8 year old lockdown weight gain

[Littleblackdress04]

Aibu to ask for some help. DD 8 has put on quite a lot of weight during lockdown- I have tried to be as active as possible but she normally does a lot of school activities etc and I weighed her earlier & she’s def above what she should be height to weight.

How should I gently approach getting healthy? I don’t buy any sweet stuff at home now bar yoghurts whereas at the start, I think we were eating out of boredom too.

It’s not helped by me working full time at home so it’s hard to get out- we don’t have a big garden. She’s also VERY clingy since this has happened so won’t even go out in the back yard on her own currently to do skipping or anything.

I am really worried - what strategy/approach should I take?

cook more healthier meals smaller portions replace sweets with healthy choices, do more exercise walks. I wouldn't make a bit thing about her weight.

If she is having a clingy phase, time to dust off your own skipping rope OP. Get exercising together!

Please be very careful about how you speak about this topic, if at all. I put on a lot of weight as an 11yo due to an injury which stopped me from doing my beloved sport 6 times per week. My family meant well but were pretty brutal about my "overeating", and my consequent battle with anorexia took many years to resolve.

@MyOwnSummer that’s what I am worried about. We have been going on runs together & walks so am trying to do stuff together but feel like I need to be really careful. She’s gone quite fussy food wise too

If she's normally at a healthy weight then I'd say leave her to it a bit, she'll likely get back there. Better she's slightly overweight but healthy with a good attitude to food than slim but hung up.

Of she's fussy, maybe get her more involved in planning and cooking meals, food for you to spend time together too? Do some big outings on weekends, find ways to enjoy dancing and playing and work on her anxiety so she can enjoy skipping or pottering about in her own garden.

DH dusted off the old Xbox Kinect for our kids so they play games but have to be up physically moving, running on the spot, jumping etc.

The fussy about food is likely her controlling something her can (what she chooses to eat) because life is all a bit out of her control.

I was worried about my youngest ending up like this.
My oldest (9) is a bean pole. He's all arms and legs very long torso. Doesnt seem to gain weight!
My youngest (7) is more stocky; built like a bruiser.

Before lockdown, they both went to sports clubs 4 nights and week and rugby at the weekend so really active. I was scared that I would end up with a rather chunky 7 year old so I started getting them to do my yoga with me before breakfast, and then they would do a youtube PE session after that.
I sent them out until the garden every afternoon for athletics (as best we could manage in the space) and we play basketball cycle in the evening. Whenever the weather is totally rubbish, we did more PE activities inside instead. It was hard work, especially with me still working at home and being a single parent I didnt have help, but we made it happen.

I got fully involved in it so was new for me too (usually just send them into their clubs and then go for a coffee) but we made it a family thing in the mornings and evenings, and afternoon was just the kids. A lot of it is simply play; it isnt like exercise. They're just playing. But it takes input and work from you; you're going to have to put some effort in.

Does she have calorific drinks? Juice, milk or milkshakes, full sugar cordial or fizzy drinks?
Only ask as these are a speedy way for calories to add up but easy to substitute.
Could you post an honest typical day of food including snacks?

same here ! she is on the heavier side always but found increasing during this lock down.
I too do not keep treats in the house but notice cereal toast ect on the go more often.
She gets very very angry when hungry. Is tired a lot so sometimes I wonder if its something else at play. sugar levels ?
Working full time juggling children (one is a toddler) in the house makes preparing and cooking meals harder so there is a take away once a week and sausages at some stage during the week.
As any second I'm not working they are looking for attention.
What I'm now trying ... get them out first thing morning for a walk or game in garden and we have had playground open past few weeks it helped keeping fruit stocked up so she can go for an apple, orange, pear not toast, cereal, hot chocolates. Limit breakfast cereals to weetabix and porridge.
Think she has trimmed a bit but plenty to go. She is extreamly tall for her age always lot taller than others around one kid asked her last week why was she fat eek I feel so bad about it.

I wouldn’t mention it to her, just quietly switch to healthier meals, offer only fruit or veg as snacks and get out exercising together as much as possible. Check your portion sizes and see if you can make swaps for healthier options.

PP is right that it’s better to be slightly overweight with a healthy attitude to food and exercise than to be a perfect weight and a bad relationship or obsession with food

Same here, although DD is 7. And it's totally my fault . I got really into baking (bread, cakes, etc) during lockdown and only noticed last week that DD was looking a bit chubby. No wonder, given that there have been more sweet treats on tap. While we take her out for a scoot or cycle every day, she's probably less active throughout the day than she was at school. She's somewhat cursed with the sweet tooth that both DH and I have, which doesn't help. I'm slim and DH has a slim build, but he's also put on a bit of weight during lockdown, basically because I've accidentally turned into a feeder...

DH and I have acknowledged it to each other, but will absolutely not mention anything to DD. Instead, we're just subtly cutting back on the sweet stuff and snacks, upping the veggies with meals, etc. She's still growing, so hopefully it'll balance out at the next growth spurt.

