Who is responsible for childhhood obesity, the government or parents?

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  • Sales of energy drinks to children under 16 have been banned in most major UK supermarkets, amid concerns about high levels of sugar and caffeine.

    Boots is also joining supermarkets such as Asda, Waitrose, Tesco and the Co-op in introducing the rule.

    Retailers will limit sale of energy drinks containing more than 150mg of caffeine per litre to under-16s.

    Co-op said it recognised the "growing concern about the consumption of energy drinks" among children.

    Should we ban coffee to kids? Should coke be banned for them?

    There are lots of things bad for kids, but should they all be banned too?

  • As a rule I'm not in favour of the state banning things that are "not good for you", however, these energy drinks have very high levels of caffeine in them and overstimulating already hyper kids is not a good thing. Putting an age limit is the right move IMHO.

    Probably won't be very effective as the pester power of kids will just have the parents buying the drinks for the kids.

  • Sweets and fatty snacks sold at checkouts and as part of supermarket deals will be banned under new government proposals to halve childhood obesity in England by 2030.

    Tighter restrictions on junk food ads on TV and online are also planned, as well as mandatory calorie labelling on restaurant menus.

    I actually like sweet goodies at the supermarket checkouts as I have a sweet tooth and can make an informed decision about them, but children can't. But should the government be banning goodies at the end of the checkouts?

    Other proposals the government are consulting on are banning energy drinks to children, already discussed in this thread and banning junk fund adverts on tv before 9pm.

    A sugar tax came into force in April on high sugar drinks, another measure to help the health of kids. What do people think of that?

    Jeremy Hunt says these proposals are intended to help parents make informed choices, but surely if a parent is giving their kids high sugar and/or energy drinks, stuffing them with sweets, cakes and burgers, the result will be obvious?

    I think I am broadly in favour of these proposals, but do they go far enough? What if parents don't make "informed choices" for their own children? Many don't. Should the government be looking at ways to encourage parents to make better dietary choices for their kids and if they don't, consider punitive actions against them?

  • I honestly don't know, unless it can be classed a neglect or whatever, parents do get fined if they don't make sure they attend school, would it be a step too far to fine them if they allow their child to eat wrong foods and become obese?

  • Making it a child neglect issue would be a very strong measure, especially from some parents viewpoint as they think they are indulging their kids by giving them treats, but some parents simply don't care about the health of their own kids.

    I think the government proposals are a first good measure, then perhaps individual "classes" for parents if they don't get the message and perhaps as a last ditch measure to fine them, yes.

  • A lot of parents these days claim they just don't have the time to prepare and cook healthy meals as both parents tend to be out working, whereas when I was a child my father went to work while my mother stayed at home so she was able to cook a lot of meals from scratch using fresh ingredients we hardly ever had convenience foods, ready meals and takeaways etc, probably due to there not being the vast variety available that there is today.

    Modern day life seems to be geared to everything being available quickly and conveniently due to the time constraints imposed by people working, that's why takeaways and convenience foods are such big business these days, times have certainly changed since I was a child and not all the changes are good.

  • In the recent past such as when I was growing up we had 3 TV channels , no such things as video games and a telephone had a dial on it , we were outside from breakfast to sundown except for meals , bicycles were the must have presents not the Xbox oneX or iPhoneX .

    We are now told that kids are at risk of perverts , pollution , and traffic , none of these presumably existed then ? , it is the done thing to drive the half a mile to school , drive the kids to football at the local ground , basically drive the kids everywhere as they seem to have no road sense or common sense. Remember the green cross code ? , do they show it now?

    As for parent classes , mine never had them , they were born with the best trait of all , common sense and the ability to use it.

  • A lot of parents these days claim they just don't have the time to prepare and cook healthy meals as both parents tend to be out working, whereas when I was a child my father went to work while my mother stayed at home so she was able to cook a lot of meals from scratch using fresh ingredients we hardly ever had convenience foods, ready meals and takeaways etc, probably due to there not being the vast variety available that there is today.

    Modern day life seems to be geared to everything being available quickly and conveniently due to the time constraints imposed by people working, that's why takeaways and convenience foods are such big business these days, times have certainly changed since I was a child and not all the changes are good.

    The time argument I don't buy.

    Both my parents worked for most of my childhood, although my mother was at home when I was very young. But when she retuned to work, she would prepare the vegetables the night before and put everything in a slow cooker in the morning and it was ready by evening.

    I think some parents are just dumb and lazy, but others are something else entirely. Remember Jamie Oliver's attempts at getting kids to eat healthy as he tried to change some school menus?

