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?

I do think teenagers should be taught about nutrition in school. Not just about eat more fruit and veg but really understanding metabolic health, been taught how to read labels and use basic maths to assess the calorie content of food. Without the government pushing back on the food manufacturers - which they never will. It is the only way.

Hmmm it’s not simple though really. It sounds simple - stupid parents feeding their fat lazy kids too much food - but it’s way more nuanced than that. Generational family culture, education around health and nutrition, sensory needs, genetics - these are all factors before you even touch on feckless, weak parents.

I was an obese child, I am exceedingly proud and relieved that my kids aren’t. I am genuinely so happy that they won’t have to go through that. I still have empathy for parents (including mine) who didn’t know what to do for the best.

@FloofyBird it would be a bit cheaper if you made it properly 😆😅..missed the point of the thread but who on earth is putting peppers and courgette in spag bol!!! It would taste far nicer and be more nutritionally dense and cheaper if you made a it properly with onion, carrot and celery. Would also have more fibre.

My daughter’s nearly 12 and compared to her class friends etc she looks ‘heavier’ but she’s really not. She’s just went through puberty early and has hips and a bum like me and has a fair sized chest for her age but her legs are like bean polls and her stomach is flat. She also goes
podgy like I did befor she’s due a stretch. She has a good diet yes likes a treat etc but she’s sporty goes out to play etc. if I had concerns we would do something. Never really noticed anything too concerning with kids at sports day to be honest. X

@CohortandCahoots I can relate to a lot of what you're saying, though at primary school in the 1970s my lunch was a single sandwich and a piece of fruit, every day.

But I don't think UPF now is the same as packaged foods 40 years ago. These days they're full of palm oil, fructose syrups or artificial sweeteners, emulsifiers thickeners and preservatives that didn't even exist back then. They're engineered to be as moreish as possible, while also using the cheapest possible ingredients.

It's even less simple if your child has SEN, dietary restrictions etc.

Due to my son's dietary needs for medical reasons, he can only eat white bread as opposed to wholemeal bread which obviously isn't the healthiest but then wholemeal bread would put him in hospital so white bread it is.

Whilst it must be distressing @Kirbert2 you will be somewhat of an anomaly. We shouldn't stop talking about this because a very, very small percentage have other things going on.

It is outrageous that with all the health information available on social media, that so many parent still can’t feed their children healthy, nourishing meals. I have several clients who are surgeons and doctors. One is an obstetrician and he gets quite animated when he tells me he’s “lucky to get one patient now and again who is not obese. He says that with some of the women he’s had to perform ceaserians on, have been so obsese, he’s had to hold their stomach out of the way with his arm whilst also getting a at out safely. He said it’s a really difficult thing to do as the weight his arm is holding can be enormous and it’s really tiring. He’s also a gynaecologist and has similar issues with rolls of fat, and his other bug bear is that obese people just don’t realise they are carrying too much eastroegen , which can eventually lead to cancer.

Children with SEN including those who may have ARFID or other dietary needs due to autism and the such like is hardly an anomaly.

My sons dietary restrictions is more unusual, that's true.

The fact is that it isn't simple and that's without other things going on. With other things going on too, it can feel impossible.

I grew up with a bad diet (pretty much 100% UPF) but I was a really skinny child. I think the difference is I didn't have access to snacks. I'd have cereal for breakfast, a sandwich with crisps and a biscuit for lunch and something like nuggets, chips and peas for dinner.

The snacking culture around kids has definitely changed. As a family we'd have a couple of packs of Jaffa cakes for the week and once they were finished that was it. We weren't allowed fizzy drinks or orange juice because they were too expensive. If we were hungry we'd be told "have an apple" (knowing full well none of us would eat one).

That's a shocking stat. Simply comes down to taking accountability for what you feed them and getting them in participate in sports.

Children with SEN are a minority (I say this as a SEN mum myself) and not all SEN children will be affected in ways that contribute to obesity. Even taking into account this factor, plus other medical issues (which tend to be rarer in children than the adult population) the number of children who are obese vastly outnumbers those with developmental and medical causes.

