Grandparent care. . .

Mummy smokes, buys fast food, takes them for coffee as a treat (oldest is 10) and rarely takes them out even to the park at the end of the road. They spend their time on phones and i-pads, as does she. They took their Trick or Treat sweets home this time and they are all gone. I am usually throwing lots of them out after Christmas.

When they are with Dad and Gran I could not list all the physical and fun activities they do as there are so many. They also have healthy home cooked meals plus milk and a biscuit before bed!

Grandmama you and me both EXPLODING!

Cinnamon1 I agree so much with your comment on unpaid child care and the beneficial effect on children's mental health so thank you for calming me down and reminding me of my role! Breathe.....!

Just one more opportunity to try to drive a wedge between the generations. I am very tired of the baby boomer bashing, as if I chose the year I was born.

Also, the ridiculous conclusions drawn from this "research" do not take into consideration the endless games, the stories read seven times in a row, the feeding the ducks, the making a card with colouring pens, stickers and feathers for mummy's birthday, the mixing home-made pastry dough and cutting out the shapes.

How did we ever manage to be grandmothers when we are so useless at caring for children in the first place?

I can’t imagine why so many of you are getting so het up and feel you have to justify yourselves.
IMO they should have released this study on April 1st.

Well I had to laugh. My daughter is a first time mother of a now 10 month old boy. Like many mothers today it was a complete no-no to sweetened foods, processed foods, additives etc etc. I strictly respect my children's decisions for their children (avoids any arguments if nothing else) so when I found a little packet of cheese and corn sticks specially made for his age and minus additives or salt or sugar I asked if he could try them and wasn't surprised to receive a horrified "no way - those are snacks" so I put them away and went to make a cup of tea to go with the cakes I had just got out for the grown ups.... When I got back, there was my daughter breaking off bits of her shop-bought processed cake complete with fake colourings and putting them into his mouth!! I looked at her and said "hmm". So she said oh ok get those cheese sticks out, and the dear little chap ploughed his way through the whole pack. No going back now, I'm afraid

This is an academic paper about long-term prevention of cancer. It says that parents have been targeted but not grandparents. As new cancer research is coming out all the time, it suggests that we as grandparents, being even more important regarding childcare than ever before, should be aware.

When so many UK grandparents react by saying that they don't give their grandchildren unlimited sweet and fatty treats, they go out of their way to cook healthy meals for them, never smoke when the children are around (or even when they are not around) and take them for the exercise that their parents are too busy working to have time for, you do wonder where are all these grandparents whose grandchildren sit around in a fug of tobacco smoke stuffing their faces with sweets, crisps and sugary drinks.

Could it be that most of them are in China (home of the indulged Little Emperors), the USA (home of Kentucky Fried Chicken, sugar in everything and enormous servings) or one of the countries where smoking is universal?

This survey examined 56 different and diverse studies. Only a very few of them originated in the UK, and only one of those covered tobacco - it concluded that in this the influence of grandparents was beneficial. Some parents voluntarily change their smoking behaviour to protect children, whilst others do so when requested by parents.

Only two of the diet studies were from the UK. One asked 300 children aged 9-11 in three schools in Leeds whether their grandparents indulged them. They said they did, - of course they said they did. Children love their grandparents and they know that their grandparents love them - so that was counted as an adverse result.

On exercise grandparents were accepted to be a good influence - they have the time to take them out into the fresh air.

But the conclusions at the end of the Glasgow analysis and what was reported in the media is that ALL GRANDPARENTS, EVERYWHERE, are busy digging the graves of their grandchildren by filling their stomachs with unsuitable food, and their lungs with tobacco smoke. I would have thought that the UK media could have actually read it through, as I did, and found all the UK references. From them they could have published that we are not doing too badly really, though we must keep up the good work and we can't afford to relax our care. No wonder so many sensible grandparents are feeling insulted.

