HV rant - my toddler is 'overweight'

[sleepcrisis]

Well clearly he's not, he looks totally normal to me and any sane person. My HV on the other hand is massive.

DS was born on 25th centile for both weight and height. His height has remained steady on the 25th but as soon as he started putting on weight it crept up to bang in the middle of 50-75 centiles at 6 months and has stayed there ever since.

HV at his 2 year check this week told me that such a discrepancy must be monitored and that I should cut down his sugar intake.

The boy has a massive head (99 centile) and always has. Surely that weighs a fair bit?

I have found myself doubting his diet! He does eat a huge amount of fruit, fresh and dried. HV commented on sugar content of fruit. HE also has a Ellas kitchen cereal bar every day or so. She was scathing. Other than that he loads of veg and a balanced diet with portion sizes roughly 1/4-1/3 and adult size ( I have in the past wondered if he eats enough but never forced him to eat more)

When I have a cake or an ice cream (probably every other day) he shares it with me but rarely has his own. Although he likes to think it is his own - I just make sure I eat 3/4 of it! SHould I cut this out? He clearly does have a sweet tooth but he very rarely has biscuits (toddler group only), never juice, never sweets. The HV was banging on about sugar and sweeties and biscuits etc - he never has them!

Am I in denial about DS's diet and should I be more concerned than I am?

Oh and the other thing she critisized was that he eats little and often - for example he has a barely there breakfast but then 2 morning snacks at 930 and 11. (a banana and then later a box raisins or more fruit). She told me to cut out all snacks and just give him 3 meals a day.

Disclaimer: I was on here about a month ago listing his food intake and questioning whether he eats enough. Clearly I was wrong about that.

Sleepcrisis: that is to be expected, i I I am afraid. To avoid it you need to add in the fibre he was getting from dried fruit in some other way and also get him to drink more water. Maybe homemade smoothies might help?

Ps: I would not cut down the fresh fruit, ESP not in summer. Just swap fresh for dried.

Sounds very similar to my dcs food intake. Dd is 4.5 yo, I don't think we have been to HV since she was 4 months. Ds (2) hasn't been since his 6 week check up. They are not compulsory.

As an adult, I tend to go for small meals/snacks a day rather than 3 full meals. It's a bit like splitting out my 3 meals across the day.

Interesting thread. HVs made me completely worry about DDs weight at 2 year check too.

She was born on 99th centile for weight (I had gd) and 9th for height, she then quickly went down to 25th centile weight (they panicked alot and made me formula top her up as they were worried about her weight loss, turns out she was just getting to her 'natural' centile after my gd). Since weaning she's gradually been going up the centiles and is now on 75th for weight and still 9th for height. She made me really worry about this (and I still have a thing about it). My DD won't eat vegetables or pasta or bolognese or lentils or many fruits so I get in a real tizzy about what she eats. I've had weight issues and put on alot of weight when pg/bfing but have recently lost alot. I worry DD will have similar issues.

I'm also trying to exercise DD (but she doesn't realise I'm doing it). We do alot of fun running and chasing games which she loves. Btw I wouldn't worry about the 3 meals a day no snacking. I had a useless weight loss coach who was the same about only eating 3 meals but to me it doesn't make sense - surely it's better to spread your food out to keep your blood sugar even rather than eating bigger meals. I've lost 6 stone (nearly) and have spread food through the day rather than 3 meals.

During days out DS rarely snacks, just has his picnic lunch. He is too busy having fun to think about eating!

Reastie you've lost 6st! That's amazing

sleep I don't agree with the posters who said cut out the fresh fruit. When I said me and dd aren't obese, we are both quite thin and both snack. We both love fresh fruit too.

If he's constipated I'd take him somewhere where they sell a selection of fruit and let him choose some. Give him a couple of dried apricots too

When you were asking about sweetening porridge, we tend to sweeten ours with fruit (even raisins or chopped dried apricots). DH has recently got them sweetening it with jam though...

Interesting thread... Haven't had time to read all posts..

But in my experience I would ignore HV. They have charts and graphs which might have their place but all that concerns me is the quality of what my child eats and appropriate exercise. I want my child to be healthy and energetic - how he looks and what he weighs will take care of itself...

I have two DCs- same diet, genes etc. one has always been skinny and the other is very chubby (extremely cute with it too). I apparently was the same as a little kid and became extremely lean at age 6 or so and still am. I am not remotely concerned by my chubby toddler's weight - or voracious appetite.

Personally I don't give him much ice cream, only because it's full of sugary additives. But I give him double cream etc as kids' requirements for saturated fat are higher than ours. I also see biscuits as a treat - so one at toddler group is fine but that's it for me. Again, I am more concerned about crappy additives than calories per se.

I also try to make sure he isn't strapped in a buggy all day (not suggesting you are doing this BTW). I just feel a high appetite means more energy to burn off.

Your DC sounds adorable to me!

i ddon't think anybody said cut down on the fresh fruit did they? Just raisins as they're terrible for teeth. They'd be alright given before a meal though.

As for snacking - I just got myself out of the habit. I do eat big, protein-filled meals though, and they keep me going for hours. I don't really eat sugar, so i don't get that energy surge, then slump 2 hours after eating.

It makes sense if some people want to spread their food out more, but 3 meals a day works for me. You just have to find what's right for you and your kids though.

DS absolutely adores fresh fruit in any form and asks for it over a biscuit any day. I cant believe I considered cutting it out. Cutting out dried food is easy and I am taking that into account if only for teeth. SuiGeneris I dont see how a smoothie is any different to a bowl of fresh fruit?

