DD2 and weight

[lougle]

I'm looking for some sensible advice regarding DD2. She's 7 years old and enjoys food. She's also prefers quite a sedentary lifestyle. She has been home-educated for one term, but returned to schooling two weeks ago.

Her height, today, is 122.5cm and her weight is 28.8 kg (I've double checked twice). That puts her BMI on the 94th centile for her age. Her sisters are not similar - the eldest (with SN) is finally on the 13th centile after a lot of cajoling and persuading to eat sufficiently. The youngest is on the 65th centile.

We don't buy much in the way of processed food. We don't have lots of sweets and treats lying around (the sweets from the sweet shop we bought 6 weeks ago have hardly been touched). We tend to give fruit for snacks, or sometimes a plain biscuit such as a digestive.

She does like her main meals and more often than not asks for seconds. It's possible that we are giving her a large portion, but I tend to dish out a little and then give another helping on request. DD1 eats like a sparrow, so it isn't easy to guage quantity, but less than a serving spoonful.

She has a school dinner.

On the activity front, she's signed up to do before school yoga, which I'm hopeful will increase her dexterity/muscle tone, etc., so she'll be less reluctant to exercise. She's also signing up to do Ceilidh dancing after school. Plus, of course, she'll have her normal PE lessons.

Any other suggestions?

Lougle, you're not alone! DH and I used to have a good laugh when living in the UK because potato seemed to be served with EVERYTHING. I would often ask for no chips and would be asked, "so do you want mash then?" "Um no thanks" Cue look of shock and horror!

It's funny that you are all blaming school dinners: since DD1 started school dinners this term she has stopped screeching for food constantly at home after school. Which was a problem with packed lunches for us!

I wonder if the issue is portion sizes. Also, you can increase activity in subtle ways. For example, if you drive to school - we have to because we go straight to work - park a little bit further away. Is having the door open to the garden all the time an option?

Fwiw, I was overweight as a child and my mother dealt with it by telling me I was too fat to exercise (I begged to do dance, gymnastics, anything) so I got into that classic vicious cycle. It's great that you are trying your best.

I think school dinners are actually modest portionsand they have more carbs because kids need more carbs than adults. They are nutritionally balanced now even if that means weird combinations and the puddings are part of that balancd with carbs dairy etc. Her diet sounds fine.
it is exercise and more exercise I am afraid. I know it is hard to fit I but it needsto be every night. We walk, cycle, play games outside or something every night we haven't got an organized activity. Can you walk some of the school run.
Also, a few girls in dd's class were clming up to puberty at 8 - they go through a plump stage and then start developing- look at the year 5s.
Has she changed percentile? My ds has been on 95th for weight and beight for all his 12 years and is his paediatrician always says that is absolutely fine.

Defineme, if your DS is on 95th for both height and weight then he is likely to be in proportion and I would expect his BMI to be within the healthy range. The OP says her DD's BMI is high.

I think the djet thing is getting a bit ott. This child is having a school dinner, home cooked meal, no pudding, no sweets, wholegrains. She is not going to get fat on shredded wheat for breakfast. If her height is the same she is not o erweight -someone has to be that percentile.
You have to exercise together and set her up for a lifetime of thinking exercise is an integral npart of life.

You are right, sorry I missed that she was in overweight bmi. I stand by exercise tnough , as I think her diet is fine.

Eggs for breakfast (half a slice of bread for soldiers)

Banana pancakes (no flour, just banana and egg)

Natural plain Yoghurt and apple (baked apple slices dusted with cinnamon is lovely)

All of these are super quick to make.

Lunches: couscous, houmus, cheese, grapes, mini sausages are all nice picky things she can eat. Go into lunch boxes easily.

Dinner sounds fine, just always get her to drink water before you start too so she doesn't confuse thirst with hunger.

However, all that said I definitely agree with Pp that activity needs to increase- any chance you can walk part of the way to/from school or get her cycling?

Don't think the school dinners are to blame, my dd is super slim and she had school dinners a list every day.

