Toddler very big for her age

[sam565]

My just turned 2 year old is very big for her age, she weighs 14kg and is 87cm in height. I feel like I am failing as a mum to her as looks overweight . She is following the 99.9 line in her red book.

A of food day normally looks like:

Breakfast: a slice of toast

Snack: is fruit or maybe about 5 chocolate buttons.

Lunch: is a cheese/ham sandwich, fruit and a yoghurt.

Dinner is: pasta, a pizza and chips both with veg or a curry.

I understand there isn't much veg but she is only eating carrots or broccoli at the minute due to the fact she is going through fussy stage.

Please be gentle she is my first, and i am asking for help now before I get it wrong later on down the line.

When my son goes through fussy stages we do a tomato sauce for pasta but put carrots courgettes etc in and then blend it so it still looks like tomato sauce, he loves it where he would turn his nose up at a chunk of courgette. Boiled eggs are also a winner here (although we have stages of not liking yolk for some reason!).

Eg, I wouldn’t expect a child that age to eat a whole round of sandwiches, they’d be on half a round (ie one slice of bread folder over).

@sam565 I think I got it from the childrens centre, but I just found that image then by googling “child portion size” - seems to be from www.henry.org.uk/shop

Has she a scooter or balance bike? Both great exercise. Swimming when it reopens. Swap sandwich for wrap or thins some days. It doesn't sound like loads of food though or a bad diet bar the lack of veg but you can't force her to eat that

Maybe exchange some of the carbs for protein will help. That way she won't feel hungry. Also increase activity.

Having high energy, big eating dc I've always been surprised at that portion thing. I can't imagine my DC's face at 4if I handed them 8 grapes or 4 tbsp pasta

Annabel Karmel was one of my go to’s when I started weaning. I got a 2nd hand copy of one of her books off Amazon, and still use a few of the recipies. Also I still use The Baby led Weaning Cookbook a lot;
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0091935288/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?psc=1&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&ie=UTF8

@AddressLabel I have that book so will be getting that out.

@WhoUsedMyName

Please don't worry, littles ones change so often my big chunky toddler is now my tallest slimmest child. Also what amazes me we are all ment to be individual different eyes, different hair,different size feet, different size hands, different structures yet all ment to fit in a bracket it just can't be possible! Humans weren't made in a book that's just how the "experts" have decided. I'm sure your little one will grow perfectly x

The UK has one of the highest rates of childhood obesity in Europe though, so the OP is right to look at this now instead of 'feeling sure her little one will grow perfectly', as so many don't and that can set them up for a life of bad health and misery.

I have a two year old (2 years 9 months, so a bit older but maybe helpful in terms of looking ahead).

She is 91st centile weight but her height is actually 99th centile, so she actually looks in good proportion, slightly rangy.

I would say that she actually probably eats on average at least as much as your daughter in volume, but she is very physically active and generally fills up on fruit (some on mumsnet would be horrified by this, but she cleans teeth regularly and is active). So today she has had:

• 2 weetabix
• 1 apple, some cheese

-ham and cheese sandwich (today she had half an adult sized sandwich but sometimes she will ask for more and have a whole one), humous, cherry tomatoes and cucumber, 6 chickpea puff crisps

• 1 Children’s ice lolly
• 1 orange

Tonight she will have salmon (often she eats most of a salmon steak if she is hungry as she loves it - not so great for the wallet!), roasted cherry tomatoes (which she loves), plus new potatoes and a bit of broccoli. Plus if she wants it she can have strawberries and/or yoghurt for dessert. And half a cup of milk at bedtime with a story

She mostly drinks water, with a bit of juice here and there (I dilute with water 50/50 wherever possible)

Her activity looks like:

9-9.20 Balance bike 1/2 mile to playball class (like toddler PE - it's great, as I get a sit down to watch her!)
9.30 playball class - 35 mins of running around after balls, jumping etc
10.05-10.30 - playground
10.30-11.30 - sitting in pram snacking on apple and cheese and having water whilst I head to shops, then balance bike back last 1/4 mile
11.30 - helping me water some plants in garden and drawing whilst I make lunch
12.30 - lunch
1pm-3pm quiet time with books, then play in the house (she doesn't nap any more)
3pm-4.45 - balance bike to park (at her request) and back, lots of climbing in the park on the climbing frame. Often we would balance bike to ducks in the afternoon as that is also a favourite.

I have done well over 10k steps today, most of which following her around.

At your DD's age, I am sure that you can just tweak a few things in terms of food and activity levels to get to the right place - the most important thing is to be aware of it. Please don't feel bad - we are all always learning.

Thank you all so much, she has just had pasta with veggie sauce and yoghurt for desert. I have reduced the amount of pasta I have given her, and realised we was giving her way too much, at least I have learnt that lesson.

Sounds like you've made good progress! It's hard when they are too young to know when to stop!! This website is really useful for portion size guidance: infantandtoddlerforum.org/toddlers-to-preschool/portion-sizes-for-toddlers/toddler-portion-sizes-table/

See if your local children centre run a Henry course ... the health visitor should know there maybe an online one??? Really good at this ... I struggled with portion size but really focused on veg first for snacks so carrot sticks/cucumber/cherry toms / sweet corn/ peas /white cabbage/broccoli often raw as well as cooked my dc liked crunchy ! Esp then protein eggs fish -tin salmon /mackerel/ meatballs chicken- I would roast some chicken drumsticks as cheaper and just chop ...full fat cottage cheese

Repetition is good with dc learning about a new food so a little bit of something new with something they know... and yes to having it your plate ... ditch the chocolate she really doesn't need it plenty of time for that later....... try full fat plain yoghurt with fruit bit honey for normal days...

Good luck there's loads good recipes on MN too