To ask what do your healthy 9 yr olds eat?

[beautifulswan]

Wasn't sure where to put this, but as this forum rather busy thought here would be good.

My 9 year old daughter is overweight. She really, really needs to lose some weight. I don't know how much she weighs but I know she's the biggest (girl) in her class and is in clothes 4 years older than her, mainly.

She is a vegetarian so will only eat Quorn products, but I struggle to know what to give her, often whipping up a macaroni cheese or cauli cheese. I have started to cut back on this and also stopped sweets/crisps/cereal bars.

I have also stopped putting crap in her lunch box like Frubes etc. I must admit I really need some inspiration, for her lunch box and dinners. She is always SO hungry! But this has to stop.

So what does your healthy 9 yr old eat on a normal day??

Beautifulswan what I was trying to get at was that we had thought the problem was portion size. By doing a food diary we discovered the problem was actually something quite different.

Do look at the calorie content of all foods. At the end of the day it is a simple energy in/energy out equation. Dont assume about anything. Many so called healthy foods can be calorie laden.

Great news that she likes veggies - I'd get her involved in the creative process, even if it's picking stuff which looks interesting or combining salad stuff together rather than actual cooking?

One other thing you might look at is building up her muscles... This will help burn off fat and can be as simple as doing 5 mins of kettlebell/weight exercises each day - hardly taxing in terms of time, but it'll make a massive difference. I have a cousin who literally ate salads till they were coming out her ears as a kid and was dragged along to every single karate/swimming/fat camp going and still was overweight. She started doing weight training and the weight just dropped off. Good book to read is 4 Hour Body by Tim Ferriss - this is too extreme for a kid, but might give you some good ideas about how to balance carbs:protein:veggies and exercise.

I think weight excerciseswould need to be incredibly carefully handled not to give her a complex about her body. Gym classes with other kids maybe, but personally i wouldn't get her doing that kind of thing at home.

op my dd is skinny and eats worse than your dd. She is very fussy and doesn't eat vegetables, and lives off pasta, fishfingers and pizza. maybe the amount she has been eating is the key? Things in moderation etc...?

If she has been used to sugary calorific things then finding somehting filling and more healthy will help with the hunger.

sorry just read thread and seen all the great advice.

my dd takes after her skinny dad. and if she had been eating the same but taken after me then i have no doubt she'd be larger.

the only thing my dd does tho, is she only drinks water, and we've never had juise or pop in the house. she drinks alot of water too so maybe that helps?

DS will be 9 this month. He is tall for his age but all trousers are pulled in as far as they go!

Yesterday's food:

2 weetabix with sliced banana and milk. 1 glass of apple juice.
2 slices of half&half bread with turkey, 1 tangerine, 1pk of quavers and water.
fruit based ice lolly.
Chicken roasted with chorizo, peppers, tomatoes and chickpeas.
Low fat lemon mouse.

In between he has as much water and sugar free squash as he wishes.

Northerngirl, DP and I are currently considering joining a gym on a family membership where they do childrens fun fitness classes, so hopefully I can get her into some of those if we go ahead. I am also considering buying small weights for my arms so she could use those or just copy me for fun. But of course I wouldn't make her do it, don't want to give her a complex.

Funny thing is I used to be a 6/8, my bony but shapely shoulders were my favourite part of my body, now, 12/14 my fat arms and shoulders are just a blob of shapeless fat! I was looking at her shoulders last night in bed and they are the same as mine. It makes me so sad that at age 4 she was a tiny rake of a child...what have I done to this poor kid??!!!

BUT, last night I made a vegetable curry (with chick peas)and she loved it! She ate it all and it was quite a big portion (will reduce gradually).

We did over an hour walking the dogs and scooting, then bath, then she was hungry again, I gave her some cucumber, she kept wanting more and had about a half of a cucumber!! Then she had a hot milk in bed with story.

Many thanks again to all of you for all the great advice, I have noted everything down!

beautifulswan IMO be careful of going down the gym route for your DD. Her lifestyle should be active in the sense of regular energetic fun activities, normal stuff like walking the dog/walking to school, running around playing with her friends. A couple of sessions at the gym a week arent going to make noticeable difference just worry your daughter.

When I read your comments about your own body you sound very negative and you seem to be already transferring that negativity to how you describe your daughter.

Be careful, this is a very slippery slope.

Ds isn;t vegetarian but doesn't like meat. He does eat a little cheese on pizza or in lasagne but mostly eats philadelphia which you can get low fat versions of. He eats it with breadsticks and carrot sticks or on sandwhiches or pitta bread. Other than that when we have sunday lunch he had loads of veggies just no meat and a yorkshire pudding.

He loves pasta in tomato based sauce too.

My cousin is morbidly obese, as childrne we had very similar body types. I was encouraged to eat a healthy diet, he ate nothing but cheese.

beautifulswan, ideally, you now need to maintain her weight where it is. Then, as she grows, she will be the right weight for her height. Maybe look at what the healthy range is for her predicted height (based on your red book) . This way you wont be so stressed about her gaining weight, just about maintaining a healthy lifestyle and growing into that weight when she starts growing like a weed in a couple of years. Psychologically it means she is not on any kind of diet.

Kids all differ - my 8 yo is a stick insect - very tall and very very lean, but eats like a horse. His friend down the road is podgy. Eats virtually nothing. The key difference between them is that the friend spends a lot of time in front of the TV, whereas mine spend his afternoons on the trampolene, his bike, swimming, gardening, scouts...he never stops.

Typically:

Breakfast: 2 crumpets with marmite. Milk. Banana

Lunch: Roll with ham, salad. 2 pieces of fruit. CHocolate biscuit (eg penguin). 2 slices soreen.

