Most Parents Don't Realize Their 4 Or 5-Year-Olds Are Overweight or Obese

[The Straight Story]

Most Parents Don't Realize Their 4 Or 5-Year-Olds Are Overweight or Obese

ScienceDaily (Jan. 29, 2010) — Half of the mothers who took part in a study thought that their obese four or five year-old was normal weight, as did 39 per cent of the fathers, according to the February issue of Acta Paediatrica.

When it came to overweight children, 75 per cent of mothers and 77 per cent of fathers thought that their child was normal weight.

More than 800 parents of 439 children took part in the study, carried out by researchers from the University Medical Centre Groningen in The Netherlands. Five per cent of the children were overweight, four were obese and the rest were normal weight.

"As well as asking them to provide information on their child's height and weight, they were also asked to provide information on their own vital statistics" says Professor Pieter Sauer from the Department of Paediatrics.

"We used this to compare the parents' assessment of their children with their own weight to see if there was any correlation. Data on the child and both parents was provided in 397 cases."

The study showed that:

* Mothers and fathers of overweight and obese children were significantly heavier than the parents of normal weight children.
:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100128091748.htm

[CoffeeCat]

1. Today's Snowball is not yesterday's Snowball...

I remember back in the 1970's when I would eat "Snowballs", which was a chocolate cake with whipped
cream filling. The outer shell was a layer of marshmallow-dipped coconut. I loved those things!

I happened to read the label of one of these yesterday at the grocery store. High fructose corn syrup,
partially hydrogenated oils. Even today's junk food is more lethal because of these ingredients and more.

Back when I was young--we ate real sugar and fats that weren't processed into some mutant killer.

I'm not advocating junk food. I am just saying that food today, is not what it was. junk food is a killer, especially
with children--because they get a steady dose of this stuff from the time they are toddlers.

Plus, high-fructose corn syrup is in SOOO many things. Fruit snacks, juices, yogurt, bread. Even if you try to eat
healthy--you have to read labels, cuz this stuff is everywhere. It is hard to eat healthy--for kids and for grownups.
Most of the foods marketed to kids are unhealthy. Fruit snacks are just horrible...kids' frozen meals are high in
fat and just horrible. The school lunches are awful too. Last week, for one of my kid's lunches--the main course was
a giant cinnamon roll and a cheese stick. Yes, they did get fruit--but...a cinnamon roll???

It's scary out there...it really is. As a parent, you can work at feeding your kid healthy--and still fail. So
much of food is just junk.

[pansypoo53219]

2. it's time for biggest loser grade school edition

and high school and middle school. and ban HFCS.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. Hate to tell you this...

but HFCS is just as fattening as any other sugar, cane sugar included.

[MrsCorleone]

13. Lol! As if on cue, Highfructosepronsyrup shows up to inject his/her HFCS PR.

[HuckleB]

3. I would surmise that most parents don't realize how little exercise their kids get.

Our little dude is most certainly in the lower half in terms of physical (athletic) ability, but he likes to be outside, so we go outside year round. At 3 1/2 it was not a big deal for him to ride his POS tricycle 2 1/2 or 3 miles. (Remember, those trikes have no gears, that's work, but it doesn't phase him because he's used to playing.) His longest hike at the same age was 7 miles with 3,000 feet of elevation gain, from 7,000 feet of elevation up to 10,000 feet. It always boggles my mind how many people are surprised to see a little guy on the trail, but it shouldn't be that big of a deal. At his age, we spent hours going round and round the park, a farm, or woodland. We walked everywhere. Now I see five-year-olds in strollers. I really am starting to wonder if the ease of the stroller hasn't caused more problems in the long run. Now I know that they can be wonderful in certain situations, but they are overused, IMO.

[Edweird]

4. They're all just 'big boned'...

[OhioChick]

8. ..........

:rofl:

[timeforpeace]

5. However, 100% of parents said their kids were fat. "What's obese mean, anyway?" Communication.

[kiva]

6. Interesting. I wonder if the US would have the same numbers. n/t

[seabeyond]

9. i have one child over, one child under. i hate the under gets to eat whatever and the over

who doesnt eat differently or more gets eyebrows raised. he takes after my side. my oldest brother was pudgy, until he grew. ended up middle line backer recruited by best colleges. working on 50 and still pumped and fit. i have to give my son the chance to be what his body is....

i wish we did not have such harsh, stick eyes one the kids today. but then i understand too. sometimes (kids at age i am seeing it a lot) kids are just pudgy until they hit puberty.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

10. I used the CDC's BMI calculator for children to compute my 7 year old son's BMI

a few months ago. It said he was overweight and that he will have a tendency to become obese. I thought that was hilarious. My son is rail thin, but muscular. BMI doesn't work for muscular people.

