Obese children

[Scarfitwere]

I notice so many obese (primary age) children around these days, it was very apparent at my childrens' sports day and these poor kids could barely do the races. One sat on the side as they were too large to participate at all. I understand overweight adults and it's hard to lose weight etc, but these are young children, their parents control their food intake. Why are so many parents letting their kids get like this? Its setting them up for bullying, not being able to join in sports etc, and health problems. I just don't get it AIBU?

@Bundleflower same here. Maybe the culture of everyday treats. Healthy food costs more or lack of education. Probably a combination of things but sad to see.

My son was also around 1 stone over weight between 10-14, during puberty he shot up and evened out.

He is a marathon runner now, 6ft and extremely athletic.
I don’t think these are the type of children op is on about though.
I noticed on our last few holidays, sat around the pool.. Lots of children that are extremely overweight.. 3/4 stone plus.
I think a lot of people have a warped view of what a healthy child should look like.. You should be able to see the outline of your ribs and children shouldn’t have lots of belly fat.
I think it’s also partly down to lifestyle changes.
My sons in his mid twenties and when I speak to parents with primary school age children they are shocked that mine were aloud out to play in the park with mates ect.. A very 80s childhood.
It’s very rare where I live to see groups of kids out playing football or just playing in general. I also think there’s a warped idea of what a child’s portion size should look like.

Given that it is quite possibly setting the DC in question for a life of ill-health, it is something to do with us all on a number of different levels:
They are likely to have adult lives during which they suffer discomfort, illness and reduced life expectancy;
Concern that these health issues will put avoidable pressure on am already struggling NHS;
And also, the more overweight people there are, the more normalised being overweight becomes.

We live in a society, so people's choices have an impact on others.

Lots of parents on MN will say “oh my DS is built like a rugby player”. Maybe he is, or maybe he’s fat. Little boys shouldn’t have flabby breasts.

In adoption studies, weight of the birth parents is a better predictor of the child's weight than the adoptive parents. Even when the child was adopted at birth.

So it may be less the parents fault (well other than their fat genes) than you think. This is not to say that nothing can be done but genetics play a huge role in propensity to be fat.

Don’t forget governments have been selling off playgrounds and fields from schools. My kids went to a London primary in Zone 3. There was no field and the main playground was built on to accomodate a bulge year. So eventually they had so little space, there was barely any sport or even room to run around. They tried to take kids to the local park but it was covered in dog poo. A lot of the kids lived in flats and there were quite a few obese kids, I felt sorry for them as they’re were so few opportunities for exercise. Then we moved to the leafy Home Counties and all the schools had massive playing fields……

This is absolutely the parent’s fault.

It will be area dependent as well. If you are in a more affluent area children will be thinner. I see that near me.

It's impossible to get any help/support for very young children and their eating if their weight is 'ok'. My child has been a nightmare to ween. She has a diet of 4 items and none of them are a fruit or veg but because her weight is on the 50th centile they aren't interested......for reference she was born on the 2nd centile so she already has piled weight on. Literally pulling my hair out and the future scares me for her but nobody will listen. I can imagine she will be obese by the time she starts school.

Ds is at the lower end of a healthy weight and is very active. He had something homemade in his lunch recently and was asked if we were too poor to buy proper food. The homemade item costs far more than a cheap UPF version. UPF affects his behaviour so I limit it for that reason and general health reasons. Walking to school has also caused him to be asked if we are too poor to afford a car. The comment about his lunch box was made by the obese child in his class who was eating two chocolate bars and plastic bread and ketchup for lunch. It’s sad that these kids don’t know what a healthy diet actually looks like.

It’s becoming more common, and I also think some children are very overweight/ obese compared to “a bit overweight” that we started seeing a few years ago.

9 times out of 10 parents are completely oblivious/ think it will sort itself out, while buying Mac Donald’s and chocolate bars in lunchboxes.

my class went on a school trip not so long ago, and it was very upsetting to see several children out of puff / hot / tired after only doing a fairly small amount of walking ( honestly I’m overweight myself and they had less stamina than me……)

Far more parents sitting around bitching about children and parents at sports days.

That’s not true at all. Obese children is something that affects everyone and we should all care. Better education, stricter rules on advertising junk food to children and normalising family time and meals.

