This is slightly off topic but there now seems to be a debate whether children should get gastric bands to treat obesity and prevent Type II diabetes. Type II, like Type I, can lead to unpleasant complications. Some like heart disease seem to develop faster in Type IIs. I have to admit am somewhat uncomfortable with this as it does not really teach healthy eating and lifestyle changes. In the last few years a friend's wife had lost over 10 stone since joining Slimming World and two mates have gone from obese to a healthy BMI. The heaviest joined SW but the other just changed his diet. Here is the link:
My oldest granddaughter (10yo) was recently diagnosed in the USA with T2D and my daughter (her mum) is already hearing suggestions the child be considered for the gastric band if she doesn't lose weight in six months.
Thankfully my daughter and son-in-law (a chef, they own a restaurant) are against the idea and are making changes. They now exercise together in the morning and afternoon, and while the child is still at the restaurant every day, the entire staff know she can only snack on sensible offerings like fruit (no toppings) and veg instead of the Italian dishes her dad is (look away, I'm about to brag about my French sil who has been told by Italians he cooks better than their mums) regionally renowned for. She's already lost some of the weight and her condition is improving so much so we all feel sure the diagnosis will be reversed by Christmas.
My family runs to 'stoutness' so this is going to be a lifelong thing for her - she knows diabetes can lead to heart trouble and says she doesn't want to be like Gran (me). We're not talking much about my heart troubles not being in any way owing to diabetes because if she's willing to work at avoiding heart trouble, I'm a-ok with her thinking that way. More than ok!
Yes I read this, and to be honest I'm not at all comfortable with this proposition.
The interesting item was the girl of 14 who went to Pakistan and lost 5kg in 2 months due to better diet and being more active. She is still a frightening 115kg with a BMI of 45, but the reason for her weight loss - "We're always eating. We're not making ourselves more active as we should be. In Pakistan I saw how thin the girls were and I was really thinking about it and I thought I need to lose my weight"
Her comments illustrate why education about diet and getting active should be pushed more forcefully.
It again moves into the sphere of people going with the logic of "why should I do anything, the NHS will provide the solution, the doctor will provide a pill" I know it's not PC to say it, but a bit of tough love may be a more useful tool than automatically resorting to a pill/surgery
No. I don’t agree. I think parents should parent - by example as well as for the child. Children learn what to eat from where they eat most and who they eat with. The UK needs to levy a huge tax on crap food and use it to make fruit and veg dirt cheap. A home made burger with seeded whole meal rolls and no fat chips tasted sooooo much better than the carb/fat laden offerings out and about.
We are what we eat really. We do know that when we eat rubbish, take away, sweets, lots of snacks etc we are inviting trouble. I used to eat at work but not any more after my heart attack. I lost 8 kg and feel so much better for it. Lots of exercise, going for walks, swimming or bike rides, running .....what ever helps get you in a sweat will help to keep you in shape.
But parents should encourage their children to eat a good balanced diet. But sadly many parents work and kids will eat whatever they fancy if not supervised. When they 18 and over they will decide for themselves and then you have no control over your what they eat or not any more. My 3 sons are pretty health conscious with food and exercise.
My daughter yes and no!
Teach your child the way to go and they will be a blessing for you right?
Speak tomorrow got to rest. Hope your cold is better Michael, my back still hurts from all this coughing this week, but it is getting much better!!! 🌃🌠🌃
I tend to agree with you about the parents. My daughter and her husband (French national) live in the US and own a restaurant - he's the chef, and my granddaughters have the run of the place during opening hours when they're not at school. They let them eat anything they wanted, and exercise was not on their priority list despite both sides of the families running to 'stoutness'.
The youngest granddaughter is thin as a rail but the oldest was clinically obese and it didn't want a doctor telling them that - it was obvious just looking at her. But the paediatrician did tell them in early September the lass has T2D and must lose weight plus exercise and be shifted to a more healthy diet.
The entire family is now walking together morning and afternoon and both girls are restricted to one meal at the restaurant (Italian and my sil is very, very good at it) and all the untopped fruit and veg they want. The entire staff is in on it, and it's working well.
