Managing a primary aged child's weight

[Hei3htfi]

Ds has always been an ok weight. He was born 91th percentile for height and 75th for weight and it always carried on this way. Now he is 8 and this past school year, he has put on more weight. Initially I thought it was just growth spurt but it doesn't seem so. He has also noticed it. His dad and I are both skinny and so is everyone in the family. We have never restricted his eating and he mostly just has a small breakfast plus lunch and dinner. Hates sweet stuff and we don't snack as a family. I get that it isn't good and I would like to nip it in the bud but how? Obviously don't want to say anything to him as it would make him feel bad. Any tips on what worked? How do ithers manage their kids weight. We always just went by him eating what he wants and it worked. Until now.

School nurses will tell you NOT to give him diet food, or to.put him on a weightloss diet but to allow him to grow into his weight without putting any more weight on.
Do be careful with 'light' foods, low fat often means high sugar/starch better to have 0% fat Greek yoghurt with actual fruit rather than a 'light' fruit yoghurt.

That's incredibly tall, even the other girls are way off the top of the height chart if that's true.

Mines 6 and 135cm, there are a few only a few cm shorter than her, most are a few inches shorter.

Ignoring the people still trying to put a child that is a very healthy weight onto a diet, it's interesting to learn there's going to be an absolute shitload of six foot three to six foot five 18 year old girls in the future.

ETA: if they're all very slim as well, the parents concerned would be wise to get them checked in case it's an explosion of cases of Marfan Syndrome. Some of the complications of that include sudden death (particularly during sport) due to aortic dissection.

Wow that’s very very tall for 7. My almost 11 year old dd is 148cm and tall for her age.

Yes I suspect some confusion with numbers (138 perhaps instead of 148, which would still be very tall for a 7yo girl) or else they should maybe study what’s in the water seeing as the whole class seem to be giants!

To come back to this - the point is the change. Ds was pretty thin till this year and has now piled on the weight. He has obviously also grown, but in general he is a lot stockier than he's been before. It's not just a straight forward comparison to how I think a child should look like.

To come back to this. He is a healthy weight. His weight is in a significantly lower percentile than his height. There is nothing wrong with his weight. He is not fat, overweight or in any need of dietary intervention.

There is no practical advantage to instil an eating disorder in him or to place him on a diet.

Children's weight and build changes as they grow. "Piled on the weight" is a crazy thing to say about a child that is still within normal weight range for his height and age. If he is a healthy weight and eating healthily, then leave him alone. Most likely he will take another growth spurt in height and it will even out.

My eldest went through a 'fat phase' when she was about 3 for a few months. Nothing extreme but like you, I was concerned about the trajectory. I decided she was just a kid and to chill out. She then had a height growth spurt which grew her into her extra weight. It's pretty common.

My other child is only slightly younger than yours and literally half your son's weight (16kg). That is a lot more concerning than a tall, well proportioned boy. She needs dieticians, hospital involvement etc, yours is growing as expected. Perhaps be grateful you have a healthy growing boy. But at the same time, if you feel the need to, do keep a discreet eye on the trajectory. Make sure it's discreet though.

I looked up his height and weight and if you want reassurance then look at this

https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Boys_2-18_years_growth_chart.pdf

My sons both started needing deodorant in year 4 at some point because they started the first signs of puberty and they looked a little chunkier/fatter than they had previously.

I think the only thing that really sticks out is that he eats an adult portion when you are out. My son only managed this aged 10. Make sure he is drinking plenty of water with his main meals and just keep an eye on it. But he isn't overweight when standing on the scales. My eldest son always went out and then up every single time through primary. It was how his growth went. Your son is doing more activities than most children.

If you are concerned then you need to take him to the GP but children do come in all shapes and sizes and hormones are possibly coming into play at his age.

He must be eating too much - are you sure he doesn’t snack?
Buy him a smaller plate and put about 10-20 percent less on it.
Does he have sweetened cereals for breakfast, or lots of toast/bread?
One of my daughter’s friends was putting on weight when they were 9, it emerged she used to have four fish fingers when they were eating fish fingers. I’ve always given my children 1.5 or 2. Just recounting that as it’s interesting what different people think is normal.

