One in ten children starting Primary school is obese

[CountessDracula]

so saith the shitty rag that is the Metro

Can this be true?

I can't think of one child in dd's class of 30 that would get anywhere near being obese.
In fact I can't think of any 5 yo I know that is obese.

What is obese for a 5yo anyway?

I would say my dd is one of the heavier in her class (she has normal arms and legs etc and quite a big tummy- exactly as I was as a child!) but she is within normal on her BMI.

Do you think this is true?
If so, why are so many 5 yos obese? They all seem to run around and expend so much energy that they would have to eat their own body weight in lard to put on weight I would imagine!

The problem might even be worse - those figures obviously don't include those parents who withdrew their children from the programme (it's voluntary), and certainly at our school the only parents who didn't let their children be weighed/measured had children you would definitely class as overweight!

will she suddenly change from almost obese to almost underweight as the clock strikes midnight

note to self - preview

DS attends a school of 800 or so children, there are some who are noticeably overweight, but i doubt it is 10 % of the children.

DS is 8 yrs 9 months, weighs less less than 5 stone, he is tall, lean and not an ounce of fat on him. eats well, but some junk. lots of excercise. football twice a week, plus PE and field at school and play time, and playing out at weekends. does spend time watching TV and on computer, but think it is fairly balanced.

DD is 2.11 and weighs just over 2 stone IIRC. eats barely enough to keep a small gnat going and is on the move constantly.

for children to get obese, i think they have to eat a huge , huge amount of fatty and sugary foods, and then get to a point they are uncomfortable to run around, so it becomes self fulfilling prophecy. then they don;t move, but eat the same amount and get bigger and bigger.

i imagine an obese child will remain obese for life.

Tiger the reason they age into account is that childrne tend to have difernt fat:muscles ratios at differnt ages (I looked into it in a quiet moment because I was interested ) which obviously wiegh differnt amounts. Obviously its possible that varies by child.

I just don;t beleive that so many mn'ers don;t see that there is a big obesity problem in chidlrne today and that presumably it must be some kind of govt/media conspiracy

Is it because no-one wants to accept that their child might be overwieght and therefore refuses to accept that they are one of the 10%?

Nope. Not a single one in this year's reception class. Not as far as I can see.

And I used to swear that there weren't any in the school as a whole. That was when my DCs were further down the school - yrs 1 and 3 maybe. I was only looking at the pupils in the classes I knew. Now however I would say the majority of the girls in DD's class are overweight (she's in yr4) and there are quite a few in DS#1's class (yr 6). DD had a climbing party for DD's birthday and there was only 2 girls present (incl DD) who were not quite fat. It was an eye-opener. It seems to happen around yrs 3 or 4.

Surely at 4 rising 5 though, they are only just shedding the toddler chubbiness?! Looking at pictures of DD1 last year (4) and this year (5) she is noticeably thinner this year, particularly in the face, and her diet is the same.

Can toddlers be obese? Surely it's asking for trouble to be labelling children this young as overweight when they are hardly more than babies (who have been obsessively fed to get them moving up the centiles on the red book charts, but that's another arguement!)

Kewcumber - I so agree with you. We have completely lost out perspective on what is fat and what is not.

I think people are focusing on their idea of what "obese" is and imagining some huge porky child who can't tie their own shoelaces. It is 10% who are overweight or obese. NOdoubt its the overwieght category that every thinks is just fine but it isn;t always. Some childrne will lose the weight naturally as they get older but we live in an increasingly sedentary scoiety and thats a bigger problem than diet in some cases. Many of these chidlren are going to get worse not better as they start controlling their own eating habits and their exercise levels drop.

Can toddlers be obese? - YES of course they can

Obviously they shouldn't be publically labelled but yes parents should be made aware even if its to keep an eye on it and an age by which it should be reducing and if not action needs to be taken.

Those of you who seem not to accept that this many chidlrne are actually overwieght - how do you explain the increasing numbers of children who have type 2 diabetes which was unheard of 30 yeas ago when I was in shcool.

