32% of 7 years olds are overweight

CrazyRabbit

How can parents do this to their child? Not feeding them healthy food and not ensuring some exercise is going to shorten the life of their child, and reduce the quality of life as well.

Another few years of this trend and we'll be like America.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0613/456404-committee-health/

Almost 32% of seven-year-olds in Ireland are overweight or obese, an Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children has heard.
Ireland now ranks fifth in the European Union when it comes to childhood obesity.
Consultant Paediatrician Dr Sinead Murphy told the committee that the situation is failing to stabilise and is getting worse.
She said if the problem is not tackled, 47% of adults in Ireland will be obese by 2030.
Dr Murphy told the committee that the cost of adult obesity, which is currently €1 billion a year, will rise unless the issue of obesity in children is addressed.
President of the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute Richelle Flanagan said that the State was not meeting its duty of care to its children.
Ms Flanagan requested that the Department of Health consider the childhood obesity programme in October's budget, as current funding provided by Temple Street Children's Hospital will cease at the end of the year.

bbam

Many parents let it happen as they themselves are overweight. I don't have time now but there is a similar report showing that children of overweight parents are more likely to be overweight.
And contrary to how people often pacify themselves it's nearly never through genetics, hormones nor glands. It's through bad diet and lack of exercise and a generally sedintary lifestyle.

It's bordering on child abuse in some cases !!

pwurple

Don't start me.

Starting point is possibly people wanting the baby to finish a full bottle of formula. I had to pack in the breastfeeding earlier than I wanted, but I never bothered making her finish a bottle of formula after that. When she spat it out, she was done and I chucked the rest away.

Not that breastfeeding prevents it totally either. My niece is an obese 6 year old who was breastfed exclusively as a baby, and on demand later until she was nearly 3. Everytime the child made a squeak she was fed. Food is the fix for everything in her tiny life still. She has a meltdown if we take her somewhere and there isn't a snack on hand.

Next stage is the PHNs and the weight charts. My daughter has always been around the 30th percentile of weight. The public health nurse insisted on telling me she was 'underweight' and telling me to make sure she ate more by offering her more food that she liked, and feed her more often. Gave me 'target' weights to achieve. I promptly ignored her. Seemed like OTT advice for pretty close to average weight.

'Children's cereals' are fairly sugar laden.
Fruit and smoothies. I know fruit is good for you, but they really are natures sweets. Some kids drink no water and have these smoothies or bananas and raisins in their hands constantly. So.. much.. sugar...
Crisps, popcorn, fish fingers, battered chicken or nuggets.

Ingrained fear of going outside. Let's face it, we live in a wet country. If we all stay inside when the skies aren't blue, we will get sod all exercise. Why is everyone so terrified of going outside in the rain? There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear. You can play outside in all weathers. Puddles are the best fun ever!

bbam

My OH had a young teenage mother in at a clinic.. baby was only a few months old.. the mother commented about how the baby loved skips!

Feckin skips !!


There's another obese child in the making already !

movingsucks

Exercise is the main thing.
Too many DSs and Xboxs.
Fear of the outside as Pwurple put it.
It rains, increased traffic, stranger danger.
Plus not to mention this whole attitude of any child outside without a parent standing next to them is a "brat running around".

Food is a factor but I'm from the 80s and had sugar on my Frosties and E numbers in my Smarties.
And crisps were cheaper and there was more in the packet.
I mean its a feckin recession or depression and I still see young lads watlzin down the town eating huge rolls, with 500 mil bottles of coke and flinging potato wedges and chicken wings at each other - whats that about?
Stimulation and Exercise they are the main things I think

turbot

It's very simple, actually.

1) We live in a society where most companies goals are to profit as much as possible, according to what they can get away with.
2) It's more profitable to sell "pseudo-food" manufactured from ultra-low cost unhealthy ingredients, than to sell high quality natural fresh and ideally organic food.
3) Most pseudo-food is "taste designed" to trick our brains into focusing on the taste, not the effect on our health.
4) Most pseudo-food is marketed in very misleading ways that trick our brains and packaged and labelled in ways to promote maximum sales.
5) Because pseudo-food is highly profitable, most companies in society (manufacturers, distributors, retailers, media outlets) are incentivised to profit from it's sale or associated marketing.
6) Most consumers have no idea about nutrition and are easy prey for the marketers who sell to them.
7) Most consumers have very little self control and don't know how to change their behaviour. They just ADHERE to the conditions society has set up for them - i.e. ubiquitous availability and promotion of unhealthy food - that marketing and packaging keeps suggesting is ok.

Of all the classes of people most vulnerable to the above, it's children and often their overworked parents.

Sadly, "Happy Meals" are not really happy at all. Sadly, Coke has little to do with happiness, but a lot to do with imbalanced blood sugar that will lead to heaviness. Sadly, too many comfort foods can lead to a body that is always uncomfortable. A Mars a Day won't help you work rest and play, but if you eat one with this expectation for a decade, instead you might just end up with man-boobs.

And sadly, the FMCG industries are highly funded enough to very effectively outgun the policy makers, who should really tax like crazy all the pseudo foods until organic cucumbers become a rational choice.

