Will you baby grow up fat? have fun with this...
- Thread starter bssage
- Start date
I had a play with it, using the BMI rate of 22 for both parents, which is in the middle of the healthy range on the BMI scale and 3.0kg for the birthweight and came up with some rather interesting results.
Also find it interesting that the value of the number of people in the household must be more than 2, so I'm working on the assumption that the child is included, so a single parent + 1 child has a higher chance of being overweight than a child in a household of 3, so single + 2 kids, or 2 parents + 1 child.
The maternal occupation also plays a role apparently, a stay at home mum has more chances of having an overweight child than a professional mother. (3.29% & 0.43% respectively.) Even more interesting is if you take the BMI up into the obese range (I used a BMI of 33), these figures jump to 48% for the SAHM, and 10.43% for the professional. Change it to a Single parent situation and the values jump again to 55.72% & 13.71%. Throw cigarettes into the mix and it jumps even higher still, regardless of number of members in the household.
To me it's showing that while the weight of the parents does have something to do with it, being a low income family has just as much influence, which is hardly surprising seeing that the healthier food options are usually out of reach for a low income family. High fat meats are cheaper ($4kg for chicken legs, $9kg for skinless chicken breast for example), junk food products (biscuits, chips/crisps ect) are generally cheaper than fresh fruit unless you're lucky enough to have an extremely cheap green-grocer nearby. White rice, white pasta and white bread are all cheaper than the brown/wholewheat products ect. High income families are more likely to have their kids playing sports out of school than low income families, once again due to the cost. Studies also show that low income families are more likely to bottle-feed than breastfeed, and studies have linked infant formula to obesity in adults.
Geez, that turned into a bit of a rant didn't it??? :speechsorry:
Thanks for the link bssage, very interesting.
Also find it interesting that the value of the number of people in the household must be more than 2, so I'm working on the assumption that the child is included, so a single parent + 1 child has a higher chance of being overweight than a child in a household of 3, so single + 2 kids, or 2 parents + 1 child.
The maternal occupation also plays a role apparently, a stay at home mum has more chances of having an overweight child than a professional mother. (3.29% & 0.43% respectively.) Even more interesting is if you take the BMI up into the obese range (I used a BMI of 33), these figures jump to 48% for the SAHM, and 10.43% for the professional. Change it to a Single parent situation and the values jump again to 55.72% & 13.71%. Throw cigarettes into the mix and it jumps even higher still, regardless of number of members in the household.
To me it's showing that while the weight of the parents does have something to do with it, being a low income family has just as much influence, which is hardly surprising seeing that the healthier food options are usually out of reach for a low income family. High fat meats are cheaper ($4kg for chicken legs, $9kg for skinless chicken breast for example), junk food products (biscuits, chips/crisps ect) are generally cheaper than fresh fruit unless you're lucky enough to have an extremely cheap green-grocer nearby. White rice, white pasta and white bread are all cheaper than the brown/wholewheat products ect. High income families are more likely to have their kids playing sports out of school than low income families, once again due to the cost. Studies also show that low income families are more likely to bottle-feed than breastfeed, and studies have linked infant formula to obesity in adults.
Geez, that turned into a bit of a rant didn't it??? :speechsorry:
Thanks for the link bssage, very interesting.
Sorry, I was generalising an unemployed mother as a SAHM.
I guess it depends on your definition of SAHM, My definitions are the SAHM's whose partner earns enough that she doesn't need to work at all and they still live comfortably, the ones who are quite happy to live on the dole along with her partner, the single mothers who have another baby every few years so their entitlement for the single parent payment doesn't run out, and the mums who are SAHM's until their kids start school because daycare fees, taxes, loss of FTB and expenses like fuel & extra rego would chew up most of what they can earn.
I guess it depends on your definition of SAHM, My definitions are the SAHM's whose partner earns enough that she doesn't need to work at all and they still live comfortably, the ones who are quite happy to live on the dole along with her partner, the single mothers who have another baby every few years so their entitlement for the single parent payment doesn't run out, and the mums who are SAHM's until their kids start school because daycare fees, taxes, loss of FTB and expenses like fuel & extra rego would chew up most of what they can earn.
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That is interesting indeed. I recently read an article that went the other way on the maternal employment factor; it suggested that working mothers were more likely to have obese children (lack of time to prepare home-cooked meals was offered as an explanation). I don't know; that's a tricky one, because as Cybele and Neway said, it's hard to distinguish between stay-at-home motherhood and unemployment. Actually, that whole category is tricky. Why do they lump together unskilled, unemployed, and apprentice work? What if you are skilled in one thing but working as an apprentice in another? What if you're a professional who is on sabotical, medical leave, or just between jobs? I guess I'm trying to tease out whether it's the mother's level of education, family income, or daily routine that is impacting obesity in that respect. I have a professional degree but do not currently work... so which category do I choose? It's the difference between 36% and 81% chance of my kids becoming obese!
