My nearly 8 year old has become very podgy 😬

[justanotherneighinparadise]

I’m not sure what I can do 🤔

He doesn’t like sport so he’s not a child that naturally runs around, although he does do PE at school. His food isn’t too bad. I’ll give an example;

One poached egg on a piece of toast for breakfast.
Lunch is half a beef sandwich. Small yogurt. Grapes. Mini pepperami .
Snacks; small bag of organic gingerbread biscuits (they’re aimed at babies and sweetened with grape juice)
Small amount of grapes with a chopped up babybel
Dinner ; chicken curry with rice and a mini naan. Pudding is an ice lolly or a corner yogurt.

Drinks are milk and water.

What do we think? If it’s too much what would you do instead? He would happily skip breakfast but darent incase the school thinks it’s neglect or something 🤦🏻‍♀️ Portion sizes are pretty small but I could cut down the portion size for dinner.

He’s always tracked the 91st centile got height and weight but I’m pretty sure he’ll be over that for weight now. In fact I could do a child’s BMI to get an idea.

So today I’m doing a full beef sandwich, a small yogurt, grapes and a Pepperami. Snack for school is a carrot. I’ll do an early dinner and see how his appetite is after that 🤞

I think look at the exercise not the food. His diet sounds fine. Park a bit away from school and walk in. You will see people to say hello to and he will get exercise without knowing. Our swimming lessons have started back up and once they are good you can go to slide pools at a weekend. ( these are still shut by us) . My boy is similar loves to play Minecraft. Football not so much! So I feel your pain. Borrow a neighbour's dog for a dog walk. There is a website called borrow my doggie - I think! I have to drag him out , even with the dog, but we all feel better after some fresh air!

That’s about half of what my 8 year old DS eats 😱. he’s the never sits still type and definitely a healthy weight, but I think either yours will grow upward or it’s that he doesn’t enjoy sport and needs to adjust intake accordingly (I sympathise!). I’d definitely avoid making him think about food and weight and maybe just give it a few months

Just as a small suggestion as well, I’d look at what I was including in main meal. If there’s lots of cream, sugar, high fat coconut milk or similar in the curry and it’s a regular meal, then it can be swapped for a healthier recipe. Same for other main meals. I find it useful to work out roughly how many calories, fat or sugar grams are going in (and salt) which means I then know to only give a small amount where it’s very high, it can also help to weigh the amount as it can be hard to estimate grams. I also think there’s a difference between restricting food (never good) and keeping to only healthy portions (normal and healthy). I do the counting grams of things partly because my ds has diet restrictions due to kidney issues, but it can be helpful regardless if you want to check roughly how much he’s getting. It can be surprising! It sounds like it might be a growth spurt, but it sounds like you’re managing it well anyway x

Reading the other threads Pokemon Go and Geocache ing are good things to do outside! Sounds like you are doing all the right things. P s. If you are worried about SEN but the school won't refer go to your GP. My DD had social issues but great academically. Typical girl ASD. School has no idea - lots of masking.

We’re low carb as a household so we’re not afraid of fat. I am very cautious about sugar though so don’t eat it myself and try and limit it with the kids.

I need to check out the pokemon go and geocaching as he would absolutely love that. He’d be completely up for it.

That looks like not loads - my 7 year old daughter probably eats more and she is skinny (I’ve been worried too much so). She is constantly moving about though - fidgeting, leaping off stuff, park and swimming.

To some extent it’s genetic - my son eats less but is sturdier.

One thing I think you said is important- about cajoling to eat dinner. I don’t really do this (or try not to) unless they’ve literally eaten nothing or are just wanting pudding. Our pudding is usually one biscuit and fruit. I’d let him leave stuff if not hungry.

A lot of my 8 year olds friends put on weight during lockdown due to doing far less sport and activity.

I think you just need to up his activity levels- it's good for health and mental wellbeing too. bike riding? Ju jitsu? Trampolining? Hiking up a big hill or by the beach? Pokemon go? Assault course or high ropes?

Btw my Ds is a v slim 8yo but eats WAY more than yours does, he's like a bottomless pit BUT he is very active- football 3x a week,martial arts class, Long bike ride every Sunday, walks to school and back etc.

His food sounds fine. He may be due a growth spurt, my DS goes chubby for a months and then leans out and I notice he’s gone taller. As long as he’s following the curve and it’s not a drastic upwards line, he’s probably just filling out naturally.

