To worry my daughter is overweight!

[Starlet9729]

Hi all, posting here for traffic. I have a beautiful daughter. She is nearly 5 and has a good appetite but eats healthily - fruit, veg, healthy meals but does like naughty things too.

She weighs 3 stone and 6 pounds and is about 107cm tall - she’s not particularly tall.

Thing is since lockdown we’ve been out exercising every day, she’s been playing in the garden and being more active than usual.

She does have hypermobility and low muscle tone. She cannot run or walk for long periods but we exercise in short bursts. She cannot ride a normal bike but can ride a balance bike - is that good exercise?

I have noticed she has gone up a size or two. When she started school last year she was quite tiny and needed 3-4 clothing but now she has seemed to skip 4-5 and gone into 5-6 so she’s not in bigger clothes as such but still her 4-5 have become snug.

Advice on how to help please? I was an chubby child and I remember not having any confidence at all. Thankfully she seems pretty confident and sassy which is great but I don’t want that to change!

Does she drink enough? My ds will always ask for food before a drink and often he's actually thirsty rather than hungry.

It sounds like she gets enough exercise but it really is all about how many calories she's having.

How big are her portions for each meal?
I can't remember exactly how much my youngest ds ate at that age but an example of his diary food now at 10 would be

Breakfast
Small glass of orange juice
2 Weetabix with semi skimmed milk and some raisins

Snack
Piece of fruit and a slice of brioche bread

Lunch
3 crackers
Then either cheese or a slice of chicken
Piece of fruit
Yoghurt

Dinner
2 chipolata sausages
Mash- about the size of two ice-cream scoops
Peas

Then after dinner if it's hot he might have an ice lolly, if not some tinned fruit or if it's the weekend a pudding like crumble.

During lockdown some days he's having 1/2 extra snacks- things like crisps and biscuits which isn't ideal but things have definitely slid a bit whilst we are all stuck at home.

Thank you! I do think she confused thirst and hunger so that’s something we are working on.

Her meals are never huge! Generally she has marmite on toast for breakfast with some fruit or a yoghurt.

Lunch varies sometimes a sandwich, crackers, pasta or a wrap with some fruit.

Dinner is a nightmare with her. She doesn’t want to eat it half the time so she doesn’t have large portions.

Snacks include fruit, veg, yoghurt, dunkers, cheese, maybe a couple biscuits and yes my two have been eating far too many packets of crisps since lockdown. I don’t all of this every day but these are some of things she eats. She also has 1-2 ice lollies a day when it’s hot! I think it’s the snacking we need to work on.

I get fruit from the supermarket every week but there’s a lovely little self serve fruit stall not too far away so I think I’m going to take her up there to pick out some fruit. She does love fruit anyway but hoping the farm shop will encourage her to eat more than she does and swapping some of the snacks for fruit!

She is overweight, but you know that, so well done for not sticking your head in the sand.
She sounds like she has a good diet, but I would definitely up her drinks, preferably water, and remember that fruit still contains calories, so watch out for too many snacks.

My daughter is hypermobile too, - a 9 on the Beighton scale. When she was little she could lie on her stomach and touch her head with her feet . We saw a Physio for 2 years.
She was slow to walk, and I found that she was much more inclined to go farther if she had comfortable light boots to wear, which supported her ankles. She pronated bi-laterally, which is a medical way to say she turns inwards at her ankles, which can be tiring and painful. You make find that supportive footwear helps your LO. It is really important to develop strong muscles in hypermobile children, as it helps support their joints.

DD took to swimming very well, and this has really helped build up her strength. Could you try that with your daughter? DD went on to join a Synchronised Swimming Club, and did very well.

Just keep on encouraging her to be as active as possible - but I would be wary of gymnastics, as it encourages HM children to overstretch their already bendy joints. Also, we were told to be careful on trampolines, as it can lead to dislocated knees joints, - HM children can have quite unstable knees, and really going for it on a trampoline can put too much pressure on them.

My 4 year old DS is not overweight but he’s a nightmare for snacking - asks for snacks all day long (mostly out of boredom). Since he’s been home every day in lockdown something that’s worked really well for us is he has a snack box every day. It contains all of his snacks for the day, he can eat them whenever he wants but he knows that when they’re all gone that’s it. After the first few days when he’d eat them all by 9.30, he learned some restraint and it’s been good for making sure he doesn’t snack too much.

Each day in the box he gets 2 x pieces of fruit, one savoury snack (crisps, cheese, crackers or rice cakes) and one sweet snack (raisins, biscuit, handful of sweets etc).

I think it’s a good idea to have set times for snacks - so then your child will know that 11 am, for example, means a piece of fruit and a cracker, but that there is point asking for snacks at other times. Otherwise they will just keep asking.

Also, in our house we don’t keep unhealthy snacks like chocolate or crisps. We have things like that only as a special treat.

Thanks @SuitedandBooted. Dd was very late to walk too (2.5 years). She is behind her peers with her gross motor skills. I feel like she’s not lost all her baby fat yet. She still has the chubby toddler look!! My daughters ankles roll significantly, she wears supportive shoes, we go to the beach quite a lot too (live on the coast). Her physiotherapist said walking bare foot on the sand is great to develop her motor skills! She does love swimming but obviously cannot go at the minute. We do have a trampoline - mainly for DS as he has autism and needs to bounce to burn off energy. She dislikes bouncing on it. I don’t think she feels secure!

@DinoGreen that is a fab idea. I’ve considered doing this and will do soon. It will be ideal for DS too. He has autism and is always hungry and wanting snacks!

@Notcontent. Thank you, we will try that.

I’m hoping she may be having a growth support. She tends to grow around before up and becomes a bit leaner. Maybe she’ll grow a few Cm in height soon!

Although she does appear to be overweight she isn’t in larger clothing. Plenty of room in her 5-6 clothing (she’s near enough 5)

I'm hypermobile and have low muscle tone. Having low muscle tone means you burn fewer calories than most people so you should eat less. Unfortunately, this means fewer snacks because you still need to get as much nutrition as people with more muscle. Ironically, I found rugby to be a really good sport for me. It builds muscle mass and it appears you're less likely to get injured because of the hypermobility.
I was never overweight as a child but gained weight through pregnancy and afterwards. I recently lost 40% of my body weight. In terms of cutting calories, watch out for anything that comes pre-made, any sauces, dips, oils, condiments etc. That's where you're getting calories that don't fill you up at all and where it's easiest to cut calories without noticing.
I would speak to your health visitor for some advice.