Fat children ‘should be taken into care’

I'm 'big', and would certainly be fat if I didn't exercise. As it is, I'm definitely an endomorph - despite my arms and legs being solid muscle, I still have a very squidgy mid-section. I'm very fit, and very healthy, but it's still taken me years to talk myself into liking my body. It's hard work, when you're bombarded day after day with fat-is-bad-fat-is-bad-fat-is-bad-fat-is-bad-fat-is-bad, and I don't know how the majority of people are going to develop any sort of positive body image with the media (etc.) working the way it does.

Emilia you are **not **big! Nowhere near.
It's scary how early children start to worry about their weight though. I have an 8 year old daughter who is very slim, and if it's not too creepy to say this about a child, is a very nice shape. She has recently asked me to get out the scales so she can weigh herself. I've talked to her about it and she wants to know if she's fat. It's difficult to convince her otherwise, without resorting to comparing her size to her friends. Which I don't really want to do though. buying clothes for slim kids in the Uk is a nightmare. Both my kids have to wear belts because waist sizes in trousers are scandaloiusly big and their trousers would literally fall down without them. French clothes a re a much slimmer cut and since when did children get encouraged to dress like sluts? Some of the fashions for 6-8 year old girls are frankly scary. The designers should be investigated!

I find it frightening to think that and 8-year old is already concerned about her weight. Given our lifestyle, Emilia knows what I'm talking about, I can't see where she has picked this up, apart from TV.

I think that the portion size in pre-packaged food and perceived value for money has done a lot to harm our comprehension of what constitutes a sensible amount of food to eat at one sitting. Over time, consistent over-eating can pile on weight by simple accretion in a way that is nearly impossible to overturn.

I saw a documentary some time back where this guy simply encouraged people to exercise in every part of their lifestyle. It was fascinating to see what he suggested. It wasn't just the obvious things like taking the stairs instead of the lift, it was lots of little things like: Don't sit down so often; Park the car at the far end of the supermarket car park so you have a longer walk to the entrance; get up earlier (you use a lot more energy when you are awake, than asleep). There were lots of little things, but it made me think about my own lifestyle and I realised that I do tend to walk a lot and I really mean a lot. I rarely take public transport inside London because I can't stand hanging around, I tend to walk from place to place, or cycle longer distances and it seems obvious to me that hiking over to our local supermarket with a rucsac is a lot less hassle than taking the car. Most of the time I only need a few things, so little and often works fine if I can resist the special offers and that's easier if you only have a limited capacity to carry things.

This is a very thought-provoking thread. I really like this aspect of this forum.