Dd is gaining weight rapidly and I don’t know why

[megabrilliant]

I weighed my dd today she is 10 and weighs 7 stone 2 at 4 foot 8 which puts her at 96 centile.
I weighed myself at the same time and I was 7 stone 1 which at 5’2 makes me marginally underweight but only by a couple of lb.
My 8 year old was only 4 stone something and smack bang in the healthy range.
I just don’t understand and I know people must think I feed her junk but I give them both the same breakfast, same packed lunch and cook them the same dinner and so if anything the youngest eats more for her age as she eats the same size meals.
I walk them to and from school each day which is about 15 minutes each way so that’s half an hour exercise and they both do activities out of school plus we go swimming and are quite an active family generally.
No sweet drinks or junk food.

An average day will look like this.

Breakfas
2 pieces of toast and spread or bowl of porridge or very occasionally a croissant or hot cross bun for a change.

Packed lunch
Sandwich or wrap with ham or cheese.
yogurt
piece of fruit
cereal bar for snack at break and water.

Dinner
Meat, all fresh like chicken breast or pork chops, veg, potato or rice or pasta, occasionally beans but rarely.

If they are hungry later they have fruit or cheese or cracker type biscuits but other than that I can’t see how she is ballooning in weight.
I used to give her size 6 clothes I didn’t wear anymore because she fitted in them and now she doesn’t and I’m buying primary school uniform in age 15 online and she’s in teen clothes, I bought a coat in age 15 and she’s struggling to do the zip up.
Her teeth are good, she isn’t a good sleeper but is there anything else I can do for her or is she just a bit bigger but can that still be healthy, I think people think it’s neglect and I’m giving her the wrong food but we all eat the same.

scrambled eggs on toast are filling as is boiled egg and soldiers.

I looked it up and she is "slightly above the average weight for this height".

She's not. She's 96-97th percentile. Other children her age have 'puppy fat' and are just 'waiting for growth spurt' and she's still heavier than 97% of them.

I'm Gen Z and I started periods at 10 and my breasts began developing then too. In my class at school in Year 7, loads of other girls had their period. Early puberty has increased dramatically over last few decades, endocrine disrupting hormones in water are believed to be one reason..

Early puberty is linked to obesity.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/feb/10/girls-puberty-year-earlier

Yes!

@Carla786 it may seem so when reading the sensational writings of TV doctors - but the UPF concept and its grounding is very much contested in science. All sorts of foods can be UPF, and there s not been any convincing strong evidence that a upf diet is metabolically worst than its minimally processed exact alternative.

the whole concept builds on judgement, privilege, and observational data - and is also now used as one of many ways to shame people living with excess weight and add stigma.

Oatbran and fruit. Even just a couple of times a week. Benefit of adding protein and fibre for breakfast too.

Puberty is most likely but she could be becoming carb/gluten intolerant and you give her bread/wheat every day.

You could try to switch up the dinner carbs with roasted veg or root veg mash or cauliflower mash/rice a couple of times a week. Great age to vary their diet so they get used to not thinking carbs are needed for every meal.

Puberty range is 9 to 15, if your child hasn't started by 15 then you should consult a GP.
Unless she is experiencing pain in the absence of periods, then go ASAP.

Old wives tale of the earlier puberty starts the later menopause starts holds true in my family so be prepared for early menopause too.

Assume the 00 is a typo and she's a size 10 in jeans, since she's an 8/10 in tops and states she has no shape (no boobs/bum all from OPs posts) at 5'2 wouldn't think size 8/10 in jeans would be abnormal at all.

It is medically… lowest healthy weight for 5’2 on a BMI chart is 7st 6lbs

@FranMaisaverage age for a first period is 12 years old. If your 13yo hasn’t stated she’s a late bloomer comparatively so won’t have had the shoot up. Most people I know stated around age 10 and had a growth spurt for the 2 years after first period.

I know one girl who gained weight rapidly at this age. She was eating the wrong sorts of food though. Her dad (she lived with him) tried to get her to eat more fruit, less eg crisps. She’s 19 or 20 now and is a normal body weight.

Add baked beans, tomatoes or mushrooms if you want to get veg (toms are fruit) into it.

That’s quite insulting to smaller built people to be honest.

This thread was about my daughter who is overweight but does not over eat and many people have pointed out that if she eats normally she’s probably just naturally bigger built which is perfectly normal and not to draw attention to it.
So it’s the same principle surely if someone eats normally but is a small build?
Your reference to being mentally ill at 7’5 and having no idea how a grown woman is sustaining 7 stone in a healthy manner is plain ignorant.
Lots of petite women have a small frame, and in proportion narrow shoulders, smaller rib cage, short limbs and in my case flat chest and a rectangular and narrow torso, so it stands to reason that body type would be light.

