parents unfortunately don't have the capacity either - they're also at breaking-point atm.

Quite, and the fact that many were actually required to spend hours in their bedrooms on computers doing school work!

I always cringe when I see posters on here saying that they let their kids have a little 'treat' every day so that they develop healthy attitudes to food - as though the tiniest bit of restraint leads to immediate anorexia. I'm sure these parents mean well, but in most cases a bit of firmness about diet would probably be more helpful to the child.

I know... I find it really bizarre that, after all the warnings about screen time for young children, they were required by schools to spend hours in front of a screen!

Glad to have amused you but it's really not very funny. If you think the child obesity crisis is caused by kids eating too many grapes, you need your head examining.

Large numbers of children from deprived backgrounds eat no fruit or veg at all. None. Clear messaging that eating fruit and vegetables is good for you is a lot more important than demonising tropical fruit to kids who aren't eating it anyway.