9 yr old is putting on weight. Help me tweak his diet?

[4PawsGood]

Want to nip it in the bud before it becomes a bigger issue, he has a bigger tummy than he should and very small boobs. We’re trying to up his activity levels but I feel a bit stuck on food. Current average day is below. I’d be keen to add lower GI food (slower release energy). I just don’t know what he’d eat instead of toast for example.

Two pieces toast, butter, marmite,
Glass of milk

Snack at school, crisps or Stoats cereal bar

Packed lunch
Mini wrap, two slices ham
Chunk cucumber
Frube
Grapes
Chocolate bar

After school Soreen bar

Dinner
Normal dinner, eg stir fry, spaghetti bol etc not a massive amount

Apple and two fromage frais before bed. Two slices toast on his request if he didn’t eat enough dinner.

So any swaps you can think of? I’m expecting comments of ‘too much sugar’, ‘too many carbs’
But I don’t want to restrict food and make an issue of it and I don’t want to make too may changes at once, for the same reason.

Any thoughts very much appreciated.

2 pieces of toast - 300
Butter, 10g is about 100

Really? My standard hovis is 93 cals per slice. Butter/spread is 74 cal per 10g, I only use about 5g (yes I’ve weighed it as it’s been said on here before toast is about 400 cals and I was curious). So allowing for a bit extra spread it’s still only 250, not 400.

O/p try tweaking his exercise, rather than diet. The issue with reducing intake in children is you don’t know what growth phase they are in, so they may need the calories.

Any clubs or activities he can join?

My DC is thin. They eat cereal for breakfast and a brioche roll. Will have a Penguin at break. Chicken wraps x 2 for lunch and fruit. Snack when they get home e.g. banana and a mini babybel. Lean dinner usually (chicken breast, rice and veg or fish, boiled potatoes and veg or jacket potato and beans, bolognaise with low fat mince). I use spray oil and don't use jars of sauce or stock, because I'm overweight and it adds calories. Then they'll have a chocolate bar or lolly.
But I think what keeps it off is exercise. Their dad takes them for a bike ride at the weekend, 8 miles or so. We try and walk once a day.
My nephew is severely obese in his 20s. It wasn't noticeable it was happening until about age 10. It's good to keep track and monitor if it's starting.

I take fruit or slices of red pepper or cucumber when I pick the children up from school - they're always hungry then and they always eat it.

Lose chocolate bar.
Look at fat content in cereal bar, they can be terrible.
Make sure crisps are at the lower end of the fat scale.
Swap full fat milk for semi (don't tell him)
Swap butter for low fat.

My ds went through this and had a similar diet. We limited bread to one slice a day and he got back to normal.

I would try to swap things for lower calorie but more filling versions where you can. Don't make him feel like he is restricted or cut out things he especially likes.
I would look for a higher protein breakfast he likes maybe French toast instead of normal toast but make sure he enjoys his food.

Salted popcorn instead of crisps or some fruit instead of the bar
Skyr yogurt instead of his normal yogurts
Berries or watermelon instead of grapes
Extra ham or chicken to add protein to his wrap plus some extra veg sticks so lunch is more filling.
After school snack fruit or popcorn depending on his morning snack.
Tweak dinner recipes to be slightly lower calories but filling by adding more veg and so on.

Keep up the extra activity and once he gets a bit fitter increase it slowly so he enjoys it but also gets fit and burns more calories.

There seems quite a lot of highly processed food in his diet. Can you cut out the frubes, wraps, chocolate bars and toast (if presumably normal bread & not sourdough, ciabatta etc)?

Some suggestions

Breakfast

• Porridge, scrambled egg (with sourdough - no emulsifiers etc in the bread, just wheat) or omelet

Lunch

• Wholemeal pitta (organic ones often don't have emulsifiers) with cream cheese or tuna or mackerel pate (smoked mackerel with cream cheese) or hummus or ham (Finnebrougue brand with no nitrates)
• Cucumber, apple, carrots, grapes, raisins etc
• Natural yoghurt
• Organix oaty bar (Stoats has way too much sugar)

After school:

Cheddar Cheese stick / vegetable sticks

Dinner:

Try wholemeal spaghetti and cool it down with cold water after cooking it, then reheat it, the GI impact will be much less.

Or better still eat bulgar wheat with bolognese instead of pasta.

Salmon with vegetables & couscous

Baked potatoes which have been cooled then reheated or just cooled potatoes in salad etc - much less impact on GI

Or eat a handful of nuts if having food with high GI impact.

