I heard this story this morning on my local news. Children are to heavy for car seats. Manufactures are having to make them stronger. Now first of all, I am a little concerned that manufactures were not makeing them stronger to begin with!

But....

I just wanted to say how sad.

Toddlers too obese for child car seats, says study

Associated Press in Chicago
Tuesday April 4, 2006
The Guardian


America's growing obesity problem is making many young children too heavy for standard car-safety seats, prompting firms to develop heftier models, according to research in the journal Pediatrics.
Some 280,000 US children aged one to six are over the limit for standard seats, mostly three-year-olds over 40lb (18kg), which is generally considered overweight. More than 23% of US children aged two to five are overweight.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration plans to create a 36kg crash dummy for testing safety seats, 11kg heavier than current simulators.

Wow,

Call me naive but the kids really are weighing that much? I do see a few kids here and there that are chunky but not that overweight. My baby is almost 10 and we were so proud of him for reaching 60 lbs. I thought my kids were average but the more I read, I see they must fall on the small side. 5 out of 6 of them reached 40 lbs at about 6-7 yrs old. 1 reached it at 5 yrs old.

Wow, maybe I should open my eyes a little more. Or maybe I don't notice because I have enough with my kids and grandchild. I guess I am going to be more careful with her from now on.

Elva/Lill

I can see this.
I had over 10lb babies. They didn't last in the infant rear facing car seats for very long. I had to got up to the convertible. My children are by no means overweight but they are big kids and kids just seem to be getting bigger in my part of the woods anyway. K is 4.5 and he's about 43lb. just reached that this year. M is 15 months and 28 lbs. Not fat just big kids.

Mine both hit average in the height and weight. Lilly is 75% for her height at 39 inches and 50% for weight at 35 pounds (she's 3 years 3 months). William is 75% for weight at 30 pounds and 50% for height at 36 in. (He is 2 years 2 months). Both my kids also outgrew the carriers by around 6 months but it was because of height not weight. My carrier only went up to 20lbs., 26 in. and both hit well over 26 in. early. There car seats now are also booster seats and say they go up to 80lbs. so I don't know. I haven't really seen many overweight toddlers around here. I see more overweight kids in kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade and such.

I've seen a few kids who were big but I could tell that they were solid, not fat. It is likely kids like that will become more slender as they grow taller. It breaks my heart, though, to see a true blue overweight child. It just makes me sad knowing what they are in for physically and socially especially since they have little, if any, choice in their situation.

I was just noticing that there are never kids outside these days. When I was a kid I was always outside and so were my friends. We'd be gone for hours playing outside, adventuring the desert, riding bikes, swimming and building forts.

There's so many video games, and kid's t.v. programs, and computer games during the day that kids are all shut away in their house. It's sad and I think it's a contributing factor to many kids being overweight or unhealthy.

About kids playing outside ~ maybe they can't as much now-a-days because of the nuts out there who could get them. Sad

Hi Everyone! I'm new to these forums but wanted to add my 2 cents. Although I'm sure childhood obesity is on the rise, I think kids are just bigger now days. My boys are not skinny but they are not obese either. They are both around 75-80% for height. My 6 year old is 85 lbs and my 3.5 year old is 65 lbs. They are solid kids. We had to move my youngest out of his car seat 6 months ago (Britax Marathon 65lb harness weight limit) and put him into a booster even though it is recommended they not be one until age 4. There is only one other seat with a harness that could fit him until 80 lbs but they were not available at that time and still hard to come by. Although it will be too late for us, I'm glad other manufacturers are finally looking into making seats with higher weight limits.

I agree about the kids not playing outside enough, but sometimes they aren't even safe in their own backyard.

Karlene

When I was growing up, we knew all our neighbors, and there was only one fenced-in yard (and the kid who lived there wasn't allowed outside his yard to play -- he was considered "the weird kid" because of it). Kids did go outside to play, and there was a schoolyard real close by.

In our neighborhood we're only now, after five years living there, beginning to meet some of our neighbors. I don't get home at night until 6:00 or so. Weekends are busy doing errands. Play has to be "scheduled" with the neighbor kids, because of conflicts with sports, classes, and family events.

Now granted, Gem is just turning five, so it's not that big a deal as yet. But she's already decided it's not as much fun to swing on her swingset by herself in our (fenced-in) backyard than it is to play with others. But she's still much more interested in playing outside than in sitting in front of the TV. The fact that we have a pool is a big plus for outside-play during warm weather. And i'm hopeful that it will be a draw for friends, too.

Much of it is food as well, I think. Soda was a couple-times-a-YEAR treat for me growing up, not a weekly or daily thing. Going out to McDonalds was a family event, not a drive-through mainstay. My mother never dreamed of giving me candy for doing a good job at my schoolwork, but Gem's grandmother rewards her with food sometimes. The dirt-cheap abundance of high-fat, high-sugar treats is ubiquitous.

Every generation has its trials to face. One of ours is raising our children healthily, without obsessing over what they eat and how much they exercise.

there is a guy here in the uk who is a proffessor of childhood obesity, my lecturer went to a conference he gave last year in which he put up a photo of a "healthy baby" and asked people to put there hand up if they though it was healthy under weight or obeses. the majority said healthy with some saying underweight. in fact it was obese. this just goes to show although a child may look solid or healthy a little on the large side doesn't mean they aren't obese. whats scary is if this room of 500+ people didn't see this child as obese at the age it was in the photo will they have recognised it at 2 years old? and if not then you are in for problems

I think they should have been making car seats stronger to begin with! I mean even if we didnt have weight issues in america there are still all shapes and sizes of people. And there are bound to be some kids who are to big for the car seats and not be overweight. what is THAT mother supose(SP) to do? My first son was never overweight but he was always a big boy. He was just always taller and bigger than the other kids. He never outgrew his carseat, but to know that his carseat was not as strong as it could have been makes me mad. I get mad about seatbelts too. I mean they are obvouisly(sp) made for only men. I cant stand it. Even now with the things they have that adjust dont help me. I need to buy one of those things for kids to keep the shoulder strap off my neck. LOL Its frusterating. My youngest son is 8 and is still in a booster seat. He is Really skinny and small. I dont think hes mineLOL. Infant seats dont really fit newborns either. They really need to do a better job making carseats and seatbelts fit EVERYONE, the small and the large alike!!!!! Not just the average person/child!!

my absolute, biggest fear.. more than even myself dying tommorrow from a weight induced heart attack... is of my children being obese,

my fear is that they will have to face the same obstacles i have. At the same time, i do not want to make them obsessed with their weight, or feel bad about it.. i still rmemeber when my grandmother commented on my weight when i weighed 145.. that i needed to "start workign on it before i got REALLY fat".. that one comment CRUSHED my self esteem.. i know that it is not an excuse.. but i remember everything about it.. how i felt. .and that i went and ate afterwards.. to make myself feel better..

I never want to be the cause, or even just a link in the cause of my children having an unhealthy relationship with food..

very very scary