Overweight Toddler

[PeppaAteMySoul]

My almost 3 year old is overweight according to the children's bmi thingy. He has always been solidly built and has followed the 90th percentile since birth.
My own upbringing was slightly chaotic/ neglectful. Not an excuse but does mean I feel out of my depth sometimes when it comes to feeding my son/ activities. I want to revise his excercise and diet so he learns healthy habits young.
Does this sound okay? This morning he had half a bowl of porridge for breakfast and a kiwi. He had 2 custard creams with his cup of "tea" (warm milk) as a snack. Luch will be pasta and pesto (which has sweetcorn, spinach and tomatoes in it- though those will be picked out). Dinner will be either a veg korma and rice or butternut squash soup and one slice of bread. Pudding will be fruit or a yoghurt.
We have already been to the park for an hour this morning and will play in the garden later. I don't have a car that I can use during the day so we already walk everywhere. Is there anything else I can do? His diet and excercise seems okay to me but as I was brought up on ketchup or sugar cube sandwiches most days I'm aware my opinion may be skewed.

I had a child that was exactely like you describe your dc. I was worried too. I looked at his fingers and thought they were 'fat'.
He was also the sort of child who would eat all the time. He didn't;t seem to have this 'control switch' built in, not even as a baby.

HV here told me that he was 'fine' and to forget about it.

I went to see a paed for advice and he told me:

• due to dc built, it was normal for him to be on that centile
• the best thing I could do is to make him walk as much as possible rather than using the pushchair to go round.
• To keep an eye on his BMI over time, as in it should go down around 5yo and then go up again. The only time there will be an issue is if his BMI doesn't go down around that age.
• to just follow general rules of 'healthy eating' eg only one snack in the pm, no snacking otherwise, plenty of fruits and vegs, be mindful of fruit juices (full of sugar) etc...

I added some rules about how much he could have (due to his lack of OFF button) eg no more than 2 biscuits as a snack.

He is now 14yo and very slim. He still has very broad shoulders and will always be 'stocky' (eg the trousers that were fitting to him are loose on his very skinny brother) but he certainly has no weight issues.

From what you are saying, you are doing absolutely fine!
If you were noticing him getting a bit more 'stocky' look at portion control (I say that thinking of dc1 and his ability to eat far too much, dc2 never ever had that issue)

He sounds fine Lots of children are a bit "solid" at that age. In my experience it's a frickin godsend if they ever get a proper dose of something nasty, you know that they have enough skin on their bones to not completely waste away if they don't eat for 2-3 days.

The only thing I would suggest is to look for high fibre options which will fill him up more. Jumbo oats rather than ready brek, wholemeal pasta or brown rice. Not necessarily all the time but they are more nutritious than the refined versions especially if he is mostly a veggie.

He might enjoy a really nutty muesli especially as it gets warmer? My three yr old loves this stuff but you can make your own muesli by buying the ingredients and mixing them yourself from somewhere like Holland and Barrett.
www.ocado.com/webshop/product/Dorset-Cereals-Simply-Nutty-Muesli/70359011?from=search&tags=%7C20000%7C15242&param=muesli&parentContainer=SEARCHmuesli_SHELFVIEW

Good ideas about full fat milk. Will change to semi skimmed. He has a cup of milk every day plus the milk in his porridge.

My DS was HUGE at 2. He's now a tall, painfully skinny 4 year old. It's sounds like you're feeding him good stuff, so I really wouldn't worry.

Full fat milk doesn't have a lot of fat it in though. (About 4/5%) . Does he need 2 cooked meals each day ? Could one of them be more snacky rather than a full meal

A fully whole grain diet isn't recommended until age 5 so I would give a mix of white/whole meal pasta, rice, bread, etc.

I think it all sounds great. And agree with reducing the biscuits from 2 to 1 or switching to fruit/breadsticks etc. I try not to regularly give DS (who is 4) sweet things as then he tends to expect them and whinge for them more. He's a nightmare for whinging for sweets at the moment after lots of junk in the house after Easter and his birthday so I'm going to have to get him out of that habit again!

