why is every one worried about fat children. surely skinny ones are just as unhealthy?

[stitch]

it is quite hard. and yet all the furore is about kids eating tooo much.
what to do with a child who just wont eat?
no breakfast, except perhaps a sip of milk, or a tiny tiny bite of cereal> probly nothing for school dinner. and refusal toeat dinner at home because its got [veg of choice] in it. or is the wrong colour. or htye are not hungry. or some other really really stupid readson.
you can only force feed them to a certain age. and bribery only goes so far.
and then there are the clothes. what to do with an 11 year old with a waist the size of what shops consider a slim 8 year old should be, but height on the 75th centile? is he perenially meant to look geeky because hsitrousers are all three inches too short, or held up by mom's sewing and safety pins? or toddler belts?

force feeding can lead to anorixia, an unhealthy relatinshop with food etc etc. yet the only problem theworld seems to see is that of obese children.

Actually I think skinny children are normal. YOu are supposed to see their ribs etc. Unless they are simply not fed by abusive/negligent parents, I really don't think skinny kids are a problem. Being thin doesn't make you have heart attacks or become diabetic. Obesity is a massive public health problem, and today's obese kids are tomorrow's obese adults I'm not thin myself (though not obese), in case you think I am being smug.

the only problem theworld seems to see is that of obese children

Of course those who can't even get clean drinkingf awater, let alone decent food are not an issue.

I am starting to worry seriously about my nearly nine year old DS1 who looks absurdly skinny and weighs 4.5 stone.

He will eat a fair bit of meat, cheese etc but just does not seem to be able to put away much at all in the way of carbohydrate.

And nagging him to eat seems to be completely counter-productive.

It is a worry, isn't it?

I was reading something the other day about a boy who died of anorexia in his teens and it really made me think .

mine are all skinny, but they eat loads, so not anything to owrry about

but from what stitch says, the 11 yo in question isn't eating, which is a huge problem

stitch, have you asked for help from your GP? I'm sure there must be help out there for anorexics or others with food issues like you describe

there is very little help out there for children who refuse to eat/eat very little.

Yet surely these children adn parents also need help?

Being severly underweight is as bad as being severley overweight.

As usual the media and govt settle on one thing, hype it up hugely and ignore th erest.

As a parent who's skinny child was suffering from malnutrition I don't think that is entirely true.

Obviously I am talking about public health policy in this country, just as the OP is. There is undoubtedly a huge problem with obesity in the developed world. That has nothing to do with people who are starving.
Anorexia is not really simply being on the skinny side - it's a mental illness.

I'm worried about my children getting fat. I am rather obsessive about it. This is because I am fat and I will NOT have them suffer what I suffered as a child. Being fat is miserable, ime. And I love them too much to let them go through what I went through. ds1 got a bit pudgy at one point and it really upset me for him - because I was scared he'd be bullied like I was. But I tweaked the menus and upped his activty levels and he's slimmed down nicely. Whilever I have control over what food they eat, I won't let them get fat. I do realise it's my 'ishoo' I don't talk about it - wouldn't want them to get an eating disorder - but I am constantly aware of their food and treats and weight.

I know what you mean, stitch - I have one just like this.

But I don't think he's unhealthy and certainly not in the same league as an obese child.

Things I have learnt over the years (DS2 is now 13):

• he will eat when he is hungry
• he isn't hungry when I want him to be (i.e meal times) so have to allow him to eat when he wants to - this has changed over the years, though - so it's little and often
• he needs to be allowed to eat at his own pace, and if this means sitting at the table on his own, fair enough
• for this reason, school dinners were always a torture - he would have to wait for ages to get his food and then only have 30 seconds to eat it - so I let him switch to a packed lunch
• don't make an issue of it - and let him eat what he wants (obviously within a certain degree of reason!), but fat will not be an issue for you
• 'hide' nutritious foods, e.g. chopped frozen spinach into bolognese sauce or casseroles, egg in creamy pasta sauces, grated carrots in burgers, etc

Can't think of any more, but last piece of advice is not to stress about it. As long as he is healthy, there's no problem.

my skinny child is normal.

she eats whatever she wants and then some, but we don't have junk food in the house - can't afford it.

i make all their treats.

some people are not big eaters and so usually are thin for life.

obesity can cause serious health problems and, next to smoking, is a leading cause of preventable death. in some areas, it has eclipsed smoking as a leading cause of preventable death as smoking levels have declined.

the rates at which it is rising, particularly in children, is a real need for concern.

in the US, for example, rates of type II diabetes are soaring through the roof and appearing at younger and younger ages. this is really concerning, because as anyone with type II diabetes knows, the longer you have it, the harder it becomes to control over time in general.

No answer to the trousers, btw, beyond places like Gap which do elasticated waists!

oh sorry. read thread properly and realised the topic is not actually what I thought it was. Pardon me

electricbarbarella - how was your child's malnutrition picked up?

My DS1 is very skinny. He is in 95th percentile for his hieght but 50th percentile for his weight. The doc was delighted and said he wished he saw more kids like it.

It is hard to find clothes though but Next do adjustable trousers.