Anyway, I do think it's important to identify these factors and calculate their relative risks. It gives parents a guide at what to address. And if my daughter's school is any indication of the obesity epidemic, I do think it's a big problem. So many of the children are overweight - possibly a majority - and quite a few appear obese as well. When I was a kid, it just wasn't like that. Overweight children at the kindergarten level was rare. Now it's apparently not. And to be honest, we grew up on macaroni and hot dogs. Talking to other parents, that was pretty common. But I think today's children eat much healthier, with more vegetables, whole grains and lower-sodium meals in general. People are just more aware of these things than they were when my generation grew up. So... it really is a mystery that *my* generation grew up with mostly healthy weight, and our healthier-fed children are heavy! Well, my own children are not, but they are too young for me to write off the possibility yet.
Anyway, I do think it's important to identify these factors and calculate their relative risks. It gives parents a guide at what to address. And if my daughter's school is any indication of the obesity epidemic, I do think it's a big problem. So many of the children are overweight - possibly a majority - and quite a few appear obese as well. When I was a kid, it just wasn't like that. Overweight children at the kindergarten level was rare. Now it's apparently not. And to be honest, we grew up on macaroni and hot dogs. Talking to other parents, that was pretty common. But I think today's children eat much healthier, with more vegetables, whole grains and lower-sodium meals in general. People are just more aware of these things than they were when my generation grew up. So... it really is a mystery that *my* generation grew up with mostly healthy weight, and our healthier-fed children are heavy! Well, my own children are not, but they are too young for me to write off the possibility yet.
I agree with that for a portion of children. Food availability is much better now than it was when I was a kid. You can walk into the supermarket and you see the most amazing array of fruits and veggies, when I was growing up in the 70's, it just wasn't like that. Our local greengrocer had the staples. Potatoes, carrots, broccoli, iceberg lettuce, one variety of tomato, apples, bananas, oranges. Then every now and then something "amazing" and "seasonal" would come in and everyone would wow. Or you would go to a friend's house whose parents were European migrants and they had something "exotic" growing in their gardens like zucchini or eggplant.akmom said:
I grew up with the pretty stock standard stodge meals. Monday was sausages and mash, tuesday was pasta with meat sauce, wednesday was chicken drumsticks, mash and peas and so on. My mother cooked most of her food in lard, white bread was a status symbol and if you could afford it, then dammit, cake was an everyday food.
You would be hard pressed to find many kids who still eat like that now, I've got a 5yr old whose favourite foods include okonomiyaki and quinoa. He had a friend over recently who gobbled up pretty much all of our blueberries and asked us if we had any coconut water.
On the flip side, there are families who are relying on convenience foods more than ever. Cost of living is higher now than it was when we were kids and people are working much longer hours, so things that can be made in a flash, or just purchased as take-away are increasingly popular. We really didn't eat take-away when I was growing up, towards the mid-late 80's we started getting fish n chips, but even then, that was a once every two months kinds of thing. I didn't step foot in a McDonalds until the 90's, when I was in my 20's. So I do believe that there are families out there that are eating worse (especially in terms of salt and sugar intake) than we did when we were younger. For all the faults in what we ate, we didn't eat anywhere near as much salt as people do now.
However, what I think is the biggest contributing factor is exercise. Growing up there was nothing to do in the house, you were always outside, up a tree, on a bike, building a clubhouse, running around with no purpose, burning up energy. I remember the parents HATING it when it rained, because I would be indoors being a royally bored pain in the backside, they couldn't wait to send me back outside. You fell over? So what? Just don't get any blood on the good couch. Now, we have video games, we have so many "indoor" toys, we worry more, we worry when our kids sustain normal injuries, we're more education obsessed (which isn't always a bad thing, but does little Johnny really need to see a tutor for 2 hours after he has been sitting down all day at school, then go home only to sit down for the rest of the evening doing his homework?) we have less physical activity in schools, games are being banned because they are "too dangerous" (skipping ropes are banned at my younger ones school during recess and lunch, in case anyone "gets hit or trips over") So what do they do instead? They sit.
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I can believe the exercise thing. When I grew up, most families had their own homes. The lower-income families at least had their own trailers, or rented them. Nowadays, it seems families live in apartments for a good ten years before they can afford a house. And with houses (or trailers) there is a yard! Bigger cities, where apartment living is typical at all income levels, tend to accommodate the need for space with more parks and even common areas. But when we had an apartment, there was literally nowhere to play. You were inside, in the driveway, or on the balcony. The balcony was pretty much reserved for smokers, and no one wants their kids playing in the driveway with moving cars, so that pretty much meant we had to drive to a distant park to get outside. So I suppose the factors that prompt "indoor lifestyles" could contribute to obesity.
I know there's a consistent 10-pound difference between my summer and winter weight, and I know it's because of my activity level. It's not that there aren't winter activities, but involving kids - especially babies - is a little harder, since they aren't as cold tolerant.
I know there's a consistent 10-pound difference between my summer and winter weight, and I know it's because of my activity level. It's not that there aren't winter activities, but involving kids - especially babies - is a little harder, since they aren't as cold tolerant.