What should we do about this:
- Personally, we should each study nutrition so we can make informed choices, and then figure out how to steer our own behaviour so that we stick to healthy eating and living.
- Societically, unhealthy food should be treated like cigarettes, and marketing and packaging should be regulated so that peoples brains aren't confused - i.e. coke ads should only be allowed to feature really obese actors and the only people working in the department of health and other ministries that influence the food supply should look more radiant than the healthiest people in a gym or health food shop.

nikpmup

bbam wrote: »

My OH had a young teenage mother in at a clinic.. baby was only a few months old.. the mother commented about how the baby loved skips!

Feckin skips !!


There's another obese child in the making already !

The amount of times I see stuff like this happening.... I remember sitting in a restaurant, where there was a particularly loud baby screeching.... I glanced over, in time to witness the (I presume) mother tipping the few drops of milk out of the baby's bottle, and filling it with coke, before giving it to the baby. The baby was no more than 9 months old. The coke had been bought for the baby's three or four year old sibling. Sheesh.

Now, I'm no stranger to ice cream or chocolate, but in moderation, and I certainly wouldn't dream of giving any child fizzy stuff (never drink it myself) I detest mc Donald's, Burger King etc and I'm not a fan of Chinese or chipper, so I'm hoping my child won't grow up thinking maccy d's is part of a normal weekday. I'm looking at schools atm, and walking - not driving - distance is one of my deciding factors. I had weight problems for years, now under control, and I will make damn sure my child grows up active... By leading by example.

Jessica-Rabbit

it is totally the parents who are at fault for this, children are driven everywhere instead of walking, at home there is the tv, the wii, the xbox ect, children aren't getting enough outdoor or indoor activities, I have seen on countless occasions children as old a five being pushed around in buggies , its an absolute disgrace and the excuse is " Oh its too far to walk or oh they wont walk" total bull !!! the parents are too lazy to walk anywhere and the children naturally follow suit, fast food and crisps and chocolate are being give to children instead of homemade meals and fruit and veg,. My daughter is only 15 moths and she loves walking she walks everywhere because I love to walk and try to avoid the car wherever possible even when its raining thats what raincoats and umbrellas are for, and if im out for a long walk with my daughter I bring the buggy but stop at a park or somewhere where she can get out a run around for a bit, all her meals a homemade and freshly cooked, lots of fresh fruit and veg, no crisps or chocolate and she is the healthiest happiest little princess as a result, parents need to change their own lifestyle habits before they can change their children's habits

lazygal

I think it starts during pregnancy. Loads of women take the 'eating for two' message way too literally. I did during my first pregnancy, and this time round I'm approaching food and exercise very differently.

I'm also continually baffled by weaning very young babies (four months or even younger) onto rubbish like processed baby rice and ready meals. Adults aren't advised to live on ready meals, so why give them too a baby? Far too many parents think they can't feed a baby, they need Heinz or Ella's pouches to feed their children. My PHN suggested baby rice, when I told her we don't eat white processed rice so what was the alternative, she couldn't answer. The only advice I got was to buy a box of rice, no mention of baby led weaning or making my own purees, buy ready made was the advice.

When I taught I was amazed at some of the rubbish children were given for lunch, processed ham, plastic cheese, white bread - loads of 'he'll only eat this/she won't eat that'. Parents really do fall for the 'health claims' of food companies, even so-called 'educated' ones. We really need to take a lot more responsibility for what our children eat.

movingsucks

When I was a child my lunch in school was a white bread sandwich with some deli (processed) ham or turkey, some Calvita cheese or Easy singles (does that count as plastic?) a Ribena carton or capri sun (sugar sugar sugar!), sometimes a mandarin orange/apple and a fun size chocolate bar.
Most people in my class had similar.
I'm not saying it was the healthiest lunch ever but we weren't obese or even over weight.
Why is that?

MiseryMary

No wonder sure I've seen people buying a trolley full of **** foods OMG!!! and its for a childrens party big fizzy bottles of Pepsi,half of dozen of jelly sweet packs , loads of cadburys bars ,cake ,Buns,Crisps and I even seen people buying Energy drinks for their kids ,people making excuses to get them , as for dinners its all about getting quick in the micro packs nothing made fresh ,proper for them and fast-foods takeaways. This all about getting it for the cheap not thinking about the healthy side .

movingsucks

Party stuff , is that new though?
What did you have at a party when you were a child?
Rice crispy buns, cake, crisps, coke/7up, jelly and ice cream?

Gambas

movingsucks wrote: »

Party stuff , is that new thing?
What did you have at a party when you were a child?
Rice crispy buns, cake, crisps, coke/7up, jelly and ice cream?

I think the volume is different. Sweets and snacks were not really available in mutli-packs (aside from club milks and penguins) - penny sweets being the ultimate extreme. So now instead of buying the minimum, people end up with an excess and that invariably ends up in some child's stomach.

But yeah, a lot of this 'when we were young' nonsense is, well..., nonsense.

Gambas

MiseryMary wrote: »

This all about getting it for the cheap not thinking about the healthy side .

Yes, people rightly consider that the 12 pack of crisps or the 3x2L of Coke is better value than buying single units, but we need to start thinking about how this is coupled with a greater health cost.

movingsucks

Gambas wrote: »

I think the volume is different. Sweets and snacks were not really available in mutli-packs (aside from club milks and penguins) - penny sweets being the ultimate extreme. So now instead of buying the minimum, people end up with an excess and that invariably ends up in some child's stomach.

But yeah, a lot of this 'when we were young' nonsense is, well..., nonsense.

How is what I'm saying nonsense? What did you eat at parties? Or for packed lunch?