My little dd is 3 and she isn't remotely chubby. I can count her ribs and see her muscles. I am not convinced that four and five year olds are basically 'chubby toddlers'.
My son has a different build with a big tummy at nearly seven, but his BMI is also well within the normal band for his age. I think that must mean that being overweight is a good definition

I agree msd. All my children have been basically thin at age 5 and have put on weight as they got older. DD was painfully thin at age 6 but looks normal now she is 9. DS#1 is getting a bit porky but am hoping it's a phase - he's 11 so puberty is beckoning, and my DB did the same thing at that age.

I take the point about muscle ratios Kewc - obv I need to do more googling (I am going part time soon so I can do more googling housework [ahem]). However I do think that its madness that a child can be in proportion wrt height/weight but still be considered to have a higher BMI than would be considered desirable.

I do agree that some parents don't see their child's obesity, they see it as puppy fat or healthy fat. OTOH I also think people may worry that their child is obese or overweight when in fact they aren't.

Now I am trying not to worry that dd may well be overweight and I am in denial. I have to worry about something though, right? I wouldn't be doign my job as a parent properly otherwise would I?

IIRC your DD is not overwieght.

Havnig said that I have known children who just look a bit flashy until you see them in a swimsuit then you realise that they really are overweight.

I will say again, ds1 is one of the chunkier children in his class, and I have inputted his data into your link, Kew, and his BMI is "Within a healthy range"

I wouldn't say there were 3 children significantly bigger than him in his class. Most are considerably thinner, actually. So where are all these large children? We can't all be in denial about how obese our children are when the measurements say they're not.

This is very interesting. My DS (7) who I do not consider overweight, usually is according to the BMI indicators.
BUT DH is welsh and has the welsh rugby player build and DS has the same build.

Also DS has bones that are 50% denser than 'normal' - we found out during a full skeletal xray he needed when small. I don't know how much difference this is supposed to make.

It has always been noticeable when somebody picks up DS (ans also DD who is 4) they are both heavier than they look. I also notice it when I pick up someone elses child as they may look the same but they feel incredibly light

so the stasitics collected by the DoH are wrong and there isn't a significant childhood obesity problem then - thats what the majority here are saying.

erm I'd imagine that teh MN "sample" isn't exactly exhaustive

I'ms surprised if any one denies that there is a significant overweight problem in the UK, at all ages. It seems very visible to me.

no I wouldn;t have thought so either.

I'm really interested in the fact though that fat women on here get short shrift "its not exactly rocket science, just eat less exercise more etc " but no-one seems to beleive that either their DC is overweight or that in fact they don't see a problem in their school.

I know the two things arent connected directly just an interesting juxtaposition.

I think the turth is that many of us (as some people have siad) hae lost the ability to see what overweight is in a child. Maybe it has always been that way but I suspect with teh number of children who used to walk some way to school and back every day from a youngish age I did it from 8 that any lingering overweightness burnt itself off. Suspect a whole generation of children who are just a bit overweight now are going to struggle with their weight as teenagers. I already see it happening with my teenage neice.

so where are all the overweight chidlrne hiding then, are they not going to school?

It is hard to eat healthily in England. I always put on weight every time I visit, too many cream cakes in Sainbury's.

But Kew, lots of people including me have said that they do see a problem, particularly at ages 7-8 and upwards.

Go to any swimming pool and you can't help but be struck by it. And there must be kids who don't go swimming who'd be in an even worse state.

There is one little girl in ds's reception class who is very large. Her 2 sisters are large and her mother and grandmother are. I know the mother gets judged by other parents for allowing her children to be fat, yet I also know that they see a dietician and ridgedly follow the set diet and do not eat endless junk. Clearly it is not good to be overweight but we do seem to judge such people rather more harshly than they deserve.

maybe not to your school kew

yes I think the parents of overweight children do get judged very harshly - there is a 'child abuse comment' further down the thread.