[the truth]

25% of british children are vitamin D deficient

TWENTY FIVE PERCENT?

This is caused by malnutrition and lack of exposure to sunlight?

12.5% of toddlers are obese and 75% of mental health disorders are found before the age of 18 years old.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24641796

How in heavens name are 1000s of kids dying of rickets in this say and age in this supposedly relatively wealthy nation?

[Kizzy]

That's the 1million dollar question...

[the truth]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

That's the 1million dollar question...

an extra 5 children die per day from this lack of vitamin d , which is caused by lack of exposure to the sun and poor diets and obesity.
the question is how and why did we get to this horrendous situation of awful parenting and what can be done about it

[Toy Soldier]

Originally Posted by the truth

an extra 5 children die per day from this lack of vitamin d , which is caused by lack of exposure to the sun and poor diets and obesity.
the question is how and why did we get to this horrendous situation of awful parenting and what can be done about it

Well for a start, nutrition advice for the last 20 to 30 years has been COMPLETELY WRONG, so people who think they are doing the right thing for their children are actually not giving them proper nutrition. The medical world is starting to catch up but, as always, the public will take generations to catch on. Examples:

- Full fat milk is always preferable to semi-skimmed (especially for children). Most parents believe they are being healthy by buying green-top.

- Full fat butter is ALWAYS preferable to low-fat spreads, for EVERYONE.

- Saturated animal fats are good for you, and are essential for healthy growth. Fat is wrongly demonized. Trans-fats (hydrogenated fat) is basically the devil, but other than that, saturated fat is better for you (and your kids) than polyunsaturated. This has been confirmed by the worlds' top heart doctors. The market hasn't caught up yet.

- as an extension to the above; obesity is not caused by a high fat diet. Obesity is caused by a high sugar diet, and large amounts of processed carbohydrates (wheat snacks, potato snacks i.e. crisps, chips...). As is diabetes which is also rising alarmingly amoungst children.

- Grains (including wholegrains), whilst an acceptable part of an adult diet for most people, are nutritionally void "filler foods". Parents pack their kids full of breads and cereals and so they have no room for foods with high levels of essential nutrients.

- YOUNG CHILDREN DON'T NEED TO BE PACKED FULL OF FRUIT AND VEG. This is a big one. Most parents are still following outdated advice that "healthy snacks" for children are things like fruit, and "healthy dinners" have large portions of veg.

In truth, they need a diet high in proteins and fats (both animal and naturally occurring plant-based fats)... they are essential to the proper development of body and brain.


So... for a start, there's that. Of course, there's also the problem of cooking being a "lost art" in many families. A lot of parents simply have no idea how to cook good food, so they (and their children) eat pre-prepared packaged food from boxes, tins and plastic packages. Most of it is made cheaply and is packed full of absolute garbage that can barely be labelled "food".

Finally is the worst part; eating properly costs a fortune. Crap food is cheap. Many families simply can't afford a decent diet. Anyone who claims that cooking good food from scratch is "cheaper than all that junk" is making assumptions not based on the facts when it comes to the price of food. Clean, fresh, proper dinner ingredients cost EASILY triple what a bag of cheap, convenient "oven food" costs.

[Toy Soldier]

Originally Posted by the truth

how and why did we get to this horrendous situation of awful parenting and what can be done about it

I've mentioned before on this forum I think, I ran a parenting forum for over three years and asked this question every day, and tried endlessly to try to do something about it. I ran facebook pages with over 5000 members, hosted and ran websites for various bloggers and article writers with large readerships, fought against people recommending some truly abhorrent parenting "techniques", wrote dozens of guest articles myself... literally sank YEARS into the campaign for better parenting.

The experience can be summed up thus:




... There is the answer. Absolutely nothing can be done about it. Nothing. People are selfish, defensive, egocentric and stuck in their ways at the best of times, and throwing children into the mix seems to do nothing but amplify that.

It eventually was just to much for me and I let all of it go. All you can really do is put your own children first, and let other people just get on with ensuring that their own children become physically or mentally ill or both. All I achieved by trying to do something about it, was leave myself feeling depressed and lost, and wishing that I could forget half of the **** that I found out about various "parenting techniques".

[edit] to add - OH... and this was mainly trying to counter stuff that has become "normal" or "mainstream". Beyond that you have swathes of truly non-functional parents. So where do you even start? By getting the children of THOSE parents up to the level of so-called "normal" parents following prescribed suppernanny-style bullcrap and feeding their kids "normal" processed muck? Is there any point? Uuurrghhh... right I need to go away and calm down now.

