Child Obesity - Should Parents Be Blamed?

actually id be inclined to think adults are better at portion control than kids. if a child knows when they are full and is going to stop eating you dont get 300 pound 8 year olds. but like i said, it all goes back to the history of our species. we will eat as much as we have access to because thousands of years ago that might have been all you got for a while.
and thats a problem with restaurants these days. the portions are massive but we eat it all, even though its too much food. especially 'all you can eat' or buffet style places. you always come out thinking 'i ate too much'.
basically, there are a lot of things that need fixing if we are going to get rid of this problem.
 
if a kid is at 300lbs at age 8 there is a huge problem. Yes we know what we like to eat and so do kids. They have the instinct to turn it off, we adults push food on them to make our selves feel better (again just one of my thoughts) for example: Clean your plate how many times have you heard that growing up? And not only do you clean your plate, you get dessert. Again how many times did you hear THAT growing up?

That part is on the parents controlling what the kids eat by bribing or promsing something they know kids will eat versus letting the kids decide how much they want to eat

does that make sense?
 
It makes absolute sense, hhunter.

I know, I came from a "clean your plate" upbringing (very pervasive in the 50's/60's). I eventually got to a point with my own son where my attitude was "eat what you can...but no 'goodies' unless you finish the healthy stuff." My son has the large build prevalent in our family, but is not obese by any stretch. For that matter, other than a very slight "tummy", he's not even overweight.

The lesson I learned all too recently was that if you eat right, if your body gets enough nutrients, you won't crave junk food. With a healthy enough diet, a little sweet goodie here and there won't throw your weight into a tizzy. The problem with our diet is that it tends not just to be high in calories, but low in nutrition. And lifestyle is a major consideration. My grandmother's delicious cooking was great nutrition for busy, hard-working farmers in western Asia...but translate that same diet to a more sedentary, office-centric major city American lifestyle, and you can see where our "secretary's spread" comes from.

We need to stop thinking about "diets" and more about lifestyle. You've probably heard it all...whole grains over refined...seasonal, local and preferably organic...good fats/carbs vs bad fats/carbs...but you know what? When your body gets the nutrients it needs, you crave less other stuff, you have more energy and hence become more physically active, your mood improves...in other words, it works.

And just a tidbit of advice for the day - read those labels on packaged foods! You'd be appalled at how much sodium (let alone sugars and "bad fats") are hidden in some of them.

Kids are only as responsible as their ability to pay for or otherwise obtain food outside of their meal portions. Educating them to begin with is all-important. And providing "goodies" that are high in nutritients rather than empty calories is also a good step.

Last resort? If a child, given parents who provide sensible food and education, still chronically overeats, it could be a chemical or other imbalance in the brain. There is a center of the brain that controls satiety, and if it is somehow damaged, the person simply does not know that they are full, and they continue to eat. Again, rare...but in the event of morbidly obese pre-teenagers, it has to be looked at among the possibilities.
 
I think we are all getting to one conclusion and we are all agreeing on who to blame the MOST and who not to blame a whole lot on. These kids need to lose something, their weight. I don't care how, unless its anorexia or belimia, then thats wrong. Anyother way is fine. We need to motivate them some how.
 
My biggest nightmare as of writing this review is the prospect of having a job that involves sitting down for hours and not being able to be physically active. That's why I take basketball at the YMCA during winter so I don't get lazy when it's cold. Often, I find it hard to sit still because I get hyper very easily and for all it's faults, I like it because it gives me some exercise in ways I wouldn't even realize.

I'm really troubled at the prospect of sports programs being cut from our schools. I mean, kids are forced to sit down almost all day in class, not play any sports and it's really bothering me. I've had a wonderful school life where classes were fun, and we had the right balance of field trips, sports, play time, as well as classes. I happened to go to a private school so my school life was fundamentally different from most of my peers but it's saddening how few actually have had the great school life I did. :(
 
1) i think parents are part of the contributing factors, among with other things...there are parents who let their kids eat all the unhealthy things that they want

2) budget cut in school and law suits...in my 11 year old nephew's school, they cancelled gym classes because they were citing "potential law suit" if the kid get hurt while participating in sport!

3) tivo (it's like a digital vcr that can tape 2 tv programs at the same time ...with tivo, you can spend hours on the couch watching tv

4) computer and video games...not only making kids being nonactive, it's putting them in social isolation
 
WHAT?! I don't mean to go off but lawsuits because of kids getting hurt in sports???!!!!!! WTF?! I've been hurt plenty of times in sports throughout my life but did that stop me from playing them? NO!

I always am aware of possibly getting badly injured when playing basketball, baseball, volleyball, and track and field.

When playing basketball, I have taken a direct hit to my extend thumb by a flying basketball more than once and it hurt like hell. I've also gotten a fat lip and bloody nose from accidentally getting elboed by teammate and opponent players. I also twisted my ankle during a game that prevented me from playing for the rest of the week. Did that stop me from playing b-ball? NO! I just got back up and played on.

In baseball, I've gotten nasty scrapes on my knees and hands when I tripped when running to bases and actually getting out. Did that stop me from playing baseball? NO!

I don't recall getting seriously hurt in track and field or volleyball but the possibility of being hurt doesn't stop me from playing.