But my daughter and sil feel a great deal of guilt at letting it happen at all.
Difficult situation but your daughter and sil are tackling it.Good for them but it`s tough that one sister is thin and the other overweight.Metabolism perhaps but at least they`re both on the same regime which is only fair.Thank you for your very honest reply,hopefully there are plenty more parents out there doing the same.It must be difficult when both parents are working hard not to give in to treats etc.Two of my granddaughters are overweight and now they`re adults it`s up to them but it should have been tackled at an earlier age.
Not sure why my sil went along, but my daughter may have been reacting to hearing me encouraging her to keep active and eat sensibly. I honestly don't think I was over-the-top about it but she did see me working hard at keeping the weight off as I've had rheumatic heart syndrome (RHS) since childhood and the doctors were insistent I keep my weight down to avoid over-stressing my heart. And while she was growing up I did drag her away from the phone/telly/make-up mirror...to get out with me and walk or ride bikes or swim or...she always complained and so I think she was determined to raise her children differently.
The trouble is diabetes runs in my sil's family, and my family (no diabetes) on both sides tend to be on the large-boned 'robust' side - not obese but easily able to pack on pounds and we're usually described as 'sturdy bordering on stout'.
I'm being perhaps too honest here but if I get below 10 stone (under 145lbs) I look as though I'm on death's door. 11 stone is my goal weight and has been since my early twenties. I and all my family carry the weight well as long as we're at goal or very slightly lower, lol, nurses especially are shocked when I step on the scales and always say 'But you can't weigh that, you look at least 2 stone lighter!'. Which is nice but being able to carry that weight so well means it's that much easier for weight to creep up if we're not careful.
So my poor grands have the double whammy - 'big' runs in my family and diabetes runs in my sil's. I'm just glad daughter and sil are committed now to making the changes they all need, really.
When I was a child a packet of crisps and fizzy juice was a treat at sports day and the school Christmas party! Mum didn’t work, we went home for lunch and ate ‘real’ food - stews, etc with loads of home grown veg. There were no ‘special children’s foods and everyone ate together. Mum shopped in the local shop on a daily basis and we walked or cycled everywhere.
Now shopping is a family outing by car to stock up for the week! There are two (or more) supermarket aisle filled with snacks and between meal fillers and another two filled with drinks, not to mention cakes, deserts and freezers full of tempting stuff!
Cookery and nutrition is rarely taught in school now and are TVs are full of ‘Bake off’ and other fancy high calorie cooking programmes. In many situations the only cooking done at home is cake baking and decorating!
Education is needed and more TV programmes on the lines of Eat Well for Less - they did an excellent one this week with a couple who both had health and weight problems. They showed them the sugar content of their diet in piles of sugar cubes and sugar - that really sunk in. I have successfully used this method with youngsters in school too to show them how much sugar they have consumed, explain why they are unable to focus in class and why they are thirsty!
Your first paragraph described my childhood perfectly. The idea back then of food being marketed at children was unheard of. In fact food marketing probably only came into being with the advent of ITV and the rise of the supermarkets.
there is quite a high failure rate with gastric band surgery and the next step is to operate again and insert "a sleeve" into the stomachs. Gastric bands only help lose approximately 35 - 45% of the excess weight. Ignoring conditions such as Prada Wili syndrome (compulsive eating) children need to learn to moderate their intake. Children have not been helped by the removal of the old "cookery" rooms from schools (OK I know it was called food and nutrition department but the older ones amongst you know what I mean), the loss of school playing fields and the cutback in physical activity in schools over a very long period of time. The amount of money children have (and I am talking about children in social priority areas as well as the more affluent ones) to spend on junk food is surprising. School dinners - well you all know about them - are no longer the semi balanced meal they once were. One school I worked in employed a chef and when parents used to complain about the meals he invited them to arrive any day unannounced and join us for a meal. Chips were Fridays only and the rest of the time the children had a choice of four hot meals and a variety of salads (build your own) with bread, Parents went away impressed and no longer listened to plleas for daily money to go to the chips shop as school dinners were "disgusting". However, I have also worked in schools where the daily offering was chips, hot dogs and burgers every single day. No waste and cheap being the reasoning. Society has changed and there was no golden era of healthy eating in schools - some children hated school lunches so much they refused to eat at all during the day - and also too much talking about fat sends some children the opposite way and then anorexia looms. It;s a really difficult subject but I have no doubt healthy eating has to be modeled by parents before anything else is permanently effective but that is not a popular view. So to answer your question from my perspective a gastric band for children is a temporary solution for the morbidly obese child. All operations have a risk and starting, what is likely to become a series of operations over a life time, in childhood doesn;t seem a good idea. By the way many people are not aware that if the band "slips" then other organs are adversely affected. Sorry this is so long.
