My 7yo is overweight - what to do?

[LaBellaCinderella]

My just turned 7yo boy is overweight. Only just, according to the charts, but still he is not in the healthy range. He has always been big - born on the 95th centile, and is almost as tall as his older brother who is 9.

His dad and I are divorced, and he is with his dad half of the time. He has returned from his summer holidays with his dad having had coke every day and a love for lucozade (he doesn’t have either with me)

I’m not slagging off my ex, I’m not perfect either and we eat healthily most of the time, but his brother is a completely different shape, moves constantly, and needs a lot more food to fuel all his activity.

My youngest does karate once a week, and when they are with me we walk to school (just under a mile away).

I guess reading that back I probslvt need to get him moving a bit more, and eating a bit less/better.

I worry that his weight will just be a lifelong battle - are kids who are overweight at age 7 going to struggle as they grow up?

I plan to talk to his dad too, but don’t know what to suggest that we do, hence coming here first to get some suggestions I can take forward to make a plan.

[serbska]

Do you have a good relationship with his dad? Is his dad overweight?

What can you do....? Cut out fizzy pop when he is with his dad. Really look at what he is eating and see where the excess is coming from. It is much harder when you only have him half the time though.

[TeaByTheSeaside]

My DD (9) is verging on being overweight. So I've got her a Fitbit (not a real Fitbit - it's a Letscom sports band £20).

It's really helped us monitor her steps and she does more because she wants to get to her 10000 steps.

That might be worth a go.

[LaBellaCinderella]

I don’t get on all that well with his dad, but we have been getting on better recently. His dad isn’t overweight. Both our families have terrible relationships with food. I had an eating disorder for about 20 years. BIL was obese and now emaciated, and overfeeds FIL. My family are obsessed with food/weight/calories. FIL is overweight.

I suspect ex lets the kids get away with a lot just to keep the peace. So he won’t say no to requests for sweets, fizzy drinks, late nights etc. I am far stricter in all aspects of life!

He does have a child’s Fitbit, but we don’t pay too much attention to it. Good plan.

[Ooogetyooo]

Can you sign him up for some new activities for the days when he is at yours? Just get more strict about what you buy in and have in the house to compensate for crap food or fizzy drinks he's having at Dads.

[LaBellaCinderella]

I will ask about activities. He just isn’t a sporty child. He refused to continue to go to swimming lessons because the teacher made him work too hard and he got too tired. He would flat out refuse to get in the pool. So I need to find something he enjoys.

[serbska]

t's really helped us monitor her steps and she does more because she wants to get to her 10000 steps

10k steps is a completely pointless made up measure.

Much better to do shorter bursts of moderate activity that get you slightly breathless and raise your heartbeat.

Children should be doing 60 mins of moderate activity a day.

[MrsWombat]

Junior Park Run is a drop in activity so can be done on the Sunday mornings he is with you. They don't need to run they can walk it.

[SomethingOnce]

In most cases it’s diet that’s the main problem, not lack of activity.

Exercise is important for health, and it’s to be encouraged, but if you look at the numbers, you see you need to do a lot of activity to work off the excess energy from quite small amounts of fizzy drinks, sweets etc.

[Moody123]

80% diet 20% exercise.
Sorry but if you need to loose weight it's all about the food, everything in moderation.
Personally I wouldn't ban ALL coke/lucozade as when he is with his dad he will binge. One every so often isn't bad, like cake and sweets. Just not every day.
Everything in moderation (for all aspects in life 😝)

[spiderlight]

Does he have a bike or a scooter?

[freakinbananaspiders]

Does he have a water bottle? I find when kids have ready access to water, requests for other drinks go down. He can take it to his dads but if you prompt him to drink when with you it will become habit.

[LaBellaCinderella]

He has a really decent bike at his dad’s, his one here isn’t great so maybe a Christmas present. He does have a scooter but hasn’t used it for months.

No he doesnt have a water bottle, I can maybe get him to choose one. I need to get better at remembering to take water out with us!

I think the combination of moving more and eating smarter will make a big difference. I just don’t want to make a big deal out of it or seem as though I’m restricting him too much. I don’t want to make him miserable.