DC weight gain

[Justicegf]

My youngest DC is 8 years old and in the last year has grown 10cm, putting him in 12-13 year clothes. I'm 5'8 and he is shoulder height to me now.
But along with the height, he's gained a bit of podge. No rolls but padded out.
A year ago he was basically a bean pole but his diet hasn't changed.
He is active outside of school 4 times a week and walks to and from school daily along with walking large distances regularly.
This is new to me as other dcs have been tall and skinny at all times. (dd13 is 5'7 and just about a size 6)
Is this a growth thing or am I deluding myself and his diet is worse than I think?
An example day would be:
Breakfast: peanut butter toast with fruit salad
Lunch: school lunch or sandwich with crisps and veg at home.
Dinner: A good variety of different meals, a medium adult portion. And a mousse or equivalent for dessert.

He's about to have a growth spurt and soon hit puberty. Loads of boys fill out a bit on and off for a couple of years. Normally 6 months before they shoot up suddenly overnight.

Look back at school photos, loads of the lads were probably a bit fuller in years 5/6 and year 7/8. Most of those boys will now be about 6ft and strapping men.

Remember babies? They chunk up for a couple of months before suddenly shooting up and getting lean again. I can tell when my 2yr old ds is about to have a growth spurt as his face gets really round and his ears stick out a bit (not even kidding) and his belly gets a bit fuller. Them whoosh. Two weeks later his pants are shorter and looser around the waist again.

It's the same until we all stop growing. We need stores of energy to burn to be able to do it

Also what were your family like, what were your husbands? He's taking after a different side to the other kids, that's all.

Also dd a size 6 at 5ft7 is underweight isn't it? Quite drastically so.

So help me I'll never get used to peanut butter with fruit (yes yes, I know ot's standard in the UK/US, still weird to me).

OP, fat doesn't appear out of nowhere, there are three options :

• he is eating larger portions than you realize
• he is eating in secret
• or, maybe, this is a case of hormones doing weird things

What you can do :

• eye his portions at dinner. Does he pile his plate more than others ?
• keep an eye out for any indication that he's eating stuff you don't know about. Does he have pocket money ? Do you know how he spends it ? Is he sometimes locked in his room, in the bathroom, hiding in the garden and you don't know what he's doing ?
• does he seem to be getting any bigger ?
• talk to his teachers. Is everything ok in school? Is he getting bullied ? Are his grades constant ?

I wouldn't worry straight away but monitor thé situation. If he goes up another size without that being accounted for by his height, then I'd have a talk with him.

Has he had any other symptoms?
Was he normal height for his age prior to this year?
I would take him to GP and have his hormones checked.

This obviously depends on how big is "pudgy". Maybe he's totally fine. Maybe he's just a bit muscular. But this could be indicative of a problem (emotional eating is a common way of coping with issues).

PP's suggestions are all good but just wanted to ask, as you say your other DC are skinny (and 5'7" at size 6 is VERY skinny, even for a teenager) is it possible that he's just looking bigger in comparison to them, whilst being quite averagely sized? I'm likely completely wrong on this but it is worth considering.

Whitered- She is just about underweight and has seen a paediatrician and dietitian and they concluded genetics. I've never had a DC that actually puts obvious weight on in response to the food they are eating - this may well be a part of it.
DH's family has always been tall and bordering underweight when young.
My family is more stocky, I was chubby as a child and even now can put weight on fast but can also lose it fast too. So maybe a different mix of genetics at play here.
No secret eating, he's always around family.

I'll keep a close eye on portions and monitor it.

Sounds like he’s growing. If his diet hasn’t changed and he’s active I wouldn’t worry about it.

Sounds like you have a natural tall, slim daughter who will have to take in plenty of calories but is a natural, healthy weight for her and a boy who is going to be much stockier. Let him have his growth spurt and see how he turns out. Maybe put extra emphasis on sport and being active. I wouldn’t cut back on any of his food though.

Dinner: A good variety of different meals, a medium adult portion

Why is he having adult portion? Especially as he is then having a pudding too.

Peanut butter is calorific. Bread for breakfast and lunch is a lot of bread in a day & adding crisps means it is quite a carb heavy diet.

Bringback - He won't eat any cereals so it's a mix of a Croissant, toast, hot cross bun etc (in range of 200-250 calories) with fruit.

He is served a medium adult portion but mostly doesn't finish it. I don't like the clear plate mindset, so I prefer him to stop when full as opposed to eating until the plate is clear. If he has a snacks i.e veg sticks or fruit he will eat less dinner naturally. His meal is always 1/3 to 1/2 veg and he will eat that first.

He doesn't always have crisps, it depends on the day, what I have in etc. His day could be a Croissant with fruit, a scotch egg with Peppers and tomatos for lunch, then dinner of a chicken breast, a medium roast sweet potato with Cauliflower and green beans - not always carb heavy and I do keep it in mind.

*Also dd a size 6 at 5ft7 is underweight
isn’t it

Not for a 13 year old, I wouldn’t say so.

My 15 and 19 year old DSDs are a size 6 and 4, a bit shorter than 5’7” but still, most of their friends are size 6-8.

Perfectly normal at that age.

A croissant had a lot more than 200 calories. Plus butter / jam on top

You are underestimating.

He is served a medium adult portion but mostly doesn't finish it.
Silly question, but why not serve less?

Dancemom - 169 calories with a spoon of jam - 37 calories.

Friar - I don't like the clear plate mindset, so I prefer him to stop when full as opposed to eating until the plate is clear.

How tall is he and how much does he weigh?

We have stocky and skinny genes in our family (well, DH has just skinny, I have both). I have 1 skinny DS and 1 stocky DS who is very muscular but we monitor so it doesn't turn to fat. Both are in the healthy BMI but at different ends of the scale. This seems to accentuate how we see them.

I have two ten year olds and a seven year old. I very deliberately dish their dinner up on children’s size plates otherwise they have too much and then eat too much. I’d rather they finished their dinner then had seconds once they’d let it settle.

It could be totally fine, but the fact he’s only 8 so unlikely to be starting puberty makes me think it’s probably worth looking at portion sizes. FWIW the actual food is similar to my boys.

I don't like the clear plate mindset, so I prefer him to stop when full as opposed to eating until the plate is clear.
I get what you're saying but if you served up less then he still might leave some (and if not at least it won't be wasted). He might think 'I need to eat 3/4 of what's on the plate or mum will be offended' and so by serving a smaller amount he would still be eating 3/4 but of a reduced amount (iyswim)...

Sounds like standard growth spurt padding out IME.

This has happened to ds1 a couple of times over the years - he’s tall and has always been quite heavily-set but has had a couple of periods where he’s noticibly put on a bit of weight before shooting up and slimming right down again.

He’s 11 now and currently in a ‘slim phase’ after growing out of all his clothes (length wise) in a 3 month period recently - but when I look back at photos of him last year he looks noticibly heavier.