8 year old dd weight gain

[AuntieBulgaria]

Dd seems to have gone a bit chunky in the last couple of months - when she does her post shower acrobatics, there's definitely some podge.

Looking at the nhs child bmi calculator it suggests she is in the healthy range for her height it only just.

She is not a massive fan of physical activity - preferring a book or a craft activity to a bike ride but she walks to school and back every day, does brownies, swimming and karate and the usual school PE stuff. I don't think her diet is dreadful but it's not brilliant either and I don't know how much she eats at school dinners.

At the same time, she does seem to have started slight breast bud development and greasy hair.

I'm attempting to up our family physical activity a bit and keep an eye on snacking, but also is there a tendency for weight gain around this age?

Do you think she might be due a growth spurt? I have always found my DC tend to "podge up" before shooting up in height.

My dd thickened up a bit at that age. Then she had a growth spurt. I noticed alot of her friends body shapes starting to change at about eight plus too when all their hormones kick in.

It sounds like you're doing all the right things op. I'd just keep an eye on it for now and encourage healthy eating habits and being active where you can. If she does move in to the overweight category it might be worth a trip to the GP but it does sound very much like she's about to have a growth spurt and it'll all even out over time.

Could definitely be growth spurting. The age 8 school trousers were too long at the beginning of term but fit by half term.

I've also realised I underestimated her height by 3cm in the bmi calculator.

I think DH and I felt like we both noticed her looking podgy, when we didn't feel like we had in the past but actually thinking about it, when she was a toddler she did fill out before shooting up but it was different because she was a different shape.

DH became overweight from about this age onwards so is slightly sensitive to it. And I'm feeling guilty about not managing to get her to try a bigger range of healthy meals. Oh, the joys of parenting.

I gained a lot of weight at 9 - my mum was super healthy and we were never allowed sweets or crisps etc unless it was a special occasion like Christmas. When I was nine I started getting the train to school by myself and discovered the sweet shop at the station. I went mad each day and promptly ballooned. Is there any chance your DD could be eating things of which you are unaware? Probably not, but just thought I would suggest it. However I am sure it is nothing to worry about and she's just growing!

Ds1 was 9 when he gained a lot of weight. It was over the summer holidays from school, he was out in the garden running around every day, going on bike rides, didn't eat anything extra than what I put out for him and didn't sneak any food etc

He definitely started puberty at that point. Smelled really bad if he didn't shower, greasy haired which was awful. He started showering every other day at that point.

He went from half way between 50th and 75th centile which he had always been on to being on 91st in the space of 2 months. He remained on 91st centile until he left primary school. He hardly gained any extra weight just grew in height.

He is now 12 and 5ft tall with size 5 feet!

Children lay down fat deposits when they start puberty. I worked in a primary school and helped with the swimming for years 3 and 4. So in a skin tight swimming costume you can see the girls who have started puberty with breast buds. Quite a few in year 4 and our school has sanitary bins from year 4 as there is always at least one child who starts her periods (we have 90 children per year) in year 4.

Scarednoob - I don't think she's eating stuff we don't know about and I'm not restrictive about what she eats, though I'm obviously trying for a healthy balance.

She's the oldest in her school year (yr3) and the majority in her class are summer born - so she's a good few months older than most, though not the tallest or the biggest.

She's my little girl and my big girl all at once.

I came on here with a similar question! My 8 year old DD has always been what I would call average weight for height, and comes from a family of average-weighters :) But over the last couple of months I've noticed a real tummy on her compared with other same age girls. Arms and legs still normal. I have been suspecting hormone changes due to subtle change in body shape and her being "sad for no reason" sometimes. I also know she has a poor diet at exP's house.

I've been trying to figure out what's going on so I can work out how to address it or keep an eye on it. I haven't made a big deal about it as don't want to create body image issues, but I do educate about healthy eating etc where possible.