Snack: muffin/cake/biscuits when he comes home from school. open access fruitbowl.

Dinner: About 3/4 adult portion of most things. SOme dinners (like roast) he eats an adult portion. Always a pudding of some sort - fruit, yogurt, cake/crumble/pie.

supper: On Cubs night he will have toast when he comes home as he is "starving". Very occasionally he has a cone of chips on the way home as a treat.

No crisps except maybe once every 2-3 months - usually when one of the kids has a school trip!. Sweets only on Saturday nights.

I think you have had lots of good advice.

Just to say though that I was a fat child and teenager but would only eat when I was hungry. I drank loads of water so didn't mistake hunger for thirst. And I was very active - walked loads, long country walks with parents at the weekend, etc.

As an adult I have found the only way I can stay slim is to accept that I will be a bit hungry during the day and especially late evening. If I eat then I put on weight. And I eat a mainly vegetarian diet with very little cheese but lots of beans, pulses and vegetables.

I just wondered if your DD was like me and will feel genuinely hungry when she doesn't need anything to eat.

Gnome, yes that did sound very negative I know. I never transfer this to her though, I'd never, ever comment. It was just a startling observation which made me feel bad about myself, not her. It is a fact though that both our arms (not 2 arms, myself and DD) are much bigger than they used to be. And I know it's not normal for a 9 year old to have big arms. As for the gym, we're still thinking about it as it's very expensive. I would let her do the classes if she wanted to but of course wouldn't force anything upon her.

Lesley maybe she is like you were. She is pretty active, I forgot sometimes that we do a lot more than some of her friends (who get ferried around everywhere...but are still TINY!!) I don't drive so anything we do is via public transport and foot. It's normal for us to walk miles, we walked to the next village's along fete the other day, when some of the mums found out they were shocked but this really is normal for us.

I don't like her to go hungry, especially at night. My mother says she remembers being hungry every night as a child and no child should feel that in this day and age!

Hatti, she does spend quite a lot of time on the Wii/watching TV, sometimes hours, but she loves being active too. I might see if I can get her a trampoline as she'd love one and must be great exercise

jacket potato and beans are a quick and easy combo.

i'd aim for a healthy life style with lots of exersise/less junk rather than couting calories.

She will get used to the smaller portions, it is something i have done recently as I had put on a few pounds. It doesn't take long to get used to eating a bit less. (I have done it by cutting down a lot on carbs but I suspect that would not be wise for a growing child.)

id also say that some of the fittest kids around are fat. Crazy but true....my middle child is a swimmer, trains at least 8 hours a week. Many of his team mates are podgy, some are definitely fat - boys with blubber and moobs, girls with round toddler bellies and cellulite.

But they are all between 10 and 12, and I firmly believe that kids have to grow outwards before they can grow upwards - hence my comment about maintaining her current weight so that she can grow into it! My son gets a nice layer thin of flesh over him between easter and september, and usually has a massive growth spurt over the summer months. By October/November he is a racing snake again. Many of his teammates do the same.

You can do weight training at home as a family with relatively little equipment (mostly resistance stuff). dh and I did that for a year or so and it was pretty effective at getting rid of my baby fat/his beer gut (and only took about half an hour twice a week, so not a big commitment). My two are on a fitness kick this holiday, as although they are both thin they aren't at all fit (dh has then doing press ups, squats and swimming). If you can change your family's habits you are more likely to have long term success and your dd is more likely to develop healthy eating/exercise patterns.

I'd think about giving her something more substantial (but healthy) when she comes in from school (a small wholemeal peanut butter sandwich perhaps?) and then giving her a later tea and no late snack. Food that takes longer to eat is good for eating less - if you eat slower you get full quicker - it's easy to eat more of something stodgy than you really need or even want.

well, my 9 year old isn't allowed to help himself to food in the fridge.

if he is starving, I will give him a snack ( a biscuit, a glass of milk and soem fruit) and tell him to wait til supper time.

If your daughter says she could have eaten two quorn, tell her "I am sure you could", and then ignore.

Also, children this age need LOADS of sport, and not too many soft drinks, sugary drinks.

Do not do weight training with children. Their joints are still developing, their bones are still growing. Children should be getting their exercise from running around and playing. Anything else is more likely to give children a complex.

Adult nutrition is different from childhood nutrition. Children are naturally drawn to sweet foods for the energy. They need lots of energy for all their running around and most importantly for growth. That energy should be coming from natural sources (ie fruit & sweet vegetables) rather than processed foods. Bananas should be a treat.

Protein is a natural appetite satisfyer. A top diet tip is to eat the protein on your plate first then by the time you eat the carbs your body will be saying 'I've had enough'.

Cut right back on the creamy sauces and the cheese, sweets etc and let her fill up on plenty of fresh fruit and veg...healthy pasta dishes, Tuna (very filling and good for you), an egg or two, whole grains...ie vegetarian risotto or curries...there's loads of scope.

For snacks....low fat humous with carrot sticks....

Dried fruits (like apricots are good) and low cal...

Big bowl of porridge for breakfast...very filling!

And start walking lots (if you aren't doing so already). Does she like swimming? another fab exercise that you can all do.

Forgive me if these are already mentioned....haven't read the whole thread!

Let's not forget low fat cottage cheese and jacket potatoes....fat free yoghurts etc

I agree with Chandon. Dd aged 9 and ds aged 7 are not allowed to help themselves from the fridge except to do their own breakfast in the mornings or to get a cold drink.

They have to ask if they are allowed anything in between meals.

Dd hates sport but dances 3 hours a week.

NYTimes article promoting the idea of weight training for children.
No idea what's best myself, but thought it was good food for thought.