There's also a Harry Potter game similar to Pokemon if that's his thing.

@justanotherneighinparadise you say you are a low carb household but the diet you describe for your son is not low carb? (Toast for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, rice and naan for dinner.) A high fat diet will not work in conjunction with that amount of carbs.

I think you need to actively work on his approach to exercise. Explain why it is important and get him on board with it. Now is the time to develop habits that will last a lifetime.

@justanotherneighinparadise is he dyspraxic?
The food diary looks fine. Mine tends to go out before up, sometimes just as I am starting to panic it's not a growth spurt but more a weight issue.

The kids aren’t low carb they are more low added sugar. However I’m mindful of the carbs they eat. Me and DP are actively low carb/Keto so far doesn’t scare us.

I totally agree about the exercise. Lockdown totally fucked us over. The kids really didn’t want to do the daily walk we were allowed and I didn’t want to create even more anger and tension so didn’t push it. Add in too much crap in their diet and the older one put on weight and just hasn’t lost it.

I will say this has also happened to a lot of my sons friends and many other kids at the school. Actually it’s also happened to lots of the parents! Most people seem to have gone slightly outwards width ways.

@eurochick

There's also a Harry Potter game similar to Pokemon if that's his thing.

Is there? I need to have a good look at this stuff later as I love exercise and am extremely disappointed that so far I’m the only one in the household that does.

@Oodlesofnoodles20 just for reference with the beef sandwich and the pepperami, my first though was that’s a lot of red/processed meat.

The cancer research society have provided this handy image. For comparison, other products in the group 1 category are smoking and asbestos.

I’m only sharing this as I’d been totally unaware how bad processed meat was so thought maybe you’d like the info too to do with what you wish!

@Blerg

That looks like not loads - my 7 year old daughter probably eats more and she is skinny (I’ve been worried too much so). She is constantly moving about though - fidgeting, leaping off stuff, park and swimming.

To some extent it’s genetic - my son eats less but is sturdier.

One thing I think you said is important- about cajoling to eat dinner. I don’t really do this (or try not to) unless they’ve literally eaten nothing or are just wanting pudding. Our pudding is usually one biscuit and fruit. I’d let him leave stuff if not hungry.

Agreed. He didn’t want to finish his breakfast and I found myself cooking him again!!! Then stopped myself. There’s something in me that’s funny about wasting food so I end up saying ‘one more mouthful’ 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

*cojoling

Processed meats are just one of so many things that are carcinogenic in our foods so that does roll over me somewhat. He’s so picky about what he will eat, so I’ve kicked that along the kerb for another day.

Skip pudding, we don't need pudding every day it should be a treat. Be more active. Go for walks as a family, take him swimming, just generally all get more activity.

It sounds like portion size to me - let him just stop eating when he's full.
How large is a curry portion for example? 1/4 nan, 1/4 cup rice, tbsp curry?

Where are the vegetables?

Me, I’d cut out the biscuits and pepperami and maybe put in vegetable instead. And replace sweetened yoghurt with natural yoghurt. I also agree with others that suggest an early tea rather than snacks. You’re so right to look at this now because as they get older you find you have much less control over what they eat. Good luck!

Would he like geocaching?

My 8 year old has teetered on the over weight for a couple years (between 88 and 93 on the bmi chart).

He is incredibly active and has very strong muscles (does regular push ups, sit ups etc as well as judo, tennis, swimming, cycling and walking). However when he tipped into the overweight I had to face facts that I was feeding him too much (he was always asking for more and as he was so active I agreed).

We've made some small but effective changes. Ive reduced processed stuff as much as possible. Only homemade cakes and biscuits. Only yogurt as pudding. One half cup of juice a day otherwise just water. If you're hungry drink some water and wait 15 minutes.

We don't emphasize weight but health and strength. I've also really told him to listen to what his tummy is saying. He suffered severe reflux for 5 years from birth and a dr told us that he's misinterpreting signals - he is taking the feeling of digesting as being a feeling of hunger.

From being 93 centile bmi in August he is now 83. And feels happier.

(Doesn't help that my youngest is 22nd centile and also has a huge appetite but a better metabolism)

@GoodbyePorpoiseSpit

Would he like geocaching?

He would LOVE geocaching.