To feel so bad about my kids weight gain

[Allthestarsarecloser]

Both my kids put on weight during lockdown but my 8 year old daughter put on quite a lot- I just measured her height & weight & she falls into the very overweight category. I think we ate comfort food a lot & have struggled to get it off - she’s pretty active normally and does lots of sport etc.

She’s now 134cms tall and 6 stone. I feel so bad. I have been cutting back on sugar but I think portion sizes are too big too.

Aibu to ask for your tips about how to get the weight off - my 12 year old DS has also put weight on & I need to address it - he walks 25kms a day back & for to school
& plays footy 3 times a week but also falls into the overweight category.

What should I do?

Can you post when they eat on a typical day? It might help posters make suggestions.

Did you mean 25kms a day?! It'll probably melt off!

I would say get a handle on portion sizes before reducing anything. Use children's size plates (I still use them for my 11 YO). Try and cook more meals that are meat and two veg - much easier to increase veg and decrease everything else that way. Also less likely to have lots of fat, which is harder to control in other meals.

Try and get into a healthy habit - I'm trying to get my boys into jogging - they've just started secondary school, so they get home at 1530 and we go for a brisk walk round the park for half an hour.

Good luck - this is something I'm always thinking about, we have been very lazy during lockdown and now the weather is getting worse it's so much harder to get moving.

No junk at home whatsoever but say if having a meal out or fancy a cookie or cake at cafe then let them have it provided it's not more than twice a week. This is easy if you only go out weekends. Daily supermarket trips is awful with cranky children and you will keep battling them with put this and that down.

The most important thing is to make sure that you don’t put your kids on a ‘diet’. You can slightly reduce portion sizes, encourage consumption of more fruit and veg, make some snack swaps (for example buy smaller bags of crisps or lower calorie alternatives) but do not start down a path that will affect their relationship with food.

what is their diet and frequency of eating? what do they have to drink?

So today we did go out for a half term pub meal but she’s had:

B- Ready break, banana, honey
L- sausages, beans, chips & ice cream pudding
D- bagel, cream cheese cucumber

Snacks- 2 massive fruit kebab things she made herself with banana, melon, apple and a tunnocks tea cake

That’s a normal ish day but obviously we ate out so we would normally have more veg. We eat veggie at home as I am a vegan & her bro is veggie & her Dad eats mostly veggie but she has meat when out/ in school

Don't make a fuss about it. Just gradually reduce their portions and (if applicable) try to limit the amount of unhealthy snacks in the house.

@MustardMitt I did mean 25kms a day! He walks bloody miles with school & footy! It amazes me to be honest! Not so worried about DS.

I would say that's quite a lot of Carbs/ junk in one day and I'm not one who says Carbs are the devil. I guess it depends on how typical that is for you? And also portion sizes as you say could be a factor.
I've found if I just don't have snacks in the house like chocolate or crisps then they can't ask it. I don't know how helpful that would be for you?

Just watch any junk food that's about the house.
Don't worry about it just form.new habits from.now....chocolate biscuits don't stop covid 😬😂

@Rubixed I have def been trying not to buy so much junk. We eat pretty well as I cook a lot of healthy stuff but I think maybe she’s overeating and like you say- too much carbs

134cm and 6 stone really doesn’t sound that bad. I think you need to up her activity rather than it being about food. I dunno, I’m stressing a bit today about my 11 year olds weight she’s a similar weight to your dd but so thin and 5 foot ish (she does competitive swimming and so anything on her is muscle). It’s never easy. Her sister is healthy, active and more average. No idea what she weighs tbh but she’s so healthy and robust looking in comparison.

@Notreallyhappy 🙈 😂 I know! I don’t know what I was thinking to be honest!! Fell into some bad habits I think

Most kids have put on weight during lockdown, so don’t feel too bad (my 7 year old gained almost a stone - in his case that’s good as he was underweight before, now he’s 50th percentile ).
Don’t have unhealthy stuff in the house, reduce calories in meals (butter etc, but make sure its a medium rather than an extreme), make sure she moves a lot, and slowly reduce portion size but still have some (small) treats I would think.

Insulin spikes party. Give her organic eggs, chicken, potatoes instead of bagel abd yet more processed cheese, proper organic cheese instead or even peanut butter, hummus or avocado on wholemeal seeded bread instead of garbage bagel and cream cheese (tasty, but im sorry its garbage). No need for honey (how much?) AND banana. Poor thing sounds nutritionally starved. The good thing its obvious you care and want to help so hopefully some veggie knowledgeable posters will come along.

Not the subject of the thread I know, but 25km of walking per day is correct?!? That's 6-7 hours of walking per day, how does he fit that in?

@ohnothisagain my DD is 98th percentile according to the NHS which is why I am freaking out so much! I honestly don’t know how we have got to this point- she doesn’t look massive to be honest - she’s tall in her class but it’s so worrying

My son put on weight, it was my fault. We bought too many treats. How was she prior to lockdown .

Get her more active. The extras many of us bought stop buying . Do you have a switch, we have ring adventure , been doing that on rainy days

25 k is 15.5 miles a day. Are you sure that’s how much he does? Is that walking? How are you measuring this?
Sorry, totally missing the point of the thread here ...

@arethereanyleftatall a lot of it is football at lunchtimes I think and he plays 2 hours after school on 2 days too plus PE- he tracks it on his Fitbit!! It’s not every day it’s that far but probably 3 school days a week

Just to add, my son is 131 and just over 4 stone, so almost as tall as your daughter, but quite a bit lighter. He’s 50th percentile, so you are right to be a bit concerned about your daughter. but she is young, so its all fixable (and not at all unusual after lockdown)

Some disjointed thoughts :

Lots of full fat dairy, and gut friendly foods like kefir. No artificial sweeteners, fizzy pop etc. Probiotic supplement. Sourdough rather than normal bread. Porridge oats rather than ready brek.

If you're going to have treats, bake your own and freeze them. I always think no-one gets fat from their own brownies.

Lots of good fat, as little processed sugar as possible and lots of exercise.

Family meals round the table not plated up so they can eat to their hunger. Lots of water (with ice to make it more interesting?)

Less junk and swap out a lot of of the fruit and replace with veg - half a plateful with each meal (well maybe not breakfast).

My parents had this issue with one of my siblings growing up. She was very active, actually doing a sport to more Olympic level, and the had an injury which stopped everything, but she kept eating like she was training so gained a lot of weight at age 12.

To tackle it, the whole family had a diet overhaul without being alerted to it. Basics were everything cooked from scratch, so my mom ditched jars of sauces, freezer food like chicken nuggets and pies, and upped the veg verses meat and carbs intake. She stopped buying biscuits, chocolate, sweets, everything. It just wasnt in the house. We made an effort to be more active, especially at weekends, so lots of outdoor days out. She used lots if slimmingworld recipes from online. The pinch of nom book now is decent for healthy food. It worked, and we all learned what healthy eating looks like, and my sibling was never really alerted to the idea that she was on a diet.

op. Look you're looking at addressing it so try not to feel bad. You know yourself the issue is comfort food and portion sizes so just look at that. Also things like juices and fizzy drinks- try to cut down on juices and cut out fizzy drinks and drink water. I dont know what this thread will be like but just remember he's a child so if people go too extreme and suggest exremely restrictive diets then that's not what you want. After that, I'd recommend Joe Wicks with the family 3 times a week at least