How not to raise your child on junk food

Well over 6 years into this parenting experience, it feels like either I'm on a different planet or that the gods of profit and consumerism have conspired against me.

Was I naive thinking I could raise my kids on a reasonable diet, that is nutritious, varied and does not destroy their precious bodies?

Every day, the pestering is endless, the black and whiteness of liking or hating food is doing my head in and it feels very much that as a parent I have no influence on my children's diet.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not the exclusively organic cooked from scratch with no sugar, salt or additives kind of mum. Like other working mums, cooking has to be quick and I'm also not exactly someone who gets satisfaction out of preparing a complex meal. I do think I'm the average mum who simply wants her kids to eat reasonably healthy, with a decent variety, while instilling positive eating habits and a joy of food.

However, I'm on my own.

All around me, there's junk food.
There's junk at school and nursery. They call it healthy meals. But fish comes in fingers, burgers without veg, and pizza with pasta.
There's junk at the swimming pool/sport centre. Every single vending machine sells junk. Every Glasgow Life cafe counter is filled to the brim with junk.
There's junk at the supermarket/kiosk/ every effing shop that we pass.
There's an icecream van parked between school and swing park that has to be passed on the way home from school.
There's junk at the school disco.
There's junk at every single school event.
There's junk at parties and those parties are plentiful.

Home becomes a bubble and because of the amount of junk food virtually everywhere, I feel I cannot even allow a treat at home anymore because they had so many elsewhere already, and I become the bogeywoman who doesn't let her kids have a treat.

Any food that is not a favourite is hated. And favourites are demanded. The cry for sweeties, snacks and treats is constant (my youngest had a phase where she must have had the idea she could have marshmallows for breakfast and every morning began with a tantrum when there were none). My "no's" are constant too.

At school, the children are taught about making healthy food choices. Just that they can't actually make healthy food choices. It's simply beyond a 6 year old to choose salad over a bun, and it doesn't help that the message is received in a very warped manner (apparently, because bread is healthy, as is milk, it's enough to just eat bread and milk).

It's not a secret that an ever increasing number of children are overweight, that we are in the midst of an obesity epidemic that brings with it heart disease, diabetes, cancer and possibly other illnesses. It's costing us as a society a lot of money. Yet we won't bow to the pressures of the profit makers who sell us rubbish food, and let them market the food to our children in an unashamed way. They give the illusion of healthy snacks (cereal bars anyone? Fruit juices?). There's the argument that kids wouldn't eat the healthy options (yes, maybe for a while until they realise that's what there is and if they are hungry they'd better eat it). But really, are we so keen to just give up on our kids and let them indulge as if there was no tomorrow? As a society, we are reducing the life expectancy of our children significantly, and nobody seems to care because it's all big business.

So the school fundraisers have junk tuck shops to raise funds for the school (I'd be happy to pay for my child not to be exposed to the tuck shop). If I don't give money for the tuck shop, child feels excluded and is upset, and a teacher or parent is sure to give her some money to make her happy again. School dinners establish questionable food preferences under the health umbrella, or offer so many choices that every child is sure to be able to avoid all fruit and veg and binge on simple carbs and processed junk.

And here I am little mummy average, trying to fight a losing battle, with only two choices left: give in or take it on.

Wondrous Weaning

My kids may be well past their weaning ages, but if there's one thing I remember vividly it's that weaning was a daunting mountain for me as a first time mum and that the information out there wasn't really in line with what I was looking for. I was concerned with low weight gain, and when presented with having to prepare purees, there was a whole range of vegetables that I'd never cooked in my life. As an almost vegetarian household I also had to make decisions about if, how and when to introduce meat to my child's diet. I remember the patchy information provided by the health visitor team, which effectively presented us with leaflets and 3 purees of varying consistency, and gave an opportunity to buy a masher and puree tool at discount prices.

I'm much more relaxed this time around, but weaning was still a worry. By now I'd heard of baby led weaning and when Snowflake refused the spoon, I didn't worry and just let her eat whatever I was having. She didn't eat much and still doesn't, but she delights in food now and gets utterly excited about the announcement of "dinner time".

In a way I felt a bit let down both times around with the support available at this critical time in a baby's life.
Put it into context, we are experiencing an explosion of childhood obesity, with 30% of primary aged children in Scotland being overweight or obese. It's not just about kids being a bit heavier than they should, obesity leads to shorter lives, and these short lives are not as fun filled (with a family history of obesity and obesity related illnesses, I know this all too well).

So it strikes me that a bit of support and information that makes sense at this crucial stage might be a good idea. I did a bit of research on what's been proven to be the good and the bad in weaning for later life health and found out some interesting facts that even after 5 1/2 years of being a mum were new to me.