Sirzy - wow I'm impressed. DS loves being at the beach but all that fun builds up such an appetite. Plus all the distractions mean that he won't eat his picnic lunch in one sitting for love nor money, so I can hardly prevent the natural grazing? There's no high chair containment at the park or the beach!
I've also come to the conclustion that DS just runs so much that he burns so much off and is probably 50% muscle.

RobotBananas - the thread has got so long now that I can't be bothered to look back (my longest thread yet by far!) I seem to remember there were a few mentions of too much fruit not enough protein, and if he snacks on fruit he wont want his meals, and fruit is high in sugar, and too much fruit is bad for his teeth.
And the HV frowned at too much fruit, thats where it started I guess.

I'm also working on more protien at meal times but keeping up the fruit intake esp in this weather. I think he gets a lot of his fluid intake from fruit.

Oh and thank you people for the suggestion of small snack then a late breakfast - it worked today. We did banana and milk at 630 and then he are a decent size bowl of cereal, more milk and some fruit at 845. Best breakfast he's had in months!

Up untill dec my dd2 (3) was tiny. She has recently put on a huge amount of weight (13.5kg-16.2kg) and looks chunky. I have had no end of comments from healthcare people and it really upsets me.

Her diet is healthy as it can be but she has health problems so nothing I could do about the weight gain. What upsets me most is when dr/hv talks in front of dd about it as I don't want her having issues in later life about her size.

I would if I were you maybe try to cut back a bit on cake/ice cream but don't worry too much I am sure your ds is fine the size he is.hv seem to have odd views on things sometimes .

The fresh fruit is fine, esp.in this weather. Yes, loads will be bad for teeth, but some fruits have loads more sugar than others :)

Honestly, I would take the HV and the centime charts with a pinch of salt. He's TWO!

All he needs is a growth spurt to get his height more in line with his weight. By all means change his eating habits for the sake of his teeth (but jeez, my toddler's favourite snacks are all sugary - raisins, yoghurt raisins, Goodies fruit/flapjack bars - and I don't lose any sleep over it) but I honestly don't think his weight is something to worry about at his age.

Glad a snack and later breakfast have worked better today. Yesterday you were asking about protein breakfasts, as he really doesn't seem to like eggs how about Blueberry pancakes or Sausage and beans? Would he eat a German style breakfast with cheese and ham? There even porridge pancakes, savoury muffins and good old cheese on toast. These are only suggestions though, like I've said all along I think you are doing a great job

Hurrah for the late breakfast having an effect.

I'm afraid that I haven't read all the posts but I just want to add that at 2 you should change from full fat milk to semi skimmed milk. It has exactly the same amount of goodness in it e.g. calcium but less fat. Children do not have higher saturated fat requirements than adults, which someone mentioned.
They should also have low fat cheese and yoghurt from this age. Not the low fat diet stuff that's full of sugar and sweeteners, just plain low fat yoghurt and low fat cheese.
That will probably sound crazy to most, but that is official guidelines from 2.

I am not anti-fat in any way by the way... but the simple fact is that a quarter of children in this country are obese and many more overweight. We need to reassess what we consider to be OK.

Someone up-thread said that the difference in calories between full-fat and semi skimmed milk is only 10 calories per 100ml, CrackersandCheese.

It's more than that, although not much. But you have to look at cumulatively always having full fat milk, yoghurt, cheese etc...

Anyway- this is really not the main thing wrong with children's diets from what we know from dietary surveys. But I did want to clarify what is recommended.

Cheese all this low fat everything is nonsense I don't care what official guideline you have found. It is my opinion that sugar is what causes people to be fat. When dd1 was 2 they said you could switch if they are eating and growing well. There is no need to eat reduced fat anything at any age as long as your diet is varied and you eat lean meals as well as fattier ones. Low fat options are a modern invention and while they have been available people have got fatter!!!

Not sure i agree crackers. Yes that is the official advice. But there is a growing theory that all of us, kids included, should be eating good quality fats at every meal and way less sugar, fructose and vegetable fats. I won't provide any links here - there is a huge amount on google.

Put it this way, kids are fatter and more unhealthy than they have ever been. These kids aren't getting fat from butter and full fat milk. They are getting sick from highly processed grains, consuming huge quantities of hidden sugars and industrialised vegetable oils.

Fats are essential, but the right fats.

There is nothing low fat in our fridge - none of us overweight (except our toddler).

Good fats, yes, very important. Moving to a lower fat dairy product is only reducing the saturated fats.

Of course sugar causes weight gain if you have too much. But at reasonable levels, as with fats, it's fine. And most of it should be naturally found in foods like fruit. It's very difficult to get too much when you eat wholesome food. It's not when you are eating things like cakes, biscuits, pastries, confectionary etc.

And I did say I didn't mean crappy processed low fat foods. Which I agree are not good for anyone.

Crackers there is a big difference between sugar and fat. Fat makes you feel full, sugar doesn't, it makes you crave more sugar..... Yes of course there is sugar in fruit and that can't be avoided but there is a real argument about whether fruit juice for example is good for you or really unhealthy!

Of course fat causes other problems if your diet is not balanced. But even low fat stuff without added sugar has a higher percentage sugar (look on the side of milk), although this is slight.

There are good fats in high fat unprocessed dairy, crackers. You also end up eating less too - full fat encourages satiety. The tide is already turning on margarines back in favour of butter.