I do think you are right with the quantity issue though.
But we definitely had multipacks of fun size milky bar/mars/ dairy milk 20years ago (fook im old) we jusy werent allowed have them whenever.

Gambas

movingsucks wrote: »

How is what I'm saying nonsense? What did you eat at parties? Or for packed lunch?

I do think you are right with the quantity issue though.
But we definitely had multipacks of fun size milky bar/mars/ dairy milk 20years ago (fook im old) we jusy werent allowed have them whenever.

I'm agreeing with you - people ate pretty unhealthily when I was growing up too. I didn't eat many sweets but I lived on white sliced pan.

movingsucks

Gambas wrote: »

I'm agreeing with you - people ate pretty unhealthily when I was growing up too. I didn't eat many sweets but I lived on white sliced pan.

Whoops sorry! I was dreadfully misunderstanding there

Davidth88

I think a lot of it is the culture of ' grazing ' that we now have.

When we were growing up , we got our three meals , and basically not a lot else.

I know of so many families that never sit down for a meal any more . Sitting down for a meal serves so many purposes including

a) Teaching how to have a conversation
b) Teaching table manners
c) Learning that if you don't eat at dinner/lunch/breakfast then you go hungry


and cut out those horrible horrible fizzy drinks , thank god my two hate them !!

CrazyRabbit

In the canteen in work today I confess that I ordered a less-than-healthy meal. It was some beef lasagne and chips. On Friday's I treat myself a little

Anyway...as I was standing at the till waiting to pay, I noticed just how much food was on the plate. It was far more than I would have cooked for myself had it been a home made meal. Usually, I would just eat until it was all gone, but today I ate until I no longer felt hungry. More than a quarter of the food was left.

What I'm getting at, is that the servings seem to be getting bigger in restaurants/fast food outlets which encourages us to eat more than we actually need. It's like in the U.S where everything is 'Super-sized'...often as standard.
So it's not just the unhealthy food, but the quantity we are 'tricked' into eating.

Jessica-Rabbit

movingsucks wrote: »

When I was a child my lunch in school was a white bread sandwich with some deli (processed) ham or turkey, some Calvita cheese or Easy singles (does that count as plastic?) a Ribena carton or capri sun (sugar sugar sugar!), sometimes a mandarin orange/apple and a fun size chocolate bar.
Most people in my class had similar.
I'm not saying it was the healthiest lunch ever but we weren't obese or even over weight.
Why is that?

More than likely because ye were walked instead of driven to and from school, played out doors instead of being stuck in front of the xbox wii or tv, exercise is key to prevention to obesity, im not saying in any means children spend hours on a treadmill but just running around outside with their friends, cycling and indoor activities all keep children fit and healthy.

username123

There is a family round the corner from me, there are 2 children, a girl around 9 and a boy around 7. The girl is so overweight that she has that generic look of a fat person - her features are just "fat". She is purple in the face constantly and bursting out of all her clothes. She actually looks ready to have a stroke. Everytime I see her out playing she is holding an ice cream, a bag of crisps, a fizzy drink, a lollipop or something. Her younger brother is in the same state.

Ive seen the parents. They are morbidly obese. The mother is packing at least 25 stone, the father maybe more.

What I do not understand is this - why, for these childrens entire childhoods so far, has no doctor, nurse, teacher or anyone else, stepped in? Why are these people not being reported to social services for child abuse? Why are these obese creatures allowed to stuff two children full of junk and have them, at 9 and 7, looking ready to collapse? I mean surely at some stage, a doctor or a nurse has seen these kids - how is it just allowed to go on?

skit490

Not suprised ny this survey. Nutrition is to blame. Even seen it in babies. This get them into baby rice crap astounds me. Some of the crap in baby food is terrible rusks have glucose fructose syrup which is puré poison diabetes ensuing crap. I have 8 Month old n people have tired to give her chocolate. N biscuits, like seriously why. Doing blw so baby has varied tastes but i get ah god wud u not just let her have some. In kids older firmly believe empty calories in fizzy drinks are to blame, I would love If they were banned in schools.

Missyelliot2

I work in a school that is in a disadvantaged area......also I am now teaching sons/daughters of people I taught in 5th/6th in the late 90s. Scary to see these kids....all grand, but by third class-lots of lard trying to move around the yard.
We tried a 'walk to school' day - the uptake was abysmal-hate to say, but lots of "he couldn't get out of bed/we didn't think of it" etc....sick to teeth of these parents who don't care less.

We've a Breakfast Club in our school to give these kids a breakfast twice a week......but seriously- it's probably their only guaranteed meal of the day.
Awful.........but what else can we do?
The children have a free lunch at 11 - roll, rice cake, yoghurt, fruit and a drink.

They go home to - their words - TV, PS3 or computer games.

I am not commenting on lifestyle choices - but, having worked in the old 'salt of the earth' schools - there is a noticible shift in attitude,b y the school trying to look out for these kids. It's a DEIS school. Lunches are provided/after school activities..........as a school we will be left to deal with the lardy kids who can't run the length of the playground. They can't! Their mother's can't either.
It's no wonder they are overweight. Some kids near me only walk around Wilton Shopping Centre -they are so overweight at 11, it's frightening
WTF is wrong with people who think it's ok if your child looks like Mr. Blobby?

nesf

Jessica-Rabbit wrote: »

More than likely because ye were walked instead of driven to and from school, played out doors instead of being stuck in front of the xbox wii or tv, exercise is key to prevention to obesity, im not saying in any means children spend hours on a treadmill but just running around outside with their friends, cycling and indoor activities all keep children fit and healthy.