The risk of obesity and overweight is increased significantly if a baby is breastfed for less than 4 weeks AND solids are introduced before 16 weeks. This increases the risk of obesity a staggering 6 times. There is also an increased risk of obesity if a baby is formula fed AND solids are introduced after 6 months, though not as pronounced. So for the formula fed infant it's important that solids are introduced no earlier than 17 weeks and no later than 26 weeks. For breastfed babies, there is no significant increase of obesity risk depending on when solids are introduced.

Now we all know the guidelines to introduce solids no earlier than 17 weeks but ideally no earlier than 6 months. However, a whopping 51% of infants in the UK are introduced to solids before they are 16 weeks (this statistic is quite recent, Bolling et al.: 2007). This means that half of our children are put at a six fold risk of obesity from when they are not even 4 months old.

Then there's the interesting subject of protein. I won't go into the details because you'll just get all bored on me, but the bottom line is that a weaning diet rich in protein significantly increases the risk of obesity and overweight. Protein would be dairy and meat. So a diet rich in Carbohydrates is much better, and it's important to keep protein intake below carbs intake (= too much cow's milk can be bad): "Children who were overweight at 5yrs consumed significantly higher protein as a percentage of energy than non overweight children." (Scaglioni et al.: 2000)

Third up is earliest weight gain - which may be linked to protein intake. Infants who cross growth centiles upwards are hat significantly higher risk of obesity and overweight. This is particularly prominent in the first weeks of life, but the effect carries on through the first year: "Emerging evidence therefore strongly supports the first few post-natal weeks as a critical window for programming long-term health in both humans and animals" (Singhal/Lanigan: 2007). Researches aren't clear what causes this upward movement, and as it's observed mainly in formula fed infants, it may be something to do with formula being too rich in protein (although there are another few suggested causes, such as breast milk ingredients keeping insulin receptors happy and formula fed babies not being able to fully self regulate food intake). Anyeay, I wish I'd known this one earlier, it would have spared me all the worry of both my girls moving downwards on their percentiles... All I was concerned about was to get them up as high as I could, and I'm sure this is an instinct most parents share.

I also looked into the approach to weaning and how this may make a difference. There is one small study that indicates that spoon fed babies tend to be at higher risk of obesity than infants who feed themselves (baby led weaning). However the study is so small and the difference between the groups not big enough to allow for any conclusions. At the same time, the results, even if limited, indicate that baby led infants choose carbohydrate rich foods above protein rich foods which may indicate that they make food choices which are healthier for them.

So the bottom line is that it's most important to ensure solids are not introduced before 17 weeks and that most of the energy of the weaning diet comes from carbohydrates and not from protein. For formula fed babies, it's better to introduce solids before 6 months (but no earlier than 17 weeks), while for breastfed babies it doesn't matter.

References:
1.Rebecca Kendall. Weaning: Risk Factors for the Development of Overweight and Obesity in Childhood - A Systematic Review (2011)
2. A. Singhal and J. Lanigan. Breastfeeding, early growth and later obesity (2007)
3. Susanna Huh. "Timing of Solid Food Introduction and Risk of Obesity in Preschool-Aged Children" (2011)
4. E. Townsend and NJ Pitchford. "Baby knows best? The impact of weaning style on food preferences and body mass index in early childhood in a case-controlled sample (2012)

Child's food or how not to become obese

As parents, the learning curve is steep and it doesn't stop when you think you may start to have it sussed out, like 4 years in or something like that. Recently, food has been very much on the agenda, and three very different trains of thought seem to be converging.

There is an interesting contradiction in the whole business of feeding children. If you're a breastfeeding mum, all your parents' eyes are on weight gain and you are damning yourself (even if health professionals don't) if it doesn't follow a chart. Oh the worry I had with Cubling. So much so, that once we started solids, I made sure it was a very high calorie version and she went from skinny to very chubby in just 3 months.

Then there's the whole debate of increasing levels of childhood obesity, so much so that a recent topic on Call Kaye was a debate on whether gastric band operations should be offered to children as young as 14. An interesting point was made by a caller who deplored that weight gain in children was no longer checked regularly, so that obesity is often caught when severely bad eating habits are very strongly established and exercise is becoming less of an option to tackle the surplus energy the body is given.

There are many reasons for childhood obesity, and while some are known (we all know what foods are good and which ones aren't, don't we?), some others are more elusive.

