Feeding an 'overweight' child

[WideGassySea]

I could do with some advice on my son

He is 5.8 and becoming overweight
He currently is a little over the 75th for height and a little under the 98th centile for weight

I wasnt concerned as he IS tall, but I have noticed he is devloping a definite belly and none of his trousers will do up, even the aged 7 and 8 ones
It is weird tho as soft trousers like joggers he can still happily wear in a 4-5, 5-6 or whatever, but when he wears 6-7 jeans he has an actual muffin top

I realise I must be feeding him all wrong, so I need some advice on things to buy/ put in his lunch box etc. Unfortunately we have both probably gained some weight this year as we have had a fairly traumatic year, so it wont do me any harm either

OK, so his lunch box (which he has 3 days a week) I do him currently
Wholemeal bread or roll sandwich, some reduced fat cant belive its not butter/ utterly butterly/ anchor spreadable with ham or tuna or mackeral pate, or if cupboard is totally bare a rare chocolate spread or jam
A tube/ frube yogurt
A banana or apple
A penguin or HM cupcake
Some juice- varies between fresh apple or some SF squash

I guess I could leave the cake/ biscuit out couldnt I? And make sure its always squash and just have juice for breakfast, and see about finding some fat free yogurts for his lunch. Do you think that would help?

Breakfast is always cereal as I dont think its good to have bread for lunch and breakfast and always about an ounce of something coco-pop style or a portion of porridge or 1-2 weetabix- I know these are all about 120 calories plus the milk from my Slimming World days with some fresh orange or apple juice so I cant see what I can change there- except maybe go for some really worthy cereal that he probably wouldnt eat and then we would never get to school!

Straight from school if he is with me, he will get a piece of fruit or a biscuit or slice or cake or cereal bar with some juice/ squash and the same at after school club

Then tea is something like
Turkey dinosaurs with HM oven chips, peas
chicken dippers with smilies and tinned spagetti
mini roast with roast pots, mid week yorkie and veg
HM chicken nuggets with potato and beans
Fish steak with couscous
you get the picture

Pudding is yoghurt- things like the muller crunch corners, which are probably not good? So maybe thats another place to change thinsg

Any advice very welcome. I really dont want to be raising an overweight child, or be accused of lazy parenting etc etc, but right now I am really worried he is going to end up one of those huge children we see on tv... Or even worse being teased at school

He isnt a massive veg eater- just peas, corn, brocolli, cauliflower, cabbage and DEFINITELY not peppers or cherry tomatoes, and probably doesnt gethis 5 every day, but should get 4 most days

Thanks if you have ideas for me!!

After school snack for DD is any of the following:
banana
apple
orange
pear
breadsticks
pot custard
cereal bar
bread & butter
small pot of cheerios
piece of cake
flapjack

depends what we have in, really. she is a gannet though and has a lot of fruit between meals.

Our dc love sundried mango and pineapple from the Fairtrade section at Oxfam to chew on between meals.

The constant thirst thing worries me...I would go to the GP and get him tested for diabetes or some sort of imbalance.

The thirst may be down to a lot of hidden salt in the diet but even so get his blood sugar checked.

Dried fruit contains a high amount of sugar, if he is gaining weight cut down on sugar and carbs and make him do at least 1 hours excercise a day.

Build walking into your daily routine and cut down on car journeys.

As snacks what about mini corn, cucumber, celery, or carot sticks as they are fairly low in calories and will also count towards his 5 a day. (I appreciate he might not eat these if he isn't keen on tomatoes or peppers).

Agree with others - cut out the squash even if sugar free as it can play havoc with blood sugar levels.

Also agree that he doesn't really need a pudding after every meal.

Another thing (which may have been said) is that the stomach is an organ that stretches. The more food it gets per meal time the more it expects and the more that is needed for it to feel full. But it can be shrunk back down quite quickly. It can take up to 20 minutes to feel full. Maybe serve slightly smaller portions at the moment and make sure he drinks lots of water as well and if he is finished but saying he is still hungry try and chat with him about something else etc and then after 5/10 minutes ask if really still hungry (as it could take that long for his stomach to register the food) and if so offer fruit?

