Comment on the Kids and Food. thread from yesterday. I don’t comment to much, I am mostly a “lurky”, but I thought this topic was worth commenting on. Well of them are, I just mostly read the threads and stories.
I just want to comment on the Kids and Food string from yesterday.
First I would like to say “Kudos” to all the parents and future parents that care what their kids eat. If we had more parents caring about that, we wouldn’t have the child obesity problem. Our children learn from us, and if we don’t teach them who will? I do understand the obesity problem, and part of it is the parents(and those darn video games), and that at the end of the day, they are just to tired to worry about getting them the right food when they just want them fed and out of their hair. I have been guilty on occasion.
I know there are a lot more factors that come in to play on obesity…….
My kids are not skinny or fat by any means, although the doctors would say that my son is obese, he is not. They don’t take in the factors of body types. My son is 6 and weighs 65 pounds, he is not chunky but solid. (muscular). I have to buy him larger shirts just to fit his shoulders, he is six and already has very broad shoulders, I should add he is tall for his age. People assume he is older than he is due to his size. My daughter (5) is just average all around.
The “cure” starts with one parent and one child at a time…..oh and difo!…..In my house, I use moderation, I don’t deny them certain things, but I do regulate it. I let them have the cookies and fruit snacks and things like that…..but I also make sure they are getting the fruits and veggies and protein they need. At 5 & 6, they understand the difference between healthy snacks and non-healthy snacks. I think if “we” teach our kids moderation, they have a better chance of being healthy adults. I have so much more I want to say, but don’t want to make this too long.
I would personally like to thank difo, for all the ideas, recipes and many other things that I have incorporated into my life, now if only everyone would peruze (sp) difo……baby steps!
Difo Rocks!
at my younger son’s school,. they had someone talk to them about nutrition, and now he won’t eat foods with dye in them (Skittles, for example). He will tell people things like, “Did you know that dye is made with petroleum?”
It can be hard when a child is tall for their age. I think sometimes people expect more, because they look older. My 11 year old is 72 pounds and average height, so he doesn’t have that issue.
Yeah I do think schools. are trying to be “healthier”, but they don’t have anyone standing over the kids telling them to eat their veggies at lunch time.
that’s great that your son’s school had someone in to talk to them and even greater that he listened and took something to heart, so to speak. But I bet he has learned a lot at home, which helped him to listen to the nutritionist.
Yes I think that something people to expect more when they look older, I sometimes catch myself doing it…I tell myself he is only 6, although he is very smart for his age, which is an advantage. my daughter on the other, well she is smart, just a lot less focused!
hey. my 11 year old is 73 pounds! At 55″ he is pretty skinny, I have to buy slims in all his jeans or they fall right off!
same here.. now I’ll have to go check his height to see if it matches up too.
mine is. 10 and 70 lbs and wears slims, too. Yep, if they’re not slims, they fall right off.
mine. Girl 42″ 36 pounds
Boy 38″ 30 pounds
The girl is smaller in the hips.
The boy is “denser” and heavier.
mine. boy 6 almost 7
49-50 inches 65lb
girl 5
I think 44 inches
40lbs I think
Times sure have changed. When I went to school, bringing any form of candy was grounds for being sent to the principal’s office. The “bad” kids would skip off campus and get burgers from McDonald’s for lunch and usually get reprimanded for it.
My mom didn’t overtly teach us moderation so much as providing an environment where it was obvious. The only sweet treats we had were from her oven…cookies and milk on Friday nights were our “end of week” celebration. It would never have occurred to us to have such things daily.
Yet I understand that one now finds soda and candy machines right in the schools themselves. My granddaughter mentioned to me that there’s a “smoking allowed” hallway in her school – seems strange to me that the school has such a thing, when it’s not legal for under-18 people to possess a cigarette to begin with.
To a great extent, we shape individuals not by directly teaching them this or that, but by creating an enviornment where good things are the norm.
Of course, back in those days, no parent would even THINK of driving the kids to school – walk, take the bus or ride your bike, I’m not going to have the neighborhood’s only spoiled brats!
your grandaughter is lying. smoking is NEVER allowed nor encouraged by school officials.
