Overweight DD (7)

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My DD is 7 (almost 8) and her weight has become very obvious now. I noticed a while back but my efforts to reduce it have not worked. She's in 9-10 clothes and even then they are tight around her stomach. She's 127cm and 36.1kg. I'm trying to not make a big deal out of it (though she keeps saying "I'm fat" and "I've got a fat belly".

A usual day's food is
Breakfast either: 2 pieces of toast/bowl cereal with whole milk/waffles with strawberries. Cup of tea.

Dinner: ham sandwich (2 pieces of brown bread) yogurt or jelly or sometimes a treat (cake), fruit (melon and grapes or apple slices) and carrot sticks/cucumber/toms and crisps (I know crisps are not great but I'm worried she'll still be hungry)

Tea: this varies though we do have a takeaway more often than we should. Really need to stop this. Spaghetti Bolognese (dolmio-dp doesn't like homemade)/roast/curry(jar)/rice and chips/ burritos/etc. Last night we had mince and dumplings. She had 1 dumpling about 10 carrot slices 3 small bits of brocolli, a ladle of mince and about 2 tablespoons of mash.

She usually has a 50p mix up or similar after school- I'm going to start taking fruit I think, not sure how that'll go down.
Tea is at 5 and although she usually asks for something before I'll tell her to wait or get fruit (usually waits) then she likes "dessert" which is usually a yogurt.
I just need advice on how to reduce her food intake without her really noticing. It's hard because dd2(9) eats the same (and always has) and is fine.
Exercise wise, we don't do a lot of exercise, she's just learned how to ride a bike, however by the time we get home after school it's dark (can't ride from school as dd2 can't ride one and it's steep downhill) I don't have enough to money for them to do dance etc (and they've never asked)
So objectives :
Stop takeaways
Remove crisps from lunch
No sweets after school
More exercise (how?)

What else can I do?
Thank you if you've read all this.

Thanks johnsnowswife will try it. He does like scrambled eggs

I know you would struggle to afford it but I think at 7/8 years your kids should be finding sports and hobbies they enjoy that can carry them through their teenage years.

Can she swim? It's an important life skill and I would prioritise it over dance lessons but she needs an active hobby.

Although one of the benefits of dance is that kids often practice a lot at home, it is one of the few hobbies that can be done in the bedroom.

She can swim (basically ie under the water-she learned with school). It's hindered by the fact the nearest leisure centre is about a 40 minute drive away.

Takeaway is usually chips and chicken bites or (Chinese) noodles, chips and curry. We rarely have takeaway pizza (like once or twice a year)

What activities do you have closer by that she could try? What do the elder dc do?

There are many things to think about and both diet and exercise routine are complex daily routines.

But the single obvious thing from what you say is that your daughter is eating WAY TOO MUCH SUGAR both in sweets and disguised in other foods. As other posters have said, it looks like about FOUR TIMES TOO MUCH SUGAR in her diet.

First step is to cut the sugar down to almost nothing. Our bodies don’t need it. It is a poison. It causes the body to lay down fat.

I see it’s your dp that doesn’t like homemade. Could you make homemade for the family and let him eat jars if he so wishes. You could make a huge pot and freeze portions and reach for those instead of takeaways.
Also your dd is probably slow and dawdling when walking because she’s overweight. That’s not a reason to drive, it’s more of a reason to walk.

If you cut out the waffles with syrup, sweets everyday after school, fizzy drinks & crisps. She’s getting a treat after dinner, a treat after school and a dessert (treat) after tea. That’s a lot of treats on top of a relatively poor diet.

How often are the takeaways?
What cereal is she eating?

If you're going to cut down on sweet treats I heartily recommend blaming it on the dental health. Needing to cut down on sugar to jeep teeth healthy is a lot easier to hear than anything related to health or weight (which obviously you won't want to bring up!)

We did this to cut out after school snacks in particular.

How far is your school run? What about just doing it one way to start with (we need to save petrol money!) I recommend going home to start with, because there's no rush, then moving towards mornings too.