[the truth]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

Well for a start, nutrition advice for the last 20 to 30 years has been COMPLETELY WRONG, so people who think they are doing the right thing for their children are actually not giving them proper nutrition. The medical world is starting to catch up but, as always, the public will take generations to catch on. Examples:

- Full fat milk is always preferable to semi-skimmed (especially for children). Most parents believe they are being healthy by buying green-top.

- Full fat butter is ALWAYS preferable to low-fat spreads, for EVERYONE.

- Saturated animal fats are good for you, and are essential for healthy growth. Fat is wrongly demonized. Trans-fats (hydrogenated fat) is basically the devil, but other than that, saturated fat is better for you (and your kids) than polyunsaturated. This has been confirmed by the worlds' top heart doctors. The market hasn't caught up yet.

- as an extension to the above; obesity is not caused by a high fat diet. Obesity is caused by a high sugar diet, and large amounts of processed carbohydrates (wheat snacks, potato snacks i.e. crisps, chips...). As is diabetes which is also rising alarmingly amoungst children.

- Grains (including wholegrains), whilst an acceptable part of an adult diet for most people, are nutritionally void "filler foods". Parents pack their kids full of breads and cereals and so they have no room for foods with high levels of essential nutrients.

- YOUNG CHILDREN DON'T NEED TO BE PACKED FULL OF FRUIT AND VEG. This is a big one. Most parents are still following outdated advice that "healthy snacks" for children are things like fruit, and "healthy dinners" have large portions of veg.

In truth, they need a diet high in proteins and fats (both animal and naturally occurring plant-based fats)... they are essential to the proper development of body and brain.


So... for a start, there's that. Of course, there's also the problem of cooking being a "lost art" in many families. A lot of parents simply have no idea how to cook good food, so they (and their children) eat pre-prepared packaged food from boxes, tins and plastic packages. Most of it is made cheaply and is packed full of absolute garbage that can barely be labelled "food".

Finally is the worst part; eating properly costs a fortune. Crap food is cheap. Many families simply can't afford a decent diet. Anyone who claims that cooking good food from scratch is "cheaper than all that junk" is making assumptions not based on the facts when it comes to the price of food. Clean, fresh, proper dinner ingredients cost EASILY triple what a bag of cheap, convenient "oven food" costs.

Youre saying people cant afford to give their children decent food? that is utter rubbish (no offence) people have enough money, all people. they simply have to prioritise and understand decent food is the number 1 priority.

[the truth]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

I've mentioned before on this forum I think, I ran a parenting forum for over three years and asked this question every day, and tried endlessly to try to do something about it. I ran facebook pages with over 5000 members, hosted and ran websites for various bloggers and article writers with large readerships, fought against people recommending some truly abhorrent parenting "techniques", wrote dozens of guest articles myself... literally sank YEARS into the campaign for better parenting.

The experience can be summed up thus:




... There is the answer. Absolutely nothing can be done about it. Nothing. People are selfish, defensive, egocentric and stuck in their ways at the best of times, and throwing children into the mix seems to do nothing but amplify that.

It eventually was just to much for me and I let all of it go. All you can really do is put your own children first, and let other people just get on with ensuring that their own children become physically or mentally ill or both. All I achieved by trying to do something about it, was leave myself feeling depressed and lost, and wishing that I could forget half of the **** that I found out about various "parenting techniques".

[edit] to add - OH... and this was mainly trying to counter stuff that has become "normal" or "mainstream". Beyond that you have swathes of truly non-functional parents. So where do you even start? By getting the children of THOSE parents up to the level of so-called "normal" parents following prescribed suppernanny-style bullcrap and feeding their kids "normal" processed muck? Is there any point? Uuurrghhh... right I need to go away and calm down now.

Id pay child benefits in food vouchers, end of

[smudgie]

Get the little darlings out of the house and into the fresh air.

Park, seaside, anywhere they can run about and feel the sun(or rain) on them.

Most people have access to the Internet, not hard to find some easy recipes for decent wholesome and reasonably priced meals.

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

Well for a start, nutrition advice for the last 20 to 30 years has been COMPLETELY WRONG, so people who think they are doing the right thing for their children are actually not giving them proper nutrition. The medical world is starting to catch up but, as always, the public will take generations to catch on. Examples:

- Full fat milk is always preferable to semi-skimmed (especially for children). Most parents believe they are being healthy by buying green-top.

- Full fat butter is ALWAYS preferable to low-fat spreads, for EVERYONE.