Does he have any foood intolerances? The belly fat could be related to cortisol / maybe he needs to less sport.

My (now) perfectly normal, and actually quite slim for her height 9yo has had 3 fish fingers from being very young. Apart from that 6m period when she was 3, she's always been 40-50th centile for weight and 50-70th centile for height.

Interesting about fish fingers. I would probably give him three but that would go with plain rice and broccoli. In terms of adult portions, it's more that the kids portion is quite small for him so he orders the adult one. But he doesn't have juice or puddings so the calories that bulk up kids menus he never has and otherwise they are quite small.

However, clearly his portions must be too big so will try cutting those.

He's a healthy size, so why would you be cutting his portions?

My kids are slim jims and they would have 3. Could probably manage 4 if they were pretty hungry. They’d have them with chips and peas usually.

1.5 is tiny, unless they’re a toddler of course.

Ok, so looking at this NHS trust webpage (which should be vaguely right for portion sizes, you'd hope...)

https://www.fhft.nhs.uk/patients-and-visitors/patient-information-library/paediatric-childrens-portion-sizes

Age 2-3: 1 fish finger
Age 3-5: 1-2 fish finger
Age 5-10 (It says age 10 but I'm assuming that's a typo or it misses 5 years out) 3-4 fish fingers

Your son doesn’t snack, exercises 5 times a week and eats a varied diet.

I’d not be worried - he sounds like he’s growing.

I wouldn’t cut portions especially of protein. 2 fishfingers is for a pre school child.

Eating an adult meal when out obviously depends on his tastes and portion size. It sounds like he’s used to eating nice home cooked food so I can fully understand why nuggets and chips and a fruit shoot type meals don’t appeal to him.

I think 3 fish fingers is fine. I honestly think if it’s a sudden difference in weight then it is likely to be pre growth spurt weight gain, particularly as he is currently pre puberty. As I said earlier mine got tubbier at 8-9 although still in the healthy range. He just developed a bit of a belly that he hadn’t had before despite being active and healthy. He then shot up a year or so later and continued to grow at speed. He hit puberty early about age 11 and I think the weight gain at 8-9 was to prepare for this. Just turned 14 now and 6 foot tall already.

I would say at 8 that a child’s portion should be fine though. My 11 year old dd still eats off the kids menu because she’d never finish an adults portion and she is tall at 4 foot 10. So if he easily polishes off an adult meal, perhaps he is over eating a little bit. But otherwise if he’s in the healthy range just keep an eye, keep feeding him healthy foods, keep him active and monitor discretely

Just because one poster believes a 9 year old has the calorific requirements and volume of food of a 3 year old, that doesn't make you deciding to cut your perfectly healthy and normal weight child's food down to the same any less wrong. Especially when this is on the same thread as multiple posters with children that will be eligible for their own mentions on wikipedia as being one of the 100 tallest women in the world.

With what your describing as his height and weight are and what he eats I wonder if it’s just your perception of what a healthy weight is that may be the issue. You seem to keep going on about how thin you and your husband are ans how your son used to be thin. Do you think you may be confusing healthy weight with overweight because he’s not thin. Those measurements are fine for his age.

Yes just because you and husband are thin and were very low bmi weight as children doesn’t mean he’ll follow you. Have you seen childhood photos of other relatives. My husband is uncannily like his great grandfather (who was tall and big built for his age to extent he successfully enlisted in army age 12 lying about his age)

1.5 fish fingers for a 9yo?!

On the rare occasion we ever have them- my skinny as a rake 6yo happily eats 6 and will pinch others leftovers. My 18month old would eat 3 before we cap him.
A fish finger has about a teaspoon of fish in each- 1.5 isn't a sufficient portion. 6yo would also eat a whole bream or sea bass to himself and the 18month old eats 3 chicken thighs. My kids have always been healthy weights.