My DS was certainly fairly well built at that age but since about 3.5 he seems to have sprouted upwards but hardly put any extra weight on so he's a little giraffe now! I think they pack on a bit of weight then get taller. But no harm in putting in place healthy eating habits anyway.

I give (and eat myself!) greek/natural yoghurt and honey (sometimes over fruit) rather than normal/kids yoghurt - DS loves it and as you are adding the honey, you can add less than the sugar in fruit yoghurt. I use the full fat yoghurt as I'm happy for us to have a bit of fat to fill up but you could equally use lower fat. These are really good for packed lunches:

www.tesco.com/direct/sistema-yoghurt-to-go/616-5548.prd?skuId=616-5548&pageLevel=sku&sc_cmp=ppc_sh--sh--tesco-_-616-5548&gclid=CjwKEAjwu6a5BRC53sW0w9677RcSJABoFn4sxycRvcrfuH3WZLZJcIYQd5MtfRr3s2N-YocG4ypcNRoCRGvw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

I was going to as the same as Matt about portion size.

Ideas on how big a child's portion should be, seem to vary massively in different families.

*ask

There are loads of youtube videos on portion sizes for children. Go and have a browse.

He generally has about half a bowl of porridge in a morning. If he had toast it would be one slice with something like scrambled egg made from one egg and milk. A sandwich would be one slice of bread plus filling with a peice of fruit and a yoghurt. A portion of pasta would be a small toddler bowl full. I will do a Google search of portions now

So this is the amount of pasta given for lunch. Too much?

The thing is portion size varies a lot from child to child.
I gave two dcs, one thin the other very skinny, who have been eating adults size portions since they were 9~10yo.
Neither of them have been eating what us deemed to be 'normal' size portion ever. But they are also always on the go and have always been.
What I have put a lot of emphasis on is stop when you are full. And how does it feel when you are full? As well as if you're not hungry anymore, stop. You can have xxx (usually dessert) later on as a snack/part of next meal, whatever.

Looks fine to me. My 3.5 yr old would wolf that down.

I really wouldn't die in a ditch over two small biscuits. Life is too short I'd vary it so it's not expected every morning but you are not shovelling a ton of crap into him.

He's not overweight he's just on the high percentile. Your GP did not raise any concerns other than commenting he's a solid little guy. You are doing a great job!

Looks fine to me. My 3.5 yr old would wolf that down.

I really wouldn't die in a ditch over two small biscuits. Life is too short I'd vary it so it's not expected every morning but you are not shovelling a ton of crap into him.

He's not overweight he's just on the high percentile. Your GP did not raise any concerns other than commenting he's a solid little guy. You are doing a great job!

Sounds good to me OP. For a snack mine love apple slices with some peanut/almond butter to dip it in or bread sticks to dip in some yoghurt. Anything they can dip goes down well.

I have twins and one has always been dinky but the other one goes through phases of starting to look a bit chunky and the next thing I know she has grown out of all her clothes because she's shot up 2 inches.

No need to switch to semi skimmed. If you are giving him milk best to give him full fat. It's still not very fatty and it's not fat you need to watch out for it's sugar.

I think your portion size seems about right. My nearly four year olds would probably eat that for lunch plus some breadsticks and they are both between 40 and 60% for BMI.

I think having had an issue with food is maybe making you over think it. He is eating a good varied healthy diet with a small treat. You are doing an excellent job. x

Younger kids are supposed to drink full fat milk aren't they? I wouldn't switch that. Your portions look OK to me, I'm sure he will level out.

I agree that he would benefit from more protein, for me the food is a bit high in carb. And good fats can be included. Would he eat meat if it was in a puréed sauce? Sort of make your spag bol or other meat based sauce and then put it in the food processor. Or beans, pulses, my DD wouldn't eat them but your ds seems to be ok with pasta and bits of veg so I'd try adding them in. Avocados are also good. I shouldn't get hung up on his weight though, children grow then fill out the. grow again. My DD is slowly stretching. She wasn't a chubby toddler and put on the weight at around 4 when I became too ill to feed her properly. She is very tall for her age and almost 8, she's a bit overweight, yes and according to the percentiles borderline obese but she's not because she's very broad and very muscular for her age because I get her to do a ton of sporting activities, which she needs because she's so active.