Pudding

Natural yoghurt, fruit only (melon, pomegranate, etc)

No supper - eating before bed isn't a good habit

Hope this helps.

PS whole milk has higher fat but less sugar than skimmed or semi so the GI impact is lower - but it sounds like he has too many calories in his diet and needs to cut out the snacks before bed as a start

I think when mine was around that age I stopped buying yogurts, he can get his calcium from milk and cheese etc instead. Might be one quick easy swap (also will save money!)

@DancesWithDaffodils it is totally possible to meet the daily calcium requirement without dairy - indeed, much of the world doesnt consume dairy in the way the British do.

I have a milk allergy and I’m mixed race. You can get calcium from fortified soya and coconut products.

I'd get rid of the grapes and swap for sliced orange or yellow peppers. (If he likes them).

We returned to UK when our DC were 11, 9 and 7. They attended a school in continental Europe where there were very few over weight children.

We sent them to a sports activity camp over the summer holiday. They took their normal packed lunches on Day 1 - sandwiches and fruit with water to drink. The following day they told me that they needed to add crisps, muesli bars, juice and chocolate biscuits because that is what all the other kids had in their lunch boxes.
I think if we were able to cut the “treats” out we would see our children’s weight drop to much healthier levels.

How much exercise does he get everyday? I personally find school does very little this way, my sons all play sports a few times a week but even without that they spend a few hours everyday after I pick them up running/climbing, playing running games around outside, in all kinds of weather. They have always been movers so it's natural for them, they never sit for long as get bored and they are sitting down in school. Exercise is so important and muscle tone at this age can definitely help as they get older. His diet sounds fine but I would cut out the bars /crisps and keep them maybe for Friday. My dcs all eat loads of food but they are very physical so don't have any extra weight. Big pasta dishes are great as slow sugar so great for energy.

Also we really, really restrict screen time as it's sedentary and they lose interest in playing etc.
It's not all smug here as part of the reason our dcs are so physical is that they were all poor sleepers and so we had to wear them out physically but also they have bags of energy so would be bouncing off the walls if inside for hours. There's no chill days in our house so it's not always easy either. Does he play any team sports like football or basketball etc?

@tulips27

I would remove the chocolate bar, that might even be enough to solve the issue.

Sorry, I want to add to this ditch the butter on the morning toast and the fromage frais before bed, too.

What does he drink? I know someone who cut out fruit juice for her 11-year-old and that made a huge difference in weight loss. The child was drinking fruit juice at every meal and whenever they were thirsty.

Overall I agree with posters, to increase protein/low GI foods/vegetables /fruit and decrease high GI foods/processed foods/high sugar foods.

A good way to see it is "everyday foods" and "sometimes foods". Everyday foods are delicious, especially for snacks to swap out the chocolate, biscuits and crisps. I think this is important to talk to kids about, that we choose "everyday" foods to fuel our bodies to do everything we want and feel as good as possible, and enjoy "sometimes foods". As life is about balance!

For your snacks think protein, taste, healthy fats, like,

• Apple slices with a tablespoon of peanut butter
• Yoghurt with cacao nibs or a drizzle of maple syrup as a treat (also works well to make frozen yoghurt as a swap for ice-cream)
• Ants on a log, celery with peanut butter and a couple of raisins
• Avocado with high protein pita chips (slice pita and bake to crispy)
• Small amount of raw almonds
• Mini quiche (no pastry almost like an egg muffin with veggies like capsicum and carrot)
• Make your own popcorn lightly salted (great swap for chips)
• Cottage cheese on rice/corn thins
• Slice of cheese and carrots sticks
• Hard boiled eggs
• Banana pancakes with butter
• Hummus and carrot sticks

The NHS advise a lunchbox should contain,

• Starchy foods like bread, rice, potatoes or pasta
• Protein foods like meat, fish, eggs or beans
• A dairy item, like cheese or yogurt
• Vegetables or salad and a portion of fruit

Looking at your lunchbox, ham is not a good choice. It is a highly processed meat and classed as a Group 1 carcinogen. Other than the cucumber (which is great!), the other food is all high sugar (grapes) or processed/high GI. In the wrap consider using a mix of ingredients like hummus, lettuce, carrot, cucumber, avocado, tomato, cheese OR chicken/turkey. Switch out the grapes for apple, or even orange.

For breakfast, toast and a glass of milk is not going to keep your son satisfied. Agree with the suggestions on one slice of toast with eggs or porridge. I make "chocolate pudding porridge" which kids love, it's just normal porridge with a tablespoon of cacau nut butter stirred through and slices strawberries or raspberries on top.

