I know, I know, it's another weight loss thing, but I really want some thoughts here. My ds is a large 11 yo. Regardless of his weight, he is a solid, stocky boy. Not all children are built the same, right? When he stands against the children's height chart in M&S, he comes to the 14 mark. He wears a 13-14 top, but age 15 trousers, where I can get them. He has a 30" cargo short from Johnnie B, although it is pulled in slightly at the waist, and he wears a belt. He's big across the bum. He has love handles, which he needs to lose, but other than that he looks big, rather than fat, in the way that a rugby player looks big. He is dyspraxic, so doesn't enjoy games. He'd rather read or play his musical instruments (which he does to a high standard) than chuck a ball about. That said, he leads an active life, although his size/weight slow him up. He lumbers, rather than runs.
We have a healthy diet, as a family. I also have two teens, a boy and a girl and they all eat well, in that they are not fussy, eat healthily, and don't snack between meals. I am very conscious that, at this stage in all of their lives, I must give them a varied and healthy diet for their growth.
Ds2 is conscious of his weight and desperate to slim down. We talk openly about it and he knows what he needs to avoid, and I am very careful to give him smaller portions than his siblings, who are only a little older than him but very slim, but it seems not-normal for a child of this age who has a healthy diet and an active lifestyle to have to deny himself all treats - cakes, puddings, sweets and biscuits (and I do sometimes make cakes, although I never buy sweets but they are given elsewhere). We generally have fruit for puidding, but sometimes i make a crumble or a cheesecake, and especially if we have friends round.
Does anyone have any experiences they can share with me? Might he just stretch out of it with the onset of puberty? I hate to make an issue of it, I hate to single him out, I hate to have to allow him to make judgements about himself which place him lower in his own esteem than anyone else he knows. If I put his details into a BMI calculator it flashes red at me and tells me that he's very overweight, but he's not a blob - he's a very big boy.
Has anyone else had a lovely, loving, bright, sensitive boy with this issue and somehow managed to steer them through it?
TIA