Helping an overweight child

[rsa001]

How can I help my son lose weight? He is 8 and overweight - not stocky.
He seemed to gain the weight during lockdown last year, I had assumed he'll lose it as he grew and returned to school. He has grown taller but his weight has kept up.

He is very active, we go for lots of walks and trips to the park, he goes swimming once a week.
I don't want to nag him or keep telling him he is overweight. I don't think i can make him any more active so its his diet.
Its normally ok expect he drinks lots of milk, he'll have a glass of milk before bed, in the morning, when he comes home from school and in the early evening.

So one glass of milk contains around 12 grams of sugar. The recommended daily sugar intake for an 8 year-old is 19g (which is around 5 cubes of sugar). You child seems to be having waaay in excess of this, with the milk alone. Then you have two biscuits daily on top of this, and an apple, and whatever sugar he is having with his school lunch. That's a hell of a lot. Reduce the milk down to one glass/day or make it into a smoothie with carrots and oats to fill him up. Ditch the biscuits and give him more carb/protein heavy foods. This is totally within your control.

Naturally occurring sugars in milk and fruit shouldn’t be counted for the purposes of the daily maximum.

Just cut out the breakfast biscuits and second evening meal.

4 glasses of whole milk a day is excessive. Definitely switch to semi skimmed, and 1-2 glasses a day is plenty. And yes, as others have said, he doesn't need biscuits before breakfast. A glass of semi skimmed milk and a 2 egg omelette is a great way to start the day. What is the snack after dinner? A healthy meal at 5.30-6.30 and nothing after is the way to go here.

Yes, drop the 'morning biscuits! and cut down from three glasses of milk after school to one before bedtime maybe.
Breakfast, school lunch, post-school snack (apple & peanut butter? Protein bar? Wholemeal toast slice?)
Then tea at 6, milk before bed if absolutely desperate.

I don’t understand the morning biscuits.

Why?

I think the milk is a big party of it. 3 glasses of whole milk a day is a lot of calories to drink. Also, you say he’s active but is it just walking and one swim a week? My 8 yo has sports most nights of the week (football, netball, gymnastics etc…) and does a lot of bike riding etc… She’s always on the go.

Switch to skimmed milk.

That's way too much food. Two breakfasts, two dinners and a hot lunch. And an after school snack! I'm frankly shocked at how much you're feeding him

He's asking for food and being hungry because he's used to being given that amount of food. But that amount of food is way too much !

Very hard to gauge by seeing only a snapshot of 1 day.

He should only need 1 breakfast (no biscuits).

Suggest you ask the school to very discretely check that he only has one serving of lunch and pudding (sometimes schools will let them have seconds which you might want to avoid at least temporarily, unless he is asking for more veg).

Really hard to know how much he is taking on at tea from your description. Soup on its own would be totally different to soup with thick bread and lashings of butter. Pasta could vary wildly - the difference between a small portion of home made veg sauce and a large pre-bought meat lasagne could be huge.

Dinner - what is a "small snack"? Massive difference between raw veg sticks and 2 packets of crisps and a chocolate biscuit.

Basically I think you need to look at his overall intake over the week. Is half his plate made up of vegetables when he has his lunch and dinner?

Finally I would say cut back on the milk - one glass of milk a day is plenty, he should be drinking water the rest of the time.

And get out and be active with him as much as you can.

Good luck

Two digestives is 140 calories a day, 980 calories per week or 4200 calories a month which will definitely lead to weight gain in a primary age child.

The mill is only part of the problem.
You are over feeding your child!
Why do you give them biscuits before breakfast?

Wondering why there is no response to the biscuits comments.

I appreciate it hard but help him break the habit now will serve him so well into the future.