Gp's have been looking after Gc's for many a moon now some bright spark with nothing better to do in their life comes up with the fact we are ruining our gc's health with over indulgence of the wrong things. If gp's haven't the common sense to know what is good/bad for gc's then they shouldn't be looking after them in the first place.

I relied on mil to look after my kids while at work. I did not feel it necessary or to insult her with a book of rules
I have two healthy adult daughters.
Come on, what next.???????

Elegran’s posts on here have explained several times the nature of the systematic review and anther poster gave the link to the research. As has been said,it’s the useless lazy journalists we have who distort this type of academic exercise. They do this ALL the time with research findings of all kind as the average journalist is an arts graduate, educated in the independent sector and Oxbridge and knows nothing about the nature of research and the scientific method. We’ve had a similar thread recently where similar issues were discussed about the nature of statistics. It’s clear that several posters on here have not read TFT and are just fulminating against in effect poor journalism and not poor research. Systematic reviews and meta-analysis are part of the research process and are not meant to be the final answer but part of the journey of discovery and to highlight potential areas that would benefit from further in-depth research

This is what the ‘journalists’ should have been able to understand and report on noting all the caveats and the areas identified for future research. This is one of the main reasons for carrying out a systematic review

Abstract

Many lifestyle patterns are established when children are young. Research has focused on the potential role of parents as a risk factor for non communicable disease in children, but there is limited investigation of the role of other caregivers, such as grandparents. The aim of this review was to identify and synthesise evidence for any influence grandparents’ care practices may have on their grandchildren’s long term cancer risk factors. A systematic review was carried out with searches across four databases (MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, PsycINFO) as well as searches of reference lists and citing articles, and Google Scholar. Search terms were based on six areas of risk that family care could potentially influence–weight, diet, physical activity, tobacco, alcohol and sun exposure. All study designs were included, as were studies that provided an indication of the interaction of grandparents with their grandchildren. Studies were excluded if grandparents were primary caregivers and if children had serious health conditions. Study quality was assessed using National Institute for Health and Care Excellence checklists. Grandparent impact was categorised as beneficial, adverse, mixed or as having no impact. Due to study heterogeneity a meta-analysis was not possible. Qualitative studies underwent a thematic synthesis of their results. Results from all included studies indicated that there was a sufficient evidence base for weight, diet, physical activity and tobacco studies to draw conclusions about grandparents’ influence. One study examined alcohol and no studies examined sun exposure. Evidence indicated that, overall, grandparents had an adverse impact on their grandchildren’s cancer risk factors. The theoretical work in the included studies was limited. Theoretically underpinned interventions designed to reduce these risk factors must consider grandparents’ role, as well as parents’, and be evaluated robustly to inform the evidence base further.

maryeliza We need to take half a step back and look coolly at the report itself and the media treatment of it. Too often reactions are instant ones, and they are to the spin put on the news by a reporter who is only looking for a sensational headline, not a balanced account.

We took little granddaughter for a walk the other day and stopped off for a cup of tea. Having been given those little biscuits with our cuppas we both ate them. Gave granddaughter some food that was in her pushchair bag, but she looked longingly at the biscuits. Explained to her that we didn't think mummy and daddy would want her to have one because they were full of sugar, only to get home and find that mummy and daddy always give her their biscuits. Fell awful, now .

...feel...[oh for an edit button....]

I have the two youngest grandchildren staying overnight. I was explaining about grandparents spoiling grandchildren with biscuits and sweets being in the news. The 7 year old said “oh no nanna will the police be coming for you?” Obviously I’m guilty as charged .

I listened to this with growing incredulity as well....how dare these ungenerous parents begrudge the grandparents giving the children treats, when they're providing free child care! We don't see our grandchildren too often due to distance, but when we do, we 'treat' them as and when we like, but always being aware of sugar-rushes! Son and DIL have never minded - the kids know its just treats when they see us, and don't necessarily expect them on a normal day to day at home. Such a shame that grandparents are made to feel bad about this