"Why do parents let their kids get fat?"

Mine are the opposite - they much prefer shop bought nuggets or MacDs to ones we make ourselves.   

Also echo what some others say - of my three two are thin and one is relatively sturdy - probably about average weight but to my mind slightly over what she should be - and she is by far the most sporty one and the one who eats the most healthy stuff - I think she just eats more of it.   She does triathlon, cycling and football competitively - if you look at her football team a lot of the kids aren't dead skinny either.   Her grandad on her mum's side is built like a brick outhouse so I think she's got a bit of his genes - for a 10 year old girl she is really strong and can throw a proper punch.

Sorry if I am being a thread-hogger here, it's just a very interesting subject.

I just wanted to add, to all of my other points, that there is an assumption that is often made - not by anyone here, but in the "real world" -  that "skinny" is the same as "healthy."

It is clear from many posters descriptions of their kids that a childs' shape seems to have no bearing on how sporty they are or how well they eat. In fact, reading back, most posters here talk about their "larger" child being the most active one.

I know plenty of adults that are super-skinny and yet eat rubbish. There is no way that they can be healthier than a larger person who eats well. Is it the same with children, or are we conditioned to think that "fat" children are unhealthy, regardless of their diet, while thin children are ok, even if they eat nothing but sweets?

Now I am aware of the health risks that come with being very heavy, and I am not talking about the super-obese adults and children, who clearly need to make changes in their lives.

But if a child is active and eats a balanced diet, then does it really matter if they are the largest in their class? Should we be looking instead at their super-twiggy classmates who eat only crisps and drink only Dr Pepper? (I know one sven year old just like that, I wonder how they will look in 10 years time)

good post springle

On a similar vein, why do people let their dogs get fat?

Healthy and fit does not necessarily mean slim. 

I am an overweight runner (yes, I admit I am overweight), but I am quite fit - I can run comfortably for 10 or 11 miles and am on a half marathon training plan right now.  It took me a while to get my head around the fact that fit does not always equal slim, but it did help when I was running a 10k race and was leaving an awful lot of slim people behind as they were walking and seriously puffed out.

My diet is pretty good - generally eat well in the week and have food/alcohol treats at the weekend.  However, it is becoming more and more expensive to eat healthily and this could be part of the problem.  I also think that lots of todays kids are not as active as kids in years gone by (before the advent of computer games/devices)  so this, along with portion control, would seem to be the reason.

Something has changed within the last 25/30 years in terms of childhood obesity, though.  When I was in primary school (late 80s) there was 1 fat kid in my class of 30.  Now it's close to 10 times that, by the sounds of things. 

I think it is partly that people's perception of what is normal is getting skewed.  People tell me I'm slim.  If I look at photos from the 50s/60s, plenty of people were my size.  Then, I would have been normal.  Now normal is overweight.  This means that some parents genuinely don't think of their kids as fat when they are.

I think it is also probably that, in addition to a less healthy and higher calorie diet, many people no longer have the low-level activity (walking to the bus stop, walking to the local shop, etc.) which they used to have.  They drive everywhere and they drive their kids everywhere. 

Some really interesting thoughts there, thanks everyone! It's really interesting to hear how you would deal with the issue. I'm at a bit of a loss, other than giving kids a healthy example to follow - and by that I don't just mean eating salads and nothing else, but by dealing with it in a way that doesn't create a lot of anxiety and stress around what they eat. I know a couple of people who have real issues with food as adults, which I'm convinced is partly down to the way they were bullied over their eating habits as a child.

I think there is a big difference between a 'sturdy' person and someone who is significantly overweight or obese. We all know, or at least know of, one extremely healthy person who would be classed as obese on the BMI scale, but I think the average person on the street is just getting a little bit bigger every year so we don't really appreciate that 'average' is pushing into the overweight category.

Joolska - I agree with you on the lack of low-level activity in everyday life as a contributing factor, not just to childhood obesity but obesity in general. However, it really winds me up when my dad comes out with the old chestnut about his generation being a model of health. Sure, there was less childhood obesity than there is today, but who is it thats draining the NHS with all their obesity, drinking and smoking related illnesses now? Healthier generation my foot!

xine267 as somebody who might be close to your dad's age I have to agree with him to some extent, as Joolska said if you look at school photos from the 50s and 60s there are hardly any overweight kids let alone obese.  I was with one of my daughters at the weekend and we looked at a photo I have of the lower half of the school I attended, it's in 1966, one of those long panoramic ones.  She was fascinated by the look of everybody.  But it was a different world and you can't turn clocks back short of a nuclear war!  

I agree with you about the many older people now who are the big users of the NHS and in terms of smoking I guess they are paying for lack of the same knowledge people have today, drinking that they probably now have some spare money and obesity shows how quickly you can change you body shape, upwards.

