Are parents responsible if their kids are overweight / obese?

Hi.

I would say 'parents' and most probably 'grand parents' are responsible.

From the time the child is a toddler until kindergarden, parents have played a huge part in determining what their child eats as well as grandparents who spoil their grandkids with too much sugar (lollies, junk food, soft drinks, ice cream, etc).

Yes, you can blame Maccas and the other fast food companies......BUT if parents never introduced their kids to this type of food on a regular basis in the first place - kids WOULD NOT crave this type of food.

Having said this parents are also responsible for discipline, teaching kids manners, respecting the law and elders, blocking access to internet sites which are unsuitable for young kids, etc.

This is another problem we have now...don't blame the video game people. Parents tend to give their kids what they want and not what they should have.

Since I do not know of any little kids who cook their own meals, it's common sense to see a childs diet is down to parents.

And as is the usual of society, parents look around for someone else to blame.

The school, the government, the food manufacturers etc etc.

I think IQs have fallen through the floor if suddenly parents can't see a connection between their childs weight & what they're feeding them.

Most little kids I see are carbon-copies of parents.

If mum/dad are over-weight, obese or getting that way, their offspring will follow.

And lo & behold mums/dads are in denial.

They consider themselves a healthy normal weight & are offended should anyone tell them eh, no you are unhealthy & need to lose weight.

Does the government have a role?

It was Labour who originally signed food companies up to a responsibility plan to provide more information on packets, to reduce salt/sugar/fat etc.

Why am I not surprised companies did very little if anything to change their products.

Do I seriously believe the alcohol industry will also do anything to reduce alcohol dependency or abuse by signing up to the same sort of self-regulating system?

NO!

They make all the right noises but nothing changes.

If your child is overweight or obese it's child abuse & should be treated as such.

Parents need to be prosecuted for child abuse.

It is the responsibility of the parent to look after their own kids.

They way how Labour tried to turn this country into a nanny state is one of the thousands of things that I detest about them.

"The paper cites recent data NHS data indicating that one third of children in England are either overweight or obese by the time they leave primary school. It says this puts them at greater risk than ever before of developing serious problems such as diabetes and cancer."

There is a study which seems to suggest that the health risk of being over weight has been exaggerated. Mortality rate of people with a BMI of 25 to 30 is lower than those with a BMI of 19 to 25, which is considered normal*. People with a BMI of 30 to 35 were no more likely to die than those of normal weight.

I believe the problem comes down to the fact that the weight ranges considered healthy in the BMI goes down too light. I mean how can a 5' 9" man weighing 10 stone not be considered underweight?

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There was an article recently on Australian T.V in regard to the cartoons printed on cereal packets encouraging young kids to eat particular food brands that offered small toys and other incentives and were bright and colourful to get parents to buy it .

When tested by choice magazine it was found that many breakfast cereals were laden with sugar and salt and were not as healthy or good for the kids as had once been believed and that much of the advertising was aimed at children who in turn pushed parents to buy it .

Your question are parents responsible for their kids eating habits and their weight status is a good one but how many parents these days have the time to cook or provide meals that are balanced and nutritious and how many products on the shelf claim to be low fat but in reality are not many would be my guess.

Many parents are caught in a trap their kids want Mc Donalds they want to give them food that is good for them and the junk food manufacturers use their own brand of blackmail to suck the kids into buying their rubbish with their pocket money .

Of course parents are responsible but so is political correctness, doctors and schools have been told they mustn't use the word obese when talking to parents about their overweight children, well excuse me but the word obese rather than overweight is the kind of alarm call parents need to wake them up, otherwise they gaze indulgently at their little charmers and see nothing wrong!

It was ever thus!

Yes parents are responsible. The parents can actually turn around to the child & say no you can not have that. Its simple really. I do it with my own kids. I say no on quite a few occasions. If they do not eat what is put in front of them then they do not eat. I do appreciate there are some things my kids just do not like. But if they have eaten something before but they just do not fancy it then they do not eat. Its their choice. 90% of the time they will eat what they are given. They do have treats on occasions. I will treat them to a burger or those horrible processed chicken nuggets that they seem to like but it is on the odd occasion.

I do think it is the responsibility of the government to keep us informed about the content of foods & perhaps how foods are marketed especially when the advertising is aimed at children.

There is a lot of stuff on the internet that is basically fat-shaming diabetics for causing their own diabetes with their bad diet and lack of exercise and general lack of moral fibre. A lot of this stuff is written by non-doctors, often with a supplement or diet or training plan to sell that they claim will completely cure diabetes if only people stick to it.

I read this interesting book https://tr.im/BupiZ that gave me a lot of useful tips about my disease and also a different perspective on the best therapeutical approach. I think you should read it too.

I think the manufacturers of 'junk food' are responsible and the parents too. There are too many rubbish snack foods available for kids, yogurts that contain sugar as their main ingredient, cheese sticks that are full of salt and drinks that are branded as sugar free but instead have an equally unhealthy amount of artificial sweetener in them.

Crisps and sweets were a treat when i was a kid, fruit was the snacking option but now it seems parents have a much wider selection of snacks and choose to give these snacks full of fat, salt and sugar to their children - it's the branding that is deceiving, they are labelled as healthy and low fat and wholesome.

Of course parents are responsible for their off-spring,up to a certain age anyway.and it has to be their fault if the children are overweight.and its a good idea to restrict content of sugar,etc.

In my case growing up in the early 50s there was often not the money for food,and often the food wasn't there when one could afford.it. I have always been slim/thin eating like I did as a child.

My Mother wasn't able to have sugar in the first world war,so never used it for the rest of her life.so its possible to stop eating something and then not want it.