Child obesity - Your thoughts

Admiral Huddy

Admiral Huddy

Admiral Huddy

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I was in a high street coffee bar Sunday morning when a rather large family of four came in. When I say large, I actually mean over weight an obese. Not only were the parents of a notable size but the children were so overweight their features on their faces were distorted.

When they arrived at the table I noticed the father had three chocolate twists, the mother had two slices of chocolate fudge and each child had a slice of cake each plus a chocolate bourbon biscuit and there were crisp on the table two. I would say both of the kids were under 11 and the oldest being at least 80+kg. I shouldn’t have been shocked but I truly was amazed by the ignorance and selfishness of these people.

Do people not listen and understand what they read or see on the TV regarding the warning of over eating and the problems that come with obesity? Particularly that of an early age. Its one thing inflicting this on yourself but it’s another thing all together when you inflict this on others, particularly your own children, is nothing more than selfish.

Interestingly and coincidently, this was posted on the BBC website today.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19661085

Obesity experts say parents are struggling with a multitude of problems when it comes to their child's weight. They range from a lack of education about food, limited cooking skills and limited money to buy healthier food to longer working hours and marketing campaigns for junk food aimed at kids.
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I’m sorry but the problem does come down to the parents and only them. They have the powers to be more proactive towards their children lifestyle. Their ignorance is nothing more than arrogance.

Parents can control ( to an extent) what their children eat by monitoring what they eat, how often and how much but this is too much effort for some obviously. You can’t control what they eat away from home or the table, but you can give them they encourage and influence at an early age.. Being more active by not allowing the TV to take over for example.

Our kids have always had set times for TV and none of them had their on TV until they were 11. It’s too east for parents to plonk kids down in front of the TV for an easier quieter life.. but it comes at a cost.

I’m sure I’ve seen this discussed before, but it would be interesting to see you own opinions regarding the matter, who you feel is to blame and what you think should be done about it.
 
It's abuse.

It's like letting your child out to play on the motorway with knives, clearly bad for their health and a sign of complete incompetence as a parent.

At least your child would have the choice to use their common sense and not go out and play on the motorway with knives, whereas with food they kind of have to eat what you give them. I find people who have fat children absolutely disgusting.

:Edit: People as a whole understand very, very little about their bodies - both with regards to nutrition and exercise. Just look how many people say "Oh it's low fat, YAYYYYYY". There are so many myths around and huge misunderstandings - look at the whole horde of women that think "toning" is a real thing. They are going to bring children in to the world and that ignorance will be passed on. There needs to be real education about it, and not just weird "EAT YOUR FIVE A DAY AND STAY AWAY FROM FAT, BECAUSE IT MAKES YOU FAT!!!" stuff. People don't need to be spoon fed (haha!) regimes and nutritional advice, they need to actually understand why their bodies react to certain things in certain ways and what nutrition really means.

Or just leave it alone and we can all turn into Jabbas.
 
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I have a bit of sympathy with the parents to be honest, TV has a lot to answer for but I agree that ultimately it is bad parenting.

Losing weight is relatively easy so there's not really much excuse.
 
It's like the people (parents) just don't seem to care, or they just ignore the fact for the fast food or sugar hit or whatever. The kids are brought up with it and it ends up engrained into them.

Similar to when you see parents smoking near kids/when pregnant they either don't understand or simply don't care, which is very sad.
 
Bad parenting in my eyes.

I think a lot of it comes through lack of money, healthy food tends to be more expensive but if these people are eating cake in one of the chain coffee shops then I doubt they are short of money!

It's not all the parents fault, the children should be aware of the dangers of eating rubbish and should try and eat healthily as well.
 
Admiral Huddy said:
I’m sorry but the problem does come down to the parents and only them. They have the powers to be more proactive towards their children lifestyle. Their ignorance is nothing more than arrogance.
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This. Trouble is being a parent that takes responsibility is hard work. These lazy, ****less parents won't do that and will look to blame others (Government, schools and the like)

Erm: The word f e c k less is not a swear word.

Zefan said:
It's abuse.
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Correct. No excuses.
 