Definitely see GP re diabetes - that was my first thought - weight gain and constantly thirsty. Good luck!

Hi widegassysea - I know what you mean about full time working and the convenience of processed food.

I used to buy lots of ready meals and about 3 years ago I totally stopped this. I now do batch cooking and freezing, often first thing on a Saturday. I can make 3 meals worth of something - eg lamb stew - on the hob and simultaneously make something else (a stew/ spaghetti sauce etc) in the slow cooker for another 2 meals. I freeze these meals so I always have a selection of meals available during the week when I don't have much time to cook. All done in 1 to 2 hours.

I also have some quick after work recipes like salmon steaks with pesto in tinfoil or stuffed chicken breast wrapped in bacon.

Maybe you could get your dh on board with this so that he does a batch cook on alternate weeks?

Quite often I also bake at the weekend with my dd - gingerbread/apple flapjack / cupcakes etc or gather blackberries for a blackberry and apple crumble that we make together.

Your childs diet is a disaster. If you dont change it now, you will set him up on a bad path for life!

He has a massive lunch, with lots of sugary food with very little nutritional value. His dinners are usually processed, nuggets, dinosaurs, dippers, with chips. He drinks plenty of sugary fruit juices. Even the low calorie ones are pretty bad options, as you are giving your child plenty of articicial sweeteners too, by going down that route. The youghurts you give him are really full of fat and sugar. The juice is also going to rot his teeth.

You say he is very thirsty. I would have him checked out for diabetes. If he has not developed diabetes (yet) the high sugar content in his diet could account for his thirst!

My advise would be:

Breakfast:

Cereals:

Cut the coco pops, and go for wheetabix or cherios (cherios are less sugary than cocopos) or shreddies, shredded wheat, with semi skimmed milk. Glass of milk to drink

OR

wholemeal toast with a thin spread of margerine and maybe some jam or cheese (he will still need some sugar)

OR

porridge.

Milk to drink.

Lunch:
Smaller portions.
Cut the pudding from his lunch
no juice, just water
You can give him a frube
apple pieces, grapes, some banana.

Dinner:
for example:

• Chicken breast with rice, and some veg?
• Fish with potatoes, cucumber and grated carrots?

-Spaghetti bolognaise

etc, home made food!

Before bed:
Fruit and yoghurt?

Give him multivitamin supplements, and omega 3. Omega 3 helps the body adjust the insulin levels naturally.

Lots of sensible suggestions - what I'd add is the vital distinction between complex breakfast cereals like Weetabix and porridge, which will really set them up for the day, and Coco Pops/Rice Krispies, which are mostly just white sugar.

I think you need to make more of an effort with the vegetables - he seems to like a decent range of them, so make sure he gets them with every single evening meal, and try and get some into his pack lunch as well.

Relying on ham, or any processed pork for lunchboxes has long term health consequences apart from weight - chicken would be better where possible.

And you could try putting plain popcorn into the pack lunch as a treat.

"wholemeal toast with a thin spread of margerine and maybe some jam or cheese (he will still need some sugar"

No one needs sugar - it provides no nutritional value apart from energy and given the OP is trying to reduce the calorific content of her ds's food - he definitely does not "need" sugar!
However, there's nothing wrong with the odd sugary treat in a balanced diet - no need tuen into a health freak!

If time to cook is a problem - could you try making your meals in a slow cooker?

He's a growing boy and still needs to get adequate nutrition. I think you should be aiming for your child's weight to stay constant and let natural growth take care of his developing belly. Make small changes to his diet rather than jumping to the extreme - smaller changes are easier to stick to, I'm convinced that just getting rid of the juices would probably be enough and if it isn't you can change a few more things.

Sugar free squash is not very healthy, the artificial sweeteners are essentially chemicals and are associated with various health problems so I would drop them entirely if I were you.

