Advanced Search
Welcome to Omgili,
Omgili (Oh My God I Love It ;) is a search engine for discussions. With Omgili you can find answers and solutions, debates, discussions, personal experiences, opinions and more... To learn more about Omgili click here.

This is a complete preview of the discussion as it was indexed by Omgili crawlers. Use this preview if the original discussion is unavailable.
Click here to view the original discussion.

Changes in ideal weight and BMI in babies and toddlers and our health. - A Pinch of Health - Australian Low Carb Forum

We went to the Art Gallery in the city on Saturday. I really enjoyed the old art, I'm not as much interested in the modern art as I am in the old art as I like the history behind it. Anyway one thing that I found common in all the older art that interested me (for obvious reasons) was that all the babies and toddlers were big and stocky like Maya.

There was no slim ones like you see today and is in some ways encouraged (to a point) these days. Which leads me to wonder (although I am obviousely biased) is that have our perceptions changed in regards to a babies ideal weight/physique just like they have as adults (aka overly skinny models).

I think you're spot on ..

I remember when I was a little kid at my Grandmas house she had some really old photos of family and honestly they were huge!!

All of them built like bricks - even the kids.

I suppose in part this comes down to the evolution of modern medicine and the ability to treat frail and sickly kids so they can go on to lead full and healthy lives.

Back in the day even we humans lived a survival of the fittest cycle.

Sickly children died at young ages thus never made it to maturity and never had children of their own.

Now with the introduction of IVF couples unable to have children for whatever genetic reason are now able to overcome this.

Obviously these changes are going to have influences on the overall characteristics because of how complex the breeding cycle has become. I am fascinated by how the human race has changed

Yes very good point! One thing I think we do these days which we didn't do before namely because obesity in children let alone adults wasn't any where near as much of a problem is that we over emphasise this whole 'ideal' weight and BMI where as before we would not have worried unless they were underweight for obvious reasons. Now obviousely people with bad genetics are surviving better now and hence passing these genes down but also our diet (amongst other like environmental and drugs) and that of our children has changed dramatically but instead of focusing on what has changed in our diets we are instead making it worse by changing the childrens diet even more.

Another thing is our lifestyles are changing, we are much busier with more pressures in regards to both parents working and a much bigger emphasis on convienience which I think has a huge impact on even a babies/toddlers diet.

Plus, there is less support so mum doesn't get the break she needs making convienience a much more attracting option. The thing that bothers me most about this change in perception and emphasis on BMI is young children can suffer because of it.

A skinny baby with a bad bout of gastro is not a good thing nor is a baby/child on a low fat diet (AKA formula and shop bought baby food)!

I totally agree - putting kids on lowfat diets is possibly the wost things that can happen to overweight kids and it will quite possibly pose serious health issues later on.

I myself personally think that nutrition needs to go back to basics but unfortunately with the prices of unprocessed food there are very few families who are willing to pay the price to make the changes necessary to start undoing some of the problems.

On another forum I frequent I got into a very heated debate with a lady over health problems in children and the solutions and she refused to see that our entire diet has been manufactured, processed and treated beyond all healthy bounds and she argued that it is entirely parental choice that is causing the problem.

My argument is that everything right down to our meats and vegetables have been interefered with so even if a parent tries to take the menu back to basics finding the necessary produce is easier said than done.

Parental choice yes but when the majority of our foods are offered as they are the growing trend and belief is that the choices they are making ARE healthy because the labelling and hoopla tells them its the healthy choice.

Also as you said they are convenient because the majority of parents no longer have hours to spend preparing meals.

Ultimately it's all about education and the simple fact is that our species may be technologically evolving but our dietary needs haven't necessarily followed suit.

Basically our poor little bodies aren't equiped to deal with the mass carbohydrates that are predominantly served at every meal.

The problems come from all angles too so diet is just one factor along with the lifestyle changes that are occuring where the kids spend less time outside and/or being active.

When I was a kid even I can hardly remember spending days inside unless it was raining because there was nothing else to do whereas now its pretty much a norm because of the dangers of letting the kids run around the street with their friends. I try to look at things from an archaic perspective - if we were forced to hunt and gather for ourselves what would be eating and in what quantities?

Yep thats right and the kicker is in regards to the attitudes on it being the parents fault it is also this same attitude and probably from the same people that help pressure both parents to work.

T is a vicious, horrible cycle. I totally agree with the cost and if you try and go one step further (organic) it is even worse.

The worst bit is some take advantage of that and up the prices because people will pay it! But there are some things you can do that arn't costly.

Take bread for example, okay sandwiches for lunch at school probably can't do a great deal about, it is easy for kids and if you make it too difficult they are more likely to just bin their lunch because they don't want to spend most of their lunch eating it.

But you should be able to find bread with less crap then supermarket bread. Eg;

Ryan, I can buy him high fibre sour dough (it has rye, oats and 2 other grains that I have forgotton) at a local farmers market for $3.50.

At a bakers down the road I can by him Rye sour dough for $3.10 with as many ingredients as you can count on one hand and the same goes for their white bread and their is no crappy unstable vegetable oils in them porned off as OMEGA 3!!! Btw this same farmers market I buy her eggs which are $4 per dozen large eggs and they are free range in her big apple orchids, how cool is that! Then there are cereals, there is no excuse to give kids cereals like coco pops, you can buy vita brits, oats etc just as cheap. I should move this convo to its own thread so it doesn't get lost in my diary!

Please take into account that some bubs are just skinny.

My daughter struggled to put on weight when just on breast milk and was not interested in solids once they were introduced.

She was just very active, very soon and burnt off the energy before storing it.

No IVF here, fell pregnant very easily, no trouble with pregnancy, just the birth.

So genetically she is a skinny one, even though as parents we are not. Also remember in the older photos with the chubby, chubby babies, that many of those babies were not breastfed, they were fed concoctions of cows milk (often condensed) with vitamins added.

So not exactly a healthy diet, maybe it was healthy once solids was introduced, but certainly not before. I agree though, it is hard to get good quality food easily.

Many parents are brain washed into low fat, high sugar, convenience foods.

It starts when the babies are born and many parents opt for formula for the convenience under the belief that it is equal to breastmilk.

Ryan was a skinny baby too, at the same time he was sick more often as well, but that doesn't necassarily mean anything as you said yours is breastfed and you demand feed her too. Oh I should note regarding Ryan I opted for formula at around 3 months and solids soon after.

His weight gain and growth slowed down from high percentile to average. Quote: : Also remember in the older photos with the chubby, chubby babies, that many of those babies were not breastfed, they were fed concoctions of cows milk (often condensed) with vitamins added.

So not exactly a healthy diet, maybe it was healthy once solids was introduced, but certainly not before.

This was interesting, I did'nt know this.

When was this happening? Tell me more!

There is an article in one of the ABA mags about it.

Just found it, I can scan it and email it to you if you want.

Would love to see it Astrid!




Omgili Home About FAQ Plugins Usenet