Nothing useful to add about diet as it’s pretty much been covered but for exercise have you a Ps or Wii that you could get dance games / active games for and set them up with that after school , at least she would be moving about .

I think you’ve probably got over the biggest issue, which is realising there’s a problem, so that’s a really good start.

I was struck that you felt the advice from ilovemylampandchair was a bit extreme - it’s really not. We eat like that and always have. You can still eat like that and enjoy food, and still have treats sometimes - it’s not at all miserable! So:

Squash is a treat (probably only once a week, if that). Even fruit juice is once a day, no more - drinks are water, semi-skimmed milk, or DD seems to sometimes like herbal teas.

Breakfast: porridge, weetabix, shredded wheat, cornflakes, bran flakes. The DDs are happy to have most with no extra sugar. Teaspoon of honey in porridge. Sometimes granola. Pancakes and waffles with all sorts of lovely toppings (Nutella, jam etc) on a Sunday. But I still try to include fruit, eg bananas or blueberries, so that’s it’s not just 100% processed sugar!

Crisps are a treat - eg once a week at most. Usually not that often - we just don’t buy them very often.

Almost no fizzy drinks - they have them at parties if they want and we never buy them at home.

They are absolutely allowed cake, sweets, biscuits, but cake probably a couple of times a week, sweets less than that. At birthday parties they are allowed whatever they like.

Pudding after most weekday evening meals is fruit, or sometimes yoghurt. Often a pudding like apple crumble and custard etc on a Sunday.

How often are you having takeaways? Agree that’s another easy way of stopping high fat foods. Can you search on here for easy evening meals to have when you’d usually get a takeaway, eg baked potatoes, or chicken, veg and home made potatoes wedges (not chips) - just cut up potatoes into wedges, season, drizzle of olive oil and shove in the oven for 25mins.

Maybe try to exclude the sugary stuff (like natural yogurt instead of fruity and sweetened yogurt, bran flakes instead of cereals with sugar in it) etc. You might want to look into Norwegian lunch packs ('matpakke') for inspiration through a Google image search... pictures telling more than words. I recall when I as a child went to the UK for a language exchange and got a brown bag lunch with crisps, fizzy drink, white bread sandwich, and chocolate - and it was totally shocking because it was so unhealthy. Here's a funny picture I found through a Google image search, the language doesn't matter it's the pictures that count e.g. www.matprat.no/matpakker/

Oh wrong link the picture was here: coop.no/globalassets/extra/mat--trender/matpakke-triks-10.gif

Definitely walk to school. I don't drive (husband does but is at work in the week) so we walk everywhere, always have. Dd2 is just 3 and has been doing the school run on foot or scooter over a year (to take dd1 to preschool and now school) . It's a 10ish minute walk each way for just me but I allow 20 minutes each way for walking with the kids. If they daudle set off earlier. IMO if the walk is less than half an hour each way then theres no need to go by car unless you've work etc after.

I also found that as dd1 is starving after school I was giving snacks and them their tea around 5. I now give them the evening meal at 4 not long after we get home, no snack between finishing school and this, no need. They eat all their meal now which they didn't always . they then have yogurt or similar for pudding and then supper of something like toast, crumpet, porridge.

Also with regards to food and kids being fussy. I have one that eats no meat at all.other than sometimes chorizo and ham, literally no other meat. Yet she will eat tuna, salmon and a few other types of fish. Another that won't eat any fish at all but happily eats most meat like chicken etc. (And a baby that eats everything thank goodness) If I do wraps I do everyone wraps but will do a mix of chicken ones and tuna, same with things like pasta. If I do a toast I will still put all of the stuff on the kids plates but they know they don't have to eat everything, just give it all a go. When I make a meal that's got say, three components I'll make sure that there's one thing everyone likes in that meal. People are so worried their kids will starve by not finishing a meal, they really won't! I thought I was soft doing a couple of different wraps etc (which really doesn't take up more time) but there's no way I'd cook all separate meals or be ordering in to please everyone.