(We aren't affected by ARFID, but DS is a sensory eater that means he favours predictable foods so I understand the rejection of naturally variable foods, in favour of consistent processed foods. We are fortunate that DS will eat some consistent natural foods e.g. cucumber, and raw peppers but he can't cope with a multi-textured food like a tomato that is also variable in its ripeness/ sweetness. We're also fortunate that he engages with individual sports in mainstream settings although progress is slower than average. We do not have the greatest challenges in this area, and I understand the nature of the constant grind of them with poor support resources avaliable that other people face)

There is a major generational health timebomb in the making and it needs recognising and discussing sensibly. SEN related triggers are relevant (and need targeted support that is often lacking), but they aren't the major cause across the population level. If we don't recognise changing patterns in movement and diet/ food composition, all children are affected, e.g. by reduced length of play/ break times in schools. Sometimes SEN children are disproportionately affected by those changes e.g. playtime is a valuable opportunity for physical play for a child who struggles to access conventional sporting activities outside school (which could be overwhelm, co-odination issues, social development or physical co-morbids e.g. hypermobility)

I did no sports as a child( 70s) apart from PE at school. I was skinny. But we played out and walked a mile to school and back with my mum as she didn’t drive. We had three meals a day and a piece of homemade fruit cake after school as we ate dinner when my dad got home at 6. The world is different now.

School swimming showed up major differences from one school population to the next. The obesity rates were considerably higher in schools from more deprived wards of the city. The ratios of the children in the non-swimmers and advanced groups also varied accordingly.

Families with the disposable income were able to pay for lessons and have stronger swimmers by 8-9.

One of the schools from a deprived ward is next to a lovely park... shame about the drunks, druggies and regular bike thefts going on there. Safe, pleasant outdoor space is not evenly distributed.

That doesn’t make you obese though.

The physical exercise is an interesting, DC's school do PE 3 times a week and swimming once a week and we still have overweight children throughout school.

Yes and no. I agree the weight of the individual child should not be the concern of others,, but it is very noticeable that the two kids in DC’s with the most puppy fat, have the mums who meet them at the school gate every night with large packs of sweets or biscuits which they very generously try to share with their classmates while they’re playing out. I don’t want to tell DC they can’t play out, but I also am getting quite frustrated at the daily exercise in diplomacy of trying to refuse DC permission to share the junk without offending the women who think they’re doing a nice thing by providing it and are standing right next to me.

Not many mountains or wild swimming lakes on a suburban bus route though, are there? Nature is only free for those who can get to it (and buying additional equipment and clothing that has to be replaced as children grow is not making it free).

@simsbustinoutmimi ill health caused by it takes up a disproportionate amount of tax payers money so if you pay tax it is your business!!

Has anybody else noticed how normalised being overweight is in adverts? I’m thinking of the hiking advert for Boots, where they’re all clearly overweight and I’ve seen quite a few holiday ones where again the whole family, including the kids are clearly overweight.

Making your kid obese is child abuse. No excuses I became a mum at 15 and my kids have never been fat. No excuse when the average age to have a kid is twice that come on you know what you're doing

And what about the hundreds of situations where it’s out of the parents’ control? That’s the frustration isn’t it. If the parents were just sitting back and letting it happen then they wouldn’t be stressed about it.

How can it be out of their control? I'm talking young kids here btw not older ones with friends who buy them entire sweet and chocolate bags on the way to school. Fair enough that's beyond your control but there really is no excuse for an obese under 9 year old (except certain rare medical conditions)

I agree that it needs discussing sensibly. I don't think that includes shouting child abuse when it is so incredibly complex and often includes poverty.

I was just saying that if you do have other factors to consider such as SEN, dietary restrictions etc it can feel even more impossible.

You sound very naive.

• Child only eating certain foods so you let them eat anything so that they eat something
• Not having the mental capacity to deal with it - life is very hard for a lot of people
• children stealing food - doesn’t have to be rubbish food, weight gain is about volume of any food. I did that as a child.
• entire family cultures requiring an overhaul - that’s a massive job and it’s understandable that it doesn’t happen
• the list goes on but I have to do the school run

We can see just by a few minutes spent on Mumsnet how rife SEN are, and they often go hand in hand with food issues.

My children aren’t obese but it’s easy to see how it can happen.