23
July
2007
July
2007
Size Matters
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Manufacturers are making larger car seats to accommodate heavy children.
Restaurants have expanded seating sizes (and so have amusement parks).
Even medical equipment has required super-sizing.
In fact, expanding the sizes of chair, belts, booths, and other common widgets is one of the hottest areas of product development in business right now.
At the current rate, we will achieve 100% child obesity in America by 2044 and 100% total population obesity by 2058.
What does obesity look like in dollars, numbers and lives? Learn why obesity is such a “big” deal.
Technorati Tags: sizing, seating, obesity, epidemic
And I have noticed that they generally make everything bigger and bigger now, not just supersizing…kinda makes tiny me feel like I am shrinking a little more every day!
Though, I suppose if this trend continues plane flights will be much more comfortable.
Average plane seat is between 17″ and 18″ (but what kills me is the lack of leg room).
Robert stated, “Though, I suppose if this trend continues plane flights will be much more comfortable. ;)”
True, unless you are unlucky enough to have the Middle Seat! Yikes…Not the kind of sandwich I dream of.
Ummmm… so according to that article only 5% of medical costs are obesity related?
The trick on leg room in plane flights is to nab one of the exit row seats. There’s always more legroom, and if the plane crashes, you’re the first one out!
Is it just me, or is anyone else starting to feel like a Lilliputian in the land of Gullivers?
Joe, I hear you. Nice blog by the way.
I will look into that 5%. I know obesity is technically our leading cause of death (mainly because it is linked to every other major cause of death). Hmm…
Larger car seats are not always a bad thing. I am a Child Passenger Safety Technician and I prefer to keep my (thin) kids in a full 5 point harness past the usual 40 pound limit. The range of higher weight harness seats now allow me to keep my kids harnessed to as much as 80 pounds if I so desire. Most parents are eager to move their kids out of car seats as soon as possible, but for those of us “in the know” we can keep using car seats far longer than in the past assuming our kids are of healthy weights.
But I can say as a CPST that it is so frustrating to have a 40 pound 2 year old show up at a check up event and, since the higher weight harness seats generally are so much more expensive they are not give-away seats, have to send that child home in a belt positioning booster they are not mature enough to sit correctly in. Car crashes are the number one killer of kids, so being unable to properly restrain them leaves them facing a major risk to their lives. These same kids usually come in with a back seat riddled with McDonald’s bags and other junk food wrappers. And their parents are overweight as well.
Nancy, great information. Thanks for pitching in and adding your perspective.