Overweight children, is it some kind of personality thing??

[mummyloveslucy]

Hi, my daughter is slightly over weight. My DH and I are healthy weights. My daughter from a baby has always had a huge appetite. She's now 8 years old and is constantly hungry and whining for food. She doesn't like to exercise either. My DH and I are very active and take her on lots of walks etc, but she huffs and puffs and keeps saying she's tired, her legs hurt etc.
When I was a child, I was constantly running about, playing actively etc and eating was something that had to be done, but interrupted my play. This was nothing to do with the way I was bought up. My brother was the opposite. He was like my daughter and was overweight, more so than her.

Today, I saw a very overweight child of about 3 in a push chair saying to her mum "I'm hungry" the mum said "but you've only just had breakfast". This made me think, is it some sort of personality thing in some children? Everyone tends to blame the parents for their over weight children, but if they had a child who was constantly hungry and hated exercise what would they do?

I definitely do think some kids are hungrier than others just as some adults are. I would have a fairly small appetite and my kids (aged 5 and 6) would be the same. When I hear friends talk about how much their kids eat and the size of their packed lunches, I sometimes worry that they don't eat enough especially my ds.

I think kids will eat what they need.
If they are active and seem well then they are getting enough.
Its Mums who worry about what kids are eating. I then think kids pick up on this and it becomes an issue. The more you fret the more they play up.

I am surprised at the size of portions some kids are given. I saw a programme on TV once where they looked at portion sizes and the parents over estimated by loads what their child needed.

You don't often hear of a child starving to death in this country - regardless of how much their mothers worry!

Whatever changes you try to make I think it is important to give them plenty of time, esp if you're daughter has learning disabilities as well.I first read ellyn satter when my ds was about 2, made changes, read karen le billon more recently and tweaked what we are doing and it is only in the last month that we are really seeing much better food intake. He'll be 4 in a week. To be honest, I'm still unsure the better eating is a permanent thing or a phase.

I'd say tackling the reverse issue is possibly harder. Good luck with it!