My dd2 has put a little weight on. She would eat pasta all day every day so I’ve put a stop to that. Also I think she is about to have a growth spurt so not too worried

Today’s food:
Weetabix and banana for breakfast
Cheese & cucumber sarnie & bag crisps lunch
Banana, apple snacks
Fishfingers, veg, mash for tea
She’s had a cornetto too this afternoon but this is a pretty normal day- she’s going out for a bike ride later with her Dad so that’s today’s exercise.
So not terrible - some days are worse than this sugar wise. She only really drinks water at home or sugar free squash.

Bless her- she’s quite heavy when she sits on my lap now & that’s how I really noticed to be honest

Swap bananas for berries, white bread to wholemeal and have fresh fish no breadcrumbs etc. Regular exercise too.

I wouldn't worry too much op life's been so different for all of us. I also wouldn't mention it on purpose to her to save embarrassment. Just do more fun active things any free moment you get. Good luck

How many weetabix & how many fish fingers, how many rounds of bread for the sandwich? What kinds of crisps?

An 8 year old needs approx 1600 so depending on how much bread, weetabix & fishfingers, she could be exceeding the calories she needs. If there are days that are worse sugar wise then she will be having too many calories.

sounds like you and/or DH will have to take up walking, running, cycling or tennis as a family thing.

I wouldn’t mention her weight at all.

I would just try and encourage more physical activity, have you got a garden, I create obstacle courses in ours to get mine moving Could you get a trampoline?

What does she drink? Would try and just give water or water down juices.

Slightly smaller portion sizes!

But I really wouldn’t mention the words loosing weight or let her hear you talking about it

I'd try and take out thinks like the crisps - they won't fill her up but have a lot of empty calories. It's quite carb heavy, would she eat something like scrambled eggs for breakfast?

Agree with PP about getting her involved in choosing meals / cooking.
My nephew has definitely put weight on in lockdown and this is how my sis is tackling it and it's working really well.
She basically said she was stuck on meal ideas and asked him to write a menu for a few days. When he did that, she got him looking up recipes online - then he helped do the shopping list and cooking his meals, all of which have been healthy.

I think of bananas as a food that you eat when you want to gain weight (I'm not a nutritionist!) Perhaps 2 per day is too much, and other fruit could replace?

Less mash, more veg. for dinner, and can you swap the lunchtime crisps for raisins or crudités? Or add a bowl of soup to lunch so there's no craving for an afternoon Cornetto (buy the mini ones and just have once or twice a week instead of every day).

Will she dance along to YouTube or play on a WiiFit or similar? If possible can you extend the bike rides/walks? Are families in the UK allowed to play ball games in tbe parks again yet?

I would look at portion sizes and otherwise just being active eg can you get her to help with tasks like dusting for instance, if you are working from home go for a walk at lunchtime, could you borrow someone's old wii for her to play with? Could she "help" a neighbour with gardening for instance whilst you work once a week - my friend is doing this (she's 69), a win win (older person gets company and a young person to do bending over, but they love sharing their passion for growing things, young person gets entertained, bit of exercise and parent gets a morning without them.)

My youngest also wouldn’t go in the garden by himself so I got us some walkie talkies!! He’ll now happily play in the garden and occasionally says hi!!

My DD is 7 and it's hard to judge on your portion sizes. But it does sometimes surprise me how lots of children seem to get adult portion sizes.

Mine today has had a small bowl of shreddies with milk.

Banana and an apple as a snack.

1 slice whole meal peanut butter sandwich, with cucumber sticks, pepper sticks and olives.

An Oykos yogurt. She loves them, I Know they're sugary but they're also nice Greek yogurt so I don't mind occasionally. She won't have dessert tonight.

Digestive biscuit as a snack just now.

Tonight I'm doing chicken sausages. She'll have 2 of those. With root vegetable mash which she'll no doubt barely touch and just push around her plate. And broccoli which she'll eat a ton of.

I was going to post the same thing- my 7 year old dd has gained weight over lockdown and is now overweight. I think it was mostly down to lack of exercise, doing lots of baking and being home and asking for snacks all the time.
I’m trying to up her exercise by either going to the park and playing ball games or doing dance videos on YouTube together at home. She won’t do it by herself so at least I’m getting fit now!
I’m trying to only let her have snacks under 100 cals and try and get her to have fruit as snacks as much as possible. It’s hard though as my dd is so fussy about what she eats.
Good luck

Surely the weight will come off when life goes back to normal op?

Maybe focus on the emotional side in encouraging her to do more normal things?

She’s been through the trauma of a pandemic at a very young age - messing with food now is a perfect storm for an eating disorder later

I would make up a minor niggle like "ooh I'm starting to get a bad back from all this sitting down working" and then ask her to join you as you exercise every day before or after work.