I say, play on but always be careful and not get hurt. I mean, sports always comes with the possibility of getting hurt but for me, I'd rather take a bloody nose from a basketball to the face than sitting on the couch all day for years on end.
 
I think "clean your plate" is more teaching kids to eat different kind of foods or at least taste everything and not just pick the stuff he/she likes. It's a way to get kid to eat vegetables etc. that they do not like.

Otherwise they'll just eat, for example, potatoes and meat and don't even touch the green stuff because it's "icky"
 
On the question in the thread title. My simple aswer is yes. Kids don;t understand the meaning of fat. Just that it tastes good not that is unhealthy. And ofcourse. To have an ice cream or some fries every know and than is not bad. just not to much overall! simple as that. Perants can control that in a healthy consesnious way. And I am not thin and people don't call me that fat. but I wish my mum told me that eathing to much of the unhealthy stuff would be that hrd to get off again. And for that matter makes it a whole lot harder to get back into shape... And I could eat all I want because I was training 7 days a week for my sport and I would exercise it off again when practesing... But when I quit my sport I had the transfer from 7 days to 0 days of exercise and that bad eating... Now I have picked up another sport and it is pretty bad getting in a real good shape again!

I think when a person is taught to eat "healthy/normal" they don;t have to unlearn bad eating habbits later on if they choose it for themself because of medical reason or getting back in shape kinda reason.
 
suing over gym class? :rolleyes: some people will sue over anything. my friend broke her arm in gym class, and half our girls rugby team broke or sprained something throughout the season. it just happens. unfortunately for me, i could not take a gym class past grade 9. i had no room, i had to take 3 sciences and 2 maths every year and my elevtive got taken up by music.

as for 'clean your plate' i never got that as a child. the amount of food i was given was appropriate for how big i was at the time. and like Ducky said, when i babysit kids if they dont want to eat it all ive made sure theyve had some of everything (mostly just forcing them to have a bite of vegetable) before they can leave the table.
 
I have never heard of a law suite over an injury in gym class, or any sport no rather. I think the Parents of that child only needed money. The only way to prevent your child from injury in a sport is to have him/her exercise regurally, eat healthy, and stretch before any event. No matter how you put it, kids need exercise to do every day things. If he/she is over weight, they probbly have a hard time walking up and down stairs at school or home. They probbly are left out of games and funa t school. If they want to become active in games, sports, activities, have them eat something healthy for a change. This is only my opinion.
 
With the food on the plate, adults shouldn't fill the whole dang plate :rolleyes:

As for lawsuit.. oh come on. I'm sorry but again one of the good examples why rest of the world laughs at US. It's so stupid!

If a kid breaks a rib when they sneeze, who do they sue then?

Here they've cut PE classes but still has some. Of course I've been sporty whole my life but I'm one of the last ones who were tortured by traditional gymnastics.

it was hell and teacher was never happy. It was like some flashback from 70s. We were the only school probably in whole province who had that!
 
In terms of PE, it has always been my favorite part of school apart from art classes. In fact, it's the combination of P.E., arts and classes that reenforce each other's positive aspects rather than just one or the other that made school life great for me. It's absolutely sad that P.E. classes are being cut just as junk foods are becoming the norm.

I'll admit, I do sometimes eat tons of potatoe chips at times but that's offset by a generally superactive lifestyle. I remember eating two bags of potatoe chips as well as fried chicken one morning and then going for a 10+ mile walk around Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin and felt hungry anyway when I got home.

There has been moer than one occassion where I've eaten lots of junk and fast food only to follow that with long walks or extended basketball games so I've offset potential junk food diet. That doesn't mean I eat junk food all the time by any means. There will come times where I don't even eat any chips nor fast food for a month or more.
 
Obese boy taken from grandparents.
March 30, 2007.

A 10-YEAR-OLD Spanish boy weighing 100 kg (220 lb) was taken away from his grandparents and put in state care because they would not stop overfeeding him.
In a case recalling the debate over whether an overweight British boy should be removed from his mother's care, social services in the northern Spanish region of Asturias took the unnamed Spanish boy into care 10 months ago, according to La Nueva España.
Since then he has slimmed down 20 kg (44 lb). His grandparents, who had been warned that the way they were feeding him was causing serious health problems, are allowed to visit him.
“You can't trivialise this and say the boy was taken away because he was fat. This is a health issue,” the paper quoted a regional government official as saying.
The boy's school alerted authorities about his obesity, which is a product of over-eating and not any underlying health problem.
Earlier this year, British social services decided to allow an eight-year-old boy to stay with his mother, even though she refused to stop feeding him junk food which had taken his weight near 90kg (200 lb).
As in Britain, obesity is an increasing problem in Spain. One in three Spanish children is overweight, a recent study showed.
 
I found this information
it's from The American Academy of Pediatrics
from their brochure about common eating situations

feeding challange
Food Strikes: Refuses to eat what is served, which can lead to "short-order cook syndrome"

Feeding solution
Don't be afraid to let the child go hungry
if he or she won't eat what is served. Which is worse, an occasional missed meal or a parent who is a perpetual short-order cook?

These are ideas to help children eat what is served instead what they want to eat
 
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