A diet book for kids

[Leanne]

Ignorant and neglectful parents have unfortunately turned childhood obesity into a subject that is difficult to handle in a tactful manner, as it's become extremely urgent. There are children at my kids' primary school wearing size 20 -- and more than a few. It concerns me greatly that with so much emphasis on healthy eating and maintaining ideal weight, the kids who need it the least are going to be the most receptive to the message -- my own children are quite slim and active, but will often tell me that "teacher says you can't eat that because it makes you fat". Meanwhile, the poor kids who are obese (and I never use the term lightly, but these kids are of worrying size) have parents who know that McDonalds every night is not a balanced diet (nor is McDonalds Tuesday, KFC Wednesday...) but they're too damn lazy to turn the stove on and make a stirfry. It's not for lack of education -- the TV screens are always full of this or that eating program, or stop-eating program -- so at what point does someone step in and say, "you are abusing your child and he/she has already lost 20 or more years of life, it's time you were removed from the picture before the damage worsens".

I absolutely agree about the book, however -- the way to tackle the problem is not through body image, which is very unhelpful and based on social trends anyway (how many of us actually look like supermodels? Hell, not even the supermodels look like supermodels until they've been airbrushed almost out of existence). Similarly, you can't just throw the fat kids onto the football field and tell them to run it off -- the other kids are going to laugh at them, you can't stop that, and they're probably going to do themselves some serious damage. A "diet" is not the answer for anyone really -- there is no quick fix, it needs to be healthy eating habits, regular (gentle at first) exercise, fresh air, positive role models and self-esteem that's not wrapped up in body shape.