to ask why would you overfeed your child?

[ineedtoknowwhy]

I'm sure this question has been asked before but, please, can someone explain to me why would a parent overfeed an already obese child?

Every day when I drop my daughter off at nursery I see the same little girl being dropped off too. She is always on her buggy which suggest they live nearby so could potentially walk but never ever do. At pick ups is the same, straight from nursery into buggy. Her face is always covered in chocolate (at 8 in the morning!) and she is always holding some sort of biscuit or chocolate belly so big her shirts don't come below her belly button. I am not talking about a bit chubby, or with a bit of a belly.

I cannot help to think poor child whose mum is happy to keep feeding her biscuits, chocolates, etc. when the child is clearly not in a healthy weight.

I can't help but silently judge her in my head so please can someone explain reasons for this. If you are a mum with an overweight child, why would you do this?

I didn't mean to say 'biscuit belly' or any of the sorts, I should've put a comma between both words. I meant she is always eating chocolate or biscuit in the morning, belly exposed as her shirts won't go below the belly button as she is so big.

I assume some parents just give their kids what they eat (and what they eat is shit). If you haven't thought it was important to eat decent food yourself then I guess you wouldn't think it was important for your child either. They probably don't think it's a problem.

That was really obvious OP

Or may be she doesn't want her kid around fucking cars, traffic and dangerous drivers. Those who drive their kids endangering everyone around them are the proper thick hard of thinking ones. Social media has definitely rot everyone's brain. No critical thinking around any more.

@CraneBeak

there isn’t poor food literacy, the information is clear, everyone used to get a book from the nhs about babies and toddlers though that information is now online. The problem is that parents (men and women) chose convenience, an easy life, seem to be unable to see the obvious - and it’s not just about money because takeaways and fizzy drinks cost more than homemade food and water!!!

we have more information than ever before if you want to read it, yet yesterday I saw someone tip coke into a toddlers bottle, they were a. too old to be using a bottle and b. Never put fizzy drinks in baby bottles!!!

yes, a size 16 is of course overweight!

Don’t worry, that was obvious to most of us

Pradeep Will syndrome exists, where a child doesn’t feel full, is a medical condition, rare tho
Katie Prices son has it

This. So many excuses but in reality 99.9% cases are lazy parenting

Most people will be overweight at a size 16. I used to be obese at a size 14.

So rare, that it certainly doesn’t contribute much to the overall picture of fat kids in the UK these days.

Obesity is a bit more complex than this, otherwise nobody would be overweight.

Whilst I agree with the question why over feed an overweight child I don’t agree with you asking any parent it? It’s absolutely none of your business what another parent does, it doesn’t involve you so YABU to ask that and you should mind your own (no I do not have an overweight child)

Silly comment, if her child had black eyes every week or burn marks would you say the same?

I would guess uneducated or very low ability parents who have no concept of what a healthy diet looks like. It’s incredibly damaging to the child both physically and psychologically. It’s depressing to think this actually is a thing you tend to see more frequently than not. Schools and social workers should be able to intervene more.

Could be lack of awareness or education. Often people have emotional connections to food that can affect their eating patterns and they may not understand how this translates to a child. So they overprovide 'treat' food because they lean on treat food for dopamine and think their child does too. 'Treat' food is also often cheaper and much more accessible depending on where you live. Some people I've worked with genuinely didn't understand the way that some food helps our bodies in different ways and how important nutritionally valuable food is. It also could be a mother being undermined by other family members.

Obviously you're seeing a snapshot of what the child is eating across the day so it's hard to judge properly as you don't have a clear picture. There could be an underlying health condition, the child may have serious aversion to other types of food due to asd etc.

Im an HCP.
It’s Prader Willi. It’s very rare and is not usually managed in the way the OP has demonstrably witnessed.

Well that’s me then at 63, Parkinson’s making life less healthy, and 5’2”, I prob and over eat a bit

Are you referring to me?

No not you personally, but you asked or alluded to size 16 being overweight, and i answered yes it is classed as overweight.

Im not judging you, i have myself been a size 16 and was overweight, im just stating facts.

EDIT - sorry just realised you didnt say that it was another poster @40weeksmummy

It's almost always because the parents are obese and don't moderate food intake. I used to have a babysitter locally who was sadly obese at 17 and her parents were too. When she babysat her parents would pay for a takeaway to be delivered for her dinner. It was a whole dominos pizza with ice cream and a full sugar Pepsi or an Indian takeaway for one and nothing would be left. They had no idea sadly. DS loved going round their house to play with the younger sibling as they always had a bag of sweets from the shop each for the way home. Now I have been obese for 16 years since pregnancy so I'm not a paragon of virtue but I never fed my child too much food.

DS probably looked (and looks) neglected - dirty clothes, smelly, greasy hair. But he's autistic and refuses to wash or change his clothes unless we can persuade him to go swimming.

He's also overweight now (never used to be), but he lives off mainly carbs and cheese and isn't active. It's a constant worry - alongside all the other worries - and we did get referred to a service I can't remember the name of now, but he wouldn't engage - would only discuss his special interest and nothing else which is a clear sign he was anxious and uncomfortable - so it didn't go anywhere.

From the outside we probably look like terrible parents who don't give a shit, but we actually put a huge amount of effort in and are constantly in contact with various services about DS.

I think it’s more about what you’re feeding them

I taught a little girl like this in year 2. Lovely little girl who was very overweight as was her mum and nan. She rarely saw her dad and so mum and nan used to give her lots of treats to make up for it as they felt sorry for her. I think they completely lost sight of what were normal portion sizes. If you asked her about her holiday, she would just talk about what food she had had. She would have large McDonald’s meals at 6 for tea even after having burger for lunch at school (the school has burger and chips on a Friday lunch, Jamie Oliver would die). Little girl loved to dance and was pretty good at it too but was constantly out of breath and couldn’t keep up with the other kids. Mum never put her in any extra curricular clubs where she could have done some physical exercise, even free ones at school.

That’s different and you know it is.