And it is not illegal for a person under 18 to have or smoke cigs. It’s illegal for them to purchase.. I actually just learned that from my friend..
Thanks for the clarification. I see the signs in stores that say no cigs to minors…I made a too-big leap, I suppose, thinking that possession was the law.
I thought the same thing. my friend’s wife was telling me how she had cigs in her purse at 16 (a few years ago) and flying to Texas and her grandma made a big deal of her having them and the airport guy told her. LOL I didn’t even know. I always figured they were totally illegal.
when I went to. high school, there was a spot outside the school officially designated for smoking. It was called coffin corner.
officially with signs?. indoors?
outdoors,. no signs, but it was official.
I had friends who went to private school. and they had a smoking section (outside). I was so jealous. This was early ’90s.
how old are you? §.
Old. 50th high school reunion is only four years away.
the reason I ask. is that your experiences growing up were markedly different from mine, yet we are not that far apart in age. I’m 53, and I grew up in a smallish town in the Midwest.
Financial status matters, too, not just age. We’re ten years apart in age. But my family was lower middle class, and that was above the norm in our little farming community. Only 3/4 or so of the families owned a car, and cars were a nuisance because we could only afford old ones that broke a lot. If a car had 50,000 mile on it in those days, of course, it wasn’t reliable enough to trust for cross-country trip. There’s something that has really changed – technology and consumer gadgets are not constantly breaking any more. My car has over 200,000 mile on it, and I’d trust it to drive from one end of the country to the other any day.
I experienced air conditioning for the first time in my young 20s, on my first “professional” indoor job.
I grew up about 20 miles northeast of Muskegon, MI…a mix mostly of wheat growing country and dairy farming.
my family. was also lower middle class. My dad worked 2 jobs, and my mom took in ironing, and rented out rooms in our house.
Everyone I knew had at least one car.
One of the biggest changes I’ve seen is that teens don’t/won’t work the brutal summer jobs that my peers did. Kids used to take jobs at the Green Giant and Birdseye plants, and work 12 hour shifts 7 days a week. Younger kids would walk beans (weed soybean fields for farmers) or detassle corn. They did it for spending money, not because they had to.
Yes they have. i am 35, and growing up, a treat was sharing a can of pop and getting some popcorn, whoo hoo!
dinners were meat and potato’s and bread, yikes the bread we ate at everymeal.
I think the fact that I didn’t get treats much as a kid, is why I snacked more in my late teen’s and early 20′s, and now, I don’t even drink pop, maybe 1 can a month when I get a craving, and I very rarely drink the whole can. I am more of a red bull addict, but I have cut that down to 1-2 week!
I think that is why I think teaching moderation to our kids is good, give them the snacks, but also give them the healthy ones, then maybe when they are old enough, they won’t feel deprived and bing on the ho ho’s.
I did go through a “candy phase”. For me it was after college…when I had my first significant income and basically, felt like I could afford it.
I remember one weekend, I was reading a book…I bought a bag of M&Ms, really loved them frozen, it was a full pound and I put them in the freezer. Couple chapters into the book, and I broke out the bag from the freezer, figured I’d have only a few of them. But the next time I looked, the bag was empty, I was sick to my stomach, and I’ve never wanted an M&M since then.
Maybe, growing up without any of that meant that my body didn’t handle it well when I subjected myself to it?
I think it depends on your family. I was raised by my dad as a single parent, and he literally let me eat anything I wanted. As a result, I ended up pretty chubby as a child, but as I got older, I was unhappy with my appearnace, and by the time I was about 14, started amking my own decisions about food, exercise, etc. I started high school at 5’4″ and a size 13 Juniors, and graduated at 5’6″ and a size 3. (and at 33 can still wear a 7 in jrs.) My first year of high school, we all raided the candy machines and ate candy and sodas for lunch.
the soda and candy machines have changed. in LV anyway.
No soda or candy.
I don’t know that they are stocked with things that are that great though. Juices, granola bars etc. It’s kind of hard to keep it stocked with apples and carrot sticks.
There was a smoking area in my school. Right outside the gym. I remember having to walk through it everyday to get inside. This was in the early -mid 80′s. Purchasing cigs used to be 16, then it was changed to 19.
