Do you think your children are going to be fat?

[melontum]

With all the news coverage yesterday (example), bout how by 2050 half of the population is expected to be obese.
( Skips rant a bit about the way this was reported by BBC as "a few" years away, like 43 years is just around the corner! )

Still, Do you think half of your children and family will be very fat? It doesn't ring true to me...

I think ds1 has the potential to be fat (he loves his food so much and would eat for pleasure if you didn't stop him), but I work very hard to make sure he does not become a fat child, because it is much more likely that a fat child will grow into a fat adult, than it is that a slim child will become a fat adult (fat as in FAT, not as in chunky!)

It matters a lot to me, because I am so fat. I will NOT allow my kids to go through what I have suffered, while ever I have any control over it.

I won't be able to control what they eat when they grow up, but if I can keep them healthy while they're children and instill healthy eating patterns now, and make eating healthily the norm, they have a better start and it's more likely they'll carry those eating patterns and enjoyment of exercise into adulthood.

There are times when you can't help it - prada willi, or certain medications etc, but if it's just about portion sizes, food choices and exercise - then I think a parent has no excuse and a duty to keep their child healthy until that child can take over that responsibility.

I don't think having a slender child is an indicator of anything really.
it is to do with attitude to food imo.
I think an overweight child (not chubby) is likely to be that way in adulthood
but I know plenty of overweight adults who were slim as children / teenagers / even young adults.
a healthy attitude to food keeps you slim. comfort eating or an inability to recognise fullness and respond appropriately to hunger signals

it's not that simple you know. I have a really healthy attitude to food and exercise and am overweight as are both my sisters whose diets make Gillian McKeith look like Billy Bunter. My daughter (one) is a little butterball despite an outrageously healthy diet and careful portion size. What do you know? My family are all big, going back generations.

The BBC report was more nuanced than you suggest IMHO. And it makes sense. Biologically we are programmed to hold onto fat to see us through famines. Put organisms like that in an environment of plentiful food and little need for exertion and of course weight will go up. This means the sort of individual control humans never previously had to think about - we all need reprogramming. Personally I think getting tough on car use is a good place to start.

And before anyone throws up one of those "no one came out of Auschwitz fat" cliches - the fact is half of them died and half of them didn't. The half that didn't are the half whose bodies knew how to get fat and hold onto fat to survive.

In answer to the OP, I do think there's a bit of scaremongering going on in the media. It's the new big media scare like Asian flu or the millennium bug (remember that)

I think people are too quick to blame genes. Our genes haven't changed in the last 100 years. Both my parents and many in extended family tend towards tubby. I was pudgy, too, as a child. But as an adult I am quite slender, because of lifestyle changes I made as a teenager eating more fruit+veg, becoming much more active and staying that way (walk or cycle when possible, for instance.). Also I became a picky eater not in what I eat, I still eat most things, but not at all if I'm not hungry, and I start by just nibbling slowly, and with small portion sizes.

I am not commenting on any individuals here, of course! But IRL, I know a some very chubby children whose mothers appear from what they say and how I see them feeding the kid to be completely in denial about it, and whether it's something that needs to be addressed.

I think there's a difference between fat and obese. Of couse some people are naturally bigger, there's nothing wrong with being big if you eat healthily and exercise. It's about health not weight. Obese people don't do either otherwise they wouldn't be obsese. it's equally unhealthy to run 5 miles everyday and eat only ryvita.

At one ds at 2.5 it's a bit hard to tell.
But based on dh and I, I'd say no.

I have my mother's genes who had her mother's who was very slim as she got older (not sure if it is the tall French genes that did this)]

In all honesty I think ds will be exactly like dh, a tendancy to be bigger up top with really skinny arms and legs
Hope to have more to see how they turn out.

I was in a room of over 200 children (predominatly girls) and none of they were beyond vaguely chubby - of course this was a balroom dancing competition.....does that suggest anything?

my children are tubby toddlers and infants
then they turn to scary looking skeltons
ds1 bmi means he should be ILL
my children are like dp and i tall and thin----but as we move into our fifth decade (forties) we ad an ISH to that thin!

