Obese Kids

connundrum · 03-07-2006 08:13PM #1

When it comes to the issue of obesity and children, ultimately, responsibility lies at home according to Dr. Donal O'Shea - article

To me that statement seems fairly obvious, after all who is giving the kids the crap food but their parents. My question is - isn't allowing this type situation continue a form of child abuse??

If it were found out that a parent was exposing their kid to constant high levels of UV light which would probably lead to skin cancer down the line (sunbeds etc) their would be uproar.. no? What the parent is doing is slowly contributing to the kid's early death.

Parents who don't seem to give a sh1t about their kid's diets are surely doing the same? I'm not talking about the family who have a McD's a coupla times a month, I'm talking about the family who live in McDonalds! We've all seen it at one stage or another. Parents give the excuse that they don't have enough hours in the week etc etc.. bollocks. What they are doing is leading to an explosion in obesity rates in this country, which in turn is adding to our already huge amount of heart condition and diabetes cases.

Today I saw a kid in a shop with €10 with which he got a breakfast roll, 2 bottles of coke, 2 packets of crisps and the change was spent on sweets. Now that could have been for him and his ma, but I would really doubt it. It sickened me, this kid was about 10/11 years old and I'd say he'd had to have been at least 9/10 stone.

When is someone gonna take responsibility? The state can't be blamed, the shops can't be blamed, if you try to blame McDonalds for their advertising then there's something wrong as we all do have free choice, no one made you go there 5 out of 7 days in a week. Child abuse I tell thee, kids should eat what they are given and its up to parents to feed em properly.

Ruu_Old · 03-07-2006 08:15PM

There are too many families I know that shut their children up by bringing them to McDonalds, has to stop.

Amazotheamazing · 03-07-2006 08:15PM

Too many parents want to be both a parent and their child's best friend, doesn't work. Kids need some limits (obviously not crazy, make them serial killers, discipline though).

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar · 03-07-2006 08:17PM

the goverment should subsidise liposuction clinics in every county

biko · 03-07-2006 08:19PM

My kids are going not to get unlimited supply of sugary drinks.
I blame Coca Cola.

imeddyhobbs · 03-07-2006 08:22PM

child services should be brought in to deal with the parents of fat kids,i think people should be prosecuted for having obese pets too

super_furry · 03-07-2006 08:23PM

Fat kids love cake!

Nehpets · 03-07-2006 08:23PM

Mordeth wrote:

the goverment should subsidise liposuction clinics in every county

+1

Collie D · 03-07-2006 08:24PM

Ruu wrote:

There are too many families I know that shut their children up by bringing them to McDonalds, has to stop.

Very true, I worked in a McDonald's years ago and you'd see the same people bringing their kids in every single day and ordering the exact same thing, I actually started to wonder whether they'd ever been to a supermarket to buy a food.

New_Departure06 · 03-07-2006 08:25PM

I wonder would lipotrim help? I am not a child admittedly but it's the fastest diet I've ever been on.

AnTaoiseach · 03-07-2006 08:30PM

its a sad state of affairs when half the world is dying of starvation and the other half is dying of obesity

projectmayhem · 03-07-2006 08:33PM

my youngest brother is bigger then me or my middle brother were at his age (about 11). he's starting to loose weight now, but the reason is simple: there's food there, and we're not broke. when i was a kid if i asked for kit-kat or whatever it was mostly "no, you're dinner'll be ready soon" etc., but for my brother, he's let eat what he wants, when he wants. now he's not brought to macd's all the time, but when i was younger we went for birthdays or other "special" occasions... and that was it.

that's changing now because even he realises he's gotten too big. but at least he realises it.

my point being is that it absolutely starts at home.

Rollo Tamasi · 03-07-2006 08:38PM

biko wrote:

My kids are going not to get unlimited supply of sugary drinks.
I blame Coca Cola.

