Overweight Kids in School?!


Question:

Overweight Kids in School?

At what point do we hold the parents responsible for overweight obese kids in the school.

And stop blaming the schools and make then continually change menus.

When I went to school they used to serve pizza, tacos, hamburgers.

Now its salad yogurt and pudding.

Additional Details

1 week ago
I work as a food marketing consultant in NY state. Trust me there is no school that in NY that servies pizza and tacos anymore.


Answers:
1 week ago
I work as a food marketing consultant in NY state. Trust me there is no school that in NY that servies pizza and tacos anymore.

I agree. When I went to school you used to get a coOKie or pudding sometimes a brownie with lunch now what is n the menu isn't even appealing to me most of the time.

Having a child means you as a parent are there to make the right choices for them and help to show them what they will need to make it once they are old enough to leave home, shoving unhealthy foods and showing them it is ok to be watching TV 10 hours a day and playing video games is not the way to get that done.

I understand the school not wanting to be blamed, but if a parent isn't taking control @ home the school is the first place they will blame. Anything to say they themselves aren't the problem.


I think that if a school sees a child is overweight and is very concerned they should take it up with the nurse/social worker and find out what is going on. If they are that concerned.

Which school do you attend? The school I taught in last spring had tacos, pizza, and other junk food. If they have salad and yogurt at your school, I'd like to teach there!

God, theres so many fat kids waddling around today its disgusting. Too many restuarants and the time to eat the jubnk accounts for the fatsos.

If schools still serve up the small portions, no big deal, it big portions everywhere else and just food EVERYWHERE thats the problem

It is nearly always the parents fault in my opinion, althoguh the governments don't do that much to educate parents about early years psychology - eg the pros and cons of using food as a reward.

The food at school doesn't come in very big portions, but I say give all the little buggers a jacket potato and a salad, maybe a bit of coleslaw on fridays and take away the vending machines

It depends on the school. When I was little, we got what they were serving and that was that. We didn't have any choices. By the time I got to high school, we could choose what we wanted, that included candy bars and a freezer full of different frozen treats. A lot of kids would spend their money on the candy bars and ice cream instead of lunch.
My daughter's school starts letting the kids buy ice cream in 2nd grade. To me that is too young to be giving them the choice. I do agree though that it is the parents that are more responsible than the schools. My daughter is very active, but I have seen other kids, sitting outside, where there are other kids and instead of playing with the kids and running around, they are playing handheld video games. That is on the parents. They need to make their kids move around more. When I was a kid, I was never in the house. Even in winter we played out in the snow until we couldn't feel our feet anymore, now it seems most kids are content to sit inside and watch T.V. or play video games all day, instead of riding bikes and swimming. You can only hold the school responsible for so much of the problem. I ate cheeseburgers, and chips and other junk, but I was never over weight because I never stopped moving.
(In Ohio they still get pizza, taco's, hamburgers and chicken nuggets.)

The responsibility starts and stops at the door of the parents. It has been proven that children learn most of what they know, and do, from the same-sex parents. We tend to not realize that our children watch everything we say and do.. We need to start being more accountable for what our children do, and teach them good eating habits, so that they can grow up and continue with these same good habits. Just like we want our children to be moral and upstanding citizens,we should also want them to live a full and healthy life.

At what point are parents going to start restricting a child's diet at home the way they are suing cereal and snack makers, as well as school districts for their menus? Could parents someday be charged with abuse or endangerment if it was found that they failed to provide nutritious and well-balanced meals limited to 2000 calories a day, etc? No more extra portions, etc? If the schools can be blamed for anything, it is that they have replaced exercise and physical education with more time spent trying to pass some minimum skills requirements, because that is where they get their money. The funny thing about being a child is that you have this incredible metabolism that allows for you to burn off just about everything you put into your body if you'd put down the video game controller and get outside and play! Child obesity is simply a combination of genetics that give some children a predisposition for being overweight, lax parental control over their child's eating habits, and lack of exercise.

I do agree that parents have significantly more responsibility for the health of their children than their schools. However, if you think about it, this is probably one of the more logical solutions.
Trying to go out and put the blame on the parents to make them change their ways would be costly, if it was even possible. Maybe even too personal? Imagine going to a set of parents telling them that their parental skills are lacking becaue their child is obese would offend a lot!
I think changing the menus at schools is a great idea. Schools are a place for learning and setting examples for children to follow. It is the most efficient way to reach out to the most amount of childrens to modify their diets.

Obviously you have more research and information on this matter as you work in the field. If they are making the schools continually change menus, that is just costing them money. But, changing it once, to healthy food, is great idea in my opinion.

I agree they are now changing all kellogs cereal it all needs to be health. NO more shrek or fun cereal. No more toons Its not fair! When I was little i had the cereal. Now my son cant enjoy it. It all starts with the parents not the schools. Day one when the kids are born. Stop blamming everyone else when its the parents.

I agree. My daughter will be in the fourth grade this year and the school lunches are about the same as when I went to school. The problem is no one wants to take responsibility for anything anymore. People are suing fast food restaurants and what not, it's ridiculous. Parents need to step up and ask themselves what changes THEY need to make in their child's eating habits to change the obesity epidemic we are facing.




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