Should The State Be Funding This Type Of Approach?

[youngmafbog]

I am generally against the State paying for things that should be obvious. But given we are seeing more and more a lack of basic parenting skills and a corresponding rise in childhood obesity (That is usually taken through into adulthood) maybe if this works then we can offset the cost against future health treatments?

We need to do something, obesity is set to break the NHS. Anyone got any other ideas on how to tackle it - without getting people 'offended'?


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6978593/Tough-love-parenting-classes-reverse-rise-childhood-obesity.html

[jim360]

If it's had such dramatic results already then for sure it should be funded.

[jno]

if it works, do it.

[dannyk13]

Yes, as it is likely that the money will be offset by savings in NHS treatment.

[teacake44]

Well its not very often I go to a fish and chip shop, but a few weeks ago I did, inside there are 4/5 table and chairs for eating in, sitting at one of the tables were a young girl in her early 20s with two children no more than 6/7 yrs old, one girl and boy, both looking very scruffy, their hair looked as if it hadn't been washed for weeks, next to them was a buggy pushchair that was also very dirty.

Mom sat there with fish, chips and peas, the children had just the biggest plate of chips each, nothing else, they were just cramming the chips in their mouths one after the other, with very little interest in what they were eating, there was no way these two kids were going to be able to consume this massive portion of chips.

The cost of this so called meal would have been, moms £6, minimum portion of chips £2 x2 total £4, so a total of £10.
There is so much more she could have done with this spend of £10, to provide a much better meal. Now some may get back and say this might have been a one off treat, and some may say how do I know that she doesn't cook better meals for her kids? All I can say is that her children looked shocking for their age, both very over weight, and so was mom. So yes something needs to be done.

[youngmafbog]

Unfortunately teacake one can see examples of that multiple times in any Town centre.

Such a shame aas these kids will just grow up to have massive health problems and probably end up not working and/or dying at an early age.

I thought kids were supposed to be checked, we keep seeing things about it in the press when it goes wrong with a skinny kid, so how does this happen. If the parents ignore the 'fat shaming' letter from the school is it not followed up? Surely it's a case for the SS as its basically child cruelty. Do it to an animal and the RSPCA, quite correctly IMHO, are straight round.

[Kromovaracun]

Older people are considerably more likely to be fat than young people are, so the effort is perhaps a little misplaced (though of course nothing wrong with acting on the problem early). A 1.4% decrease over three years does not strike me as anything to write home about, to be honest, and it's not clear at all whether or not this decrease is due to the classes or not.

There's certainly no harm in trying it though. Part of spending public money effectively is experimenting with new things to see if they work, so I have no issue with it.

[Old_Geezer]

"... as a reward, add another brick to the tower we are building."

"Well gee thanks mum, been wanting to do that for years now." {looks daggers}

[lindapalmara]

I remember Jamie Oliver had a programme where you teach a couple of mothers how to cook a couple of nutritious cheap meals and they go home and invite a few friends to show how t to cook them and then it would snowball but I'm not sure it worked.

[youngmafbog]

Krom, from WHO
"The prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents aged 5-19 has risen dramatically from just 4% in 1975 to just over 18% in 2016. The rise has occurred similarly among both boys and girls: in 2016 18% of girls and 19% of boys were overweight.

While just under 1% of children and adolescents aged 5-19 were obese in 1975, more 124 million children and adolescents (6% of girls and 8% of boys) were obese in 2016."

Rising rapidly so something needs to be done otherwise today's fat kids will most likely go on to breed even more fat kids for tomorrow. Not good in anyone's book.

It needs addressing, and now.

[Khandro]

linda; Some schools took Jamie's lead and cut out the fats and high carb. meals, only to see some outraged mother's, believing their children were being staved to death, were seen handing portions of chips to them through the school railings.
For some children, surviving their parents 'care' is the first big challenge in life.

[teacake44]

Its true that some older people put on weight, but I believe that this is due to other medical problems, that prevent them from normal exercise, even just walking can be a problem.

To see a young child out of breath just playing in the playground at
school and having difficulty taking part in school exercise is a whole different problem, and shocking.

[Mamyalynne]

The course has a proven track record, so it has to be worth a try.

[pixie374]

Education is never going to be a bad thing. If it is offered, that is different from "nannying" in my view.
Without fail, I see that any of my friends who are overweight or obese, also overfeed their children- often with adult proportions. The cycle needs to stop somewhere.

[Old_Geezer]

In school certain periods are allocated to physical exercise. On leaving and starting work, often sedentary work, this is no longer the case. One has to allocate precious 'own time' to it, and unless you are one of the few that were very enthusiastic about exercise, it inevitability gets dropped. (New year bursts of gym membership fade off after a couple of weeks or so.) Thus older folk tend to get heavier, less fit. Then later medical conditions may prevent exercise anyway.

But weight control is more about intake than output anyway. Teach good feeding habits to your children, get them involved in meal creation, and hopefully that'll stick with them for life.

[pixie374]

It's really the balance between intake and output, og. Very straightforward, although not necessarily easy to do.

[Old_Geezer]

Aye, but the point was that you can eat a small volume/weight of food and find it requires a large period of exercise to burn it off. Efficient weight control is biased to the intake side. Output is ok for maintaining or fitness/health/silhouette purposes.

[pixie374]

True. Portion sizes and common sense.