[gmoney]

11. BMI doesn't add up for a lot of people...

I have a big frame but relatively stumpy legs. For me to slip under the BMI table as "normal" I'd need to look like Tom Joad or cut off a limb.

Granted, I'm well overweight/obese/fat, and I admit it, but the BMI does NOT tell the whole story.

[JoeyT]

12. It's not useful for anyone with a large frame.

Or just about anyone else. And by large frames I don't mean people that are overweight, I mean people with wide shoulders.

The BMI is what's referred to in scientific terms as "Making shit up and pretending it's a useful measurement.". It isn't. The only measurement that counts is body fat percentage. BMI may as well be read by pulling cards from a tarot deck. Far be it from me to suggest that people consider they're using junk science before railing on about fat people, though. I'd hate to get in the way of a good crusade.

Edited to add: Just calculated my BMI. 32.5, well into the obese range. Kind of funny, since my body fat percentage is around 6-7%.
I expect your son would get similar numbers. "Normal" weight for a 6'male starts at 136.5 pounds, by the way. Ever seen a six foot guy that weighed a buck thirty five?

[Statistical]

16. Selectively looking at the data.

Nobody is saying 137 is average for 6ft.

Actually 137 is borderline underweight.

The whole range.

72"
<137 underweight
137-184 normal
185 - 220 overweight
221+ obese

Seems pretty good estimate to me.

[LeftyMom]

17. But that normal range isn't normal.

A 6' male is well into being underweight at 137, even for a relatively slender guy probably anything under 150 would be.

I know my Dad is 6' even, and his ideal weight for his frame (wide shoulders, etc) is about 200 lbs. He's well over that now, but when he was younger and taking good care of himself that's about where he'd settle. He certainly wasn't 15 lbs overweight at that point, 185 would be decidedly thin and underweight in his case, and he probably couldn't get their healthfully.

[hfojvt]

19. yes I have

in a mirror.

They are pretty darn scrawny, but not unhealthily so.

[LeftyMom]

15. I just tried it for my eight year old.

Apparently he's obese and should be evaluated by a health care practitioner. Which is certainly news to me, considering that I have to take his pants in at the waist. :rofl: But he's crazy muscular for his age and just generally has a very sturdy frame- wide shoulders, etc.

The BMI is less useful than just looking at somebody.

[liberal_at_heart]

14. I decided to break the cycle with my children

I teach my children about nutrition and eating in moderation. My husband and I are both overweight and addicted to food. I am eating nutritiously right now but normally after a few months of eating healthy I usually relapse. But both of my children are average weight and both eat in moderation. My teenage daughter doesn't pay much attention to nutrition. She could care less what vegetable contains which vitamin, but she does eat in moderation. Neither one of my children emotionally eat like my husband and I do so I do think we have broken the cycle.

[Statistical]

18. That is a great thing.

I don't particularly eat healthy but I have started looking at portion sizes.

The problem is restaurants today have utterly insane portions and we eat them and our bodies get use to it.


For example: Outback

Blooming Onion 1560 calories, 84g of fat, 5500mg of sodium
http://www.outback.com/foodandmenus/nutritionitem.aspx?id=1130
Now outback says it is 6 servings but how many people only order a Blooming onion w 6+ people at table.

New York Strip w/ House Salad & Mash Potatoes as sides 1400 calories, 86g of fat, 2400mg of sodium

So take the dinner w/ sides, add a beer Fosters 20oz = 260 calories, and 1/4 blooming onion

Total: 2050 calories, 170g of fat, 7900mg of sodium

This one meal has roughly 250% of recommended daily limit for fat, and almost 400% limit for sodium.

So it isn't just what we eat but also the portions.


Personally I think nationally all restaurant items should show claories, fat, sodium content right next to price in same font and size as price. Education is important. Most people have no idea that most restaurant portions are enough for a family not a person.

[Robb]

20. LOL Yeah.

I broke down and got a Big Mac the other day, and noticed the nutritional information was printed on the BOTTOM of the carton thingie.

I mean, come on. There's no way you're going to read that until you're finished. At which point all you've got is the guilt. :D