The children too obese to sleep safely

[Mugu]

Sarah-Kate Templeton, Health Editor, Times Online (UK)

DOZENS of children as young as six and seven have become so obese that doctors are being forced to put them on ventilators at night to keep them breathing while they sleep.

The children, whose breathing difficulties are blamed on overeating rather than any medical conditions, have been judged by the National Health Service to be morbidly obese - weighing as much as four times the normal weight for their age.

The excessive weight bearing down on the chest, together with deposits of fat around the throat and neck, mean the children need ventilators to help them to breathe while they sleep.

Doctors have revealed that the problem, previously witnessed only in obese adults or children with medical problems, is spreading to children of primary school age as the latest consequence of the childhood obesity epidemic.

Complete article

[Bonobo]

1. Without even looking, I will wager they are all lower-income.

People are being placated with sweet food that is not food. Not quite soylent green, but not quite food either -if you define food as something nutritious which sustains health.

[lapfog_1]

4. Actually, there are many still very affordable

natural fruits and vegetables in the grocery store (at least when compared to pre-packaged processed snacks). Buy a bag of apples or a bunch of bananas or some grapes. Kids will eat them (even though they would rather have a pudding cup or something like that)... and then send them outside to play. My house (and my sister's, her husbands and my niece) is a local magnet house for afterschool activities. Anywhere from 3 to 5 kids come over for snacks, a bit of homework, and at least an hour of something outdoors (weather permitting). Not a obese or even overweight one in the bunch. And they do better academically when they exercise and play more.

[Pharlo]

6. Assuming you live in a neighborhood

where it is safe to send the children outside to play. Areas where natural fruits and vegetables may not be affordable or readily accessible also tend to be neighborhoods where you do NOT want your children playing outside for their own safety. I know I hear of children being shot while playing INSIDE (bullets coming from the outside) their house on the local news occasionally. If I were a parent, I sure as hell wouldn't send my child outside to play in that neighborhood. Just one other factor to consider in the 'send them outside to play' argument.

[lapfog_1]

7. Yes, that's true... but many of the obese kids are also

suburban or even rural. Not all are urban dwellers.

[Javaman]

16. I just think it's the end result of our over consumption, over consumerized

over serving sized, over indulged society.

It plays into the same mentality of buying a house with no money down on an ARM or borrowing off your equity like it was a nonstop ATM or driving humongous vehicles then complaining that it requires your whole paycheck to fill it.

Nothing happens in a vacuum.

yeah, these kids are obese but that just doesn't happen out of no where.

Young parents with no parenting skills, no real sex ed anymore, no read health ed anymore, no concept of how to balance a budget and live within ones means.

Credit cards are the fall back instead of doing with out or living with less. But a systemic concept of living with less or living within ones means, not a sudden thing because of societal influences.

the list goes on and on.

there is a gigantic sector of society that just doesn't get it nor will the ever get it. And will always take the easy way out, even when they know that the easy way out is just a pay day for horror down the road.

Obese children are just the poster child (pardon the pun) for our society and how we as a nation have been taught to believe that no matter what happens, "we are americans damn it and that's just the way things are!!"

object over consumerism is the disease that permeates us all to some degree or another.

and is the cause of our societies woes.

[lapfog_1]

2. Parents, junk food, school budgets

Parents need to make better food choices for their kids... and to turn off the electronic gadgets (all of them) that distract from running around outside.

Junk food could actually be made to be healthier than it is... blame the food industry and it's reliance on corn syrup and other addicting but not useful additives.

School budgets... and the focus on NCLB, have left schools with little organized physical exercise time. My 12 year old niece has only one PE period per week at the local school, and one hour of "recess" where there are no organized games and students are encouraged to spend the time in study hall instead of outside, working on homework for the "AIMS" standards test so the school can have the same federal money next year as this year.

[flvegan]

3. I admit that I'm surprised that this is about the UK.

I expected the article to be about someplace here in the States.

I don't know what the fast food/junk food situation is in the UK. Are they being as overrun as we are in the US?

[momster]

9. Worse

The British have food problems too....their fav breakfasts seems to be fatty animal products doing the backstroke in grease, like the worst Southern cooking. They are a sweet-tooth nation, add in afternoon tea and their evening drinking habits and you've got some serious fatitude. That's all before you get into the whole Fast Food thing...they were eating like this years before MickeyD's. Once the WWII rationing was over, they started back with traditional unhealthy eating.

[Donnachaidh]

5. Take a GOOD look at a regular supermarket these days

The MAJORITY of the space (including freezer space) is used by pre-packaged CRAP. We're all being sold on *it's quick, it's easy, it's what EVERYBODY eats" in order to sell foods that aren't being watched by the FDA, and probably have huge amounts of additives and sugar. It's no wonder we have people suffering from being overweight. If you go the route of a regular diet of any of this garbage (and I include the DIET crap as well) on a regular basis you are pretty much guaranteed to develop problems -- not JUST being fat.

[SoCalDem]

8. I am SO glad that my kids grew up when they did

My boy's favorite snack was cut up raw veggies & dillweed dip.. We entertained a lot, and we had a garden, so I was always making veggie platters with cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, cauliflower, etc.. I would always tell them.."Stay away from the platter"..and of course they each sneaked" handfuls of the goodies..(I always had another in the refrig for the gathering :evilgrin:..)

To this day, they love their veggies..raw, steamed or any way..

We never bought soda pop (unsweetened iced tea here) or potato chips..

My mother-in-law used to complain to us that our boys were skinny..but they ate all the time..just not junk..and they are all grown up men with no weight problems..

[OhioChick]

10. I assumed this would be the US,

but see it is the UK. People with obese children need to quit feeding them junk food and get them outside playing. What ever happened to playing outdoor games of football, baseball, ghost in the graveyard, etc.?

My parents never allowed junk food, turned off the television and made us go outside to play.

[varkam]

11. That's very sad.

As the article noted, usually when kids have apnea it's because of tonsils or the like - not obesity. Sign of the times, I guess.

[Juche]

12. How many kids fit that bill

The majority of overweight/obese people have a BMI fro 25-35. At most, the majority of us fat people are 40% heavier than a BMI in the acceptable range. Something like 8% of people have a BMI over 35. The majority of overweight/obese are 25-35 BMI.

People don't weigh 4x the normal weight due to 'overeating'. That is a simplistic copout and as cringeworthy as a doctor saying cancer is due to not praying hard enough for jesus's help. There is something seriously wrong with a person's biochemistry if they are 400% heavier than normal, and no studies have shown that diet & exercise work for long term weight loss. Tons of people eat horribly and are only 10-40% heavier than average, they are not 400% heavier than a person with an 18-25 BMI.

It is sad to see how backwards and oblivious our medical community is on obesity. The book 'the obesity myth' is a real eye opener.

[Lars39]

13. I have a 5 yo nephew who is obese.

His mom has a hard time getting him to eat at all, let alone overeat. His doctor *finally* acknowledged that something was seriously wrong with him, but only because his face was swelling so much that he could barely see out of his eyes sometimes.:(

[Juche]

14. It can happen

The prejudice against obesity prevents doctors from offering competent medical advice. Problems with thyroid, cortisol, testosterone etc are blamed on overeating. It is no different than a few decades ago when depression was blamed on negative thinking. Sure it plays a role, but not as big as people want to believe.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

15. If his face is swollen, he probably has myxedema.

Myxedema is a severe lack of thyroid hormone, which takes several years to develop.
I had it and could have died had I not gone to a competent doctor.

He probably needs to be on Armour thyroid hormone.