Parents who allow their kids to become obese should be charged with child abuse! Do those parents not realize the health problems those children may develop, including diabetes? You’re the parent, make the correct decisions regarding what your kids eat. Just because your severely obese yourself doesn’t mean you child needs to be the same. A little exercise won’t kill you or them. Put down the plate! —FedUpWithFatties
This article appears in Dec 16-22, 2010.
I’m not obese and my son and his father are not obese neither are most of our close family…and I’ve always felt the same way…when you see this huge mom with her 2 huge kids at the grocery store stocking up on chips and pop and stuff. But now that I have a child is all he wants is sugar….this morning I couldn’t get him to eat his breakfast because all he wanted was a candy cane for breakfast. I let him cry till he ate something good…but then I gave him half the candy cane for the drive to pre-school. Then I came to work and googled a bunch of new recipes to try and get my little guy to eat healthy. He’ll be 4 in March and I took him last week to get his first filling. I feel like a terrible Mom.
Don’t RC – it’s just a fact of life, really. It’s just important make that balance. It’s such a lifestyle thing. The family who is chronically obese/unhealthy is so different than giving in and having a treat at Christmas time.
Kids get fillings, it’s a fact of life. And those are their soft baby teeth, doesn’t say anything about their adult teeth later.
Hey, if your little guy is healthy and happy and active, don’t sweat the small stuff.
It seems like you’re doing a fine job, RC. Don’t be so self-deprecating.
Actually, Ralmn – you’re not quite correct.
The health of a child’s milk teeth is directly related to the health of their adult teeth.
When permanent teeth develop in a mouth that is unhealthy, they are likely to become decayed as well.
Ya, but a cavity isn’t the end of the world, either. A 4 yr old with a cavity isn’t a rare thing and by no means “unhealthy” to the point of determining their adult teeth will be “unhealthy.”
It’s mostly laziness on the part of the parents. Instead of taking an hour to cook a proper meal, they’d rather slap down fast food or frozen shit that’s packed in a ton of sodium. I wouldn’t feed a dying dog what some obese people eat. Everytime I see that DQ mouth mascot, I wonder why his teeth are in such good shape. Maybe they don’t show the rest of him because he’s too fucking fat.
Hell give ’em cigarettes to curb their appetite.
TTFN, they ain’t the original teeth, they’ve been replaced with porceline caps.
I like my mother. She feeds me a lot, but not bad stuff! I think that’s key. Chips and soda will satisfy you for the moment but you’re hungry in 45mins. Don’t even say veggies are expensive! Look at the flyers, listen to the radio, you’ll get deals. TTFN is right. Sodium is friggin’ Satan. I see puffy kids all the time carrying water and lymphatic fluid in their extremities and faces. Oh and ffs discourage your kids from the late night eating! After 9 if you don’t need hot chocolate or chips etc etc.
Get your kid’s teeth capped … not sure that’s the term but I’ve had it done since 5 and never had a cavity.
The funniest thing is to see a huge mother and a tiny tiny little child.
Oh and many of those women are hard up. Prob haven’t been laid in a long time. I can’t hate, I wouldn’t wan’t to lay with free Willy either. Sorry. If there’s an obese child, there’s probably an obese parent.
you know something o.p., it isn’t really anyone’s fault except maybe the gene pool. i know people who are incredibly slim and fat also. the thins eat like their is no tomorrow, and the fat ones, gain 5 pounds even if they have a drink of water. most, but not all fatter people, have no control over the gain in weight. they eay like a bird, a very small bird at that, and keep putting on the pounds. diets and other shit don’t help them, and they are starving themselves to an early grave.
i know one guy in particular, he is in hospital now, went well over 600, now he is down to about 450. why, because he is only on a drip for some stupid reason. the food they give him, is more than okay, but he is now losing weight like crazy, and docs don’t know why.
LS, that’s what hospital food will do to ya.
LS, the glandular disorders you’re describing are more the exception than the norm. The vast majority of obesity cases are due to overeating, poor diet (i.e. “bad food”) and lack of exercise. Metabolism rate is influenced by genetics, but also by age, gender and activity level. Genetics are not the main cause, and can certainly not explain the obesity pandemy we’re facing. To quote a subject matter expert:
“According to Stephen O’Rahilly, professor of clinical biochemistry and medicine at Cambridge University, the influence of genetics on modern levels of obesity is insignificant:
Nothing genetic explains the rise in obesity. We can’t change our genes over 30 years.”
So yeah…this civilisation is eating its way to death.
RC, get the little fella to help you when you make him those healthy snacks. Kids are much more willing to eat something that they made 🙂
Fat kids turn into fat adults, a sedate lifestyle as a teen carries over into later life.
You guys realize thin people can get type 2 diabetes, right?
FYI. It’s not just a disease reserved for fatties.