As far as driving kids to school, I think some fears are legitimate, others not so much. As much as the information age has benefitted us, I think some information fuels fear instead of empowerment.
the whole kidnapping thing. has become a much bigger problem, so t least when kids are young, i can see why they get driven to/from school.
i was never given soda growing up, and therefore don’t have much of a taste for it, or anything very sweet. i like really good chocolate, custards and creamy things. i like the tartness of plain yogurt. i also don’t have any interst in pretzels or potato chips. i do love pasta and potatoes though.
But is it really?. I am not so sure.
The awareness of sexual predators has heightened, absolutely.
But I’m not sure that it is a greater problem than in years past.
It’s kind of sad that we have “given up the streets”.
Walk with them. I used to drive mine to and from school.
Now i walk them the mile round trip every morning.
I do pick em up in the car when they get out of school, Well I am in Arizona and no-one wants to walk a mile when its 110+ outside.
But when the weather cools it will be a walk home when they get out of school.
Yeah, the weather is an issue in LV. as is the traffic.
I find the routes to be more hazardous in that regard.
Crossing 4 lanes of traffic during rush hour.
People are bad enough drivers as it is.
I would walk if it was a safer route in that regard and more of a neighborhood community atmosphere.
Ahh I’m Lucky that way. No crazy Traffic to deal with.
Not, it’s not…you’re right. It’s more of an “awareness has been heightened” issue.
I’m a statistician, and for the past 20 years, my studies have been about the culture – cause and effect, perception versus reality, and so forth.
The actual rate of kidnappings is about half what it was 20 years ago, when there was a peak, and is about the same as circa 1950-1960. Despite the fact that there are more kids to nap. However, each individual case receives far more media publicity, therefore, the public has heightened sensitivity…which leads to the incorrect belief that the rate is up.
It is true that there are more convicted/registered sex offenders. This is probably not due to any change in behavior, but rather a much higher rate of detection and conviction. Thus, the danger level has not changed with respect to the quantity of “bad people” who are around, but we have an increased awareness of them after they’ve done the deed.
I did crime stats, among other things, in the 90s. Interesting…but you do have to harden yourself to the fact that each set of statistics represents people who were victimized.
I did crime stats, too!. I will say though.
The culture of pornography has changed. It’s gotten much more accessible and almost mainstream.
Child porn has exploded. I suspect that may have some impact.
Even so, children are more likely to be abused by a friend, acquaintance, family member, or trusted figure as opposed to a stranger on the street.
Kids need to be educated. Developing judgement in young ones is tough. Knowledge of the “bad guys” doesn’t replace instilling response techniques.
No kidding…but I have to be careful. when discussing that. The only major opponents of the spread of porn are generally religious…and I think that’s impacting any government action to stop the spread…many refer to porn as a “vicimless crime” and therefore it should not be illegal. It’s difficult for me to discuss the topic and dream up solutions without involving religion, and that’s forbidden in government circles these days.
It bugs me that the headlines tend to indicate what people WANT to believe, rather than what the stats indicate. Like crime rate versus demographics. Crime rates in poor sections of town are higher, but not by as much as the headlines would say. The biggest correlating factor is, in fact, population density…income is about fifth on the list. Even in posh condo complexes, the more people per square block, the higher the crime rate. Areas of high population density are target-rich and easy for the criminal to find a hiding place in. But this stat, while well-known in the law enforcement community, simply won’t get published. It is politically incorrect to suggest lower population densities, because so many popular “green” ideas depend on highly dense populations – central control over power and food distribution, mass transit, etc, all fail in rural areas.
As you can see, I don’t find a lot to like about the “politically correct” movement. And yet, I myself do not have a party of choice.
Meh.. I wasn’t really refering to why people would be against porn…some may object for religious reasons, other reasons for some…
What I was getting what more the technological advances over the years with personal recording devices and the internet. It’s a completely different medium. More accessible to more people, even inadvertently. Culturally too. It has become almost a career booster to have a “sex tape” these days.
I understand what you mean about population densities. Absolutely. I get disgusted with the news much of the time, because things are so sensationalized.
What also is counterintuitive, is that crime rates go UP in poor economic times. I’m a bit out of the loop with the recent stats however.