Reason 1: This is one that I only found out about recently, due to taking part in the Optigrow Infant Feeding Study. Apparently, baby's metabolism is set in the first 10 days of life. If fed on formula, the risk of later obesity is much higher than if fed on breast milk. What annoys me is that nobody ever informed me about this. All the breastfeeding information I got from the NHS was summarised into benefits, which were all nice but not very convincing.

When you decide which way you would like to feed your baby, it's presented as a choice where you weigh up pros and cons. The thing is though that many reasons to breastfeed are not really explained in detail. I usually don't trust reasons that don't give me an explanation. The "why" is important to me and convinces me. I'm still finding out more about the benefits of breastfeeding, and realise more and more that there are two reasons why people do not breastfeed: New mothers often don't know enough about the benefits and make an uninformed choice, or they do not get enough support. Then there's the group who does get all the information and support and makes an informed choice - which is fine. It's just a shame if breastfeeding isn't happening for lack of information and/or support.

Now there's a new "urge" to breastfeed to reduce levels of obesity, which have long term health impact and also cost the NHS money. Low breastfeeding rates translate to health inequalities in later life. In principle, this is all good and well, surely there's room for higher levels of breastfeeding (in some parts of Glasgow less than 10% of mothers breastfeed at the 6-8 week appointment) - but it takes more than an "urge". I saw a request on Netmums for a young mum to be for baby stuff, including bottles. I responded and offered a few things (including bottles) but also said that breastfeeding would be cheaper. The response by the friend was, oh she's only 17, she doesn't have a clue. I understand that, I didn't have a clue really at more than twice the age and the NHS breastfeeding workshop at 38 weeks of pregnancy was much too late to really have an impact on feeding choices (and the support to tackle my breastfeeding problems was well meaning but didn't actually improve things). I just feel that nobody should feel they don't have a clue about what should be the normal way to feed a baby, and I'm still mad that even with all the information I did get, I didn't know enough when I first became a mum.

Then there's the issue that breastfeeding support workers and initiatives are getting their funding cut. Urging to breastfeed without the support is simply not enough. I won't happen. Without the support I had, I would have given in after 2 weeks. I didn't have great support, but it kept me going at least. Cut that, and your breastfeeding rates will plummet.


Reason 2: There is an ever growing availability of unhealthy and cheap fast food, particularly in the poorer areas. When I started weaning, everyone told me that making your own baby food was way cheaper than jars. I still doubt that. I also doubt that I can make a dinner for the price of a ready made meal. Convenience food, unhealthy snacks, fast food, are all over the place, ever in your face and it's hard to say "no" even if you are health conscious. My suggestion to tackle the problem: tax the nasty ingredients. There is currently no tax on sugar, making sugary foods very cheap. The only thing that keeps me from buying yet another chocolate bar (and eating it within seconds) is price. I know I wouldn't buy it if it doubled in price. Same goes for ready made meals and the like.

Reason 3: People have lost the skill to cook. When I was a child, my mother cooked most things from scratch. I was fortunate to learn some skills from her, though I didn't show much of an interest and could have learned so much more. Later I learned from my au pair families and thanks to a great hall of residence where we cooked together occasionally. Yet still I'm not particularly confident that I can cook from scratch. Which is why I'm all in favour of basic cooking skills being taught at school - not as an elective subject but for everyone. Because really, what better life skill can there be than being able to feed yourself?

Reason 4: And this is where I got caught in the act: Creating negative food associations. Call it the battle of the dinner table. For months, nay, years, we've been battling at dinner time. Cubling takes forever to eat, and only threats or promises of desert will make her finish her dinner. This is with food she likes and with food she doesn't. She's not a particularly fussy eater (apart from refusing to eat fruit), she just won't feed herself. We've tried it all. Or have we? I once read that the principle of feeding kids should be that the parent controls WHAT comes on the plate, and the child controls HOW MUCH they eat. On Call Kaye it was pointed out that children don't actually overeat on decent food, they only do so if sweat/fatty food is offered and also if the parents insist on the child finishing the plate. Oh I'm so guilty of the latter. I hate wasting food. I still have that growth chart worry from her breastfeeding days. The comment also firmly put me into Cubling's shoes: How did I feel when coerced into eating food? I had to finish my plate too, made to eat meat, and what good did it do? I'm an overweight, chocoholic vegetarian now! How did it happen that I just copied the food politics that I hated when I was a child?

By age 4 apparently, bad food habits are created. But we can change, can't we, after all, she's only just 4. So it's back to basics: I offer, she eats or leaves. All without coercion, with calm and fun. Hopefully we can still patch the bad start, and do it all so much better with Snowflake...

How about you? Is your dinner table a battlefield?
And what do you think is the best way to tackle rising levels of childhood obesity?

(Brownie Point if you spot the movie reference in the title ;) )