It does fill you with fear though that it has taken them 60+ years to get there, today's generations are likely to get there a lot quicker.

Joolska wrote (see)

Something has changed within the last 25/30 years in terms of childhood obesity, though.  When I was in primary school (late 80s) there was 1 fat kid in my class of 30.  Now it's close to 10 times that, by the sounds of things. 

yes, at least back in the 70s there was pretty much 1 per class who'd be known forever as "fatty". and they probably wouldn't have stood out in the classes of today.

and one with glasses who'd be known as "speccy".

sometimes, unfortunately for the child, they might both be the same person.

But where are these fat kids.......

i have been into a couple of local schools recently going around all the classes...............i could only see a very few in the junior schools who I would consider obese let alone morbidly obese.........

in both my sons comps I also only see a handful of kids who i would call obese...........

and we live in a deprived are where the highest proportions of obese people are...

so either I have a really weird idea of obese or these measurements aren't accurate.

kids are a lot taller these days with bigger feet and bones because they are being fed well as babies...........

what measurements are they using to get the statistics.........

I have a friend I went to uni with, she did PE also, shit hot swimmer and built like a swimmer. She married another guy from uni, they have lived all over the world since, mainly Africa but now latvia I think. Anyway she calls her family 'family fat', she is very big now and her husband is too.

They have 3 kids, the interesting thing is that one at age 11/12 is very overweight and the other 2 aren't.

I still come back to really thinking that genetics have such a big part to play in size and shape and metabolism.

Seren - that is a good point. Just recently it was revealed that the weight charts being used to measure babies' progress were completely skewed and inaccurate because they didn't take into account the natural differences in weight gain between breastfed and bottlefed babies (- NOT an argument I want to get into today!) Those charts were making so many mothers feel inadequate and panicky if their baby was slow to chub up, when in actual fact their baby was perfectly fine.

So, are these charts being used to measure our children based on measurements from 1950s children too?

Now that you mention it, only one or two children in my kids' entire school could be considered obese, the rest are all varying shades of healthy.

I've never really understood the need to *chub* up a baby!

KK and Springle genetically we haven't changed in 60 years.  I think a similar thread discussed this a few weeks ago. We eat different meals and bigger meals compared to the last however many 1000s of years

I agree wholeheartedly wth Joolska re the way things have changed.

As a child (in the 70s) we were all stick thin - ribs sticking out in photos, out on bike all day long - never ate (from what I remember) as the options were not too tasty (mince and tatties kind of foods) and when I went to high school  I walked over a mile to and from school every day come rain, shine or snow drifts (thanks mum!)

My sister is 12 year younger than me.  She got a lift to and from school and her food choices had widened dramatically to include more 'ready' made stuff.  She was pretty damn plump till she grew about a foot at 16.

Her running about outside was curtailed because of the growing fear of predators and my mothers vulnerability at the time.  No riding her  grifter bike to the middle of god knows where like my brother and I did.  

Now adays - parent paranoia is even higher - and kids (round here anyway) expect to be ferried to and from everything because that's what always happened when they were little and more vulnerable. I am fighting a running battle with my 13 year old who demands to be picked up closer and closer to his school (2 miles from our house).  

I do agree with the rest of you - where are all these apparently fat kids -  you could prob count on one hand the number of obviously fat kids at the local primary school.  Young women though - man oh man - round here they are all huge - massive bellies.  And, finding a grown woman of a healthy weight is pretty difficult and as a sturdy woman myself - but still (just) a healthy weight - I seem positivley waif like compared to my work colleagues.  

and ditto to the dog question.... I mean.... there is NO excuse for an obese dog.  My bitch is a little bit lardy (apparently normal in a spayed bitch) so we keep her on lighter food - it is measured out for both our cockers and we ensure many miles of running every day.  Like people I think the idea of what is a healthy weight for a dog has become distorted. Especially for labs - greedy buggers will eat EVERYTHING.

I don't see children that are obese in my kids school, but I see ones that will be!

GymAddict wrote (see)

and ditto to the dog question.... I mean.... there is NO excuse for an obese dog.  My bitch is a little bit lardy (apparently normal in a spayed bitch) so we keep her on lighter food - it is measured out for both our cockers and we ensure many miles of running every day.  Like people I think the idea of what is a healthy weight for a dog has become distorted. Especially for labs - greedy buggers will eat EVERYTHING.

I saw a really fat family a while ago, fat adults, kids and a beautiful brown lab who was such a barrel that his tummy almost brushed the floor and he was waddling and out of breath. He wasn't an old dog either

I think lazy parents contribute to making Fat kids, when parents can't be bothered to entertain and play with kids they do as they want.