The government should ban ads in Ireland that feature teen idols like Beckham and Beyonce. Companies like Pepsi prey on the naviety of young kids and use product correlation to sell ****e. It ain't right. You shouldn't be allowed target kids like that.

^ sweeping statement in there but i don't care.

1huge1 · 03-07-2006 08:43PM

super_furry wrote:

Fat kids love cake!

finally a comment that i can understand

seriously though blaming the companies is stupid
no one is making us go

Ruu_Old · 03-07-2006 08:45PM

Rollo Tamasi wrote:

The government should ban ads in Ireland that feature teen idols like Beckham and Beyonce. Companies like Pepsi prey on the naviety of young kids and use product correlation to sell ****e. It ain't right. You shouldn't be allowed target kids like that.

^ sweeping statement in there but i don't care.

Here is something related to what you were saying. Id like to see more fruit and water ads.

herbieflowers · 03-07-2006 08:45PM

Shouldn't parents be wiser in all fairness?

New_Departure06 · 03-07-2006 08:51PM

Parents need to learn to say "no" more when their children demand sweets, biscuits, crisps, cakes etc. I realise it may be seen as necessary to surrender to the demands to keep them quiet but ultimately confining it to once in the week will arguably be more productive in that regard cos the parents can say "behave and you'll get sweets later in the week".

ThrownAway · 03-07-2006 08:56PM

New_Departure06 wrote:

Parents need to learn to say "no" more when their children demand sweets, biscuits, crisps, cakes etc.

Parents need to introduce healthy eating to their children from the start. That way they won't need to say ''no''. It's all about habit.

Winters · 03-07-2006 08:57PM

Dont make me run, im full of chocolate

DOLEMAN · 03-07-2006 09:07PM

When I was a teenager I spent a lot of my time running away from skangers. It kept me skinny.

Booming house prices have converted the skangers into millionaires.

Michael Jackson is our only hope to get kids skinny again.

Lirange · 03-07-2006 09:16PM

It's definitely the parents

TerrorFirmer · 03-07-2006 09:22PM

Lirange wrote:

It's definitely the parents

That picture always creeped me out.

Sleipnir · 03-07-2006 09:26PM

"I blame the parents"
"Brilliant, well I don't see why this committee should meet anymore, we know the exact and only cause of obesity in Ireland. Thank you all for taking part"

It's easy to blame someone else for everything. Do you think that the poorer families of this country can go to the local italian for some hand-made pasta?
Or only buy fresh organic fish and meat at Superquinn?
Could it be that convenience food is cheaper (a lot cheaper) than healthy food? Could it be that a mother of 4 kids living in a flat in some dive can't afford to feed her kids the same healthy stuff you can CHOOSE to eat?

Or should we just "blame the parents" and go for a skinny latte with probiotic yoghurt afterwards.

How many of the 13 poster above still live with their parents?
Or how many of you have kids?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar · 03-07-2006 09:29PM

for the price of 4 mcondalds happy meals you could buy potatoes and some meat, veg for a day or two's meals.

that's absolute nonsense sleipner.

TerrorFirmer · 03-07-2006 09:36PM

That doens't make a whole lot of sense slepnir in fairness. Convenience food is bad for you without a doubt but if you eat it as you would a normal meal it's still pretty much impossible to become "obese" regardless of the health implications.

The problem is overeating generally speaking, not what is actually being eaten. Sure, we all eat mcdonalds once every few weeks or whatever, and it doesnt do us much harm in moderation. The sad thing is that there are some for which its almost a daily thing.

The problem with obesity in Ireland is without doubt due to the availability of money to children from their parents so freely - not a lack of it.

But of course its the parents fault, they are solely responsible for supplying their children with their diets. I don't eat Mcdonalds all that often but I know people that eat it several times a week, use their fryer several times a week, and eat chocolate several times a week.

It's hard to expect a young kid to know any better when they are living in a household where the cupboards are always stocked with junk, and this is the case in alot of households these days. Sadly.