Different people are different. I genuinely don’t know why people are so obsessed with fat kids. I was always classed as a a fat kid…all the way through school I wasn’t allowed milk with the other kids at break time, I went to dieticians. All my life I’ve battled with weight. To no avail, I’m a solid 16 and battle to stay at that! And yet my two siblings were skinny. I now have three kids myself…one average, one a beanpole, one decidedly chubby. The chubby one is way greedier and always has been from breastfeeding through weaning to now. I know, like me, he’ll spend his life battling temptation. Whereas my middle one literally treats food like fuel. They all do masses of sport and spend their life outside. They’re all also incredibly bright, not a behavioural issue between them and have lots of friends. I genuinely believe weight is as genetic as everything else, but it’s a lovely hobby for people to be judgemental! I bet if i met the kids of half the people on this thread they’d be less bright, behave worse at school and have more learning needs than my kid. And I’d be expected to have sympathy and understanding for that. We are all built differently. And we are all psychologically different too…I don’t drink a drop, have never a smoked and don’t suffer from any mental health issues or substance abuse issues. I just like my food!

It also possible that, because more and more children see overweight and obese, you do see overweight children but assume they are a healthy weight.

Find me an obese kid, (who is not obese due to medical issues) who has parents who are not overweight/obese. I think you'll find that doesn't happen. Combination of genetics and lifestyle. Parents need a long hard look at themselves and in the mirror. Poverty is not an excuse. Laziness regarding meal prep and lack of exercise must contribute. State school PE is ineffective, especially at primary, and the fatter you get as a kid, the less likely you will want to and are able to exercise

I work in a school and I would say we have a couple of really overweight kids in each class. Their lunchboxes are generally terrible. What really pisses me off is that their parents insist on squeezing them into the uniforms of their age, not what actually fits them. It’s like they are in denial of their dc’s size. I remember one girl came to school on dress down day dressed as a cheerleader. The outfit was so small on her, she was bulging out of it and it was really short. I don’t know how her parents could let her out of the house like that. Thank goodness the children in that class are lovely.

We live in quite an affluent town, so I don't know whether that's contributory, but I haven't noticed any overweight children at my DC's school.
We actually live in social housing the other side of town, but again, never seen any unhealthily overweight children; possibly a few that one might say are a bit plump/chubby.
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This may be so, but the fact remains that thirty or forty years ago most kids in primary school were NOT overweight, and now a huge proportion, even of very young primary children are.

Genes don’t change that much in forty years, so something else has changed, and we all know the culprit is a diet which includes a lot more sugar, a lot more fat, a lot more processed food with weird ingredients, a lot more empty calories in unnecessary snacks and a culture of grazing between meals. This has become the norm, even in families who don’t have food poverty as a reason to eat unhealthy food.

It's a difficult problem to solve. Obese parents often have obese or overweight children, because factors which increase the risk of obesity - genetics, finances, education around food, activity levels - tend to affect the whole family. Adults who find it hard to maintain their weight will often have kids in the same circumstances.

Kids today also get so much less time outside than they ideally would. It's less safe for them to play out, there are fewer kid friendly spaces, parents have less time to spend outdoors with them.

Schools could tackle it better in part by reducing lesson time in favour of all weather outdoor playtime, but that would take a significant change in approach which isn't very likely.

If it genetic why do other countries not have similar issues. In Europe we all share similar genes. If it's poverty why are children in poverty stricken countries skinny and undernourished.

It's our British culture and to some extent our climate, with a lack of cheap fresh seasonal food. Bad food choices, lack of exercise, constant snacking on low quality food.

Of course there be anomalies, and to pps yes, some kids really do have a predisposition, but on a population level, Britain is a very unhealthy country in comparison to our European neighbours.

@Bundleflower I live in a relatively poor area, I consider myself normal sized until I go to affluent areas then I'm a beast.
My friends think I'm super healthy because they don't go anywhere they see me ride my bike everywhere and they think I'm the anomaly.

And it is regional too. In my DD's entire school, private, South East, there was one overweight girl, and she had medical issues. More were underweight. Some seriously.

There’s only 1 boy in my daughters class that year 4 but in year 5 there is about 5 or 6 obese I’d say.

sports day they looked so miserable and I felt sorry for them. Also having boobs that young is grotesque flopping about - at least get the child a bra to save their embarrassment

But it will be for society, which we all are a part of.

I've been overweight and/or obese my entire life. Been on and off diets. Sometimes I have lost the weight (5 or 7 stones at a time) but usually it gradually piles on again.

So I am always mindful that it is best not to be plump, overweight or obese as a child in the first place.

That's why I was particularly pleased that despite having a fat parent, he wasn't fat as a child. I made sure of that.

He's overweight now as an adult, but that's a recent thing which is down to the various anti psychotic medications he's on so I have different things to be concerned about now.

But generally, it is better to acknowledge that society has a problem than to dismiss it with a "it's none of your business". It soon will be if us "fat" people become diabetic, develop other weight related issues and use ever more diminishing NHS resources in future years.

I wish someone had helped me as a child all those many years ago. So why should we not care about overweight, obese children today?