Lucky for me my son only eats healthy food.
PK that’s all I’ve been thinking about lately… diabetes ….He doesn’t drink sugary drinks – just chocolate milk and OJ and water. But he’s a junk food junkie…he loves suckers and runts and those awful candy bracelets…and will eat rockets by the dozen if you’ll let him. Which I really try not to. I threw out a tonne of Halloween candy, and he eats fruit roll-ups and Kraft dinner crackers mostly for snacks – but he’s at his dads 2 nights a week and usually has a lot of junk.
I found recipes that we can do together….it’s really half laziness and the fact that he’s a picky eater – which once again I just need to put in more effort to find things he likes. So I guess it’s all laziness and the fact that I love my junk food as well….but in moderation.
I made the switch to “good” food a couple years ago, and I can tell you from experience, it’s fucking expensive around here to eat right. I can buy 3X the amount of “junk” for the same money as good food. Not everyone has an unlimited food budget, so they can’t eat or feed their family the way they should.
On the other hand, people are extremely god damned lazy. I guess the Wii is the new form of exercise. If you’re taking in 7000 calories a day and aren’t moving your ass off the couch for an hour a day, an alarm bell should go off in your head. Buying bigger clothes is not going to solve your problem, get out and fucking move. Your kids will follow your examples to the “T”. That means eating habits, exercise and lifestyle, they repeat what you do, mistakes and all.
A lot of people, from what I’ve experienced, give their kids whatever they want, because if they don’t, they misbehave until the parent gets frustrated and tired of listening to it, gives in, and whola, you have just set the precedent for which the kids behaviour will be followed. Every time they want to eat a chocolate bar for breakfast, or a bag of chips while they’re playing the XBox, all they have to do is act out, and mom/dad will give in.
This is a really hard thing to break, been there, but my kids have a treat once a month, and they’re active because I make it fun, even if it’s just a walk, they’re moving.
LOL! The Nanny State hasn’t solved this for you yet??
There’s an interesting story on CBC about how high in sugar toddler’s foods are, and how they develop a child’s taste to sugar and salt:
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/06/28/…
I guess the best way to make sure your kids eat a balanced diet is to encourage them to try different raw and homemade foods at an early age rather than relying on packaged products.
RC one of my friends warned her youngster of the danger of “sugar bugs” so much she hates to eat much candy. When she has a little bit, she immediately brushes her teeth. It has the effect of stopping her from eating too much candy and making sure she doesn’t get cavities. She’s 6 now (she was probably about 4 when she got on the sugar bug kick) and it’s still working!
Thanks Hollah – the dentist told him they were cleaning out the sugar bugs so I’ll try to work with that!
I’ll bet a paycheque that you have an eating disorder, writer. Glass houses and all.
So you want to charge parents who allow their kids to become fat with child abuse?
What about the parents who dont allow their kids to become fat, but their children become fat as a result of Childhood diabetes or other disorders? Gonna have a loop hole in your new law for that? What about genetics? Some people are Obese due to genetics and not life style, gonna put those parents before the courts?
Obese people, They should exercise and eat better, but you know what, your an asshat OP
Who’s an asshat?
RC,
it is what most kids want… all the time.
the problem with shielding kids now is that when they do go off and get to trying it on their own, unbeknown to you, they will likely enjoy it magnitudes more as the ‘forbidden fruit’.
just an assumption, though one I’ve seen a lot in my days.
I found that structured and generous, scheduled eating times and ENSURING children do so (ie, no leaving the table, running amok, playing video games, watching tv, etc… until they are done) means they’re gaining discipline, regular routine, and sufficient nutrition to deter ‘snacking’ and keep it minimized. As it should be.
At least that’s what seemed to work with me as a kid.
then again, mom was a hard ass.
Wow zzz..thanks. I let my little guy snack a lot … that’s my problem. This weekend I made him eat all his lunch, dinner and breakfast without snacking…and when he wanted a snack I tried to get him to eat fruit…he tried negotiating “so many bites of fruit in exchange for a kinder egg”. 3 and making deals. I played the Santa card…lol.
I wrote you an email and can’t get back into that account now? I’m not sure why…my password doesn’t work and my secret question is wrong???? I have no clue how to get back in…I just created that account on Friday.
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/765
jamie oliver talk about kids and food – interesting stuff
Jamie Oliver needs to get ‘is laughing gear aroond one o’ these, like.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S10rFrAuQi8
was that mayo he was spreading on the chicken?
Bechamel sauce, a dollop the size of a softball. Supposedly an ex-GI of Italian descent settled in Middlesbrough after the war and opened a fast food restaurant, and thus was born a regional delicacy or heart-attack-in-a-pizza-box if you prefer. I’d never heard of them until I started watching Teeside Tintin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH8KTjq6ejc…
that’s the strangest looking bechamel sauce i’ve ever seen