Lots of other things come into play to include manpower, attitudes towards police, etc.
Actually, we did an experiment. Crime rates go up when the news has negative headlines!!!
We gained influence over the press in a few cities (it’s easy) and when the economy was on the rise, for a few weeks, we had them publish negative headlines…highlight the stories about business corruption, or headlines about “while the middle class see 10% raises, executives are seeing 500% raises”, you know, find the negative angle in everything. Crime rates rose immediately.
The perception of the world is everything!
It’s hard to get a handle on cause and effect. though.
And I mispoke, what I meant to say was when the economy is UP, crime is UP.
When the economy is DOWN, crime is DOWN.
Counterintuitive.
But like I said, I’ve been out of the loop for a while.
It would be interesting to overlay crime trends with some economic indicator. It’s something I would like to explore.
The media can have a poisoning effect in any number of ways.
Unplanned change causes stress. and people have forgotten how to handle stress.
Crime rate goes up when the economy is up or down. Alcoholics have a hard time staying off the booze when they lose their jobs – or get the next one.
In my first psych class in college, I did a term paper on suicide. Fascinatingly, people who commit suicide are just as likely to be riding high on their game as being in the dumps. It is the inability to deal with extreme change that leads them to it…they seek an escape. A lot of studies were done about suicide in the era of the great depression…the rate actually peaked BEFORE the market collapsed.
I strongly disagree.. people who commit suicide are generally dealing with serious long-term depression. People who are “riding high” don’t generally choose to end their lives. Describing suicidal depression as “being in the dumps” doesn’t sound like the words of someone who has written a term paper on suicide, btw.
Why do you think human beings have changed so much in your lifetime that they have forgotten how to manage stress? I think you have blinders on about the so-called good old days.
I may be reaching here. but the fact that people commit suicide when “riding high” as well as “in the dumps” may have more to do with the actual disease of depression which I can only imagine we have made leaps and bounds in the understanding of during the past 45 years.
The idea that stress leads to suicide may have been an accepted idea based on the current understanding of the time.
I am assuming Affluenza wrote this paper some time ago?
sounds like the dark ages.. but I’m a little touchy on the subject of suicide.
Change = stress. Yes.
But, neither being an alcoholic nor committing suicide are crimes.
I DO think that things like domestic assault, disturbances, child abuse may go up. That is the word on the street, again. I don’t have access to the data.
Unless there is a state of anarchy, a generally moral person does not suddenly become immoral and start commmitting crimes just because the economy is bad.
When the economy is good, it is usually good for criminals as well, a more “target rich environment”. I’m thinking specifically of property crimes.
When the economy is bad, people have less “stuff” and tend to be home as opposed to being at work, leaving less opportunity.
And less socializing, interacting with people,. out on the town, etc., etc.
I agree.. I think the media has sensationalized kidnappings so much that people are far more fearful than is justified by the statistics.
I need clarification on something, please.. You wrote that the doctor says that your son is obese, but you don’t think he is? So somehow you’re able to take into account “body frames”, yet a medical professional isn’t?
I keep hearing things like this from parents, whom I feel are in denial about their child’s weight. There’s a discounting of professional advice, as if it applies to everyone except them.
I have children, and 65 lbs at 6 years old is heavy, and I don’t care what “frame” size you’re talking about.
Instead of justifying feeding your children unhealthy snacks, why don’t you try eliminating them? Are you really doing your children any favors by giving them fruit roll-ups on a regular basis?
First doctors go by a charts mostly,. not frame, they don’t say he is obese,per se but is heavy. My son is taller and more broad shouldered than most kids 3-4 years older than him. He was 9 lbs at birth and has continually been at the 100% on his growth chart. And I didn’t say I give them fruit roll ups all the time, I say I have them in the house, but I regulate. My kids eat plenty of fruit and veggies, he prefers them over potato’s, pasta and rice.
I am not justiying anything, I am saying eating habits start at home, and we has parents need to teach our kids moderation, which I do, and the difference between healthy and non-healthy snacks. I personally think it is okay for kids to have junk food as long as it’s in moderation, and no we do not eat mcdonalds on a regular basis.
And no I am not in deniel. he is 6 and about 49-50 inches tall with a 6 pack I’d kill for.