    On one of his programmes, the parents were so disgusted with his heathy meals, that they went and bought takeaways for their kids and through them over the school fence to their kids.:rolleyes:

    What on earth do we do with parents like that?

  • In the recent past such as when I was growing up we had 3 TV channels , no such things as video games and a telephone had a dial on it , we were outside from breakfast to sundown except for meals , bicycles were the must have presents not the Xbox oneX or iPhoneX .

    We are now told that kids are at risk of perverts , pollution , and traffic , none of these presumably existed then ? , it is the done thing to drive the half a mile to school , drive the kids to football at the local ground , basically drive the kids everywhere as they seem to have no road sense or common sense. Remember the green cross code ? , do they show it now?

    As for parent classes , mine never had them , they were born with the best trait of all , common sense and the ability to use it.

    I think common sense is lacking in a lot of people, I fully agree, but you raise another issue too which is the driving the kids everywhere phenomenon.

    I live right by a primary school and I have seen this get worse and worse. Local roads are stuffed with cars bringing kids to school. Five years ago, someone up my road used a car to drive down to where I am to drop their kids off at school...8|:rolleyes: A one minute walk.

    I used to play what were called computer games, but I didn't do it all the time. But I agree that video games, smart phones etc must be impacting kids health, but it all still comes down to parenting, doesn't it?

    What's to be done with the parents?

  • The time argument I don't buy.

    Both my parents worked for most of my childhood, although my mother was at home when I was very young. But when she retuned to work, she would prepare the vegetables the night before and put everything in a slow cooker in the morning and it was ready by evening.

    I think some parents are just dumb and lazy, but others are something else entirely. Remember Jamie Oliver's attempts at getting kids to eat healthy as he tried to change some school menus?

    On one of his programmes, the parents were so disgusted with his heathy meals, that they went and bought takeaways for their kids and through them over the school fence to their kids.:rolleyes:

    What on earth do we do with parents like that?

    I fully agree, as I said when I was a child the takeaways just didn't exist like they do now, there were fish and chip shops but the nearest one to where we lived was about 20-30 minutes walk away it wasn't until my mid teens that I think one opened closer and Chinese takeaways started to open in town.

    Some parents are just lazy when it comes to cooking and preparing food.

  • I think laziness is one thing, but when parents choose repeatedly not to feed their kids healthy food and do things like throw takeaways over school fences when there is a perfectly healthy meal available, that's something else entirely.

    But you cite another reason for the problem, Ron and that is the explosion in takeaways. In my town, there used to be two fish and chip shops. Over the last twenty years, they have been joined by three Chinese, two Indian, two kebab, two fried chicken, one pizza and three other shops selling a mixture of takeaway food. So, it's gone from two to fifteen.

    Perhaps the government should curb the amount of takeaways in some locations, but that clashes with the death of high streets. There needs to be something in the high street, doesn't there?? See this thread, for discussion on high streets:

    The next store to close is....

  • I don't trust takeaways enough to use them. I've seen too many horror stories on TV about the lack of cleanliness and hand washing. I occasionally buy fish and chips because you can watch them cooking it which is better than no knowledge at all.

    In the end, the blame for childhood obesity has to end with the parents. How to deal with the problem .... I admit I do not know.

    Maybe it has to become socially unacceptable, like drink driving, but even then there will be many ignore it, just like drink driving. The socially aware don't risk the lives of others, but too many don't care a toss for anything other than their own convenience and pleasure and are happy for others to pay the price of their selfishness.

    Mark Twain — 'Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.'

  • Fidget, there is a site somewhere which lists how clean your local takeaway is. If I can find it, I'll post it, but yes, many of them fall well short of hygiene standards.

    Perhaps it may go like drink driving in the end, especially if it concerns kids. So parents get booed at the school gates if they turn up with fat kids and get ostracised. But as you say, many parents simply don't give a toss to care what others think about them. (cough: my scum neighbours.)

  • Parents, can't see any debate here... I have three kids brought up in an era of video games and junk food - none are obese. I remember what they used to eat when they went round friends houses and what their friends had for lunch.

  • Agreed. It has to be the parents and if they allow their children to get obese then the social services should step in with initially advice and if that fails, then some kind of fines/enforcement/name and shame, and if that means eventually removing the children to a more healthy environment then so be it.

    Trying to ban takeaways, advertising, junk food at the checkout. All will fail if the parents continue to pander to every eating whim of their children just to keep them quiet.

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