It's weird how much energy you are putting into judging children's bodies.

It’s everything. Kids aren’t as physically active as they once were. A typical kid now gets driven to before care, then school, then after care, then home for dinner and homework and then it’s dark so they just sit inside all the time. Not a lot of opportunities to just ride a bike or walk/run around outside with friends. An hour or two a week of rec sports practice doesn’t really stack up the same way.

The portion sizes are huge and there is a ton of snacking. I’m not necessarily going to blame the food itself because Gen X and older Millennials were definitely eating white bread sandwiches and sugary cereals and Kool Aid and stuff. But a lot fewer people are regularly cooking at home now and so families get a lot of takeout and fast food and portion sizes have gone crazy at restaurants. An adult size meal at McDonalds in the 70s was a regular cheeseburger - the kind they put in the kids meals nowadays! And a medium fries, which seemed to be a little smaller than the medium today and about a 12 oz drink. And now we’re all getting sugary Starbucks drinks all the time and large fries with everything. Food and snacks were just overall less “available” 40+ years ago and people didn’t constantly graze between meals.

And a lot of psych meds are known to cause weight gain. There are greater numbers of kids and adults with ADHD and anxiety and depression and the meds used to treat these conditions often cause weight gain, sometimes a lot in a short period of time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s the non-stop snacking, sugar, and processed foods.

All foods are processed. Bottled water is processed. Ultra processed is the problem.

But even kids who don't eat it are overweight.

I have one who is skinny as a rail and one who is a little chunky and they both eat the same food and do the same exercise.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach in a high poverty school and by 5th-6th grade, nearly every student is overweight. It's sad. Some of them stayed overweight as they grew but some of them were a normal weight and then just packed on the pounds.

That’s the real tragedy here - skinny to average sized children in wealthier neighborhoods and heavy to obese children in poorer ones.

It's really evident when you see kids from around the country on class field trips to DC. The overweight kids tend to clearly be lower income. The groups with predominantly healthy weight kids are obviously from higher income areas. It's a night and day difference. Weight is very much a class indicator these days.

Anonymous wrote:I have two kids, one has always been slim despite eating a ton (and she’s a girl), and the other (a boy) packed on a ton of weight between ages 9-12 and finally is slimming down by 14. Both kids eat healthy foods, not picky, we don’t drink soda or eat out a lot. His metabolism is just more like mine (sorry, son).

Some of his friends pound soda and spend all their money eating junk at the snack bar all summer and after school and are stick thin. He’s my kid who happily snacks on cucumbers after school.

You can judge all you want, but you have zero clue how everyone is actually eating.

It's not judgement. It's a lament.

Anonymous wrote:It’s the non-stop snacking, sugar, and processed foods.

All foods are processed. Bottled water is processed. Ultra processed is the problem.

Anonymous wrote:My kid was growth chart concerning underweight until age 8, just sick all the time. After a lifetime of medication, which so many kids are on these days, weight started to pack on at puberty and never stopped. No junk food in the house, in sports, have a home gym, kid is aware of nutrition, does not overeat, etc. No one else in the family gained this weight.

There is a bigger problem happening in this world and it is messing up the metabolism of young kids.

I do think medications play a bigger role than is acknowledged.

I have two kids, one has always been slim despite eating a ton (and she’s a girl), and the other (a boy) packed on a ton of weight between ages 9-12 and finally is slimming down by 14. Both kids eat healthy foods, not picky, we don’t drink soda or eat out a lot. His metabolism is just more like mine (sorry, son).

Some of his friends pound soda and spend all their money eating junk at the snack bar all summer and after school and are stick thin. He’s my kid who happily snacks on cucumbers after school.

You can judge all you want, but you have zero clue how everyone is actually eating.

There is a lot going on causing everyone to be overweight and you can’t just blame personal discipline and parents. (I say this as a normal-BMI family). Our food is making us sick and overweight. The human race is killing itself.

Ironically we have medicines to keep us alive longer but for what person? Does an obese person with joint pains who can barely move except in the wheelchair get joy out of living 10 more years?

Anonymous wrote:I teach in a high poverty school and by 5th-6th grade, nearly every student is overweight. It's sad. Some of them stayed overweight as they grew but some of them were a normal weight and then just packed on the pounds.

That’s the real tragedy here - skinny to average sized children in wealthier neighborhoods and heavy to obese children in poorer ones.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Swimming at the pool this year and have really noticed a lot of chunky kids. I know a lot of kids are overweight and obese now but it still surprises me every time I see kids who are clearly overweight at a young age.

DH and I had the opposite problem growing up and our kids are sharing our genetics. No matter how much they eat they can’t really gain weight. Our 9.5 year old only weighs 66 pounds and eats like a horse!

A friend of mine said her 8 year old weighed 100 pounds!

My kids don’t eat perfectly healthy all the time and do eat junk food so it’s not like they aren’t also consuming the highly processed food. I just feel bad for kids having to go through this at such a young age.

It really is absolutely none of your business, is it?

+100

I have 2 kids. They eat the same food. One I buy slim for, the other is in husky. Completely different body types (one takes after me, the other after my husband); one was scrawny at birth, the other felt like I was carrying a bowling ball and just had been very heavy (pound wise) since they were a baby. I know as they hit puberty and grow, it will spread out and one will be always be a twig, the other will be muscular, but it is hard right now bc it’s genetic and the comments people make are cringy. If one eats junk food, no one cares, if the other does they get the side eye. Don’t be a dick. I do my best to make both comfortable so we don’t end up with an eating disorder, but my larger kid KNOWS and is feeling shame despite it being out of their control.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it is still shocking to me OP. Especially when I see chunky kids with thin parents.

But we aren't allowed to talk about it and have to just pretend we don't notice.

Why would you talk about it? WTH would you say? Hey skinny parents didn't you notice your kids' weight? Of course they know. Of course their doctors know. You have no idea what is really going on.

My kid was growth chart concerning underweight until age 8, just sick all the time. After a lifetime of medication, which so many kids are on these days, weight started to pack on at puberty and never stopped. No junk food in the house, in sports, have a home gym, kid is aware of nutrition, does not overeat, etc. No one else in the family gained this weight.

There is a bigger problem happening in this world and it is messing up the metabolism of young kids.

Anonymous wrote:Swimming at the pool this year and have really noticed a lot of chunky kids. I know a lot of kids are overweight and obese now but it still surprises me every time I see kids who are clearly overweight at a young age.

DH and I had the opposite problem growing up and our kids are sharing our genetics. No matter how much they eat they can’t really gain weight. Our 9.5 year old only weighs 66 pounds and eats like a horse!

A friend of mine said her 8 year old weighed 100 pounds!

My kids don’t eat perfectly healthy all the time and do eat junk food so it’s not like they aren’t also consuming the highly processed food. I just feel bad for kids having to go through this at such a young age.

It really is absolutely none of your business, is it?