DS weight - dietary advice

[daisymai08]

My DS is 11,
He's always been a bigish lad he was 9lb 13 as a baby and put on 1b a week breastfeeding has to lout him on solids (HV advice) at 12 weeks as I couldn't keep up with his demand feeding.
He's due to start secondary in September and he's definitely overweight he's not obese but he has quite a large tummy.
Plays football (loves it) for a team rides his bike so active but he does love to eat he's always hungry and I've recently got divorced and he's put on weight.
I know that the obvious answer is to feed him less but that's not always easy. Could do with some healthy option snack options (unprocessed and not just fruit he likes a bit but not a big fruit water) and packed lunch?
Dinners I can deal with fine.
Thanks

At that age he will start growing at some point so the most important thing is to keep his diet balanced, and hopefully help him eat to his appetite. Think about making sure he gets enough protein and fat in his diet in the first instance. My just-12 yr old is a big carb snacker at the moment - but he started growing early (over a year ago) so it's probably appropriate. I would think about things like cheese, yoghurt, ham sandwiches, dips with salad sticks or crackers - hoummous, tinned fish mashed with mayonaisse. Stuff that will fill him up rather than thinking "what is healthy / low fat / low calorie" which may backfire.

When he does start to shoot up he should grow into his weight just fine. Great to hear he is active, that helps.

Thanks for that - that's really helpful

I think that your longer term aims should be to avoid unhealthy foods at home, so he loses the taste for them (you might do this already.) so now sugary or fizzy drinks, puddings only as a rare treat, cut out sugary food etc.

Swap white bread for wholemeal or seeded, if he eats pasta, wholewheat etc. At home, things like bread and savoury dips are better than cakes and biscuits as snacks.

I think one of the main things to watch is snacking- is he going to buy food at school from the canteen or tuck shop if there is one, throw his own lunch in the bin and buy rubbish? It does happen.

If he wants snacks at home, plain greek yoghurt, fruit, etc rather than crisps and sweet snacks.

He doesn't drink fizzy but must admit he does like sugary drinks and yes think the school has a canteen so I'll keep an eye.
I know it's all common sense just bad habits need a kick up the bum!

Some people confuse thirst for hunger. Always give him water when he asks for food.

I'd be quite cross if people gave me water when I asked for food.

I'm a believer in toast as a snack - as opposed to biscuits. Porage rather than sweetened cereal. That sort of thing.

Cut out biscuits and cake at home. Biscuits are woeful. A 'cream' biscuit has around 85 calories. 3 of those is equal to a second lunch or breakfast. If they do get treats at home, buy chocolate bars for snacks that are 100 calories or less (the snack sizes and only allow one).
If they want a snack in the afternoon, rice cakes with honey or peanut butter or nutella, and some sliced apple on a plate rather than another whole sandwich as a snack.

Does he drink a lot of milk? A pint of full fat milk is 200 calories. Some kids just drink milk as a drink several times a day and it's not necessary.
With someone that age, just halving or swapping one of the current daily food items will make a big difference over a few months. Like only have a fizzy drink once at the weekend. I see a lot of the fizzy drinks are now going 'zero sugar', which hopefully is the way most of them will go...

Cut snacks out completely if you can, snacking culture is a problem. No-one needs to snack if they're getting adequate meals.

If he's always hungry protein rich food is a good choice. Does he like fish? Eggs? Chicken? I tend to snack on strips of chicken with a healthy dip or just with a paprika and garlic crust. I just shove a breast in the oven and cut it up into pieces. Box it up and use it for snacking if I absolutely MUST snack. The same with boiled eggs, I boil a few and put them in the fridge for after I've been to the gym.

If you don't already, pack his meals full of veg. For example when I make a tomato sauce for pasta, i cut up carrot into tiny bits and shove that in. I add spinach towards the end. Anything to bulk up that veg intake that will help reduce later cravings for food.

Sugary drinks are the kiss of death. Packed with empty calories and the totally mess up your blood sugar levels. He needs to stop drinking that garbage.