To think my ds isnt overweight due to diet

[Hannahgirl]

2nd post within a day !!
Hi my son 5 has severe asd and hes literally on the go all the time he never sits still for a sec. He never eats breakfast lunch or dinner. His snacks tend to be fruit or a sandwich etc. Hes overweight by 2 stone.
He is a very tall boy. Aibu

My son has ASD as well and is also constantly moving. He's older than yours but has always been the same in that he eats a fair amount of junk food and healthy food snacks and pudding every day. Breakfast generally doesn't get eaten in the morning, but he eats it later in the day, normally a smallish lunch but a large dinner that an adult would find very filling. A lot of the food ends up on the floor but he still eats enough of it for anyone else who ate that kind of thing and that amount to be fat, but he's always been very slim which I put down to being constantly on the move. So yes, I would say get it investigated, especially as you say the weight gain only started a year or so ago.

According to an ideal weight calculator the ideal weight for a child who is 132cm is 32kg which is 5st.

@Hannahgirl

Ive just taken his height which is 4ft 4.

He's the same height as my 9yo daughter.

There's little point speculating if you've been referred for blood tests and a consultant appointment at the hospital.

There are possible medical reasons for a rapid weight gain, not caused by over eating. Although rare, those will be investigated and are in the main, treatable if diagnosed.
moo.org ok ok
Keep an honest food diary, including exact amounts and portion sizes and inform the consultant of any other symptoms he's displaying; for example; change in sleeping pattern, muscular cramps, pains, weeing more often, constipation, swelling of feet or hands.

If his weight gain is due to a medical condition, there would usually be other symptoms.

How much does the child weigh?

Sorry not sure why moo.org appeared in my post, please ignore that

I work with children who at the very severe end of the autistic spectrum, and while it may be that a medical issue is diagnosed (and presumably PWS ruled out tho usually that is picked up much earlier due to other signs) and I have to say we see quite a lot of what appear to be non eaters, very picky, food on the fly children, who have never been seen to actually sit and eat a meal, gain weight quite significantly between 5-8 years old and some become quite obese.

Apologies if I'm completely off base, but what I have seen over and over, is that the children start in nursery, little non stop movers who don't eat, and everyone just wants them to eat something..anything! Diets of plain dried crackers, 3 bites of an apple and often milk is often IT.
Snacks creep in, because their families are so worried and desperate for them just to eat more. And gradually they do.. cheese, chicken nuggets, crunchy dry foods, But they only take a few bites at a time, come back to in as and when. They are still slim. But gradually there is a change..they don't appear to be eating more but suddenly they are an average weight.. yahoo!
Then it keeps going. I would say in our class of (usually) 8 or 9 children... at 3 or 4 they are skinny. By 5 some of the skinny ones are average and by 7 or 8 several of them are markedly fat.. but not much appears to have changed in diet. One child I work with has brought an apple, a jam sandwich and some sort of crisps..nothing else, for 4 years. She WAS thin. She's now overweight. Som how the grazing on tiny extras has accumulated.. All our children are non verbal and highly supervised. The food has to be creeping in their diet at home (because we don't offer extras and none of them will ever eat what we make in food tech!)
I would go with photographing every single bit of food he has. It will reveal his eating patterns, give a better idea of the actual calorie content and perhaps help steer the doctors in their investigations.
I feel a bit sad when I see our fabulous children get steadily heavier when 'they don't eat anything' as clearly most do not have a metabolic condition.. they are just actually grazing on little..but often!

4ft 4?! My 11 year-old is 4ft 4 (I appreciate he is small) but certainly would fit age 7 clothes. He wears 9 to 10 age clothes. If he is wearing age 7 clothes are you sure you got that height right?

Just do the food diary and see what happens. It doesn’t sound that he is overeating at all. At his height he’s barely overweight at all. The weight of an average 5 year old boy is 2st 12. Your DH is the height of a 9 year old and that averages 4 st 7. So, 2 stone overweight for his age is hardly anything.

@StillMedusa Very interesting and informative post.
Thank you.
I see myself in your post. Do you think stopping snacks will widen the appetite or keep them on the selective foods they tend to eat.
Crackers - waffles - milk?

Even with a medical condition the body can't gain weight without a source of calories. A medical condition could make someone hungrier or mean they don't feel full etc but food still needs to go in for the body to gain weight. I suspect you will find there is some source of calories you have not accounted for.

