People commenting on my 6 YO DD weight?

Cut out the ham, the nuggets and the takeaways.

edited as posted too soon!

Now is a good age to introduce healthy food habits. My 6yo has covered healthy food choices recently in school and is always reminding me what’s healthy and what isn’t. He’s just under 3 stone.

Reception age so it would have been last year for OPs daughter!

If you input your child’s height, weight and age into the nhs app, she comes up as overweight and almost in the obese category being 4stone and 115cm

Have you checked her on the bmi calculator? My just turned 4 year old is tall (110cm) and 3 stone and that puts him on 51st.

@bleughgreen

100% agree McDonalds 1 times a week is far too much, even 1 times a month in my opinion. Its pretty much all completely ultra-processed food which is so bad for us all.

@mumspiration1997 have you looked at alternatives for a easy night like cook they deliver frozen meals that have all been freshly prepared etc and you can get a meal for 4 for around £20. They also do things like thai and Chinese style food. Maybe then you can save the McDonalds restaurant trips for a real treat?

This is a very bizarre comment! My son is 7 and at 5 stone is well over half of your weight! That has no relevance at all.
No idea how tall are you but he is 100% more than half your height unless you are over 9 ft tall. That is about as relevant as your comment!

You sound like you have a good attitude and you were open to receiving what others who loved you said about DD's weight.

DH was a very overweight child/ teen. Pretty much down to his mum. Maybe if someone had, had a quiet word with her it'd have helped.

@mumspiration1997 I think cutting out treats until the weekend will be difficult and all children have things they see as treats more than that. It's changing what they view as the treats that is the key.

For instance, a croissant should be viewed as a treat breakfast or snack. Normal would be Weetabix or some other low-sugar cereal. You can make massive changes by reading the cereal ingredients/stats, they all look like they are relatively healthy but it's misleading. The image are two granolas from the same brand, both of which look health from the front of the package.

Desserts can also be natural greek yoghurt with some no added sugar jam (I use St. Dalfour) and maybe some cereal added for little crunch. At least this way she's getting the natural fruit sugars rather than a bunch of additives

Small adjustments like these will make a big difference to her intake, its so important to get good diet started early

That’s not a meaningful comparison and your weight at 34yrs old is irrelevant. A female will reach their full adult height in their teens.

The thing is a stone when you are talking about an adult being a stone overweight is very different to a 6 year-old child being a stone overweight. OPs daughter is in the obese category at a stone overweight. This wouldn't be the case with an adult.
An attitude like you don't GAF is awful. You should GAF it is literally your job as a parent to GAF about your child's health.
Also you imagine incorrectly about your final point. When you are dealing with small numbers the range isn't very large. A child being a stone overweight at that age and size is 25% heavier than they should be. That is a massive amount. If they continue as they are within 5 years they could easily be 50% heavier than tbey should be.

I'm 34 years old and your 6 year old is nearly half my weight. It's not ideal imo.

@mumspiration1997 you've not mentioned what she's drinking?

whilst fruit is a great snack or ‘pudding’ some are very high sugar, esp the tropical ones like banana, mango etc. Best to stick to apples, pears and berries. Better still would be veggies such as carrot sticks, cucumber, celery, and peppers. I’d really try to up her veg intake and reduce the sugar.

You are. That’s hugely overweight. If people are commenting about it that says it all!

she weighs more than my 7 year old who’s a bit of a chunk.

This is true, yes. This is what I meant in my post rather than reducing overall carbs. Dd’s evening meals were things like spaghetti bolognese with plenty of veg (onions, garlic, courgette, carrot) or eggs and marmite toast. So I wasn’t reducing complex carbs. She had fruit or yoghurt for pudding.

Yes, she’s overweight, but looking positively, it’s obvious there’s a lot of simple things you can do to help her and improve her diet. Children easily get into the habit of over-eating, especially of carbs, fat and sugar (yes, I know that’s a carb too). They don’t have the thought processes we do to override the primitive feast and famine response. Also, they’re creatures of habit.

I’d cut out the Macdonalds for a start. Then look at ways you can reduce the sugar in her diet gradually. As an example, change any biscuits to lower sugar ones. Nairns do a nice Choc chip one that’s lower in carbs and sugar. Use things like that as an intermediate step, working towards non-sweet snacks. Get rid of the supper - she doesn’t need pancakes for supper! She shouldn’t really need anything at her age and it sounds like she has a big evening meal anyway.

For her meals, look at the amount of veg you’re giving her. Quite often people’s plates are balanced all wrong, with carbs taking up far too much of the plate and veg a kind of tiny garnish if present at all. Give her plenty of veg. Not only is it healthy, it’s filling without adding carbs. Look at adding lower glycaemic index foods so that she has a steady release of energy rather than a spike and then subsequent hunger.

Dont be upset by your friends’ comments. See them as concern not judgement. You can turn this round and set all the family up for a healthier future x

Agree with everyone but also it sounds like she eats a lot of junk. Chicken nuggets aren’t food. Takeaways aren’t nutrition for a 6 yr old. I’d stop both of those.

I think at this age it's more about making sure they are really active, are growing well and that their teeth are ok.

It's certainly not telling them you are concerned about their weight, and they need to.lose weight and putting them on a diet or weighing them constantly, but quietly adjusting their diet and activity levels so that they grow upwards and not outwards for a time so that their height catches up with their weight.

Refined not refunded

Carbs should be reduced if she is eating pancakes, croissants , waffles and mashed potato daily. It just converts to sugar. Complex carbs are good but yes, refunded carbs should be cut back

Agree. And I often hear them being described as ‘solid’

My DD is 6 and reading this I think I need to do a reset on her diet, she doesn’t eat badly but I have definitely got in a rut with her food as she has become so picky! When she was a toddler it was so easy to give her a mixed diet, now I find she only likes a few different meals -how on earth do you get kids to eat curries etc? Mine seems to live on pasta but does snack pretty healthily.

you need to be able to see a child's ribs ? Otherwise they're overweight ? I thought seeing ribs was a sign they're a bit thin ?

No you should be able to see them front and back. At this age kids don't really have masses of muscle and should not have much fat at all, especially not abdominal. They should look very lean.