However I am sorry you experienced issues in the past which resulted in weight loss and MH and I hope you are doing alright now.

Foot size actually was one of the indicators for DD2 - MIL has a thing about females and larger shoe size - so that was something I was running interference on as well. I think she was shoe size 6 by end of Y6 and got to final size 8 mid way through secondary school.

I am overweight - and have always struggled with weight - parents had own issues - but my kids and now late teen and adults are not overweight at all.

Looking at photos when I was two and DD1 was same age - spitting image expcept I was clearly heavier even then. I never had any concerns with DD2 weight till she piled it all on and shot up and now IL comment on how thin she is .

If you are worried pop to GP and they can talk it through with you - but I'd wait a few months see if it resolves while also keeeping an eye on her diet and maybe getting more active as a family as weather improves. I don't know why by my kids always seem to get growth spurts in spring - and DD2 it was only a few months before height increase was very visible not years. I don't think all kids follow the growth curves well. I spent a lot of time worrying especially given my family background and weight issues - and she the slimest and at lower end of healthy weight for her height.

So my advice would be try not to worry keep an eye on it and if you are concerned pop to GP and have a word.

I’m that height and less than 7 stone. I’m healthy but maybe my bmi isn’t for most people.

yes children often gain some weight before puberty, my own 10yo DD is getting noticeably rounder recently. But she's 4'10 and 5 st 11, comfortably in healthy range. That's puppy fat, a 97th percentile child is not puppy fat - percentiles do take into account pre-puberty weight gain.

Studies have shown that about 70-80% of parents of overweight or obese children identify their child as normal and healthy weight. I suspect many posters on this thread fall into that cohort as well.

Luckily it is relatively easy for children to slim down or to be more precise, not gain excess weight while they grow in height. OP, if you know what she is eating at home, I also think she may be helping her friends with their school meals. Could you check with her? At home, serve her slightly smaller portions, encourage to eat slowly and mindfully. Eating should only happen at the dinner table, no wandering around eating snacks.
Also you say she does activities - any options to increase?

There are always people that fall outside of the norms of the BMI chart but people are basing ‘underweight’ in this thread on BMI. If your BMI is under 18.5 you are medically classed as underweight.

If your body is composed in a way that doesn’t align with standard weight assessments then you could well be healthy underneath that weight. However, on a population level that’s usually not the case.

My son has always grown "out" before he grows "up". Always around his stomach and then he grows taller.

I weight about 7 stone at 5ft 1” and pretty curvy, 30D chest and definite hips. Just a very small frame and long slim arms and legs. I would also be overweight for my frame if I was in the top end of a healthy bmi.
We are all built differently.
what’s your daughters father frame like or your parents frames? Is your daughter likely to be bigger than you?

Don’t take it personally, it transpires that poster is technically overweight for her height (NB I do not mean fat - BMI does not account for build or muscle), thus is perhaps out of touch with lower BMI range.

Yeah, I'm 5'2" and currently 8-ish stone. I can grab handfuls of fat from my stomach and thighs so I am absolutely not skin and bone. If I lost half a stone I would be slim but I would not look unhealthy thin. My slimmest looking friends are heavier than me because they are taller!

How tall is her father? If her shoe size is already two sizes bigger than you then I'd suggest that she's probably going to be taller and this is a precursor to a growth spurt. My daughters went through a sort of boom bust cycle throughout their childhood.

Keep an eye but sadly I suspect that she's going to be patting you on the head within a few years.

A friend who is an obstetrician told me that 48-50kg in weight is a threshold weight before periods start. So it is possible that she is getting quite close to doing so and as others have suggested it's purely hormones. Might be an idea to be ready for it if she is unlucky enough to start while still in primary school.

I read that with some surprise too!

I'm 5' 3" and weigh 8st 10lbs, I wore size 0 jeans maybe 20 years ago when I was in or around 7 and a half stone. I'm a smallbuild (size 3 shoes) and a size 8 usually, sometimes a 10, in jeans.

I'm also thinking that a 5'3 woman who claims she's skin and bones, in size 00 jeans, while weighing 10 stone 5 may not be a gold standard for objective weight assessment. Personal reality doesn’t quite overlap with mainstream physics.

OP is 5ft tall, which is already small. 7 stone is a normal weight for her size. I'm 5ft and weigh at least a stone more, which looks normal on me as I have a stockier frame, but I have had friends who are the same height and much more daintily built and that's just their shape even though they eat more than me. Some people just have a faster metabolism. OP is clearly confused by her DD's weight gain exactly because she expects her child's weight/metabolism to work similarly to her own, and it isn't, hence her post.