I'm not sure to be honest. I didn't do much exercise when I was in primary school, asthma meant not much running and bad hayfever meant a lot of time indoors during the summer. I also much preferred reading and messing around with computers from a very young age. I was never remotely overweight though before I was 14 or so. Sweets and fast food were unusual for me growing up until I was a teen and then I started putting on some weight (though conversely my asthma got a lot better so I was able to do things like martial arts that helped keep the weight somewhat in check).

Honestly, just as with adults, if you diet is very poor you're going to have to do a hell of a lot of exercise to make up for it. If your diet is good on the other hand relatively little exercise is required to maintain a healthy weight. The biggest issue now compared to my early childhood in the 80s is the availability and cheapness of both processed and junk food that is both calorie heavy and not very nutritious. Living off processed meals and eating a lot of chocolate and sweets was really not financially possible in the 80s for most families. Now it is though.

Hannibal Smith

lazygal wrote: »

I think it starts during pregnancy. Loads of women take the 'eating for two' message way too literally. I did during my first pregnancy, and this time round I'm approaching food and exercise very differently.

I'm also continually baffled by weaning very young babies (four months or even younger) onto rubbish like processed baby rice and ready meals. Adults aren't advised to live on ready meals, so why give them too a baby? Far too many parents think they can't feed a baby, they need Heinz or Ella's pouches to feed their children. My PHN suggested baby rice, when I told her we don't eat white processed rice so what was the alternative, she couldn't answer. The only advice I got was to buy a box of rice, no mention of baby led weaning or making my own purees, buy ready made was the advice.

When I taught I was amazed at some of the rubbish children were given for lunch, processed ham, plastic cheese, white bread - loads of 'he'll only eat this/she won't eat that'. Parents really do fall for the 'health claims' of food companies, even so-called 'educated' ones. We really need to take a lot more responsibility for what our children eat.

Thats the first time ive heard that. Most phns recommend making your own food. Id have a word with them in the health center. As for the baby really rice...the only reason that's suggested is because itw the closest thing to milk to get them used to the spoon...there's no oaw saying you have to start with it.

I dont see anything wrong with ham and cheese for lunch. As movingsucks says...we had all that and we weren't overweight. But we never had a packet of crisps a day or chocolate bqr a day. Every dinner was freshly made....no jars of sauces. Convenience food comes at a price.

Ms2011

I think the key is balance. I make all my sons meals fresh from scratch, organic where possible. That said if he's been good & eaten his dinner or whatever I will treat him to a biscuit or some chocolate buttons.
I'm not going to be able to supervise his eating forever so the best I can do is teach him moderation. The last thing I want is for him to reach 16, 17, 18 years old & start binging on the junk food I had previously denied him.

skit490

Did anyone see jamie olivers school dinners programme, didnt some parents object to him taking chips off the menú or something. I def think junk food being given now too easy but also its bigger portions with higher sugar and fat content. Ive seen children's lunchboxes consisting of a penguin sbar. Kids pack of crisps (u know like meanies ) n sandwhich which was tiny. Child walked up to bin threw away sandwhich n noms rest of lunch. He was maybe 6 or so.

lazygal

Hannibal Smith wrote: »

Thats the first time ive heard that. Most phns recommend making your own food. Id have a word with them in the health center. As for the baby really rice...the only reason that's suggested is because itw the closest thing to milk to get them used to the spoon...there's no oaw saying you have to start with it.

Not any of the ones I or parents I know have spoken to. I got a HSE approved booklet on weaning, which made a one line reference to finger foods, but had no real advice or practical suggestions. I know several mums who attend our local PHN office and the 'box of baby rice' was suggested to all of us. Why not pureed potato or pureed cauliflower, which would be similar in texture to milk, if you're planning on weaning with purees? And getting a baby used to a spoon is also a bit of a red herring, what about other weaning methods, like baby led weaning? I had done my homework on it but got no advice from the PHN when I asked about her thoughts, other than "Yeah, a lot of people are asking about that now". Why don't they look into it if a lot of people are asking about it?

I also stand over what I said about prepared baby food. Its seen as the go-to option when you're weaning, especially if its your first child and you're not particularly confident. I've seen so many babies being spoon feed Ellas pouches, in particular, rather than home made food, and its because they are marketed as organic - its seen as a step up from Heinz jars. I wouldn't eat most of my meals from a foil pouch, so why would a baby?

movingsucks

If all the people you talked to went to the same PHN then surely it makes sense they all got the same advice? Or am I reading that right?

My PHN said start with a pureed apple.
She also mentioned "baby porrige".

At the last check she was concerned the baby doesnt eat enough but I said I wasn't gonna force her.( How would I anyway the child actually closes her mouth eyes and shakes her head while wringing her hands furiously!)
Then she weighed her and conceeded she was fine anyway!!

