"Why do parents let their kids get fat?"

EKGO wrote (see)

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.

that's a new concept as well.

it used to be that children played with other children.

now due to restricted access to other children and insistence on 24 hour supervision parents have to entertain their kids or physically take them out to parks or wherever if they are going to play anywhere.

we now feed babies on demand.my eldest feed almost constantly and was a very heavy baby..........never fat but from birth he was always on the 90th centile or above for weight  and head circumference......

now if as babies they are fed on demand,.then as toddlers they are used to it.where do we break the circle......................

and I think people are looking back with rose tuinted spectacles again.look at your old school photos.mine look the same as my sons......the majority normal.the few chunky kids and a few super skinny kids........

I think it's ok to feed babies on demand if you breast feed; not so if it's formula.

I breast fed both of mine because they liked it and why the hell wouldn't you? It's free and on tap. But I can understand how very young mothers wouldn't have the social confidence to do that in public.

Sadly

not sure why its different for the two...........I think the theory was the same for both

I think feeding on demand is not really explained well to new mums.  My sis wasn't explained it at all - so it was me and my mum who told her what to do.... i.e.  bugger the 'on demand' part and stick to 3-4 hourly feeds but at the same time be a little bit flexible when the baby needs you to  be. 

Obviously I am not up on the 'current' recommendations but I don't think feeding on demand necessarily means sticking food in their mouths every time they bleat. And if it does - then I disagree with it.

It's different for breast because the fore milk is watery and just acts as a drink not a feed - whereas with a bottle it's all thick and calorie dense.

but that isn't feeding on demand .thats the old fashioned way that treats all babies as having the same needs and appetities at the same periods of growth......

which is fine if that is what you want.........but isn't quite the same as feeding on demand

my eldest wanted feeding and nothing would shut him up apart from food.................my middle son would wake up to eat and then forget about it and go back to sleep without eating............the4y are so all very different which is why all the books are crap

Yes the books are def all crap - I read that Gina Ford one when I had my youngest in the middle of a bout of post natal depression - it almost put me over the edge.

With regards to feeding on demand - obviously through growth spurts you feed more often ..... It's just that there is nothing wrong with some level of routine - I was given an excellent book on breast feeding which explained that to have a good milk supply you need to regulate how you feed your baby in the first few weeks. i.e. if you just feed them every time they open their mouths - you give them a trickle of milk each time.  Your body isn't stimulated properly to make a right good amount of milk and your baby doesn't get a right good feed. Result is that you feed little and often, your boobs make milk to conform to this pattern, your baby learns to feed every 2 mins and then you finally collapse in exhaustion and go buy a bottle.

Bringing in some level of routine, i.e making sure you go at least 2 hours between feeds but not more than 6 can help to ensure   a better milk supply and a more 'fed' baby.

Ah. boobs and feed. The problem being that boobs respond to increased demand with an increased supply. Unfortunately it's usually  a couple of days later than the demand. Or so we discovered with the boobs we had available.

Why don't babies read the instruction manuals?

Hasn't Game or Gamestation gone bust now? 

seren nos wrote (see)

and I think people are looking back with rose tuinted spectacles again.look at your old school photos.mine look the same as my sons......the majority normal.the few chunky kids and a few super skinny kids........

 

 

Seren I'm not sure if you're saying things haven't changed, they most definitely have, kids are not only heavier but they are all taller as well nowadays.  I can remember going to the USA for the first time in about 1985 and we were all amazed how many fat and obese people there were and couldn't believe it would be replicated in the UK.  Well it might have taken 20 years to catch up but it has, though the USA has probably maintained it's lead.  Again we're catching up

Children's clothes sizes are definitely bigger and we now have plus size ranges for kids.

in the poast the bigger kids woyld just have to buy adult clothes or older clothes instead of plus size.....

JF50.I agree kids are getting taller woth bigger bones/ feet...............but my arguement is that in the groups of kids i see there are only a few obese.the same as when i was in school...................

i am suprised when people say when I was young al the kids were skinny...............I can only remmeber a few skinny kids.the majority normal randge and a few chunkuy kids............which is what i see now...

I think our parents' generation had a whole other set of problems to deal with.

There were children with rickets, children who smoked from the age of 8 or 9, children with no shoes or one shared coat, living ten in a bed and catching all kinds of diseases that hardly exist now.

Nowadays there is obesity and tooth decay - I was horrified by a program recently that showed hundreds of children having to have their milk teeth removed because of hidden sugars in products such as tins of beans.

The similarity is that both problems were caused by poverty - our parents and grandparents couldn't afford good food, and people now are being conned into buying the cheapest, almost toxic "food" by the big food companies. We really haven't come very far in the last 50 or 60 years.

More regulation of food companies by the government might help.

Seren I guess I go back a bit further than you when I think of school age, there were no obese children then in the UK

I've checked my primary school photo and I promise you, 1 fat kid out of 30.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying most of the kids I see out and about these days are enormous, but they're carrying a great deal more puppy fat than we ever did.