Should I be worried about dd's weight?

[Dancergirl]

Dd3 is 8, will be 9 in February.

She's always had a good appetite but I try to feed all my family a relatively healthy diet with a few treats here and there.

She's been wearing clothes a size or two bigger for her age for a while but I wasn't unduly concerned. However I have just measured her height and weight:

Height 135cm (75th percentile)
Weight 37.5 kg (91st percentile)

Should I be worried? I'm wondering now if I've let her get overweight by not monitoring portion sizes. It's very difficult if I give her a meal and she then says she's still hungry after eating it.

I'm very aware of the whole body image thing especially for girls and I haven't said anything to her. And I certainly don't want to give her the message that she mustn't eat too much or she'll get overweight.

This is what she eats in a typical day:

Breakfast - large bowl of (dry) cereal, cup of milk, then waffles or a crumpet

Lunch - either school lunch (not keen on them, don't think she eats much), if at home normally a cream cheese sandwich

After school - snack of couple of biscuits, pack of oddities/mini cheddars, mini flavoured rice cakes

Dinner - home cooked e.g. roast chicken, salmon with rice, sometimes pasta with pesto or cheese, cheese omelette, chicken noodle stir fry etc. Then fruit and/or a yoghurt

Any advice please?

Her diet spuds largely good. My advice would be to change her breakfast from all those carbs to something more protein based as that can be filling.
Eggs or beans on toast would be better.

I also think more veg is needed as none was mentioned so maybe add carrot and cucumber chopped with small amount of hummus for snacks instead of biscuits.

Also does she get lots of exercise? Could you start a family fun activity or sport.

Spuds?! Sounds!!

Does she look overweight because there's not a huge disparity between those measures. It's whether she is fat on the body or slim?

If you put those figures into the BMI percentile calculator she is 92 nd percentile which is overweight. A healthy weight for that height ranges from 25-35kg (corresponding to 5th-85th BMI percentiles).
I think you are right not to make an issue of it, it's children that are a bit overweight the aim is to maintain the same weight and grow into it.

Few comments on her food diary...

What cereal does she eat? How much sugar is in it? Have you looked at what a 'serving' is ( not v much!) what she has could be loads of calories, and why does she then need crumpets or waffles on top? How about replacing this with porridge, or a no/low sugar cereal, or scrambled egg etc.

Is the after school snack one of those things or all of them? Does she have any access to snacks, biscuits etc without asking? Could she have a piece of fruit instead?

Does she spend pocket money on sweets/chocolate?

Home cooked dinner, fruit and yoghurt sounds great.

The centiles for height and weight are fairly in proportion so not majorly anxiety causing but she is heavier than she is tall and that could increase maybe. She's wearing clothes bigger than her age because she is above average height too.

I would add in a lot more fruit/veg and think about portion sizes -her breakfast sounds particularly large and agree that something more filling ie porridge with berries may fill her up well and last longer with a lower GI.

The best thing you can do is not make an issue out of it for her but as a family - we are all going to walk/swim/cycle each week, we are all going to have our 5 a day etc - and focus on the health improvements not weight.

Her breakfast is definitely the weakest link. We do beans on toast, peanut butter on toast, porridge with berries, quiche in a cup ( MN recipe) or scrambled eggs.

Also rather than cream cheese sandwich, what about a wrap with salad and ham in it?

She is still growing so a small reduction in calories will have a quicker impact. Focus on replacing snacks with fruit and veg and keep an eye on portion control.

Thanks. She's not a great veg eater. She'll reluctantly eat a small piece of broccoli or a few raw carrot sticks but that's really it.

milo no she only has one thing after school although would probably eat more. Like most kids she's starving after school and she's probably not eating enough lunch.

I monitor sweets and chocolate intake closely. I let all my dds have some chocolate but within reason, i.e. not all the time and only a small bit.

Feeling very guilty how I've let this happen

Also she's quite a fussy eater so some things she just wouldn't entertain, e.g. she doesn't like potatoes in any form and a poor veg eater.

I'll have to rethink breakfast, that's a good tip. We don't have much time in the morning but I could do her boiled or scrambled egg.

Try and work on maintaining her weight whilst she grows upwards some more.

There is a disparity between her height and weight which may only increase if it continues - if you look at growth charts the height curve levels off and the weight one continues upwards so if she remains on the 75/91 centiles she will become increasingly overweight.

Try and change her breakfast - more protein, less sugar. Cereal AND waffles/crumpets are sugar-dense and just filler, they offer little nutritionally. Will she eat eggs, greek yoghurt with fruit, porridge oats? Also increase activity levels rather than 'dieting'.

Could you try sneaking more veg into your evening meals - like in a pasta sauce, for example? Sweet potatoes practically disappear in a sauce and are brilliant nutritionally.

She doesn't like porridge but likes eggs. The cereals she currently has are mini choc chip weetabix, shreddies or rice crispy 'shapes' (in the orange box). I know, I know....the sugar content is high. But we do still eat cereal as a family and there are still some nutrients in them.

That's a good idea suburban, do you chop the sweet potatoes really small?

My dD was like this, she would be quite heavy just before a growth spurt, then would be OK, until it rolls round again.
How much excercise is she getting. Go ou walking or bike rides, swimming, join netball or cheerleadin or dancing. All good for kids.

OP, you can chop them small or grating is even better! I defy any child to find them once they've been grated

She needs less for breakfast. I'd be dropping the waffle. And the cream cheese sarnie, not much redeeming about that, if you could convince her to have it on antics cake or oatcake, it woukd be much better. I feed my hungry boys snackajacks....

The food looks ok but really lacks in fruit and veg. She needs to gain this as a habit to avoid constipation.

She's certainly not constipated

Re exercise - she's quite active, runs around a lot, she does a weekly ballet and tap class and she likes riding her bike and our trampoline (less so in the winter).

In the average child, the weight centile should be a fair bit lower than the height centile eg height on 75th and weight on 50th. The maximum healthy ratio is 1:1 but that's for a naturally stocky (broad shoulders/big rib cage) child. So, yes, based on the measurements you give your dd is a fair bit overweight. I guess the reason you are not seeing it is that so many children are overweight these days that it looks normal to us.

In your position, I'd be looking to make changes so her weight stays stable and she grows into it.

kennington fruit wise she likes apple, pineapple and strawberries. She's not great with veg but I do try.

Is a cream cheese sandwich on wholemeal bread so bad? Is processed meat ie ham really better?

Fruit smoothies are filling ... could be an alternative breakfast.

Does she like cucumber? Or red pepper?

Cream cheese looks heavy on calories but light on vitamins. I would hesitate to eat one myself.

Her food looks very beige, as it were, with little colour. Can you get her to help with food preparation and choice to open up her mind to other ingredients?

And it doesn't have to be ham, but home cooked chicken or turkey. I would try a wrap too.

Does she like houmous at all mine don't, MC failure