He is that tall.
So his weight is 4st 9 . My dd8 weighs less then him :(

There is something around overweight children getting taller sooner, they hit puberty earlier and stop growing sooner so end up smaller than they would have been naturally? This is dredged up from a training day a while ago so I might be mis-remembering or the thinking might have changed. I just always remember being told children an kind of compensate for too high a calorie intake until they stop growing and then they can’t.

Obviously some children are genetically tall but being in proportion for an older age isn’t necessarily something to be reassured by.

I also echo what a pp poster said, I work with people with additional needs and when their diets are limited I’ve seen people so relieved they eat anything it snowballs into lots of snacks of the things they snack on.

I hope you get to the bottom of what’s happening

OP my DD is 4ft 8” and weighs over 5 stone, she is not overweight at all.
She has a tiny waist and is very slim, did the GP say overweight for age or overweight for height?

@StillMedusa

I work with children who at the very severe end of the autistic spectrum, and while it may be that a medical issue is diagnosed (and presumably PWS ruled out tho usually that is picked up much earlier due to other signs) and I have to say we see quite a lot of what appear to be non eaters, very picky, food on the fly children, who have never been seen to actually sit and eat a meal, gain weight quite significantly between 5-8 years old and some become quite obese.

Apologies if I'm completely off base, but what I have seen over and over, is that the children start in nursery, little non stop movers who don't eat, and everyone just wants them to eat something..anything! Diets of plain dried crackers, 3 bites of an apple and often milk is often IT.
Snacks creep in, because their families are so worried and desperate for them just to eat more. And gradually they do.. cheese, chicken nuggets, crunchy dry foods, But they only take a few bites at a time, come back to in as and when. They are still slim. But gradually there is a change..they don't appear to be eating more but suddenly they are an average weight.. yahoo!
Then it keeps going. I would say in our class of (usually) 8 or 9 children... at 3 or 4 they are skinny. By 5 some of the skinny ones are average and by 7 or 8 several of them are markedly fat.. but not much appears to have changed in diet. One child I work with has brought an apple, a jam sandwich and some sort of crisps..nothing else, for 4 years. She WAS thin. She's now overweight. Som how the grazing on tiny extras has accumulated.. All our children are non verbal and highly supervised. The food has to be creeping in their diet at home (because we don't offer extras and none of them will ever eat what we make in food tech!)
I would go with photographing every single bit of food he has. It will reveal his eating patterns, give a better idea of the actual calorie content and perhaps help steer the doctors in their investigations.
I feel a bit sad when I see our fabulous children get steadily heavier when 'they don't eat anything' as clearly most do not have a metabolic condition.. they are just actually grazing on little..but often!

Thank you so much that. Its helped alot.

@EmpressSuiko

OP my DD is 4ft 8” and weighs over 5 stone, she is not overweight at all. She has a tiny waist and is very slim, did the GP say overweight for age or overweight for height?

How old is she?

He sounds an ok weight for his height then. My 4ft 4 DS is 5 stone 2 and is ideal weight according to the BMI thing and the child growth charts

OP at 4ft 4 and 4 stone 9 he isn’t overweight, he is on the higher end of the BMI but in the healthy zone. You can check it yourself using the NHS bmi calculator but please remember it is just a guide.

Are you having any help from a dietician? I have two ASD children and right now I’m managing their diets but I’ve had help in the past as my DD really struggles with textures.

@GreyhoundG1rl 9 years old.

Hes unable to help himself to food due to his asd

If this is the case, I'm wondering why it's "hard to say what snacks he has"?

Oh, he's 4'4". Well, 5 stone isn't overweight for that height at all?
Where did the "two stone overweight" come from? If he lost two stone he'd be significantly underweight

He is both the height and weight of an average 9 year old. He sounds just about right.

[quote EmpressSuiko]@GreyhoundG1rl 9 years old.[/quote]
Ah, I see. No, she wouldn't be overweight at all.

My twins are 5.5 and they are just over four feet each. They weigh 53lbs and 55lbs and their doctor said their tall boys, but strong and healthy. Yours is certainly very tall for his age, but doesn’t sound wildly out of proportion. My children look solidly built, but not fat. They are very fit and strong.

Wait if that's his height and weight then he isn't overweight at all?

He might be two stone above the average for a five year old, but he's nine inches (ish) taller than the average five year old I think?

Did the doctor not know your DS's height?