It's not a terrible diet, and I think a few tweaks will show an immediate impact. Not just for weigh but for giving his body the energy it needs.

For exercise, this needs to increase, especially for his cardiovascular health. And needs to be high intensity. I'm a big fan of group sports, health benefits plus good for development. But he needs to move everyday more than the walk home. Would you and/or your partner or family member take up an afternoon walk or run or bike ride? Growing up, some of my favourite memories were my after school walk/run with my mum. We would talk about school and life. Just putting him outside isn't going to achieve change.

Good luck!

So much of it is processed OP. It's full of sugar and additives.

We just don't buy food that's in a packet really except on a Friday when I might get a tub of icecream and some crisps as our regular treat.

Whole food is best along with plenty of excersise. So frubes, fromage frais, Penguins, crisps, Stoat bars....all crap.

Replace them slowly with healthier options.

Natural organic yogurt with a spoon of honey in it...or fruit too if he likes it....I make mine a sort of dessert with layered yogurt, honey and museli. It looks nice in the glass. Penguinds...ditch that completely....once a week, chocolate bar on a Friday after school. Maybe on Sat if he's sad about loss of choc.

Crisps...replace with home popped pop corn with some salt...not the microwave bags with butter all over. Just pop kernels in a pan. But make sure he does his teeth well...they're terrible for teeth so not something he should have daily

I wanted to say, good for you to for actively picking up on this now. You're a great mum.

I find kids can carry a little extra weight just before a growth spurt, but a noticeable stomach and gains to his chest does seem that this is excess weight.

It is much easier to make changes at this age (once you get through any tantrums). Much better for his health long term, both physical and mental - as kids can be brutally mean.

Could you try a later, bigger dinner and no after dinner snacks and add more protein during the day?

What is he drinking? Water, milk or pop?

Mine are 8/10.

Eat similar but a few less snacks.

Breakfast is cereal, shreddies, Porridge, weetabix with chocolate bits and strawberry granola on some sort of rotation.

Lunchbox is a sandwich with cheese, sliced chicken, tuna mayo sometimes ham. Piece of fruit (banana or grapes mainly), a babybel or frube, a snack such as soreen, a cereal bar, flapjack, some sort of chocolate biscuit or mini penguin things. Then they also take their 'snack' in their lunchbox which is either popcorn, another piece of fruit, crisps or mini cheddars.

Sometimes an apple on the way home from school.

Then normal dinner spag bol, cottage pie, curries etc with fruit and a yoghurt for 'pudding'. When not at school they don't have morning or afternoon snack really. Unless we have been out all day and they will have something in the car.

Get rid of the crisps, cereal bar, penguin and Soreen bar. All empty calories.

Up the protein, especially in the morning. Would he have porridge made with milk/peanut butter on toast/a cheese sandwich for breakfast?

If he feels fuller and has more energy, he may feel like doing more exercise himself.

I'd give cheese or peanut butter on toast, together with an apple or carrot sticks, as an afternoon snack. Or houmous if he'll eat that. Sweet potato waffles and pancakes with honey also make good afternoon snacks and keep for a few days.

I'd get rid of the after dinner snack. Move dinner later if you have to.

He might just be due a growth spurt but sensible to keep an eye on it.

I think crisps and chocolate bar don’t need to be on a daily basis. I would save them as treats and not treat them as a snack or part of a meal.
But kids can eat an incredible amount of food, including more unhealthy foods, if they exercise plenty. I don’t think what you’re feeding your child is all that much more than what a child who isn’t over weight eats so upping the physical activity is more important IMO.

Mine are a similar age and don't have the before bed snack thing going on at all really - it's just never a habit we've got into. The 9 year old did dodge out a little bit a few months ago and we were really keeping an eye on it as it was mid-lockdown, activity levels had gone right down as things like dancing and swimming had stopped - but she's shot up again and is back to being an absolute twig with ridiculously long legs (soooooo bloody jealous - she doesn't get it from me!).

One activity that mine have really really taken to, and I'd never considered (their friend started it and they wanted to follow suit) was kickboxing - it really does give them a hell of a workout; and calms DD1's temper down no end as well!

I would have butter or peanut butter - not both. Swap glass of milk for water.

Swap stoat bar & soreen bar for fruit

Increase protein - eggs were a good suggestion or more veg.

Good low cal treat is jelly also.

We also don't do supper. It's not needed if he's getting 3 meals & 2 snacks. Very occasionally if we had a small dinner then kids would have cereal.

I wouldn't overthink too much, I think lockdown has contributed to our three gaining weight.