Daughter now classed as overweight in 97th percentile.

[trumphy]

Dear all, I am feeling absolutely wretched. I have become increasingly concerned over my daughters weight gain over the last 6 months. According to the NHS BMI calculator she is now in the severely overweight bracket. I have been to the Drs and she is referring me to the hospital paediatrician for blood tests etc. My daughter has also been constipated since birth and has always had a very swollen tummy, so I think this also has an impact on her weight. We are a very health conscious family. I don't buy junk food and cook meals at home, we exercise regularly. My other daughter does not have this problem and my husband and I are not overweight. I am wondering if something else is affecting her. Possibly a thyroid problem. I feel so helpless. We are taught that if we eat healthily and exericse we will be a healthy weight, but she continues to get bigger. Not sure what I want from everyone on here but I feel so worried and distraught. No one else I can talk to. Has anyone else had a problem with this? Possibly with chronic constipation and weight gain?

How old is your dd?

She's 6 will be 7 in March.

How old is she OP?

My DD had chronic constipation but she had the opposite - where she lost weight due to not being able to eat.

X posts....so...you've been to the doctor and she's been referred for blood tests. That indicates that the doctor must not think it is only her diet...if at all...did the GP ask you about her diet in detail or suggest a dietitian?

Are there any other problems with DD? How is her general development?

As cece said, weight loss is normally associated with constipation in children.

She's always been chubby, which I didn't think was a problem when she was a bady and a toddler. But all her weight seems to be on her belly which worries me.

Do you have any larger built people in your family that she might have inherited her build from? If she is eating the same as your other child, without snacking etc, eating healthy food and exercising sufficiently for her age, then I would seriously push testing for various conditions that could cause this. Especially as you sound very worried- a mother's intuition is a very powerful thing.

My GP did ask about her diet. But she said because constipation had been a problem since birth and because she had been on Movicol for three years with no improvement that it needed to be looked into further. In general her development is good, her speech and communication is excellent. But she has struggled with reading and writing. She is being assessed at the moment for dyslexia.

Does her belly stay bigger all day or go up and down?

(am interested in this thread as my dd is a chunk, and has a large belly, also sometimes gets very constipated).

duchesse, interesting point. My husbands family are rather bigger built than mine and his sister is on the larger side. Not fat, just bigger built.

PartyFops, her belly is rather big all day, but particularly after she has eaten.

LeonieDelt, yes I have wondered if it is an underactive thyroid problem. I was diagnosed with that about 3 years ago. Do you think it could be passed on?

is she a normal height op? I understand an underactive thyroid can slow growth...

She is 3 feet 10 inches. She doesn't appear to be any shorter than her classmates, but I don't know what the avergage height for her age should be.

As a child I started gaining weight around age 8. Especially my belly and my face. I got diagnosed with an underactivd thyroid at 11 after 2 years of doctors appointments as the doctors had tested me for everything else but didn't think to test my thyroid because of my age. It might not be that but definitely worth testing. Does your dd have any other symptoms such as feeling cold or sparse eyebrows?

My dd2 is similar, she eats less than my dd1, who is a skinny little thing. Dd2 (5.6) has constipation and her tummy is always a round ball.

The underactive thyroid thing is interesting, Leonie, dd2 and I both suffer from most of the list of symptoms.

Trumphy thyroid problems do run in family's so it's much more likely if you have an under-active thyroid.

Sarahplane, she doesn't feel the cold and I think her eyebrows are ok. She is a bit forgetful sometimes and is a bit of a dreamer.

When I was diagnosed with underactive thyroid I didn't have all the symptoms. I didn't put on lots of weight but was unable to lose any of the weight gained during pregnancy. I was totally spaced out and foudn it hard to focus on anything, plus my hair got thin. My doctor said that because I was in the early stages it was easier to treat and that coincided with my pregnancy with my daughter and my diagnosis. Could she have been affected during pregnancy?

Thanks for everyones input. I am off to bed now but will check in tomorrow morning.

Let us know how your dd gets on at the doctors. I hope you get some answers.

Pictures of children with congenital hypothyroidism (or what used to be called cretinism) are likely unhelpful here. All children are screened for hypothyroidism, albeit by TSH only (the stimulating hormone as opposed to the actual thyroid hormones), and there is a very effective national programme for this. If she is doing well in school and keeping up with her peers I wouldn't be concerned about the congenital form. Later onset thyroid disease isn't typically seen at that age.

Whilst there are conditions that lead to children being large they are invariably linked with over eating (the condition makes the child "hyperphagic") or the child has limited exercise. Whilst some people are constitutionally larger than others, this is often exacerbated by those families also eating more and giving their children larger portion sizes than required.

I'm afraid that ultimately weight gain is caused too much energy in and not enough expended and ultimately that's what will need to be changed.