DS classed as overweight!

[Blondie1993]

I read a thread on here earlier about BMI in children. I have felt that DS (7) has been looking like he has a bit of a belly recently (family/friends have looked at me like I'm crazy when I've mentioned it) so decided to check his weight and height today. He's overweight! He has just turned 7, he is 4ft 4.8 inches tall and weighs 5 stone 4.1lbs. This is using one of the machines in Boots. It puts him on the 95th centile according to the NHS website!

His dad and I share care 60/40. At mine I am fairly strict with healthy eating but will try and change a few things - thought cutting to semi skimmed milk and maybe brown instead of white pasta? He only gets milk/water to drink, veg with every meal, fruit for snacks, weetabix for breakfast - the only treat he gets from me is dessert after Sunday dinner. Is there anything else I can do? It sound daft but I am 5ft 8 and 9 and a half stone - I'm naturally slim, I've never even had to think about what I'm eating in terms of weight!

I'm not sure if I should perhaps make a doctors appointment or if this would be a waste of time. I'm not convinced me telling his dads side of the family that they have to be careful with what they are feeding him is going to go down well ...

In terms of weighing pasta etc is there a sort of general guide as to how much pasta he should have? I just chuck a load in the pot usually.

A guideline is the size of the palm of your hand - his hand if it's for him.

You will probably have a time convincing his dads side that there’s any problem with his weight. He’s in the overweight category rather than obese which a lot of kids are these days so he’s only going to look the same size as most of his peers or cousins if he has any.
You’re doing the right thing though. Overweight kids tend to become overweight adults and there are many health risks involved - even if people don’t look ‘fat’ by current standards.

fred like I said your dd would need to be not too tall for weighing 3.5st

In terms of weighing pasta etc is there a sort of general guide as to how much pasta he should have? I read something a couple of days ago to the effect that we're having muc larger portion sizes than we used to, and it gave a recommendation for pasta. Unfortunately I can't remember the dry weight, but it was the amount that, once cooked, came out about 100g.

If he's having school lunches, a massive carbohydrate heavy evening meal isn't quite so important, so I'd be looking at portion sizes in the evening meal. I'd start gently reducing the pure carb side - less pasta, only one slice of bread with the lentil soup, not so much mashed potato with the salmon.

I suspect it may be portion sizes. I bought some meatballs very similar to that the other day for 4 of us - two adults and two older teens. We had 3 each (ie the same pack between 4 of us), with a weighed portion of pasta, a passata sauce with lots of chopped peppers and onions in and some grated cheese. Fruit for pudding.

And we are a family of packed lunch eaters - a filled roll (2 for beanpole late teens DS) with tomatoes / cucumber / lettuce, a piece of fruit + a homemade flapjack piece - rather than hot school lunches.

Serve on smaller plates if that would help - find a plate size that his recommended portion of pasta / rice etc would seem to 'fill'.

The Caroline walker trust has some interesting resources on portion sizes etc for 5-11 year olds online

Also google BNF portions sizes (British nutrition foundation)

We would eat 12 meatballs between the 3 of us, DH has 5, I eat 4 and DD (age 9) has 3. We usually have 50g pasta each (weighed before cooking).
I do think you could reduce your portions quite easily without him even noticing.

My DS is just around 3 stone and is 6.5. He’s one of the shortest in his class though and no fat on him.

Probably there is some portion size in it. I struggle with that myself - how much they need is far less than you think. I tend to give them a portion and then take half out! Plus make sure half the plate is vegg.

That said my son is a skinny minny but my DD really likes to eat all day and is much sturdier. I try to keep an eye on her.

Is he getting the right mix of fats, proteins and carbs? For example if he's having a pasta dish is there something protein rich with it too? Does he get lots of exercise? He might just be due a growth spurt.

We eat 12 meatballs between 2 adults, a 4 year old and a toddler!
They have 2 each and we have 4 each.
6 is a lot!

Also (and I keep babbling on, sorry!) When you cook meals eg curry, pastas etc, do you make the sauce full of veg? For eg if I do a Bolognese I add mushrooms, tomato, peppers, courgette, carrots and onion at a minimum. That's automatically extra veg and as it's in a sauce it's not really noticeable. I mainly started it in uni where I worked out that 500g pack of mince could do 5 meals, if not more, when bulked up a bit. Its cheaper too as you have 'ready meals' in the freezer for quick evenings, and automatically reduces the amount of pasta or meat needed.

I think it could also be portion size. As others have said, six meatballs and two slices of bread with soup sounds a lot. Remember he has had a hot meal at lunchtime too, so it will be his second dinner.

3 stone is probably underweight for a 7 year old. My DC is 2 stone 11lbs at almost 7 and is very underweight very bottom centile about to drop off the chart, under paeds and dietician for eating problems.

OP i would say your DS isnt eating anymore than my DC it seems like a reasonable amount of food for a child in a day and its what we were building up to and its a lot healthier than what my DC is eating as well

I do 3 handfuls of pasta for children and four for adults. My hands are quite small though.

Do you have him on Saturday mornings?

You could always try going to your local parkrun together, and make it into a fun thing that you do together on Saturdays.

I think you should probably look to your own portion sizes before you start trying to put all the blame on his dad. The examples that you have given such as 6 meatballs is far too much for a 7 year old. I would eat 3 or 4 max my OH probably 5-6 and my teen boys the same.
If that is an example of his usual portion at home then at least part of the blame is with you.

Thanks for all the advice. I'll definitely reduce the amount of meatballs, measure out pasta and increase veg if he still hungry. Meatballs are his favourite, he would probably eat all 12 if he could! I don't think he eats quite as much with other meals, especially not meat but it will definitely be worth me being properly conscious about how much I'm giving him when I'm dishing it up.

I wouldn't say I'm blaming his dad at all. I'm slightly suspicious about his eating habits there from snippets I get from DS (for example, lunch out on Sunday of burger and chips then McDonald's for dinner on Monday) but I have already said I don't know what they eat all the time. My concern is more that him/his side of the family won't see it as an issue because they won't think DS is overweight - happy to be proven wrong about this, I will have to wait and see.

Im finding the answers here a bit surprising. My son eats very large portions. His energy levels are high. Football,swimming. We walk/bike everywhere (1 car family) percentiles are from the 80s. None of us would survive them! Ignore them and concentrate on exercise. Not everyone has a fast metabolism. Both you and ds's dad should work on this.

With the meatballs you could always cut them in half as they are quite large, or try to reshape them into smaller balls so it isn’t immediately obvious to your DS that he’s getting half of his favourite meal. That way he gets the same number but it’s still a smaller portion.

I've just started battling my weight properly and one thing I've been shocked by is what a proper portion size is. I was massively overeating without realising.

I've had the opposite issue, my DS was underweight. I had to switch him back to full fat milk and give him more pasta rice, potatoes etc. His paediatrician did explain that he needed to gain weight in order to grow, and for some kids that will push them into the overweight territory though it's unlikely to happen to DS. Maybe yours is due a growth spurt himself?

My DS is 12 and only 10th centile for height and 8th for weight, he's just over 4.5 stone. However, he is now matching my portion sizes, so I know he's set to shoot up very soon.

I put your figures in and came up with around 75th centile too .

Either you or we (myself and precious poster) have done it wrong? Put birthdate as 7 years ago today.

*previous, not precious poster!

@Osirus I've just put the details in again there (roughly as can't remember the exact cm/kilos for more accurate) but I'm still getting a similar result? I've taken a screenshot of it.

Yes, I get that too so not overweight at all! Are the figures given I the OP correct? He sounds like he is very tall for a 7 year old.