It is worrying how PHNs give out different info though.
My first one was in my house every other day for five weeks because the baby wasn't gaining enough wait until I gave up breastfeeding and switched to bottle.
When the new phn saw the notes/charts she said it was never that bad.
How are you meant to know whats right or wrong

meeeeh

Every so often I check baby foods in my home country and they are just as bad or even worse than here. Yet there are a lot less obese children. I mostly blame the eating habits in this country. Somebody mentioned lasagna and chips. Proper Italian lasagna is never eaten with chips. Crisps with sandwich at lunch... I'm not saying that I'm perfect but I'd say later life choices are a lot more important than a bit of sugar in breakfast cereal. A bit of common sense and moderation should do it. My son gets sweets, chips or whatever but we don't have deep fat frier at home and he was in McD (or other fast food places ) twice in his life. And we get takeaway once every two months because I don't like it. I make better pizzas or Chinese at home so why bother.

And for me blame is on the parents. I get the better education and evil companies blah blah blah but how dumb do you have to be not to realize that you are doing something wrong if the whole family is overweight.

lazygal

There's a team in our local office, not just one. I also know mums in other parts of the country were given the same advice. I got better information from other parents than the state system.

username123

meeeeh wrote: »

And for me blame is on the parents. I get the better education and evil companies blah blah blah but how dumb do you have to be not to realize that you are doing something wrong if the whole family is overweight.

But being overweight is so normal now that people dont think they are overweight.

I was in a shopping centre yesterday and I did a quick mental count in a queue and out of 12 people in the queue, 8 were overweight. None of them were massively obese, but all overweight. Its become a social norm to be overweight so people dont even know that they are.

Its no surprise then that they are making their children overweight.

As a child I got 2 hours of childrens tv on a saturday morning and that was it, I didnt see tv outside of that time and I didnt have any electronic devices. Rain, hail, snow, sun - I was outside running around or on my bike. I played chalk games all over the pavement - when was the last time you saw a hopscotch chalked onto the pavement? When was the last time you saw a group of kids playing Mother May I or Reliev-ee-i-o (sp)?

I do see local young boys kicking a ball about, but I also see them gathered around an electronic device often.

Kids dont move as much as they used to.

meeeeh

I had no complaints about my PHNs. Especially the second one was great. She was breast feeding consultant so she gave me some great help and advice. Both children were also grand on the charts and they were both bf for about six months.

iguana

lazygal wrote: »

And getting a baby used to a spoon is also a bit of a red herring, what about other weaning methods, like baby led weaning? I had done my homework on it but got no advice from the PHN when I asked about her thoughts, other than "Yeah, a lot of people are asking about that now". Why don't they look into it if a lot of people are asking about it?

I can kind of see why they don't bring up baby led weaning. I do it with my son and a typical day might see us have home made fruit and porridge bars for breakfast, home made curry for early afternoon dinner, eggs with a little toast for tea and half a dried apricot as a snack/teether during the day. I much prefer that he eats what we eat so meals are a family event that he is a full participant in, I prefer that it's a lot less work than making him his own food and I really like that it means I've had to up my game with regards to how I eat. I always had a pretty good diet and made most things from scratch but now everything has to be due to the salt content, so it's better for me too.

The thing is that some/a lot of people might be tempted by the easy parts of being baby led weaning but not improve their diet, which may be pretty crappy to begin with. So you might have people sharing high salt and sugar content breakfast bars, MacDonalds and frozen wedges and chicken nuggets with their babies all day everyday. And while I agree with MS2011 that treats are ok in moderation and that it may be better to give kids a little chocolate/ice-cream/etc on occasion instead of forbidding them completely and risk making them a highly desirable longed for food, too many people don't practise moderation and baby foods in pouches are probably a little bit better than sharing portions of crappy foods all day everyday.

Though it would be better if they were trained in it and were able to talk about it to the parents who do bring it up but ime they need to be trained better right across the board. So many people I know were advised to start on baby rice and to start at quite a young age. Afair, the HSE booklet that I was given had some nutty advice in there about when a baby can have textured food. The whole thing needs an overhaul before they are going to be able to advise properly on baby led weaning.

lazygal

iguana wrote: »

The thing is that some/a lot of people might be tempted by the easy parts of being baby led weaning but not improve their diet, which may be pretty crappy to begin with. So you might have people sharing high salt and sugar content breakfast bars, MacDonalds and frozen wedges and chicken nuggets with their babies all day everyday. And while I agree with MS2011 that treats are ok in moderation and that it may be better to give kids a little chocolate/ice-cream/etc on occasion instead of forbidding them completely and risk making them a highly desirable longed for food, too many people don't practise moderation and baby foods in pouches are probably a little bit better than sharing portions of crappy foods all day everyday.

Surely that's an ideal time to talk about healthy eating for the entire family? If an overweight parent comes in to dicuss weaning, it should be the proceedure to ask about food at home and healthy eating, and where changes can and should be made, combined with follow up on by the PHN, possibly with a home visit, rather than just leaving parents to it. Maybe it might break the cycle of junk and processed foods. I might be a bit idealistic, but I think the PHN system needs to up its game in this area. This is a serious public health issue, and a bit more proactivity might lead to some better choices being made. I'd go so far as to say a family feeding its children junk all the time should be on the watch list or whatever system is in place, its nutrition abuse to fail to feed your children properly and there should be checks on it. We're all going to pay a very high price for leaving people to their own devices with regard to how they feed their children.

jumbledideas

I wonder if there was a 'class' divide on the survey would it show different results for different socio economic backgrounds?

The reason I wonder is that I have a 7 year old and I know the majority of the children in her class are from a a family where both or one parent are working, and are either a skilled worker/professional or trades- and the vast majority of those children are perfectly fine, in fact probably more on the skinny side.

