Dissertation - Childhood Obesity

[Hollie03]

Hello everyone, my name is Hollie and I am in 4th year at the university of edinburgh studying business studies and doing my dissertation on the problem of childhood obesity and how it is being addressed by the NHS and supermarkets.

I am interested to know about you opinions on food shopping when you have children and what drives you to make choices - price, health, nutritional value, quality of food etc. I also work part time at Sainsburys Cameron Toll in Edinburgh and I am aware of a multitude of baby and toddler foods such as Ella's Kitchen, Cow and Gate, Plum organic etc. and some of the food options have "Mums choice" on them so I am assuming they are the healthier of the bunch. I am in no way biased towards Sainsburys but if anyone has any comments on the company that would be good hear about as well!

I am also interested to know if any of you are concerned about your child's weight and how you feel it should be tackled - are they eating the wrong foods at home? or away from home? do they have the option to go to greggs, chippy etc at lunch time at school? how much exercise are they doing in and outside of school?

Do you feel that NHS, local government and schools do enough to help children and their families lead healthy and nutritionally balanced lives? if not, what could be improved?

I understand this is like 100 questions in one go but any comments or information would be greatly appreciated!!! And responses will stay anonymous in my dissertation - I would never put anyone's names in unless they requested it!!

Thanks in advance,

Hollie x

"some of the food options have "Mums choice" on them so I am assuming they are the healthier of the bunch"

I think this would be an unsafe assumtion to make. After all, it wasn't Mums who stuck that label on the jar, was it? If you are going to involve baby/toddler foods in this dissertation you need to think carefully about marketing and what it does.

As for your question, no I have no concern about my children's weight.
They eat good food at home and if they didn't, I would do something about it.
Never used baby or toddler foods much, couldn't see the point when it was so easy to take a boiled spud off my own plate and feed the baby.
Neither of my children (junior and secondary) gets to leave the school premises at lunchtime.
School dinners are less healthy than what I would cook at home, but not exactly junk food either- not a cause for concern.
They do enough exercise.
Never really thought about what the NHS or local government should do to help my children lead healthy and nutritionally balanced lives- I always assumed that was my job. As for the school, I am grateful if they do not dish up too many chips and burgers for school dinners- but if they do, I can always start sending in sandwiches.

I have found the NHS really unhelpful in most issues to be honest.
Until this april there was no financial provision for referrals to a NHS dietician in our PCT. I have a DS with swallowing issues and gastroenterologist paediatrician diagnosed intolerances and have had to beg and threaten to get an appointment even though his height and weight have dropped considerably (height at 18 mths 99th centile, at 3yrs now just below 50. Weight similar drop - always below height ratio. )
the opinion is that if a child is thriving - you get no help as you do not meet the criteria for referral.
None of my 3 DS have ever been overweight, but being underweight is an issue too - but almost ignored by the Health service unless totally extreme.
There is insufficient nutritional advice given when diagnosed as intolerant. I was advised to give my eldest DS - fructose and sucrose intolerant - rhubarb sweetened with aspartame instead of all fruits whether fresh tinned frozen or dried. it also suggested that cakes, sweets, biscuits and chocolate be replaced with crisps.
Supermarkets free from ranges don't cater for smaller children very well. Often sugar and salt values increase in some free from ranges to replace the missing ingredients.
I have to do packed lunches as they could not cater for the dietary needs of my children.
For the same reason i have to cook mostly from scratch at home - but at least i know what is in it!
Most of the children's organised sports activities are done away from school - although they have a big enough playground to run at break times.
I know that my DS in year 1 does only 1 afternoon of PE - due to the time it takes to get classes of 30 undressed, dressed, undressed, dressed (i can sympathise!) He does 3 sessions of sport outside school - approx 3 and a half hours extra.

Thank you soo much for replying!!! Both have raised points that i can use to back up or use to contradict academic sources research!!

Mums Own Recipe by Heinz was developed by nutritionist Anne Sidnell (also a mum) and 3 mums who created recipes for baby and toddler food which no artificial preservatives, flavours or colours, and are nutritionally balanced for a healthy growth. I think with the increasing awareness of additives and other chemicals in food, it is a valuable approach for product development and also a lucrative marketing opportunity but i can see your point that just because it says "healthy" on the tin, doesnt necessarily mean its the best choice.

And I am of the belief that it is the responsibility of the parent to provide healthy food to their child.

on the jamie oliver forum one guy argues that jamie oliver is the devil for taking money from sainsburys when they sell "bad" food to children and someone quite rightly replied "the parents dont have to buy it, how often do you see a 5 year old at the checkouts buying his family's weekly shop" but there are issues with marketing

auntevil - i think that is shocking attitude from the nhs - and lack of information from the nhs with regards to dietry requirements something i hope to include in my dissertation! why did they say crisps instead of veggie snacks or does that exacerbate the condition?

i can understand the hassle involved with getting ready for PE lessons!
A lot of schools in my area have sports teams that meet outside school hours but are still part of the school so they are free or very cheap, is that the case where you are from?

Yes, we have cheap after school sports club and I think they are a great idea, particularly for families who do not have transport. Certainly makes a big difference for us.

It depends what you mean by very cheap. The sports centre that runs the athletics and swimming, offer membership if you live in the borough. Swimming was £60 odd for the term, athletics £3.30 per session and football is £5 a session. It all adds up - particularly if you have 3! Although i've heard that some of the more traditional dance classes are expensive and then you have costumes and shoes etc on top of that (thinking of irish dancing and tap etc)
The diet sheet given by the gastroenterologists team was meant to give you an idea of what to substitute things for. When i said that this rather defeated the object of trying to make your child healthier by not giving them products that they are intolerant to, not replacing them with fats and salts - it was met with a shrug. Interestingly, the sugar alternatives that were suggested also have quite alarming medical data - aspartame etc. But there was no mention of substitutes such as Xylitol - which is a natural source of sugar. It's amazing how much i have learnt from other mumsnet posters as to alternatives that are out there. It puts the NHS information to shame.

Corey - your area sounds very similar to my hometown, for me i think they are better than PE classes - they keep kids of the street, give them something to focus on and build confidence and competitiveness! though i have heard that my cousins' school (he is 5) don't have any winners at sports day...i dunno how that works in races and its a bit political correctness gone mad!

Auntevil: That is very expensive for after school sports clubs!! I think even for adults it can be quite expensive -Edinburgh Leisure take between £4.50(students) and £6.50 for a 1 hour gym class! And the gyms are usually slums!

Thats terrible...I cannot believe health care experts behave like this. I can see how forums such as these are beneficial!!