To put it in a very blunt way if a child is overweight you really don't have to be worrying they'll be hungry

Exercising is a good thing in itself definitely but exercise alone won't result in weight loss. (If she is eating, say, 750 more calories than she needs every day and an exercise session burns 250 calories she would still be eating 500 too many calories and still be putting on weight). It's all about reducing her calorie intake. Unfortunately exercise burns depressingly few calories.

Changing breakfast could make a big difference - my dc have toast with 2 egg scambled egg- basically a bashed up omelette which takes minutes to make. Low in sugar high in protein and fills them up. I've looked at shop bought waffles before and they are pretty bad re sugar.

I stopped buying squash- nobody asks for it now. Water or milk only. Sweety days are Friday after school and Sat evening- sometimes other times but this is a big treat.

Does your school do the daily mile- ours does and it is great knowing that even if they don't do after school stuff they are getting a good run at school. Write to school and ask them to consider it.

Lots of activities can be relatively cheap. My ds does judo (£4 a session), Boxing (£15 subs a month - could go twice a week if he wanted for that), and dodgeball (£2 a session). Worth looking at some different types of activities other than dance for your dds?

There is a lot of sugar and a lot of carbs in her diet so try cutting those out. And definitely needs more exercise - aren't the guidelines something like at least an hour of vigourous (cycling, running, playing outside, dancing) activity a day?
If you start walking to school now and factor in enough time, your dawdler should improve too.

A typical dinner here (as they have hot meal at school) during the week is: raw carrots, raw ccumber, cold roast chicken slices/ hummous, 3 jacobs crackers with butter, chorizo slices and sometimes a yoghurt or piece of fruit for dessert.
Only water or milk (unsweetened oat milk in our case); no added sugar concentrate juice very occassionally or parties.
Our daughter would live on breadsticks or dry crackers by choice; we cut those back (mostly my DH as it was the easy option for him for snacks) and have noticed she is leaner and she doesn't ask for them any more.
Sweets are a very occassional treat, definitely not an everyday treat. And why does she need a snack coming out of school?

If you stopped buying take aways you might have enough money for her to start a cheap club? Just a thought. Be careful of swapping her current full fat dairy etc for low fat alternatives. Low fat things are usually stuffed with processed sugar which is worse than just having a small amount of full fat eg yoghurt.

I would also check her portion sizes. You might think they're okay but does she know how to stop eating when she's full?

I
Op I feel for you as my lot (7 kids here) eat twice as much as that but they are thin as rakes.
I don’t think her diet sounds bad tbh but there is a lot of processed food there and if she’s drinking squash all day and having a yogurt twice a day and sweets every day then probably a lot of sugar too.

Maybe try to make homemade stuff? It is much better and all the meals you mentioned are easy to make from scratch.

Also we all eat full fat dairy in this house it has more vitamins. But they don’t have cereal for breakfast as it’s not filling enough. They get porridge weetabix or egg on toast.

Cut down her bread.
Stick to 2 slices a day maximum.
My ds puts on weight when he eats too much bread and he does loads of sports.

It seems like she is getting a lot of sugar and refined carbs. Ditch the waffles/jellies/sweets/cereals and swap store bought sauces, flavoured yoghurrs for plain, white bread/pasta for whole meal. Obviously only give her water or milk to drink. Also try to ensure that she has a higher veg to carb ratio.

I would also consider looking at how much exercise she gets. Children don't get enough at most schools so you should be either taking her to sports of for a long walk/bicycle ride.

I was fat at that age. It wasn't because I ate too much but because my mother fed me rubbish food and I got little exercise. My father stepped in to give me good home cooked meals with lots of fresh veg and I started eating more, exercise was still minimal but more regular and I grew very quickly and became quite slim. There's still time to turn this around.

Any local clubs - drama, dance, brownies, karate. Anything to be moving really.

I would cut out the greasy take aways and get a “normal” take away for everyone if you need to. The war well for less programme has a lot of recipes to make stuff from scratch, maybe some cooking as a family might help DP?