GrumPy · 03-07-2006 09:40PM

When I see fat kids it really bugs me, Its a massive form of abuse on the parents part! Imagine the poor kids going to school

Allowing your kids to get overweight by not providing them with a healthy diet is one of the most rampent forms of child abuse in Ireland.

Lust4Life · 03-07-2006 09:40PM

Originally posted by Sleipnir:
It's easy to blame someone else for everything. Do you think that the poorer families of this country can go to the local italian for some hand-made pasta?
Or only buy fresh organic fish and meat at Superquinn?
Could it be that convenience food is cheaper (a lot cheaper) than healthy food? Could it be that a mother of 4 kids living in a flat in some dive can't afford to feed her kids the same healthy stuff you can CHOOSE to eat?

Or should we just "blame the parents" and go for a skinny latte with probiotic yoghurt afterwards.

How many of the 13 poster above still live with their parents?
Or how many of you have kids?

Sleipnir, although I agree with your post to an extent - A lot of low priced foods are quite fattening and it is difficult to keep starch to a minimum -teaching our children to eat a well balanced meal and make healthy choices from the beginning will make them healthy eaters all their life (or at least we can hope!)
Fresh fruit and vegetables can be expensive, but no more expensive than chips or a trip to McD's. And Soda is a total waste of money!

I do have kids. I do not buy soda or stock junk foods in my house unless we expect guests. We save a lot of money that way, and my kids really do not miss it! When they do get some it is a treat - which is as it ought to be.

It was not always this way. I just finally wised up and quit buying it! Husband was upset for a while, but then he saw we had calmer more behaved healthy kids who eat veggies and drink juice for snacks!

And yes, we do go to McD's once a month. I'm not a total freak of a mom!

L4L

connundrum · 03-07-2006 09:42PM

Sleipnir wrote:

It's easy to blame someone else for everything.
How many of the 13 poster above still live with their parents?
Or how many of you have kids?

It is easy to blame evryone else for everything, yes. I don't buy the excuse that parents don't have time, I don't buy the excuse that kids put too much pressure on parents these days and above all I don't buy this crap about the 'corporate world' being at fault.

When a kid hits 16/17 then he/she will have enough cop on to decide what food they wanna eat cos at that stage most will have a part time job and it would be impossible to stop them from going to McD's 24/7.. but up until that time, the value of good food should be instilled in these kids. Its frickin essential!

As someone earlier said, how is it that half the world is dying from starvation and the other half dying of obesity?

daveirl · 03-07-2006 09:42PM

This post has been deleted.

Sleipnir · 03-07-2006 09:49PM

connundrum wrote:

It is easy to blame evryone else for everything, yes. I don't buy the excuse that parents don't have time, I don't buy the excuse that kids put too much pressure on parents these days and above all I don't buy this crap about the 'corporate world' being at fault.

When a kid hits 16/17 then he/she will have enough cop on to decide what food they wanna eat cos at that stage most will have a part time job and it would be impossible to stop them from going to McD's 24/7.. but up until that time, the value of good food should be instilled in these kids. Its frickin essential!

As someone earlier said, how is it that half the world is dying from starvation and the other half dying of obesity?

Well that's it isn't it, what "you buy" has nothing to do with it.

If half the world is dying and starvation and the other half of obesity, where are you sitting?

Lust4Life · 03-07-2006 09:50PM

Original post by Daveirl:
Why are poeple saying that parents should say no? Why would they? It's not like they're fit and healthy themselves. In the interests of transparency do the posters here want to say how healthy they are? How many trips to the gym? How many servings of fruits and veg?

That is what made me change the diet of my entire family. I was getting fat and had to look at all of our bad lazy habits! Hubby's family has a history of heart desiese. I am the only one of my siblings not on high blood pressure meds, diabetes meds, thyroid meds, cholesterol meds - because I turned it around in time. And my family is really benefitting for it!!! Our kids will live much healthire lives because we are setting the example.

L4L

Obese Kids

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