Help with healthy eating for fussy 7 yr old

[Pinkpeanut27]

I have found myself in tne position where my youngest is over weight . I'm mortified , my oldest 2 are as skinny as rakes to the point that clothing them is tricky .

Youngest is fussy but slowly improving .
He likes general kids food like burger , nuggets fish finger pizza etc . This is an improvement from cheese and pasta ! I know these aren't the best foods but I try to make my own where ever possible .

He is not keen on veg and eats only peas or carrot.
Fruit he is ok on .

He is a carbohydrate addict though like his mother do I know it's my fault .

On a normal day he will have
Crumpets ,pancakes , weetabix , porridge , cornflakes or scrambled egg for breakfast , sometimes with fruit . And milk or juice .

Lunch is school dinner or cheese sandwich or a pitta pizza and fruit .

For evening meals I try to cook healthy stuff like spag Bol , shepherds pie plain chicken or pork with various carbs and veg . I always do one of his 2 favourite abs at least one other .

I'm stuck for after school ideas as he is starving and we have a long drive for school run.

I'm out if my depth here . My other 2 and myself are fine with our weight and towards the low side of normal. Ds2 seems to take after his dad and is more rugby player build. He is always hungry and I don't know how to fill him up without adding lots of calories ?

Sorry if this is the wrong forum .

Have you tried raw veg woth a variety of dips, my dd is like this but she will eat raw carrots, pepper and things like cucumber cut into sticks, celery, cherry tomatoes, I do these with houmous ( plain and different flavoured ones ) and the multi packs of dips sold in the supermarkets.
Eggs are good, you could mix in some cottage cheese with the scrambled eggs for extra calcium and protein, boiled eggs with toast soldiers also are good ( my youngest dd loves them, oldest won't eat eggs ) Banana bread with peanut butter would be a good after school snack or wholewheat pittas with cream cheese and ham or other fillings. I think everything you have listed above sounds good, you could blend veg up to put in a Bolognese, it's a good way of getting veg down them without them realising , I have found just trying everything you can think of and getting them to try just a small taste of it works quite well. I hope that helps in some way

If he's always hungry I would consider upping the protein content and sneaking in veg wherever possible. Lean protein like chicken, fish, eggs and beans and pulses are all good bases. Oven baked falafel have a chicken nugget like resemblance! Chicken skewers are also popular, just chunks of chicken breast with a dusting of paprika and threaded on a skewer before baking. Have you tried introducing non meat forms of protein? Beans, lentils, nuts etc?

Also meant to add are you sure he's not confusing thirst and hunger? It's really common. It may be worth be getting him to drink a glass of water and waiting 10 mins to see if he's still hungry.

Thanks for the replies .
He drinks loads of water .

I have tried all protein and he won't touch ham or bacon or nuts beans or lentils in any form he won't even try cold chicken!
Tne only egg he will eat is scrambled and won't touch it if it's mixed with anything .
No dips except ketchup which isn't really a dip or sauces .
He is very wary of anything that is mixed up and not readily identifiable so hiding veg is hard , I do manage things like onion courgette and carrot in spag Bol but anything with a strong flavour like pepper is rejected
I think increasing protein is a good idea , I've just got to work out how ! He is slowly becoming better at new things but it needs to be baby steps . I think also I need to introduce wholemeal carbs rather than white . He is brilliant at forming bad habits but not good ones . I used uncle bens microwave rice one week as I was severely time challenged now that's all he will eat ( not that he gets it ) before he was at least eating brown rice .
We do eat loads of different things as his older siblings are very adventurous, especially his sister who eats mainly veggie food through choice and snacks on nuts and fruit ( and obviously her body weight in chocolate as she is 14!)

I've tried growing veg with him and neal planning and cooking with him with no luck . I've sent him into school for school dinners but he sticks with his firm favourites . I send him to school cooking club but they tend to make biscuits and cakes .
I am also trying to increase his activity level as he is a very active child through choice but circumstances conspire against us in the most part ! He happily ran a 1.5 mile fun run recently without blinking an eye . He used to do the mile a day at school which was great for him but his school no longer do it which hadn't helped. .

Can you introduce wholemeal carbs mixed with white so brown and white rice/pasta mixed or scrambled egg on half a slice wholemeal and half white toast.
Does he eat yoghurt? You can freeze Greek yoghurt blended with fruit in lolly moulds to make protein rich ice lolly.

Definately a good idea about the carbs and the lollys will make some this weekend

there is a 50:50 fusilli pasta by napolina i think - start using that instead of white

stop all the empty breakfast carbs. scrambled eggs everyday if necessary.

up the protein and reduce the carbs if he is always hungry.

we had a "healthy eating" talk at school. the one bit of useful advice i heard was "just don't buy biscuits". they are way too easy to snack on. each is 100-200 calories. kids can easily eat 5 in a day without much thought.

you sound a really good mum by the way, don't beat yourself up. he may also be just about to have a growth spurt and will grow into his weight. not saying you shouldn't keep an eye and try to restrict snacking etc.

Thanks , gave him brown rice tonight and wholemeal Potts for lunch and he didn't bat an eye!
I'm
Hoping he is about to grow up he hasn't for a while and I remember with the other two they always grew out before they grew up .
Good tip about biscuits as well although we generally don't have many in only when I bake . I'm looking at 'better' biscuits and snacks with more fruit and wholemeal flour on as well because sometimes we all need carbs !