To be shocked at the level of obesity of British children?

[MEM00]

Having recently come back from holiday I found myself really shocked by the size of so many other British kids at the resort we were at. It was mostly a mix of British, French and German families and I found it impossible to not notice the difference in the British kids compared to others. DD is 8 and I would say average sized, by no means skinny. She made friends with another girl the same age by the pool, and i'm not joking when i say the other girl must have been twice the size when they were next to each other.

Am i overthinking this? Because it really makes me worry for the future.

This isn't intended by be 'fat shaming' in any way btw.

I'm sure many will flame you on here OP but I agree. So many British kids are shockingly overweight (and usually the parents are too) but no doubt you'll get posters explaining it away somehow.

Why do you care? Look after your own kid, stop judging everyone else's.

You'll get a load of angry defensive replies to this OP. Good luck!

If there is anything in this then ‘why’? I think life in the UK might be disproportionally stressful & time poor so that’s one factor to poss discuss or consider.

I agree and people will come up with loads of reasons! But the reality is that providing a healthy diet is time consuming, expensive and largely falls on the shoulders of women who are also probably working PT or FT.

But we need to change as a nation, we are storing up so many problems for our kids!

Big business has to shoulder some of the blame also!

I agree but people don’t want to hear it. My DD is often told she is underweight / skinny / needs to eat up etc by overweight family. You can see her ribs. She’s a normal weight according to the centile.

Too much time being sedentary, not enough exercise, PE in schools being cut etc.

It’s no different in Germany and France though but culturally food is different so I think attitude is a big problem

Not just the UK … Australia is the same

But I remember playing by myself and seeing neighbours/ playing with neighbours on a whim as a kid an idea that is so foreign to me as a parent now… am I overly protective or was parents of the past more relaxed / blasé

Perhaps because letting a young child become obese is tantamount to child abuse?

I agree. I’d say at least half both my dcs class are overweight. Primary school. When we go to France for holidays you can see a noticeable difference in English and French .

The UK has a lot of obese adults. Sadly that’s is being passed on to their children.

It’s so common it’s now seen as “normal”.

You see it in supermarkets - mum/dad obese and their child with them well in the way to it. Often a look in the trolley will hint at why.

There are a lot of socioeconomic factors that affect this - a lot of them - eg lack of education or time and the end result is an unhealthy diet with a lot of processed food, sugary drinks and too much of it.

Yep childhood obesity is on the raise. A combination of factors highlighted above.

It's timely and costly to provide a healthy diet.

Also decreases in physical activity is having a major impact on kids fitness and overall health.

Because lazy and lardy inactive adults are now raising porky unhealthy children. It disgusts me to see - there were nowhere near the amount of fat adults or kids 10 years ago.

If I starve my kid and he is underweight it’s child abuse. If I let him get fat (also dangerous to his development), it’s not. And this is so wrong.

The statistics show that many children are overweight.

However when people get the letter, they get defensive/ignore it/make excuses.

So nothing actually happens

Unless there are complex medical conditions involved, there are no reasons why children should be significantly overweight. It’s abuse in my opinion.

Obesity in young children seems linked to junk food outlets becoming commonplace everwhere, aggressively marketed as a 'treat' that good parents provide. Just Eat, Deliveroo etc hasn't helped. The most overweight children I see are in low income areas with little access to family support and fresh food and produce.

The reason people care is for the health of the kids and because they are wondering how an already cash strapped NHS is going to find the resources to look after these kids as adults, with all the issues being overweight brings.

It would be interesting to see what an average French supermarket has in store, as compared to supermarkets here. For instance would they have aisles dedicated to ready meals, and processed foods? This is one of the main factors in the problems we are seeing here, regarding obesity, I think.

It's timely and costly to provide a healthy diet

It really isn't.

If your child is 8 and "not skinny" then they too might be overweight.

Apparently kids with an ideal weight are supposed to look scrawny. People have got used to judging children's healthy weight size on what would be slim for an adult (ie same proportions visually, not actual size) but healthy weight kids are supposed to look 'underweight' by adult standards.

According to some Mumsnet posters anyway.

I think once you go down a junk food route/convenience food you get hungrier for it, that dopamine hit, especially if life is tough.

Dull, band meat & two veg OR a delicious fast fish & chip supper you can have & devour instantly?

Exercise is free but too many families don’t include it as part of their daily life.

Next fat kid you see, report it to social services then.

Have you been living under a rock?

obesity is a huge mental and physical health crisis in the UK for adults and children that is largely being ignored, underfunded and dismissed as lazy fat people.