They are mostly very active, camogie, gymnastics, horseriding, swimming, sailing, you name it. The school has a healthy eating lunch policy and walk to school days too.

I haven't had any contact with a PHN or the HSE in any shape or form for 4 years ( the last time was I was with the PHN for my seven year old she was underweight but there was no follow up- I think she was about 3 at the time or maybe a bit younger) apart from the vaccines given in school and hearing/eye tests. I don't believe they are screened for weight issue at all.

Neyite

lazygal wrote: »

I also stand over what I said about prepared baby food. Its seen as the go-to option when you're weaning, especially if its your first child and you're not particularly confident. I've seen so many babies being spoon feed Ellas pouches, in particular, rather than home made food, and its because they are marketed as organic - its seen as a step up from Heinz jars. I wouldn't eat most of my meals from a foil pouch, so why would a baby?

+1

I just found (and still do find) it somehow strange that a food that was manufactured and packaged months before my child was even born could be as healthy and nutritious for him as home cooking from fresh vegetables.

Claire de Lune

I agree, with all of you, that there is an awful lot of junk food in the baby section - mostly marketed as "organic" - and that ultimately it's the parents fault. I agree that wet weather isn't an excuse to stay indoors :-)

It's also true that overweight people become the norm in this country and the clothing industry has changed its sizes to make sure these people still fit in a size 10, but that's another topic :-)

I am from France but I have been in Ireland for 12 years. One of my first impressions is that crisps, chocolate bars and fizzy drinks were everywhere, constantly in your face, at every newsagent, in every corridor in college in a vending machine. And the worst was that the 3 go together for a lot of people!

I had to laugh at the comment about lasagna and chips, the first time I had lasagna in college, I was so shocked when the lady filled my plate with chips as well as lasagna without even asking!

I think as well as the availability of the junk food, there is also an issue with portion size. My experience as a foreigner is that "Irish Mammies", ie the older generation, would overfill your plate and almost take offence if you don't finish it. Could this contribute to an impaired vision of portion sizes, that those who were raised on big portion keep this habit into adulthood and overeat?

I have also noticed that parents here tend to use food as an easy way to solve a lot of things : It is used as a distraction/ a way to keep small children quiet/ reward. Why?

At the playground, if a young child has a little fall/ or get upset and cries, most of the time I hear "awww poor pet, here you go, have a biscuit and you'll be all better". I know the parents are trying to distract the child from what upset them, but that are a lot of different ways to distract a child that don't involve food. What I mean is, that if this is repeated over the years, I'd be afraid that the child would grow into comfort eating and reach for food anytime they are upset as a teenager/adult because that's all they know.

I've also seen in queues, very often if a child gets impatient, he/she get something to eat to keep quiet.

Recently a friend of mine who has a child in JI told me that the teacher was using jellies and chocolate squares as a reward for good behaviour or good work. I know a few jellies or chocolate isn't going to harm any children, but why does the reward has to be something to eat? Why can't it be a couple of stickers or a pencil?

Maybe I am overthinking this. But his is what I observed as a foreigner and these kind of behaviours worry me. I understand that parents/teacher don't do this with the intention of making their child overweight, but I think everybody need to look at the big picture/long term implications and take responsible actions to ensure that their child grows up with a healthy relationship with food.

I had a great experience with my PHN. I was breastfeeding and although my son was on the small side of the charts, she assured me that the charts were for formula fed babies who are usually bigger and that my son would be within a normal range in breastfeeding chart. She was continuously encouraging me to pursue with breastfeeding.

One day she had a rant about hungry baby formula, her point of view was that hungry baby formula overfeeds babies, and they get used to to have their tummies very full and then grow up eating more than average because it's the norm for them. She couldn't understand that hungry baby formula is available in supermarkets in Ireland. In several countries the equivalent of hungry baby formula is on prescription only.

As for weaning, her advice was to make all the purees myself with the threat that if I ever gave him a suermarket jar "he'll never want homemade food again"! And she banned me from giving him Petit Filous, ever! I liked her style. She left our HSE centre since, I miss her :-)

Jessica-Rabbit

th

Claire de Lune wrote: »

I agree, with all of you, that there is an awful lot of junk food in the baby section - mostly marketed as "organic" - and that ultimately it's the parents fault. I agree that wet weather isn't an excuse to stay indoors :-)

It's also true that overweight people become the norm in this country and the clothing industry has changed its sizes to make sure these people still fit in a size 10, but that's another topic :-)

I am from France but I have been in Ireland for 12 years. One of my first impressions is that crisps, chocolate bars and fizzy drinks were everywhere, constantly in your face, at every newsagent, in every corridor in college in a vending machine. And the worst was that the 3 go together for a lot of people!

I had to laugh at the comment about lasagna and chips, the first time I had lasagna in college, I was so shocked when the lady filled my plate with chips as well as lasagna without even asking!

I think as well as the availability of the junk food, there is also an issue with portion size. My experience as a foreigner is that "Irish Mammies", ie the older generation, would overfill your plate and almost take offence if you don't finish it. Could this contribute to an impaired vision of portion sizes, that those who were raised on big portion keep this habit into adulthood and overeat?

I have also noticed that parents here tend to use food as an easy way to solve a lot of things : It is used as a distraction/ a way to keep small children quiet/ reward. Why?