None of the 3 at university are fat. I think the girls are probably size 10 like me. My father and brother have put on weight at or over 40 however. It;s a class and money thing. The better off and more educated you are and if you live in the SE the less likely you will be obese and as we tend to eat healthy foods and exercise too I would have thought it fairly unlikely but we'll see.

I think they have the potential to get fat, yes. Because I am somewhat overweight and both my mum and MIL are somewhat more than overweight. Thankfully DH and my dad are both beanpoles, so there is a good ol' mixture of genes in there somewhere.

At the moment I have one skinny five year old and one chubby two year old. But I have seen skinny children grow into chubby teenagers and vice versa, so I'm taking nothing for granted.

It's scary. I find myself repeating unhealthy eating patterns with them and trying to break out of them. They eat plenty of fruit and veg but they also love cake. I'm trying to maintain a balance in their diet and make sure they know what sorts of things they need to stay healthy, without getting neurotic about it.

I am more conscious of my diet now that I am a mum, and am just about managing to maintain a stable (but too high) weight for the first time in my life.

I'm just trying to concentrate on promoting active lifestyles - we do about an hour of walking every school day, swimming lessons, plenty of time in the park etc. I just hope I can manage to get the right messages across to them without setting up any neuroses in their attitude to food.

ds has always been solid - a bit rounded but not fat. he loves his food and would eat all day. today he was the last one to leave the food table at a birthday party and he didn't even leave then of his own accord... and that isn't the first time i constantly struggle with my weight as have my side of the family so think that he is likely to too.

No, I don't thinks so, ds was a fat baby and toddler but as soon as he got to about 5, he slimmed down and now he's a beanpole. Dd is a tiny little thing and they are both quite active, ds walks a mile to school and back everyday and does a sunday paper round about a mile over the other side of town.
When dd leaves Lower School, she'll have to walk the mile to school aswell. And me and most of my family are small of stature aswell, although we're all quite active, so I suppose that makes a difference.

I have to admit I do worry - I come from a family of Tall well built and short stocky mainly scotch/ Irish. I have 5 siblings and none of us are what you would term 'fat' but my mum is and my dad was (at the end of his life when he couldn't walk about much).

I want to make sure my children remain active but I am not a fan of organised sport, so I need to make sure I set a good example in other ways. I do cook healthy veggie food but I also like my puddings and so I will try to keep their diets balanced and free of processed/ fast food. I love walking and cannot drive so we are active in that sense but I will never join a gym.

I do want my dh to get involved in the childrens sporting activities as he was a keen cricketer/ five-a-side player so I think he needs to play a role here (and it will help him get fit again hopefully!!).

I worry a bit because dp and I are both overweight (I'm an apple-shaped size 18, while he's a very stocky, barrel-chested rugby-player type). We eat healthily, though perhaps a bit too much at times. We certainly don't eat processed food or McDonalds, and we grow our own veg. I used to go to exercise classes but haven't had time since having dd (15 months) - I work full-time. Having said that, I lost all the baby weight very quickly and am still the same size as I was 10 years ago.

Anyway, I'm a bit concerned that the genetic odds are stacked against dd from the start. But I'm also sensible enough to not make a big deal of it ? as long as we keep her active and don't feed her crap I'm hoping she'll be OK. And after all, looks aren't everything!

Well xenia we live rurally in northern england so I think we'll be ok too, we all get lots of exercise walking the dogs and on shoots this time of yr. Game is really very lean meat plus we ear veg we grow ourselves both me and dp are really fit, me cross country running and he recently completing LEJOG. Of course I cook everything from scratch quite literally. But we'll see..like you say it's a lifestyle thing..

I Liked Alice Miles article in today's Times

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/alice_miles/article2726653.ece
That Dahl has it right in 1964 portraying the future as fat children eating sweets and watching TV all day - like Augustus Gloop.

It's a good article. What I don't get with the obesity thing though is why the Government are getting involved. What happened to personal responsibility and common sense?

Educate on diet and ensure there is PE in schools and don't feed them rubbish at dinner time is as far as it should go surely.