Overweight almost 7 year old

[H1ldaOgden]

DD1 is average height but 98th percentile for weight, she's pretty active (sports club before school, ballet, swimming, bike riding) and we eat healthily (5-a-day, lean protein, crisps/sweets/biscuits limited to weekends and even then I'm stingy) so I think the answer is portion control but I'm finding it hard to discover what is the optimal amount of pasta/rice/potato per meal for her. She will eat and eat until she's sick so letting her eat til she's full isn't an option. Have googled this til the cows come home but can't find a straight answer.

Can anyone help?

Serve her food on a much smaller plate - maybe even a side plate. Protein the size of her fist, half the plate veg and maybe a fist size portion of carbohydrates?

Thanks Big Tilly, I am using side plates for the kids already but am thinking maybe i should switch back to the little Ikea oval kids plates. The problem really is when I'm doing a meal which isn't meat + 2 veg, i quite often make pasta with a hidden veg sauce or maybe a noodle stir-fry in which case it's tricky to see the divisions as you mention.

I gave her 1.5oz (40g?) of pasta last night. it covered a side plate and looked like a lot but she practically inhaled it.

SO don't want to give her weight hang-ups at 6. :(

I have to say that this doesn't look much :) However it is probably what I serve DS (6 yrs). He normally wouldn't ask for more. Lasagne or shepherds pie however would be a different matter!

I guess you've found this I can just imagine the horror if I just gave DS 1 fishfinger . It does seem to have some nice ideas in it though.

Ok, her body will treat refined carbs like sugar so avoid mashed potato, white bread, rice or pasta. Replacing these with baked potato or wedged, roasted sweet potato, brown rice and wholemeal bread will hopefully damp down her appetite, which might be excessive due to unsteady blood sugar.

I used those IKEA oval plates at that age!

I bet you need to put a lot more veg on the plate and less carbs - I know most children moan about veg, but that's what they need to fill them up! Brown rice, pasta, bread.....
And then a piece of fruit and maybe a yoghurt or a small biscuit?

What does she have for lunch? Round of sandwiches/roll (wholemeal!), 2 pieces fruit and a yog/small biscuit
Breakfast? Use the small IKEA plastic bowls and don't over fill with cereal

Crisps(multipack size)/sweets maybe once or twice a week?

Re exercise, what she is doing sounds good, but maybe you could still up it / make it more intense?

Thanks WeLoveLego, yes, even my three year old who never finishes her dinner would object to a single fish finger! I hadn't seen that first website you linked to, so thanks for that.

Hi Beararse, yes, have switched to wholemeal bread, pittas and pasta but think they might draw the line at brown rice...i know i do! might just avoid rice altogether.

So I'm thinking that this 40g rule applies to all carbs I might choose to serve. Have just weighed a slice of bread at 28g so maybe a 2-slice sarnie with the crusts removed would be about right....

I would never have imagined that having an enthusiastic eater would be a problem, have been the envy of my friends for years. Jut when you think you understand what you're doing they turn around and mess with your mind!

Hilda, has she always been a bit bigger, or is it just that she is due a growth spurt?

Honestly, brown rice isn't bad once you get used to it - much more flavour than white rice and my 4 year old prefers it now! Just takes so much longer to cook unfortunately.

I think looking at glycaemic index could be useful here, simply because of the big appetite thing.

Thing is does she look bigger? My DD2 was always on the 98th Centile but she has had this trait since a baby, of stacking on the pounds & getting quite chubby & then having a HUGE growth spurt, at 14, now she's a well covered but slim, tall 5' 10"! We've stopped weighing & measuring as I didn't want to get her worried.

I also had trouble getting her NOT to inhale her food, so that her tummy had time to register a decent portion. I made her stop if she wasn't breathing between mouthfuls! Getting them to chew thoroughly,and pause for a chat,at mealtimes might help to get that full up feeling quicker. It takes about 20 minutes for the rain to register signals from the tum, as I recall so you can still think you're hungry when you've had enough.

Also apparently we all mistake thirst for hunger pangs, so make sure she has plenty of water/diluted juice througout the day (which I'm sure you do)

Like you say always something to worry about!

I wouldn't necessarily be quick to put her on any kind of diet. What centile is on for height and how does she look? Some children are just naturally bigger than others.

If she is active and eats well chances are it will come off naturally as she grows. You really to need to see a pediatrician before you start cutting her food intake.

Hi BigTillyMint - she's been obviously slightly rounder in the middle than other kids since she was about 3 but back then I just thought it was that toddler shape and would change but she hasn't really.

Hi DooinMeCleanin - the reason I logged on panicking about it was because we'd just seen a paediatrician about something else and he told her that her tummy was too big about 5 times. Really trying to hammer it home to her (thanks a lot mate) and when I told him how we live and asked him for practical advice he said I was doing everything right and some people are just 'built that way'. Cheers, really constructive.

She's 98th for weight but 50th for height. She's been 98th for weight since weaning really and was 98th for length at birth but that's gradually come down whilst her weight percentile hasn't.

I dug out some old photos of myself recently and it was like looking at my daughter dressed in clothes from the 70s so I'm basically fighting genetics here.

What I will do is start upping the activity, walking to school and stuff but it's hard not to totally wear out my three year old as it's a 40 minute walk.