I was going to use the word choices instead of intake but then thought better of it. A 2 or 3-year-old doesn't get a great deal of say in what he or she eats or drinks. The parent or caregiver is ultimately responsible for making those choices.
It's backed up by some pretty compelling evidence. Facts, figures and studies and, of course, the kids themselves, arriving in hospitals with conditions that, until recently, were never seen in young adults, let alone children.
The first episode dealt with sugar and dental hygiene. We meet a dental surgeon, just one of many on a team at your average local hospital. Each year he extracts a minimum of 20,000 milk teeth, literally from the mouths of babes; decayed, rotten and abscessed.
Next we watch as a 7-year-old boy goes to theatre and has 14 of his 20 precious pearlers painfully prised from his gums with pliers. Only then does his mum, by then in tears, acknowledge her role in the situation. Her son has come to, screaming in pain and is virtually inconsolable. The only upside is the impending payout from the Tooth Fairy.
The reality that some of the adult teeth are still years away from coming through hits home.
Even a healthy diet is going to be a challenge with so few teeth left to chew with.
Next is an obese 4-year-old girl, the four teeth she was scheduled to have extracted turns into eight teeth. She sleeps with a juice bottle every night and the mum, bravely admits it's easier to give her a sweet drink when she wakes, as opposed to taking the time to sit with her and settle her back to sleep. She also confesses to being pretty lazy when it comes to teaching/supervising any dental hygiene.
"What kid is gonna get excited about brushing their teeth when they could be downstairs watching Peppa Pig?"
This mother openly admits shopping and cooking based entirely on what is most convenient for her. She wants "an easy life". If nothing else, I have to admire her honesty. You can't fix a problem until you recognise you have one.
Like the mum before her, it soon hits home, when her child, too, is screaming in agony, post-op and is facing an even longer wait than the young boy, for adult teeth to appear.
Speaking of long waits, the waiting list for oral surgery on kids is growing longer by the day for what the surgeon describes as 100 per cent preventable and unnecessary.
We then see the same mum trying to buy her daughter a school uniform, in preparation for when she turns 5. She should be a size 4-5 but even the largest size is skin tight so mum and daughter leave empty handed.
The second episode was even more harrowing, focusing on a specialised unit, set up to perform the "last resort" stomach surgeries on kids as young as 12 years old.
Again there is no specific socio-economic factor. The kids are from all backgrounds.
We see a young teenager who is depositing fat straight to his liver, a condition typically seen in middle age at the earliest, and a 13-year-old girl, who at nearly 127kg denies, at least on camera, that she even has a weight problem.
A visiting specialist tells the mum that 80-90 per cent of obese children stay that way. You can see the mother questioning whether she is fighting a losing battle. The truth hurts.
I would never have thought that seeing a couple of kids having teeth pulled out would have such a profound effect on me, but when you see them being pulled in such great numbers at such a young age, trust me, it does. It's not a pretty picture, but then I guess that's the whole point.
As for the weight-loss surgery, in 10 years will they be performing these operations on 8 and 9-year-olds? Just last week I was reading that while child obesity is still on a rapid rise we are already facing a newer and more disturbing trend - the record number of babies being born, already classified as obese.
While I can't describe Junk Food Kids as enjoyable viewing, it's certainly makes for a compelling watch that leaves you with more questions than answers.
Is this overfeeding/wrong feeding of our kids the new, albeit unintentional, form of child abuse? Should there be a penalty? I hope the series eventually makes its way to New Zealand screens. Every parent should have the opportunity to watch it.
As always I welcome your feedback: investik8@gmail.com
-Kate Stewart is an unemployed, reluctant mother of three, running amok in the city.