She's 7 too. She does karate twice a week, hockey on a Saturday morning in the winter and cricket in the summer, brownies, we walk to school and back and we usually manage something like swimming or cycling at the weekend too. She loves her TV and tbh I don't think she's active enough, but we do try for the minimum recommendation of an hour's activity each day.

Agree with what the others say regarding carbs. I'm slim like dd and naturally eat a lot if protein and little carbs.

Children should not low carb. A child needs carbs for breakfast. A slice of toast is not too much carbs for a 7 year old. Yes protein should be part of the meal too, but please don't give her carb free breakfast. Fruit and yoghurt isn't enough (yes I know there's carbs in fruit) she would need some porridge/ slice of toast or something too.

If she is on school dinners then she only needs a lunch type meal for dinner - either soup or a sandwich type thing. Two big meals a day is probably a bit much. She sounds lovely and active though and it's great she has a healthy appetite. I'd expect that she just seems so hungry in comparison to your other DC.

it may just be her build?
I was a fat baby, a fat child, a fat teenager while my brother who ate a lot more than me was skinny.
Incidentally I now have been diagnosed with PCOS.

DD2 does take after DH's family line of body shape - short upper body, generous coverage of the hips, quite a 'rectangular' upper body shape.She's always had little rolls of body fat after the first few weeks of age (she started out at 35+2 so was a bit prem.)

What centile is she on for height? My DN has been in the 98th centile for weight from birth but she's also on the 98th for height. She's beautifully in proportion.

Have you plotted her height and weight in her Red Book? Is she following a centile or is she going up the centiles?

one main meal and one light lunch - so soup or similar

I haven't plotted recently. Last time I looked she was something like 50th for height and 75th for weight.

7 year old girls need about 1500 calories a day - it climbs to nearer 2000 by the time they are 10. I can't see that she is getting more than that and your diet follows nhs guidelines. I really think reducing her food intake would be a miserable thing to do when it's not like you have obvious things like sweets/fry ups/crisps to cut back on.
If you increase her activity she will grow and slowly slim down.
It doesn't have to be organized activity - ds loves organized sport and will be doing his cycling and swimming clubs this weekend. His twin sister doesn't so she will be walking thedog 3 times today with me, going up and down road on rollerskates and usually she needs no encouragement to prepare a dance show for us!

I remember seeing somewhere that portion size was equal to the size of that persons/child's fist. I thought that was quite good and easy to remember. that might help you gauge if she's over eating or not. I would also try to up protein and lower carbs if you can, especially bread and pasta. More exercise is an excellent idea.

So her centiles aren't enormously out of sync then. Was she born on these centiles?

she is big for her height, hopefully eating in a more balanced fashion will help. Have you made any changes this week?

I'll have to see what her centiles were. She stopped growing in utero, so I was induced at 35 weeks.

I haven't made (additional) changes this week because she was only in her third week back at school, so the fact that she's doing PE and having playground time at morning break and lunch time is a change in itself. Plus she attended yoga for the second time and Ceilidh dancing for the first time.

I know it's annoying when people say 'she doesn't eat anything bad....' then admit to massive snacks and midnight feasts, etc., but it genuinely isn't a case of that. Last night's dinner was a grilled pork loin chop (around 80g), 4 miniature baby new potatoes (around 30g), 4 baby asparagus, a small heap of carrot. Today's lunch was a wholemeal ham sandwich, a satsuma and a 60g yoghurt. Today's meal will be oven baked chicken thigh with potato and peas.

Today she's been at an activity morning (4hrs) doing soft play, games, swimming, etc. This afternoon she walked to Nanny and Grandad's and back (2 miles). She'll likely do the same tomorrow.

You are right. She seems more active than she was already. Did you check her centiles?

Just a quick update:

Dd2 was weighed and measured as part of a research study today and she's gone from 94th centile to 89th centile, which puts her at the top end of the green zone on the nhs bmi calculator.

Good to hear, OP