- Saturated animal fats are good for you, and are essential for healthy growth. Fat is wrongly demonized. Trans-fats (hydrogenated fat) is basically the devil, but other than that, saturated fat is better for you (and your kids) than polyunsaturated. This has been confirmed by the worlds' top heart doctors. The market hasn't caught up yet.

- as an extension to the above; obesity is not caused by a high fat diet. Obesity is caused by a high sugar diet, and large amounts of processed carbohydrates (wheat snacks, potato snacks i.e. crisps, chips...). As is diabetes which is also rising alarmingly amoungst children.

- Grains (including wholegrains), whilst an acceptable part of an adult diet for most people, are nutritionally void "filler foods". Parents pack their kids full of breads and cereals and so they have no room for foods with high levels of essential nutrients.

- YOUNG CHILDREN DON'T NEED TO BE PACKED FULL OF FRUIT AND VEG. This is a big one. Most parents are still following outdated advice that "healthy snacks" for children are things like fruit, and "healthy dinners" have large portions of veg.

In truth, they need a diet high in proteins and fats (both animal and naturally occurring plant-based fats)... they are essential to the proper development of body and brain.


So... for a start, there's that. Of course, there's also the problem of cooking being a "lost art" in many families. A lot of parents simply have no idea how to cook good food, so they (and their children) eat pre-prepared packaged food from boxes, tins and plastic packages. Most of it is made cheaply and is packed full of absolute garbage that can barely be labelled "food".

Finally is the worst part; eating properly costs a fortune. Crap food is cheap. Many families simply can't afford a decent diet. Anyone who claims that cooking good food from scratch is "cheaper than all that junk" is making assumptions not based on the facts when it comes to the price of food. Clean, fresh, proper dinner ingredients cost EASILY triple what a bag of cheap, convenient "oven food" costs.

Excellent post!!
Nutrition should be compulsory in schools from infants then children can tell their grown up what they need to be healthy.

[the truth]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

Excellent post!!
Nutrition should be compulsory in schools from infants then children can tell their grown up what they need to be healthy.

at least the schools can give the kids some leaflets and info to pass to their clearly useless parents.....hopefully that will at least get the message through to some of them. sadly there are clearly a vast number of useless parents in this country is 40% of the children have vitamin d deficiencies and 5 a day die from rickets....its just unbelievable.....what exactly do social services do and what do they look for when they look at parents? the pattern of the wallpaper or look at the worlds stupidest website www.twitter.com for naughty tweets? hows about focusing on actual real things that have an enormous affect on children , matters of life and death? on no that would just be too hard....lets talk about tweets facebook and fashion zzzzz

[Kizzy]

A start would be education, if only to prevent the cycle repeating,.. the blame game is a bit of a cop out.

[the truth]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

A start would be education, if only to prevent the cycle repeating,.. the blame game is a bit of a cop out.

the non blame game is a cop out
the buck has to stop somewhere
blame parents and education. but ultimately blame parents more.
Id pay child benefits with food vouchers, if not why not?

[AnnieK]

I find it hard to believe that people can't buy nutritious food. I shop around, aldi is great for veg and do the super 6 every week, I get meat from the market in bulk and freeze it. We always make big portions and freeze leftovers so I have "quick meals" for my son. We eat well and I spend on average 30-40 per week on food so it doesn't break the bank (that includes goodies etc so could do it cheaper). A lot of it is down to convenience but I manage and work 4 days a week so it's doable, the secret is on the preparation

Plus we limit tv time and my son loves to play outside, a lot of problems come from inactive kids sat on computers and parents using the tv as a babysitter (which everyone does but you have to be sensible with it)

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by anniek76

I find it hard to believe that people can't buy nutritious food. I shop around, aldi is great for veg and do the super 6 every week, I get meat from the market in bulk and freeze it. We always make big portions and freeze leftovers so I have "quick meals" for my son. We eat well and I spend on average 30-40 per week on food so it doesn't break the bank (that includes goodies etc so could do it cheaper). A lot of it is down to convenience but I manage and work 4 days a week so it's doable, the secret is on the preparation

Plus we limit tv time and my son loves to play outside, a lot of problems come from inactive kids sat on computers and parents using the tv as a babysitter (which everyone does but you have to be sensible with it)

..yeah, but I think it's also that parents can 'give in' to children's preferences of having high salt/sugar foods like fast foods and 'convenience' foods because they're obviously quite addictive as well...it's quite staggering sometimes, just how many children at our school can't even recognise a particular vegetable/fruit...let alone taste it, yet they will tell you that they don't like it, just because they're not familiar with it...but more schools and certainly ours have built lessons around food tasting and obviously the younger children get free fruit from the government as well..so it is getting better/but unfortunately a slow process..school meals are improving in many schools and policies on healthy foods are practised with packed lunches but parents can still not adhere to those policies...and it does have to be a 'joint' thing with schools and parents of the same mind-set of the children's wellbeing and co-operating with each other etc...