At the playground, if a young child has a little fall/ or get upset and cries, most of the time I hear "awww poor pet, here you go, have a biscuit and you'll be all better". I know the parents are trying to distract the child from what upset them, but that are a lot of different ways to distract a child that don't involve food. What I mean is, that if this is repeated over the years, I'd be afraid that the child would grow into comfort eating and reach for food anytime they are upset as a teenager/adult because that's all they know.

I've also seen in queues, very often if a child gets impatient, he/she get something to eat to keep quiet.

Recently a friend of mine who has a child in JI told me that the teacher was using jellies and chocolate squares as a reward for good behaviour or good work. I know a few jellies or chocolate isn't going to harm any children, but why does the reward has to be something to eat? Why can't it be a couple of stickers or a pencil?

Maybe I am overthinking this. But his is what I observed as a foreigner and these kind of behaviours worry me. I understand that parents/teacher don't do this with the intention of making their child overweight, but I think everybody need to look at the big picture/long term implications and take responsible actions to ensure that their child grows up with a healthy relationship with food.

I had a great experience with my PHN. I was breastfeeding and although my son was on the small side of the charts, she assured me that the charts were for formula fed babies who are usually bigger and that my son would be within a normal range in breastfeeding chart. She was continuously encouraging me to pursue with breastfeeding.

One day she had a rant about hungry baby formula, her point of view was that hungry baby formula overfeeds babies, and they get used to to have their tummies very full and then grow up eating more than average because it's the norm for them. She couldn't understand that hungry baby formula is available in supermarkets in Ireland. In several countries the equivalent of hungry baby formula is on prescription only.

As for weaning, her advice was to make all the purees myself with the threat that if I ever gave him a suermarket jar "he'll never want homemade food again"! And she banned me from giving him Petit Filous, ever! I liked her style. She left our HSE centre since, I miss her :-)

I completely agree with everything you have said in your post, when I was 18 I moved to Lyon in France and lived there for two years, I noticed that there was no obese French people and if there were they were maybe one in a 100 if not more, I noticed that the French eat rich food but in moderation and the diet was varied and very healthy and there is no snacking on crips or chocolate between meals, as a result the children and adults were healthy fit and had beautiful skin. I am bringing my daughter up with the same eating habits that the French culture embrace, healthy homecooked meals fresh fruit and veg all in moderation, I think the Irish Mammies concept came from where the men worked on farms doing hard labour from the early hours of the morning to late in the evening and the meals needed to be big in portion size in order for the men to have energy but all the calories were burnt off during the work, the women in the house were cleaning baking cooking caring for their children all day long so they too were kept busy, this culture was past down through the generations and even though the men weren't working at hard labour or the women doing as much house work in the home thanks to new technology the meals continued to remain large even though it was not necessary, this can be part of the reason for obesity but a lot of it stems from ready made high salt and sugar meals, take aways sweets crips becoming the modern day norm, this coupled with little or no exercise and to much tv time etc has lead to an unhealthy culture.

pwurple

Just a couple of small things in this rant against fatties...

There are plenty of chubby frenchies. The time I spent in perigord I don't think I saw a single person who wasn't overweight. They live on duck fat in that region, the french mammies were smiling, ruddy faced, open armed, generous, but not skinny.

Hngry baby formula is the exact same calorie count as normal formula. It's a different consistancy, and a different protein profile.

The description of baby led weaning above is just ordinary weaning! Surely to goodness there is nothing earthshattering about a child eating whatever a fmaily is eating.

I will easily admit to using an ellas pouch occasionally when we were out. 7-10 month old babies eat far more often than I do. I don't have 6 meals a day, but their tummies are tiny, they do need more meals at that age. I am not confining myself to the kitchen all the livelong day, so if i wanted to give her a break from crackers and raisins the odd day when we were at the playground, i brought one of those fruit pouch things along. They are very well packaged, easy to reseal and chuck in a bag. I found them really useful.

Portion sizes I had missed in my original post in this thread... And loads of people have mentioned it. Portion sizes are absolutely mental in some restaurants. Crazy stuff... And yet when they make normal size portions you get people giving out stink that they are too small. The restaurant recommendation threads on boards have people giving out about not enough food on plates in restaurants, and I've even seen a comment on a fastfood place on facebook complaining that their small chips had too few chips. Loads of people vocally want 'a good feed' when they go out, and it's very hard for a restaurant to accomodate that. The normal sized get shouted down.

iguana

lazygal wrote: »

Surely that's an ideal time to talk about healthy eating for the entire family? If an overweight parent comes in to dicuss weaning, it should be the proceedure to ask about food at home and healthy eating, and where changes can and should be made, combined with follow up on by the PHN, possibly with a home visit, rather than just leaving parents to it. Maybe it might break the cycle of junk and processed foods. I might be a bit idealistic, but I think the PHN system needs to up its game in this area. This is a serious public health issue, and a bit more proactivity might lead to some better choices being made. I'd go so far as to say a family feeding its children junk all the time should be on the watch list or whatever system is in place, its nutrition abuse to fail to feed your children properly and there should be checks on it. We're all going to pay a very high price for leaving people to their own devices with regard to how they feed their children.