His diet sounds pretty decent to me :)
I have 4 kids.. No 1 was long and thin from birth, and stayed that way (looking skeletal at various growth spurts) No 2 on the other hand... well his first word was 'MORE!' which says it all.. he was a bottomless pit. To my shock, after no 1,no 2 was a fat baby and a fat toddler... HV told me to cut his milk down (which I did) but he was basically an eating machine and I was very worried. But at 3 he started to slim down naturally... by 4 he was average and ever since then he has been slim to underweight! Now a young adult who moans because he can barely get to 10 stone !
From your pic the portion size looks absolutely fine... I bet in a year or two he will be a string bean :)

I'd keep him on the full fat milk. His diet sounds great. If you're going to the park more that's brill, extra exercise is always a good thing. I'd keep on with what you're doing to be honest. If the doctor is happy and he's happy then you're doing good.

90% centile sounds a lot, but it's in the normal range. They'll hit peaks and troughs as they grow.

So dinner didn't work out as planned morning sickness striked and I ended up just making him beans on wholemeal toast. Which I feel a bit guilty about as probably has a lot of salt/ sugar in it. Determined I will be better tomorrow! I did take him for another long walk before bed- luckily he loves going for walks and finding sticks to throw.

Thank you for all the compliments about me sounding like a "lovely mum". Truth is most days I have no idea what I'm doing and make it up as I go along! Motherhood has been a huge learning curve for me and I am so grateful for this site and all the posters who help me out. I really have nowhere else to turn when I need advice.

My friend's son was like a little ball until he hit 7...then he shot upwards having always been short and plump...lost all his little boy-ness and looked like a little beanpole.

She thinks his body must have known he'd be tall and had been storing up the energy! He also had a good diet like your son does OP. Does he get plenty of walking and running about exercise?

He's fine, I don't think you have anything to worry about at all. Some toddlers are just bigger than others. You'll pro ably find he evens out. Except for one, all of my children are good weights and heights for their ages and two of them were overweight on the BMI as toddlers. The one that wasn't is actually quite chubby now but I was expecting that as he has other issues unfortunately :(

You do sound lovely!
A daft question but where is he on the scale for height? My DS was high on the centiles for weight but also for height. (So in proportion IYSWIM.) He is now a skinny nearly teen!

Youre a lovely mum becasue you clearly care and want the best for your child.

Portion sizes - we've all been trained by the supermarkets and restaurants and fast food industry to have bigger portions than we need..

My dd is a skinny and i worried she wasn't eating enough! Turned out it was me that had it wrong, I was (still am ) overweight myself and joined was my a few years ago (for me nothing to do with dd) the first thing I learnt was my portion assessment was way out of whack! I was serving myself 2.5 times what an adult portion should have been AND expecting dd to eat half that, which she could never finish so I thought she wasn't eating enough. Soon as I adjusted that we were both happier.

I see he doesn't like meat/fish does he like chicken? I'm veggie so there's plenty veggie protein, soya, beans, pulses, nuts (don't have to be whole nuts, nut butters/cutlets/roasts/pâtés), quorn. Cheese n eggs fine but cheese especially high fat plus you don't want him getting bored. Protein makes you feel fuller quicker too.

Instead of custard creams what about rice or oatcakes? Or half a crumpet? Or muffin (English not American cakey ones). Or malt loaf or half a teacake? Or breadsticks? My dd loved garlic/herb ones around this age.

Dried apricots also high in protein and yummy.

Where I live they just started a healthy cooking scheme aimed at parents who missed out on cooking and nutrition classes at school and didn't have healthy example at home. It's being marketed along lines of 'not sure what's healthy with all the confusing messages? Want to learn some new recipes?' And seems popular, perhaps there's something similar in your area? I heard from a friend who's been they're talking about healthy oiks for cooking different recipes etc too. Perhaps there's something similar in your area? Your HV would know.