overeating!!

[lounear35]

Not sure if I'm posting in the right place but I need advice.... My five year old daughter is over weight, very over weight, and it's all my fault :(
Dieticians gp have all told us and we know ourselves she is over weight. In a big girl my hubby is big and our little girl is heading the same. She exercises every day, she eats a school dinner at lunch then a toastie or beans on toast for tea, cereal (weetabix or rice krispies) for breakfast no supper she eats fruit for her snacks and as a family we east out maybe twice a week at weekend.
I know this is all my fault cause no one is to blame for her feeding/eating, she has asthma and bad croup attacks and has steroids at least once a month, she has a slow bowel and can go for/five days no poos.
She is 5yrs old, 122cm and 40kg ...I know I need to change my attitude to the families eating habits but has anyone any advice on how to make it as easy as possible. Thanks x

[Passthebiscuitsvicor]

Aww pet, I know you will want to blame yourself but it's not too late to turn things around. I was a chubby kid and my mum swears by making us grow our own veg. It made me interested and eat like a rabbit, no bribery required!!
Maybe try something more nutritious for dinner?? Lots of hidden veg pasta sauce/ homemade fish fingers/ cottage pie??
No harms in snacks either, just keep them as fresh fruit/veg sticks and hummus/ yogurt..
Your dds med history may not help the situation.
Maybe time for the whole family to start on this health kick together?? She'll be more likely to want to eat healthy and exercise is she sees mum and dad doing the same.
Good luck!! Xx

[milkjetmum]

I agree best if you can do it as a family rather than just your DD going through changes. The last thing you want is for her to go the other way and really restrict what she eats. Have a good think about your/your husbands relationship with food and whether you have any issues there e.g. were treats rare in your childhood? Were you 'punished' with food - like having to stay at the table until you had cleared your plate? And are any of those patterns being passed on?

If there is anything like that which comes up you can start to work on changing your habits/feelings about food. That should hopefully help with changing your approach to meals/treats etc.

My daughter is 3.5 and she has just started swimming lessons. At my local pool there is lane swimming at the same time, so I swim while she has her lesson. Its nice for both of us - maybe something like that you could do together? She might be old enough for badminton now? Good luck, you are making the first steps to change and should be proud of yourself, lots of people don't face up to this sort of thing for years and years.

[lounear35]

thank you for replying, I do know im at fault and really do want to change and im going to try hard, thanks for the advice, its reassuring to post on a forum and get support and advice, I posted on another site and got lots of abuse of how im a bad mother, so thank you I will def try out your ideas xx

[Passthebiscuitsvicor]

You're not a bad mother, you're a great mother for acknowledging mistakes and trying to change. Good luck x x

[tobysmum77]

I am confused her diet sounds like my very slim 5yo dd's. I would not be happy that there wasn't more to it.

[NorksEnormous]

My 4 year old eats a lot more than that (and I struggle to get any fruit or veg into him) and he's very thin, I wouldn't say it's just down to what she eats. I think the steroids will be playing a big part in it.

[FightingBed2014]

Hi op, how are you doing? I just wanted to say the same as the other posts. You are concerned for you daughter and wanting to try and change / help her. That shows your a great mum! There is a free app designed to give you meal ideas and games that get you moving, can't remember its name. Its a yellow background and plasticine family in different colours if that helps? (advertised on tv too)

Definitely agree with previous
posters, to avoid her become worried and restricting, do this together and make it a new family thing thats simple and happy. Not expecting instant results will take he pressure off. I would think the steriods play a part too. Perhaps a food diary would be good to present to GP if you feel there is more to this and they aren't listening. Trust your instincts. let us know how it goes.

[gymboywalton]

When you eat out at the weekend, what does she eat? I would very privately, keep a little diary for a week and try to be very honest with myself. Every time she put something in her mouth , I would write it down.

I am certain that she is eating more than you think. Just for comparison, she is the same weight as my 10 year old and he is five foot tall.

How much exercise does she do? And what form does it take?

The other thing I notice is the lack of veg. Fruit is brilliant but it all contains sugar. More veg would help her sluggish bowels and be better for her than fruit.

[BubaMarra]

Is it possible that you underestimate how much she eats? Not intentionally of course, but a lot (if not most) people think that they eat much less than they actually do - a nible here and there, a snack, etc. But it all adds up and unfortunately everything counts. I am saying this because what you said does not sound a lot different to what my DD eats, and she is 5 (just turned) and around 120cm but her weight is 19kg last time I checked (maybe 2 months ago).
Another explanation would be steroids. Is it possible to talk to your GP about that to see if you can address that (sorry don't know anything about that so don't know if there's anything that you can do about that)?
And finally, you may want to look at her portion size. Nice home cooked meals are great and nutritious, but if we overeat, they make us big just like junk food does (or any food for that matter).
The good thing with overweight children is that they grow. You need to take that advantage - she doesn't need to lose weight, she just needs to keep the same weight and she will grow out of obesity. I wish we could do that as adults .
I also think that you need to do this as a family if you want to do it right. You need to lead by example. I often read here how people are shocked that some children love eating hummus. Mine LOVE hummus, but they found their love for it only when they repeatedly saw me eating it. If I had just dumped hummus in their plates and tried to convinced them that it's delicious, they would have never tried it probably. The same goes for any food.

[FloozeyLoozey]

She must either be eating a lot more or the medication is to blame. There's no way she could weigh that much eating only what she does.