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 think that there is also a taboo unsaid thing, you see it on threads here all the time when someone raises issues about their own weight, that of a partner, that of their children

Its not nice for you to be overweight. Its not 'just' about health, its also about feeling good about your body and liking how it looks. How can a child do that when they're aware they're overweight, other kids make comments, they cant be as mobile as their friends, their clothes and shoes all go out of shape, they're puffy and red in the face after the smallest exertion, its harder to find things that look nice

Adults can process this and cope with it better, or perhaps like me, you're just past it and looks dont matter. But they matter to a growing a child, comparisons to your peers matter to a growing child

But you darent say that because you must pretend its only and all about 'health'. Well its about both of those things, your presentation and your internal health.

Kids watch other kids and adults eat too much and copy them. Everyone young or old has got fatter. I think a lot of it started during lockdown. People have become more sedantry and prefer to not commute anymore, be that for fuel and/or travel costs, 'climate change' or not wanting to be near other people for too long. Ultra processed food and addiction to takeaways isn't helping. Kids don't play outside nearly as much as they used to, instead preferring to be on TikTok or playing computer games. The body positivity ("big is beautiful") movement is doing no favours either.

I think screaming child abuse is OTT. Why are lots of people (not just children) overweight? Lack of money, lack of time, lack of knowledge, lack of decent cooking facilities, parents who are too ill to prepare a meal, people not knowing what a proper portion size is. Lots of reasons.
Yes kids are less active now often driven everywhere and sat on screens but it's not just that.
And before anyone asks two of my children are normal weight and one is underweight (lots of food issues).

It is certainly a problem OP. But it isn't YOUR problem. So probably best if you don't concern yourself with what and how much others feed their children. If the Mumsnet Healthy Diet mafia saw what my youngest eats they would probably implode. He eats a load of crap. I can't get him to eat anything else because his desire to eat/not eat certain foods is stronger than my desire to just let him starve. He has OCD though. He eats too many burgers and too much chocolate. And he looks like a stick. There is nothing of him. Not a scrap of fat (and sadly very little muscle either.) So when I see kids who are overweight, I'm just a little bit jealous.

Of course the time factor will come into it. A working mum gets home, at maybe 6pm, kids are being noisy, and being a pest, mum is already frazzled as her commute home was horrendous. Kids need feeding, and quick, before mum loses the will to live. What takes more time, chucking a frozen ready made pizza in the oven, or cooking it from scratch?

I left Primary school in 1978 and I was the class fatty. Looking back at photos of myself back then, I wouldn't stand out now as being particularly large. I retired from teaching a couple of years ago and the days of the one class fatty have long gone. In my last class of Y4 kids I would say at least a third were overweight.

I work in a nursery in the pre-school room. I find it interesting how you can always tell which child’s parents are going to be overweight into the morbidly obese category simply by looking at the child’s weight and behaviour around food. I do think more often than not childhood obesity is down to the parenting and household perception and rules around food.

I'm not sure why this is such a shock to you OP.
Overweight, lazy adults producing overweight and lazy children.
Yes some people have health issues making it difficult to lose weight but on the whole most people don't want to hear it let alone do anything about it.
It's sad seeing children and teens who should be in their prime addling around, out of breath unable to run.
We need to stop normalising obesity.

Yes I've noticed this too. It's obviously due to a number of factors but I would say over reliance on convenience foods, probably not enough exercise and far too much screen time.

It's not fat shaming to point this out. I feel sorry for kids who are clearly obese and whose parents are too. I've been overweight my whole life and because of it I'm much more conscious to ensure my DC has a healthy balanced diet and plenty of exercise.

I think screaming child abuse is OTT

I think it’s at least neglect. Children who are overweight or obese are much more likely to be obese adults. They’re being given a higher risk of all sorts of health complications - cancers, heart disease etc - and they have a lifetime of weight management and dieting to look forward to. It’s one thing if you’re dealing with teenagers who are buying their own junk food but if half of 6 year olds are overweight that’s down to their parents.

I remember the days of there being one fatty per class who stood out and was probably teased. It’s now so normalised.