I agree but did you read the Irish papers over the weekend? The Herald, Times and Indo all had pretty nasty comment pieces about breastfeeders making formaula feeders feel awful because of the EU decision to make it illegal to put a picture of a baby on a tin of follow on milk from 2016. If something that small and innocuous can bring about that backlash can you just imagine the reaction if people were advised to give the baby what you eat but completely change what you eat as your diet is so unhealthy that it's a serious public health issue. Nothing that you are saying is wrong, it's the truth but the level of stink that would be created would be enormous. We need a societal shift much bigger than the public health nurses telling mothers the consequences of a bad diet because that alone would be pissing in the wind.

movingsucks

Well said Pwurple.

And you only need to look at the wedding forum to see more of the attitudes towards food. Talk of burger runs and the like because they don't like what's being served.
Davidth88 made a point about children learning if they don't eat dinner they go hungry but if grown adults won't make do themselves theyre not gonna make their kids do it!
Phns telling parents not to use Ellas pouches is not gonna stop this.

What I can't understand the most is we are meant to be living in the information age.
Now more than ever we have the opportunity to be aware of what we are eating. What's in it, where it came from etc.

WHY do parents since at least 2006 (coz that's when all these overweight 7 year olds were born) give their kids a tube of Pringles and a can of red bull and leave em off when THEY KNOW it's wrong.
We all know it's wrong!
Kids even know it's wrong!
McDonalds feckin has the option of water and fruit now!
Five a day this and whole grain that!
Is there a generation of parents who bitterly remember only getting 5 penny jellys a week or an orange in their stocking at Christmas or those murderous rows over the last Jaffa cake so they make sure their kids have all the Jaffa cakes in the world?

Hannibal Smith

Well aside from odd PHN who doesn't seem to have informed people about making their own food, the official line is to tell people to avoid the jars. What people decide to feed their child after that is out of their hands. It's not only a health issue, but financial, how much do those jars add to your shopping I wonder?

Maybe the option is to continue with a healthy eating subject in school. Get the message through to the kids, who bring it home to the parents. That way you're educating future adults on nutrition and how to avoid being overweight. The same way they show the smoking videos blackening your lungs, show the way fat clogs up your system and kills you.

Hannibal Smith

lazygal wrote: »

Not any of the ones I or parents I know have spoken to. I got a HSE approved booklet on weaning, which made a one line reference to finger foods, but had no real advice or practical suggestions. I know several mums who attend our local PHN office and the 'box of baby rice' was suggested to all of us. Why not pureed potato or pureed cauliflower, which would be similar in texture to milk, if you're planning on weaning with purees? And getting a baby used to a spoon is also a bit of a red herring, what about other weaning methods, like baby led weaning? I had done my homework on it but got no advice from the PHN when I asked about her thoughts, other than "Yeah, a lot of people are asking about that now". Why don't they look into it if a lot of people are asking about it?

I also stand over what I said about prepared baby food. Its seen as the go-to option when you're weaning, especially if its your first child and you're not particularly confident. I've seen so many babies being spoon feed Ellas pouches, in particular, rather than home made food, and its because they are marketed as organic - its seen as a step up from Heinz jars. I wouldn't eat most of my meals from a foil pouch, so why would a baby?

White potato can be a bit strong for baby's tummy and cause cramps. But aside from that, as i said, there's no law saying you have to start with baby rice. Start with whatever you want. If you're going down the baby led weaning route you won't have to bother with baby rice because there's no spoon for them to get used to.

movingsucks

On the subject of school what do people think of PE?
Primary was great loads of tearing around, climbing, dancing etc.
I think there was too much of an emphasis on team sports in Secondary - ie standing around bored on a basket ball court while the few girls in the class who played for the school trounced the rest of us.
I don't need to know how to play basketball but I would like to know how to keep fit on a daily basis. I walk all the time but I'm not fit.

lazygal

I loathed PE in primary and secondary. I went to a mixed primary and every single class involved football or basketball, which the boys were allowed to dominate and the girls were left sitting on the sidelines. In my all girls secondary school, again it was basketball or other team sports. I happened to excell in running one of the few times we did that, but it wasn't an ongoing activity. However, I did a lot of dance outside school and other activities as my parents had us out riding bikes, walking and generally being active on the weekends and after school. I hope things have changed, but I think PE in Ireland is too much about the local popular team based sport, like soccer, GAA or rugby, and if that doesn't interest a child or he or she isn't good at it, its a bit of a write off.

It boils down to lack of education and a "couldn't be arsed" attitude on behalf of parents, most of whom with overweight children are overweight themselves.
Relying on PE to keep children moving and interested in activity is a waste of time, parents need to be far more proactive.
I have five nephews and nieces. The lads ate, and still eat, rings around themselves but have been involved in swimming, martial arts, soccer, hurling and basketball since they were 5. None of them are or ever were overweight, despite biscuits at home and the odd pizza for dinner.
Their parents put in huge effort to keep them active and busy, forgoing lie ins at weekends and nights out themselves to make classes.
The girls, while not overweight, just aren't as active, perhaps that's down to being brought up to believe certain sports are only for boys.

My own son is going to be a big boy. He's not yet 2 and 15kgs but is the height of an average 3.5 year old. He is outside running around every day, rain or shine, wind or snow. He will be starting toddler rugby or soccer later this summer and has been swimming twice weekly since he turned 5 months.
That's because my husband and I have never been overweight. I have been a regular gym goer for over 10 years and hold a black belt in martial arts. My husband plays team sports and cycles more than 100kms a week.
It follows then that our son will be a sporty child, he sees us eating well and staying active.
Education begins at home.