British children shorter due to poor diet

[Catosaurus]

Experts have said a poor national diet and cuts to the NHS are to blame. But they have also pointed out that height is a strong indicator of general living conditions, including illness and infection, stress, poverty and sleep quality. Food experts point out that a diet of cheap junk food makes people simultaneously overweight and undernourished.

Has it really become this bad? I’m not from England, but this is on the news today.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jun/21/children-raised-under-uk-austerity-shorter-than-european-peers-study

I did not mean to enable voting. And also wanted go ask what you think needs to be done to change it, or is it too late.

Ok I have not, sorry if there already is a thread about it.

I didn’t see it op, wish there was a link….

The short answer: money.

A decent society has a duty to support it's most vulnerable citizen and children are amongst our most very vulnerable purely because they're so reliant on the adults around them for proper care. The current levels of deprivation in the UK are the direct result of 13 years of austerity, cuts and penny pinching. The government seem to have no issue finding the Magic Money Tree when one of their mates needs a multi-million pound government contract but they suddenly forget where their wallet is when it comes to feeding children.

I work with children and I'm seeing increasing numbers of children coming to school hungry or coming in with a packed lunch that can best be described as tiny. There is nothing more heartbreaking than a child weeping in class because they're so hungry they can't concentrate, I take them out and I feed them and try not to cry too. We're by no means a school in a completely deprived area either, our intake ranges from families in hardship right up to those who are very affluent. The largest group struggling right now? Parents in work who are putting in all the hours get can and simply not coming away with enough to live on due to rising prices.

All this. Not to mention that there has been no increase in the last year in the money given to school kitchens to feed children. We all know how much food costs have gone up.

It sounds heartbreaking. I work with children too, but we have free nursery- and school lunches (3 meals a day, lunch is usually delicious, restaurant style). I feel so sorry if this is the reality for so many children.

Not sure if that's the case- our son in his 20s is only 5ft 8 but was fed incredibly well !!

My twins are tiny compared to their siblings but we’re good sized when born and have eaten the same (good) food as their older siblings

A lot of the time it's poor management of money and resources by parents.

Child doesnt have to turn up at school hungry. A bowl of cereal with milk plus a slice of toast with marmite or peanut is a decent breakfast.

Lunch can be a cheese or ham sandwich with an apple.

Not expensive enough to be beyond the means of those on a tight budget.

*peanut butter

Sorting it out is quite simple really - better public services and less inequality. In my opinion:

• Many, many, MANY more council houses
• Rent caps
• Fund Youth Services
• Reform and fund the health service
• State funded childcare
• Bring schools in England back under local authority control / reform MATs so that their ‘CEOs’ are not taking home £450,000 salaries (see Sir Dan Moynihan).
• Incentivise employers to fund apprenticeships and remove requirement of a degree for less-academic jobs.
• Invest in manufacturing, farming and other industry.
• STOP mechanising jobs, leaving the less skilled people of society without means to earn a living. Bring back manned checkouts for gods sake, there needs to be some form of regulation to ensure that company developments are in tune with the interests of their local population, not only concerned with lining their pockets. We need to take a serious look at commercial exploitation.
• Never let the Tories back into government.

Extended Breastfeeding is often linked to increased height because it helps to stave of D&V in the first 3-5 years of life which does impact growth. DD was breasted until 4.5, had D&V twice and now at 12 is 5ft8. DC is 3.5 still bf and is 95th centile for height. I come from an average height family. DH comes from a short family. But we’re Indian with parents who grew up in horrific conditions so D&V and other diseases might have influenced them to be shorter than they might have been otherwise.

This is an international study not based on an individuals height! It looks at the average height of a nation and it clearly shows most other nations are seeing a gradual increase in height except Britain. Why is that?

I watched a documentary years ago, of twin sisters from China adopted by two separate sets of parents. One grew up in Norway and one in America. The twin from Norway was very much taller than the one from America. It was such good documentary, think it was called Twin sisters.

Living in s Scandi country I do believe that less inequality is the key.

Most of the girls in my twins' Reception class are tiny: my long limbed, lanky loves tower over some of them. 😅

Surely it’s mostly down to genetics. Small parents, small kids.

Those are two nutritionally poor meals. No wonder British kids are suffering malnutrition if that is viewed as good options. It’s just a load of heavily processed food, except the apple.

Some of it has to be genetic. In order for me to believe this study I want to know how tall the children are compared to their parents.

Tall parents = tall children.
Short parents = short children

It's possibly more concerning if the children are in a lower centile than their parents. Ie
Tall parents having average or short children

The study unfortunately doesn't take into account ethnic mix. Britain is very racially diverse, which brings down the overall height compared to Scandi and Eastern European countries.

Diet is a contributor, but this is also down to culture. The Dutch are extremely tall, they also consume more dairy than any other country in the world. Asians aren't big on dairy, hence shorter.

It is not as simple as the Guardian reports. There are so many contributory factors. But then the Guardian is notoriously bad in its scientific reporting.

My DD is tiny, as I am. Not sure some posters have the life experience to realise that genetics pay a key role too. We're above average income, breast fed, limited UFP. But our genes are small, as are many ethnicities.

To be fair I have identical twins. They were the same length when born. 6 ozs between them. Firstborn (lighter twin) is over 2” shorter at 8. I’ve always put it down to the fact that she is and was a fussy eater.

I could easily see there being a substantial difference in height despite the same nutrition being available to both.

I don’t think your sample size of 1 is going to negate these research findings, using statistically representative sample sizes…….

The Dutch are extremely tall, they also consume more dairy than any other country in the world. Asians aren't big on dairy, hence shorter.

I'd love to understand how dairy improves life rather than height.