She had a load of blood tests as she was asleep all the time. She has coeliacs, had never eaten more than a couple of mouthfuls of anything in her life, always labelled as fail to thrive etc, they came and weighed her all the time but never actually helped me do anything about it.
Sorry very raw subject for me.

my mil used to wan tme to take ds1 to th egp when he was younger to get him 'medicine# to make him eat more. but i wouldnt because he had high energy levels, lots of colour in his skin, and good muscle tone.
now, he knows that i want him to eat, so it has become a mental issue, where i beg him to eat, and he refuses. i am better than i was before, but, i know he has the will power to go hungry rather than eat certain foods.
ds2 on the other hand, you can count not only his front ribs, but his back ones too. surely that can tbe normal?

elasticated waists are completely uselss, unless you are fat. it is impossible to cinch the in enough to fit. there is simply too much material there and it just becomes hard lumps around his waist. think trying to fit a size 8 woman into size 20 jeans, and cinchng them in with a belt. and even places that supposedly do two waist sizes with elasticated waists only do them for fatter kids.

thank you all for your kind responses

my v skinny dd is slowly improving due to me realising there is no point feeding her things wont eat and started to let her chose her foods! also keep snacks in places she can reach.

her diet atm is limited to fishfingers and smiley faces with peas, cheese salad sarnies, home made burgers and cucumber sticks, cheese and broccolli pasta, cheerios without milk, yoghurts, home made pizza but has to be plain cheese and tomato and various fruits and jaffa cakes.

but that is much better than her pancake phase, which was shortly followed by her eat nothing but one or two mouthfulls of yoghurt every day for two weeks phase!

she is under a specialist and sees a nutritionist but i dont find either of them very helpfull.

stop fussing and let them eat what they want is all the advice i can give. is the only thing that i have found works and in the last year my dd has put on 5lbs so is now 2st5 which is near to what she should be.

although am fairly sure she will lose weight once in school ft.

micci, the food you describe sounds fine to me. i stopped making huge coplicated thngs for ds long ago, and now stick to things he will actually eat, rather htan what i think he should eat. for example, he doesn tlike home made pizza, so we get ready frozen. he doesnt like home made chicken nuggets, so we get tesco finest, as at least the get eaten. boneless chicken for curries, as at least he eats it, instead of me insisiting the bone adds flavour to the curry, and then him not eating it.
we also do ready sauces for pasta, as he will eat that. and lots of cheese, as again, they all love cheese.

my son was very very skinny as a young boy. I never worried about it, fed him decent food whichhe ate or didn't . I never sucumbed to the nonsense of feeding him shit to encourage him to eat. I kept an eye on his general health which was good and i just let it go.
He is now 15 and a fit as f* ( as DH says).

He is extremely grateful that he was made to eat good regular food - although it pissed him off that we didn't have crisps and fizzy and stuff at home. He is in fantastic physical shape.

My Ds2 has major issues around food. I have to compromise with him but always concentrated on increasing the number of foods he ate rather than the quantity.
He is 11 now and is fitting into 10- 11 year clothes at last and even getting a tummy
If you try and feed your children a decent selection of foods it will generally be fine.
Overeating though becomes a habit really easily and it is always easier to over eat crap .
i would prefer my skinny children ( even with DS2's issues) any day

Skinny not a problem. I was a very skinny child, and utterly fed up with endless nagging by mother and relatives. Have akways been exceedingly healthy. My niece is also exceedingly skinny and I have tried to persuade SIL and my mother (both on the larger side themselves ) not to nag her either. What is it with mothers and eating? if they are healthy, not hungry, and not eating rubish between meals, why worry? If our DC do not eat, they don't - we don't snack, so they know the next food will be at next meal. DS2 gets very unhappy if nagged at other people's houses. I always tell 'em - if he doesnt eat, fine, just leave it, but he occasionally tells me they have 'made him eat' - in fact he no longer goes to one house where the child-minder/child scarer made a big deal over getting him to eat broccoli - why????? He was 5 - NOT her problem!

i dont buy crisps,chocolates and fizzy drinks, or squash, or anything packaged pretendng to be healthy iyswim.
but i do want him to be a bit bigger.

It does sound as if your 'fussing' (for want of a better word!) is making it worse.

Take the pressure of both of you and let him tell you what he wants.

Make child-friendly, high fat foods your friend - nothing wrong with fish fingers and oven chips!

biwi, that is a staple in our house!
but i always add som eveg to the side, and get them to have three bites pleae. pretty please!

There is a difference between being naturally skinny (and healthy) and being skinny as a result of not eating enough.

Being skinny due to genes is not worrying, being skinny as a result of eating/absorbing very little whatever the cause is.

We were told with ds that unless he was hospitalised we would not be given any help until he started school.

Of those I know whose child have been hospitalised they were given a dietitian who told them what the child should be eating but not how to get it into them. Absolutely pointless. Also a few were given buildup shakes. Again these are worthless if your child will not have them.

I do know how difficult it is stitch.
DS2 has ASD and massive food issues. at one point ( for 4 years ) he only ate about 8 foods in total.
I have done everything - homemade bread with carrot added to it, home made chicken nuggets with cauliflower and potato mixed in.
I give him vitamin and mineral drinks to help. But it has been really really difficult.

I still think he is as healthy as he can be. many of his friends , with similar food issues are just given loads of what they will eat and several are very overweight - which is a real issue for a child with severe LDs as they sometimes need to be controled physically.