Concerns aboy my 11 year old

[Lonnie]

For some time now myself and dh have been concerned about our dd2 (age 11) She is overweight and due to this we have really been monitoring her food intake However over the last 6 months it has become really apparent she is not eating anything further or larger portions than what her brother and sisters and cousin is (age 7 9 13 and 17 and all living with us so have similar diets - 17 year old obviously also adds when out and about with friends) and they are all skinny rakes.

She does plenty of activity swimming trampolining and Taekwondo. She will often bike it down to her activities on her own and as we live directly opesite a park is often over there for a run around with her younger brother and sister (of all of my children she is the most active)

She has recently gone through a period where she became really unwell after eating she would go pale and obviously suffer cold sweats and twice it lead to her throwing up (once on the millenium bridge after eating pizza that was fun - not) however just when I had said ok lets take her to the go this stopped. On questioning her she says sometimes now after eating she feels a little nauseated but she no longer feels sick like she did.

A friend of mine suggested her thyroid and yes I know that I need to take her to the gp but I was wondering if any of you on reading theese symptoms had any suggestions/ ideas? I am confident I am not feeding her a overfatty diet or to much sugar/carbohydrates and I am equally confident she is not simply greedy and eating to large portions. She is not massively obese (she wears size 14 clothing and is tall enough for this to fit) however she is certainly one of the largest in her class and it is obvious that it bothers her. as I was bulimic myself as a teenager I am concerned she is beginning to get a negative attitude to food (she is very into what is a good food and what is a bad food - please dont get me started on the idea of " bad foods " - and I am trying as hard as I possibily can to make her feel confident about herself.

Any ideas?

my sister was a large child from a young age and i think as you said thyroid, and/or a hormonal disbalance resulting from that would be my first guess. i don;t know whether my sister has even felt unwell after eating though - could it possibly be anxiety about food? i think rather than speculating, take her for tests. good luck.

ps forgot to mention - my sister did turn out to have thyroid and hormonal imbalance problems.

thank you Allag I only know about THyroid issues from what I have read in the papers/news/internet no personal experience of it so somewhat interesting to hear what you had to say..

other than being overweight from childhood, and also not eating any more than the rest of us (i have two sisters) she didn't appear to have any other symptoms in childhood. she was also a very active, sporty child, doing a variety of sports. as she grew older she grew more lethargic and became prone to mood swings - which doctors subsequently attributed to hormonal imbalances that often go hand in hand with thyroid problems (I think!). She subsequently was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovaries, too, and actually it has taken them years to get to the root cause of all this which is her thyroid. i REALLY dont' know whether this is of any use and it may not apply to you at all. But i am sure being overweight for reasons not to do with diet or lifestyle does indicate a problem and thyroid and hormones is the first place i would gt investigated. Sorry for all this anecdotal stuff, wish i could be more help

Could be as simple as "puppy fat", nothing wrong with that.

However her reaction to pizza is very telling (for me) as wheat overload. This is turn can affect thyroid and lots of other enzymes and poss hormones too.
From my experience with my ds, I would limit wheat, which can have far-ranging symptoms short and long term, inc all you mentioned.
I would have been the first one to say my ds diet was better than excellent, despite that he was unwell and found deficient in lots of minerals and some vits - was all due to wheat blocking absorption of all those good foods.

Meant to say also that although wheat reaction can be genetic, the mix of genes in the family can be all different so no rule that they all need to react - or not - in the same way.
It might help if you consider blood relatives and any health issues that have, not necessarily obesity related.