DD Overweight? 3yr 8mths too young to worry?

[mumofmoomoo]

Hello. My daughter is 3yrs 8mhts old, she is a hungry girl and always seems to be talking about food. I had her height and weight taken today and put it into NHS child BMI calculator and she comes up as obese. Health visitor didn't seem to worry, just said, you are a good eater, better to be larger than too small.

She is noticably larger than her other friends of the same age. She eats healthily, lots of fruit or rice crackers as snacks. Has healthy cereals for breakfast, wholegrain bread, pasta and rice. Yoghurt or ice lolly or more fruit for dessert. If at a party or BBQ or anywhere where she has a choice of food she will just gorge herself on food, really seems to binge. If anyone else is caring for her other than me (grandparents, father, childminder) she pesters for food, always asking for biscuits or ice cream etc. She is active, and has not been pushed around in a buggy since before she was 3. Walks to and from pre-school, goes to play at the park very regularly, has a garden to run about in.

Am I worrying about this too early? She has been classified as obese by the NHS BMI calculator though? I am also worried about her attitude to food.

Thanks

I have 3 dc, ds(9) and dd2(5) are very tall and skinny, dd1(7) is fairly tall and thickset - solid as my mum would say. She is overweight on all scales, has a little puppyfat but is essentially a muscly and entirely 'normal' shape for a 7 yr old. ds and dd1 eat well and are not particularly fussy (skinny one and solid one), dd2 is a pain in the arse as she is incredibly fussy - we do our best to ignore it. I got myself a bit worked up about dd1 weight about a year ago as she seemed to put on weight over two holiday periods in a row. I am fairly careful over snacks in any case (dh less so but he's come round!) and just took care to watch what she was eating and insisted on lots of running around the garden.. (turned off electronic items and shoved them outside!) 12 months later, she has grown a great deal (height) but her shape seems to be much the same. She is still overweight on all scales but she is just that shape - thickset. DD2 however at 3 1/2 was an absolute dump truck - lots of puppy fat and really square. She is a rake now, very tall and skinny and unrecognisable....a good friend asked me where dd2 was the other day as she thought dd2 was dd1's friend! My message is - keep the food healthy, don't pass on any messages using the word 'fat'- only 'fit and healthy', be a role model yourself - exercise should be taken along with the nutritious food. As long as you keep to that, nature will take it's course. One other thing I aught to point out is that I was dd1's shape too - I grew to be 5 10 and haven't topped a size 10 since.....genetics are stronge things.

..strange things!

I think banning all crisps, biscuits etc.. is a mistake she will end up gorging on them whenever she sees them, I think treating them as normal food is key.

Smaller portions of filling food is a good idea.

I think activity levels is what I would concentrate on, she should be running around for 1 hour a day really, cutting down on TV may be more important than cutting down on fruit.

mumofmoomoo we ave the same outlook. I never ever want her to feel different or left out so if we are at a party for example, I let her have what everybody else has.
As I know what I give her is healthy, the only answer is moderation and exercise.
Fidledee, DD only watches 15 minutes of TV a day after her bath and before her dinner.
Also, crisps are not banned, we just don't buy any, same with sweets.
shushpenfold it's great to hear things can change.

Just thought I'd update, spoke to lovely dr this week. She did agree dd's weight was of concern. Didn't really tell me much I had not worked out for myself, (mainly reduce portion sizes) but she did say that childhood obesity is a problem and I should take steps now to manage her weight. But she also said it's very important not to make it an issue with DD (not that i was planning on doing that anyway). So that answers my concern that perhaps I was worrying about it too early. Apparently not.

Fiddledee - 4 days a week in our house are compeltely TV free, and the other 3 days she gets to watch half an hour, IF she has been good all day. I really do not think TV is the problem. Crisps etc are not banned, I just don't buy them.

Haven't read all the replies, but just wanted to say it's great to are willing to address this. I would say that if you are honestly giving her good food, she is probably eating too much. However, I would also start by looking at the amount of, dare I say it, carbs you are giving her. If she has a cereal based breakfast, it's likely that this is causing her blood sugar to rise then crash & might be an explanation for her always saying she is hungry.

So perhaps something like porridge (1 tsp of sugar), maybe a small amount of fruit, milk (semi skimmed) & then some ground nuts, or egg on toast (1 slice). Give her 1 snack like a piece of cheese or peanut butterwith a rice cake, rather than a rice cake alone. If she can eat nuts, 3-4 nuts (my DD loves cashews) . Lunch, jacket potato with beans (low sugar), cheese/tuna etc
Same with tea, good quality protein, several veg & a couple of small potatoes.

I was a chubby child & I didn't really learn portion control. I would be allowed to eat chocolate to the cows came & I've really resented my mum for allowing this to happen.

Just scrolled up - crisps & biscuits are not 'normal food' & shouldn't be considered as such - kids need nutient dense foods, not this junk. We rarely have this in our house & if we do have crisps on a picnic/outing as part of our lunch, my DD's don't gorge on them.

This very much reminds me of a child who is at my DS's school, child is pretty tubby if I'm onest, is not as tall as DS, but probably twice his waist measurement. We were at a party the other week and DS happened to be sitting next to them and I noticed that most kids (grudgingly) took a couple of sandwiches, and a handful of crisps/biscuits, wolfed them down as fast as possible and got back to the serious business of having fun, this kid had (I did make a mental note of this, as I watched in disbelief) 6 sandwiches, 3 sausage rolls, 8 cheese/sausage stick thingys, 2 slices of pizza, 4 pieces of garlic bread, a chicken leg, 3 jaffa cakes, 8 party rings, and 3 handfuls of crisps. They refilled their plate 4 times, and were still sitting at the table eating 15 minutes after everyone else had finished.
That to me is not a normal appetite or attitude to food, and even if a kid ate that amount of healthy food, its easy to see why they are overweight. That meal probably represents my food intake for a full day, and I'm an adult.
As PP's have said, its great that you have noticed the trend this early and are being proactive about your daughters weight, from your description, it sounds as if the problem is that she doesnt know when she is full and therefore when to stop eating, as you say she is constantly hungry/asking for food.