Child weight surgery becoming more common

[AGDee]

Several random thoughts:
1. Anorexia and Bulimia get a lot of funding and press, but there are few opportunities for treatment of compulsive overeating. The behaviors that lead to extreme obesity (binging, sneak eating, etc) are very similar to the behaviors of an anorexic or bulimic but aren't treated in a similar manner.

2. Kids' activity levels have dropped significantly due to numerous changes in our society, especially the "safety" factor. Think about it.. when I was a kid, during the summer, we were running all over the neighborhood, playing sports, riding bikes, skating, swimming. We'd leave the house early in the day, stop in at home for lunch, then back out til dinner, then back out "until the street lights went on", only checking in occasionally and nobody worried about where we were every minute. In this day and age, you can't let your kid run the neighborhood without being supervised, and who can supervise all that activity all day long? People are working and day care centers have like two outdoor play times. The rest of the time, kids are in classrooms. Our kids don't walk to school because it's not safe to send them off, often in the dark of the morning. They get rides or ride a bus to school now. We have to find a way, as a society, to compensate for these changes, perhaps through more gym classes in school? Our elementary kids get about 60 minutes of gym class a week. By the time they get home from latch key, eat dinner and do homework, it's bedtime. I can't speak for all latch key programs, but in ours, they tend to put on a television and make the kids watch TV during latch key. It's one of the reasons I stopped sending my son to afternoon latch key.

3. The snack situation: We never had snacks in school. I was shocked at how often they want kids to eat at school. Again, my experiences are limited to my own kids' school, but this how it looked in first grade:
8:00 am Breakfast at latch key (if they bought breakfast, it was a donut, piggle stick, bagel, poptart or french toast stick.. I always sent Cheerios.. the only cereal my kids ate)
9:30 am Morning Snack (sent by parents, I sent fruit)
11:30 am Lunch (I'll get into school lunches next)
1:30 pm Afternoon Snack (again, sent by parents, but my son often "traded" their carrots or celery sticks for stuff like twinkies or cookies that other kids brought)
3:30 pm Latch Key snack (sent by parents... again, often traded!)
Do they need to eat that many times a day? I stopped sending the snacks after a while and packed a good healthy lunch with a sandwich, salad or carrots, a fruit, a low fat yogurt and bottled water and told my kids that if they wanted a snack, to save something from their lunch. I later found out that my son was buying Little Debbies and cookies with his allowance money every single day at lunch. I had no way of knowing this until he and my daughter ate lunch at the same time and SHE told me.

4. Our school lunch menu now has info on "the average school lunch" and it's nutritional value. Some stats:
685 calories
26.3 G fat
7.6 G Saturated Fat
85.5 Carbs
29 G Protein

FDA recommends DAILY: (first number is age 4-8, second number for age 9-13)
Calories: 1300 1700 (making lunch HALF of a 7 year olds total daily intake)
Fat: 43 G 56 G (making lunch fat far more than HALF of what a 7 year old should eat daily)

I see a problem there.

5. I'm NOT eliminating parental responsibility at all, but I think it's important that parents understand what the kids are eating at school. I admit, I didn't pay attention to that.

6. Last random thought: Young kids generally self-regulate how much they need to eat. Encouraging them to be in the "clean plate club" is not a good idea, but don't let them eat junk later when they haven't had fruits/veggies/protein that day. I think something is probably physically wrong with a child who eats enough to weigh 300 pounds at age 5. I have always read/been told that it takes 20 minutes to know that you're full/satisfied, but I can honestly say that about 2 hours after I've eaten is when I feel "full". That makes it very difficult to self-regulate without simply educating yourself that you only need a certain portion of food to fuel your body. It's difficult to still feel VERY hungry 30 minutes after you've eaten a full meal. I've noticed a similar tendency in my kids (who are both overweight, although not to the extreme noted above). I watch them eat a good meal, good portion sizes and still complain about being hungry. I've discussed this with doctors and none have known about any research in this area. If anybody is aware of any, I'd love the info on it.

I think bariatric is necessary for some people but I fear that too many are jumping to it too quickly as an "easy fix" when you still have to learn to eat right and make time for exercise

Dee (who has lost 35 pounds over the last year through very careful elimination of certain foods and portion control, but still wants to lose about 60 more pounds)

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally Posted by AGDee

Several random thoughts:
1. Anorexia and Bulimia get a lot of funding and press, but there are few opportunities for treatment of compulsive overeating. The behaviors that lead to extreme obesity (binging, sneak eating, etc) are very similar to the behaviors of an anorexic or bulimic but aren't treated in a similar manner.

There's still debate as to whether there's an overeating "gene."

The Health Channel (I think) shows repeats of the obesity episode with the guy who lost like 700 lbs only to gain it back and MORE. Michael something--Richard Simmons was like his best buddy and now cries because the guy fell so hard off the wagon.

Another dude they showcased was in the hospital for weight surgery. He had convinced himself that it wasn't overeating but instead genetics. He ate the same types of foods and in the same moderation as someone who isn't overweight. All of this while they showed him and his wife's FILTHY kitchen. Dishes in the sink, trash falling out of the trash can--pizza boxes, soda cans. Gross. When they asked his wife "what does he eat," he interrupted her before she could formulate a good answer and said "I'm tired of that question--we're not talking about food here we're talking genetics." Her face was like ""

[Taualumna]

I can't speak for all latch key programs, but in ours, they tend to put on a television and make the kids watch TV during latch key. It's one of the reasons I stopped sending my son to afternoon latch key.

Dee, you mean they don't have a quiet place for a kid to do homework? And do the schools make the kids eat snacks during the snack period? When I was in elementary school, morning and afternoon snacks (brought from home) could be taken during recess, but no one really even had time to eat. Too busy playing.

[kstar]

Originally Posted by AGDee

Several random thoughts:
4. Our school lunch menu now has info on "the average school lunch" and it's nutritional value. Some stats:
685 calories
26.3 G fat
7.6 G Saturated Fat
85.5 Carbs
29 G Protein

FDA recommends DAILY: (first number is age 4-8, second number for age 9-13)
Calories: 1300 1700 (making lunch HALF of a 7 year olds total daily intake)
Fat: 43 G 56 G (making lunch fat far more than HALF of what a 7 year old should eat daily)

I see a problem there.

Part of the reason that there is so much of the daily allowance in school lunches is that that is the only meal that some kids eat. I lived in a rather well off area, but there were still the kids that only ate lunch because they got it free, and they didn't eat at home.