Last night we watched a programme on Portuguese TV. It’s basically the Portuguese version of “The Biggest Loser”. But it’s for teens instead of adults.
It was the first episode so they were forming teams and getting to know the place they will stay at and their initial weight. We didn’t watch the whole thing, but it was enough for me to form an opinion. You may or may not agree with my opinion, and that’s ok.
In every single one of these cases, the kids used food as a comfort. And in most of them that started before they were 10, mostly for external factors. Either they were victims of bullying at school (and the parents didn’t notice) or there was jealousy of siblings and it was an attention seeking thing, or there were family conflicts causing the children to seek refuge in food, etc.
In the first team of 6, their combined weight was 800Kg (that’s 125 Stone). Most of these kids have not done any recreational activities with friends (if they have friends) like swimming, going to the beach, dancing, for years. And the large majority lives between school and the house, where they hide from the world who ostracises them.
So how does a child get to be overweight by the time they’re 1 and obese by the time they’re 6? (one kid was 82Kg by 6 years old and 100Kg by the age of 10. That’s 12.9 stone and 15.7 stone respectively).
I know there are many reasons why people become obese in their adult life. And of course, the older you get the harder it is to go back to your “slim” self. Habits are harder to break the older you are too.
But for a child to get to that level of weight by the age of 16/17, it is not an overnight thing. It started years before. It started before the kid had money to go to the supermarket to buy sweets. The people controlling what was stored in cupboards in the kitchen were the parents.
At our house, if you have a roam around the cupboards and the fridge, you will find for sure a pack of biscuits, a pack of crisps, probably some chocolate in the fridge and a box of sweets. But in these kids’ houses, there was a cupboard full of packets of biscuits and another full of packets of crisps, and another with boxes of cereal (the ones loaded with sugar).
One girl was shown having her breakfast and she ate it not from a bowl but from a Tupperware (used to store soup normally). It was double or triple the amount an average child would eat. And what was in it? Milk, sugar and Coco Pops. Sugar with Coco Pocs???
One of the boys said he ate half the pack at every breakfast. Another girl showed her dinner where she ate 3 steaks with chips, covered in a cream sauce. THREE steaks!
How does it ever get there if not for the parents’ complicity? Most parents interviewed recognised that their kids were overweight – none used the word morbidly obese (which is what they all were – all weighing in excess of 100Kg, and one of them reaching 172Kg). And only one or two sets of parents out of the bunch (there’s about 18 kids in the group) recognised that they were to blame.
I know that there are many reasons why parents give in. But it’s crucial that they have their eyes open. Don’t let things snowball. When we have our babies, we take them to weigh-in sessions to make sure they’re picking up weight nicely – and the health visitors plot their progress against the average curve. Well, if you look around the kids in the playground when they are 5 or 6 and you can already see that your child is bigger than the rest, go talk to a health visitor. Have them check your child’s weight. Ask them what you should be doing in terms of their diet. That’s what they are there for. Don’t let the time pass and put the problem under the rug.
Your child is your responsibility. You may think you are doing the best for them by giving in to their wants and desires – treats, sugary foods, heavy carbs. You are not. They will be bullied at school, they will fall behind in their school work because they will have no energy. They will lose interest in sports or they won’t be picked to play. They will struggle to find a girlfriend/boyfriend. They will develop depression and have poor self-esteem. This is not to mention all the health risks. They may think that they’re healthy because outwardly they are ok. But silently really nasty illnesses are developing: type 2 diabetes, heart disease, kidney failure, respiratory diseases, etc.
Do you really dream for your child a life of pain and suffering? Do you wish for them a life of solitude in front of a computer, hiding who they are and living in virtual social worlds?
Say no to them while you can! Say no to them while all you get in return is a tantrum. Because tears are part of the course. It’s part of life to learn to handle rejection – the first no’s come from the parents. And that’s ok.
You have the reigns of your children’s education. And that includes health and nutrition education. Make sure you invest time in it, otherwise it’s more likely you will see your children die before you do.