Personally I dont think its about oven ready frozen food. Its about the lack of exercise kids have now and the vast amount of snacks.

That frozen pizza is fine, served with some veg/salad or whatever, but those same children might have already had tons of snacks throughout the day which are not necessary and which are highly sugared/carby instead of things like nuts and fruit to keep them going (if indeed they actually need them)

Its also portion size, Ive always been greedy and simply ate too much. There wasnt junk food in our house in the 70s but I was the class fatty too like another poster above. Wouldnt be now though.

French mothers have the same time issues as English mothers but cooking meat and 2 veg is not particularly time consuming. But if you haven’t been brought up cooking from scratch it can seem so.

in Germany I would say there is much more of an outdoorsy attitude and kids are expected to walk/bike from quite small. Germans are also notoriously frugal but rather than buy ready made will bake at weekends with the kids and spend time finding fresh food that’s affordable.

obviously generalisations but it’s very much what I see in my family

It's not about judging, it's about being concerned. When you notice these differences between Brits and other nationalities you question why? And you feel worried. I feel the same about levels of binge drinking in this country, compared to others.

Getting them enough meaningful exercise is also incredibly time consuming.

modern life in Britain is not arranged for health.

Just had a look at some obesity rate stats - from 2024 uk was 86th in the world with 20% and Germany 95th with 19% so not much between them it would appear. France is better with 17%.

I know it’s not half of 6 year olds BTW, it was based on the poster saying half of her DC’s class were overweight.

I saw a picture of British kids at the seaside in the 1970s and they looked so so slim compared to kids now. It is a huge difference. At my son's school I'd say a third are overweight. There's just so much food available now.

Unfortunately that fatty was usually me. I've been fat all my life, no matter how much I eat or exercise and I'm naturally lazy😄

That's even more reason why I'm quite strict on myself to feed healthy meals and snacks to DC.

I do agree though that there needs to be better regulation on processed foods and what actually goes in them

but ultimately people don’t like having to take personal responsibility and would rather blame the government/big business

As soon as a parent gets a letter about it they're straight on Mumsnet/social media saying it's wrong, little Freddie can't be fat as he plays football five days a week so it's muscle mass (despite being 6)

We have recently moved to France, the area we live in it’s unusual to see obese people. In the UK it feels normal for people to be obese. Food is much more expensive here than the UK (including junk food) one thing I notice is the children’s play parks are always busy. It seems the culture for the mums to sit and chat after school while the children run and climb. In my eldest daughters school they also do an hour of exercise in the morning before they sit down to an activity.

Yes, we’ve had this. Had to produce evidence for one grandparent that you should be able to see the ribs in a healthy child.

And yes, we’re facing a huge problem. I’m 20 pounds overweight but was never overweight before the menopause. I’ve got students aged 18-early 20s who make me look thin. We need a long hard look at our diet as a nation - especially what we let kids drink. Water is fine. I learned from a mistake with DS1 letting him have the same as his cousins on holiday. Years later DS2 was given water and milk as a toddler and nothing else. At 16 he still only drinks milk and water. His dentist comments on how healthy his teeth are. Wish I’d stuck to my guns with DS1.

I’d agree with this. I can see with my own modern eye that my kids look ribby and bony compared to other children, but I know from checking the centile that they are between 25 and 50th centile (and my boy was 110th centile when born)

This leads to comments that I’m under feeding them. Which I’m not, we just do a lot of walking.

When you see what their parents are buying at the supermarket, what they’re eating when they’re in restaurants, what’s in their packed lunches you start to realise why this is. Imagine being born to parents who have little regard for their diet and are unable to make healthy choices for themselves let alone a child, it’s not the children’s fault, it’s the parents and those behaviours are passed on to the next generation.

I have an old school friend on FB who is morbidly obese, she often posts pictures of days out and holidays and it’s clear that her young adult daughter and preteen son eat the same bad foods as her, huge mountainous plates of junk food, with lashings of ketchup and mayonnaise, full sugar soft drinks, excessive sweets and chocolates galore for ‘film nights’ and much more. She’s passed those poor food habits on to her children who are now overweight for their ages, they seem happy but the long term health implications are stark.