[Toy Soldier]

Originally Posted by the truth

Id pay child benefits in food vouchers, end of

It wouldnt make a difference, for two reasons. for one, it's as much about convenience, and the inability to prepare fresh food, as it is about money. If forced to spend on food, people would simply buy MORE junk to fill their freezers. You could try to make the vouchers for selective products, but then cack-handed government idiots would just be like "oh we'll make loads for fruit and veg because that's healthy innit?" when like I said... it's not really what kids need... kids need larger amounts of (much more expensive) meat, protein and dairy (real, not cheese strings).

Secondly, you're making the assumption that the problem is just with people on benefits. I promise you: the MOST selfish parents who are MOST resistant to education and change, are firmly in the middle-classes and skilled working classes (who have more earned money than middle classes anyway).

[Kizzy]

The glut of high sat fat high sugar convenience/ fast/ takeaway food is to blame here too, yes some parents do make bad choices I'm not saying they don't at all as said it's not just the poorer end either.
Understanding the meanings applied to food labelling is a nightmare even if you're trying to get it right, one example is 'fructose' (fruit sugars) good right?..... wrong!
That's just one way to bamboozle you into thinking something is healthy when actually it's just rammed with inverted sugar or cornstarch syrup.

[Toy Soldier]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

The glut of high sat fat high sugar convenience/ fast/ takeaway food is to blame here too, yes some parents do make bad choices I'm not saying they don't at all as said it's not just the poorer end either.
Understanding the meanings applied to food labelling is a nightmare even if you're trying to get it right, one example is 'fructose' (fruit sugars) good right?..... wrong!
That's just one way to bamboozle you into thinking something is healthy when actually it's just rammed with inverted sugar or cornstarch syrup.

There is nothing wrong with good saturated fat. In fact, the main problem with fast food (besides being full of sugar, though less here than in the US) is that it's fried in cheap refined vegetable oil.

Children are also starting to die again from illnesses and disease we'd practically wiped out, and that is because of the anti-vaccination mob, rooted in pseudo-science and religion.

[AnnieK]

Originally Posted by Jesus.

Children are also starting to die again from illnesses and disease we'd practically wiped out, and that is because of the anti-vaccination mob, rooted in pseudo-science and religion.

Yeah that's a good point actually. My Health Visitor said Measles had had a resurgance again due to people refusing the vaccination even though there is no proven medical evidence to link it to the MMR jab increasing the risk of autism.

I also think people are scared to let the kids pick up germs and keep them too wrapped up so their immune systems don't develop as well as they should

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

There is nothing wrong with good saturated fat. In fact, the main problem with fast food (besides being full of sugar, though less here than in the US) is that it's fried in cheap refined vegetable oil.

Yes, I should have said hydrogenated sat fat sorry.
I've stopped using low fat spreads, although I can't bring myself to use lard I use rapeseed or a good olive oil when shallow frying.

[Kizzy]

You can't be inoculated against rickets though, this is a heath related issue not medical.
I agree about the germ thing, it's crazy... Now they have brought out dettol you put in your washing machine.

[the truth]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

You can't be inoculated against rickets though, this is a heath related issue not medical.
I agree about the germ thing, it's crazy... Now they have brought out dettol you put in your washing machine.

social services should really step in here and take some of these neglected kids

[Livia]

There are plenty of families brought up on benefits or low incomes who live healthy lives, who have balanced diets. If you can't give a kid a decent diet I'd say you're probably too stupid to breed in the first place.

[Kizzy]

As it states in the information provided this is an issue which affects children from all backgrounds.
It's as much about lifestyle as diet, children do not spend enough time outside without sunscreen and other things preventing the sun getting to them.

[Toy Soldier]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

It's as much about lifestyle as diet, children do not spend enough time outside without sunscreen and other things preventing the sun getting to them.

Yes this is another problem, and comes from medical advice outdated by decades... from birth, people smother their kids in factor-50 (which is full of toxic crap in the first place, another issue, you should only use a natural factor 40 on kids!) sunscreen, completely blocking their ability to make Vitamin D through sun exposure. Even at the height of summer, they should be getting a little time outdoors before applying any at all, and with the lower light in the evening they can (and should) be getting exposure without any at all.

A few good sunny days with decent, unscreened outdoors time over the summer can set you up for the whole year. But if you're head to toe in cream before you even leave the house... then you might as well not leave the house at all.