My thinking as regards surgery is that there is always a risk involved and where there are other options, every one of those options should be explored before surgery is considered. It's horrible to think that a 14 year old could be embarking on a lifetime of surgery
Do you think the problem could be that these days both parents are working and time is limited so it's easier & quicker to bulk buy from the supermarket? Once in the supermarket it's not easy to resist temptation, I personally try to avoid the crisps, sweets, chocolate aisle as its way tooooo tempting!!
I was in a CostCutter the other day and there was an under £5 meal deal - pizza, oven chips and apple pie. Years ago I tried a cheap apple pie - sugary pastry with a lumpy apple flavoured sugar syrup inside. Yuk! ☹️
Being Cornish I think"HOW MUCH?" £5 for a meal,no way.I know people probably haven`t as much time these days if both parents work but my daughter-in-law prepares the next days food the night before after work.
My husband says that it’s all down to the cost of housing! Two incomes are needed to keep a roof over the family’s head. Plus the fact that families are scattered and grandma is working too!
Surgery is not the way for children -education and support are needed.
Things have changed so much since me and hubby were kids 65 years ago. We always walked or ran to school, came home for lunch and ran back to school. No computers, iPads or mobiles to sit and play on. Parks and pitches were all over the place so you played outside (even in rain and snow). The TV had 2 channels and you even had to get up to change the channel!
We walked to the shops every day to get fresh food (we didn't have a fridge let alone a freezer when I was a kid).
Sweets were a Friday night treat. A penny toffee bar!!
I believe that gastric bands were never intended for children. They are still developing physically as well as mentally.
A better solution would be for parents to serve healthy meals, make sure they have exercise and cut out all the junk food and sugary treats.
Today's world is hooked on too much fast food and their idea of exercise is mostly derived from how fast their fingers can key stroke their phones, electronic devices or the remote.
Unless it's absolutely a matter or life of death I would not promote the use of gastric bands for anyone.
There will be a trade-off between potential harm to the child from surgery and harm caused by obesity and diabetes. You can be as uncomfortable as you like about the procedure, however the fact remains that fat children are a result of absent or negligent parents in a world of crap, processed edible products. Note I do not say food.
Tax the hell out of processed food and we'll make progress. Otherwise, and if you don't like the 'nanny state', take some bloody responsibility.
My husband is Type 2 and therefore my son also at risk especially when his weight shot over 22 stone while at Uni. He developed sleep apnoea and was refused a driving licence and was heading for pre diabetes. He's take up running, walking and cycling and completely changed his diet. His big risk factor was snacking on an evening while playing computer games and a sedentary job. Lunch at work would be sandwiches, a couple of packets of crisps and a cake bar. In 18 months he's down to 15 stone; his sleep apnoea has gone and he's no longer at risk of diabetes. He still has a little way to go but if he can do it, so can anyone. At the same time I know someone who had a gastric band. She initially lost about 2 stone but it's crept back on because it does not teach you how to eat properly. What is needed is education of the parents of these obese children who simply don't know how to cook. Bring back cookery and nutrition lessons in schools and teach the parents that you can't live on take always and pizza. Halfof children these days don't even know where their food comes from.
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