Then maybe just drop one thing to begin with and see how that goes? E.g. drop the after dinner yoghurt or do yoghurt or cake for lunch, not both. The actual balance over the day doesn't look too bad but there is probably too much sugar as other posters have mentioned.

The only other thing I would say is are you totally confident about his portion size for dinner? It might be worth actually calculating the calories once or twice to give yourself an idea.

I agree that cutting out all juice and drinks other than water may be sufficient to sort out the weight issue on its own.

''Relying on ham, or any processed pork for lunchboxes has long term health consequences apart from weight - chicken would be better where possible.'' Dilys, the only meat that DS2 eats is that horrid plastic ham. Would I be better off avoiding that and going meat-free?

His diet doesn't sound that terrible, but he is clearly getting more calories than he burns.

Maybe it is portion sizes - do you give him a plate the same size as yours? It should probably be a small child's one (like the plastic kind sold in IKEA!) or one near the size of a side plate. And the same for a bowl for breakfast cereal.

He also should only have water apart form maybe one juice a day, and loads of veg to fill him up - 2 portions at least with as many meals as possible!

And the other thing is exercise. My DC (and many others on here) eat enormous amounts, but also do serious amounts of exercise. Can you get him interested in taking up a high-energy sport?

Dilys - my DD loves ham sandwiches. She'll only eat those, and honey ones. What are the long term health issues with ham please?

There is pretty convincing research showing that processed meats (ham, bacon, salami) are linked to various cancers (particularly bowel cancer, which is a major killer), and also less convincing suggestions of a link to heart disease and diabetes. The link is stronger than to non-processed red meats.
This sucks, obviously, because ham's a really convenient source of protein for kids, and bacon and salami are yummy, but it's probably not a good idea to put ham in a lunchbox several times a week.

Links here:
www.wcrf-uk.org/preventing_cancer/recommendations/meat_and_cancer.php
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8688104.stm

lots of good ideas here, and if you go to the library you can find loads of great family cookbooks with child friendly recipes, including some specifically about lunch box ideas. could be fun to cook together :)

well done for trying to make these changes now rather than ignoring the issue BTW :)

thank you dilys x x x

Have a look at this short video, I think it's a useful start place for ideas on healthy eating.

His diet is high in sugar, salt and saturated fats. Things like Coco Pops, Frubes, turkey dinosaurs, dippers, smiley potatoes, cakes, Penguins etc are hugely calorific with little nutritional benefit.

My DD (6.5) is on a restricted diet for medical reasons; her daily intake is something like this:

Weetabix or Shreddies or porridge or cornflakes or toast with a scraping of butter (I'd rather give her a tiny bit of butter than spreads). A cup of semiskimmed milk.

No mid morning snack.

Lunch is a sandwich (1 piece of bread folded) or a small roll, with ham, tuna, chicken or Marmite. She also has a banana and a small pot of chopped fruit eg grapes, strawberries, melon, pineapple, satsuma segments, apple. She has a few cubes of cheese afterwards on the advice of the dentist as cheese apparently neutralises the acid from the fruit.

After school she has either some more fruit, or an oatcake (just one).

Dinner - whatever we're having, such as tomato and marscapone pasta, midweek roast, spag bol, shepherds pie, chicken breasts with mash and veg, if I am working a late shift we don't get in until 1830 so she would have something quick like scrambled egg with toast and beans, or an omelette.

For pudding she has a yoghurt (I like the Yeo Valley ones).

Most people overestimate portion sizes for young children, DD2 eats from a dessert plate not a dinner plate and has a similar portion size to her 3 year old sister.

Forgot to say she has loads of veg - half of her plate would be vegetables, then of the remaining half a third would be protein and 2/3 carbs.

I just wanted to add that it might be a good idea for your DS to take up swimming lessons or something - just to up the level of physical activity

I had a problem with my DS being over weight. I calculated his calorie intake and it is below what is required for a 9 year old.

I have increased his exercise by quite a lot. He has joined after school clubs and swims a lot. We play cricket.

I think this is far easier and more sensible than restricting food intake too much.

If you try to keep him at the same weight, he will grow into it.