Should be a fit and proper test for parenting (and some sort of castration for those who fail) can't have people being brought into this world if they are going to be abused by parents who just don't have a clue or cannot be bothered to teach their kids how to become health adults...
 
Its just bad parenting. Unless your child has a mental disability I don't see any excuses.

Healthy food isn't that much more expensive if done right, you just need to know how to cook.
 
I spent a lot of money getting my lad to eat good food. He sees kiwi or mango as a treat and therefore behaves to get good food. Then he went to school and I stupidly thought it would be a great idea for him to have a hot meal for lunch. Except he doesn't eat them because they offer them chips, sausages, turkey bites, chocolate cake with custard etc every day and he doesn't like stuff like that. So now he has to take lunch so I can be certain he actually gets something nutritious to eat. So they tell you feed your kids healthy food then when they get to school they serve them up utter ****.
 
pingwing said:
Should be a fit and proper test for parenting (and some sort of castration for those who fail) can't have people being brought into this world if they are going to be abused by parents who just don't have a clue or cannot be bothered to teach their kids how to become health adults...
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It's a bit strange that when adopting there are many checks, even when adopting a dog or cat, yet people are free to knock out as many kids as they like and leave them feral :p
 
Lots of information on packets are miss leading, I have a ongoing thread with my wife re Coco Pops, my 4 yr old daughter wants them every week, the packaging is colourful and always stocked at kid level.

The front of the packet says things like high in fibre / grain / lots of green labels yet you need to look at the back to get the %age of sugar which is about 36% the front tells you it's 12% of an adults GDA, it's confusing and you do need to actively look for the right information.

It's not an excuse or the reason but it's a thought
 
I think its down to parenting, I was kept under control by lock on the choc etc. It is abuse though as there too young to understand there stuck with that for life :/
 
Its bad parenting, children are like dogs if you mind the analogy. they will eat what ever you put in front of them however much you put in front of them because they simply don't know any better and as parents as with being a pet owner, its the adult's responsibility to show restraint in place of the one in there care.

Worrying thing is the parents who ar not fit to raise children are not even fit to care for a dog either. the only way we solve child obesity is to solve obesity in adults because a parent is never going to cook his son/daughter a healthy meal while he is stuffing all sorts of crap into his mouth, i swear some kids live on kebabs these days!
 
Lack of cooking skills plays a big part I think. If you can't cook anything that tastes good or you don't know how to cook, you'll buy pre-made food instead. Most of that is full of rubbish, or if not is too expensive for a lot of people. Cooking healthy food is cheap compared to buying ready meals and other crap. I think some people just never learned to cook so they're daunted by the prospect of it, or when they do cook what they can, it doesn't taste great.

I'm going to teach my kids how to cook so they don't fall into that routine. Scrambled eggs with chilli flakes and spring onions on thick crispy toasted brown bread beats a McMuffin any day, only takes a few minutes and costs nothing
 
For me it's Child Abuse & I really feel sorry for the kids whose parents are big fat ***** who over feed them. It's like giving your kid a handicap & sending them to school on there own to deal with it.
Wrong in every single way.
 
Judgeneo said:
Its just bad parenting. Unless your child has a mental disability I don't see any excuses.

Healthy food isn't that much more expensive if done right, you just need to know how to cook.
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+1

my wife cooks every night (bloody good too!) and my 1 year old eats what he is given. he eats more veg than i do!

when out we take special kiddy healthy snacks with us. they do these carrot stick things that look like crisps but arent fried and have no dodgy ingredients. just a corn snack with carrot on. he loves them. to me they taste bland as hell :p

i do let him have a tiny taste of chocolate every now and again, but he is so active im not too worried as he burns everything off.

i see child obesity as child neglect to be honest. if when he gets older he starts getting fat i will stop him having anything unhealthy. its not just about being teased its about future health. soon we are going to have fatties get penalised like smokers and rightly so. they costs us a lot more than smokers.

we went out for a meal the other week. saw some couple feeding their baby (blatantly not even a year old) fried chips... how healthy!

some poor kids dont have a great chance in life with parents like this.
 
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