Help with 10 year old diet

[Lynnejh]

I hope i have posted in the right forum?

DS is 10 years old weighs 8 stone and is 4 ft 10" tall, all bmi indicators show overweight or obese.

He looks solid (not chubby)and wears 13 year old clothes does'nt help all his friends are skinny minnies!! and he does struggle running around

I don't want to make issue of of it or mention to him and could really do with some pointers to make subtle changes.

exercise wise:

swiiming lesson once a week
football training once a week
football match once a fortnight
after school sports one hour once a week

• p.e at school 2x a week sunday usually up park with dad for an hour playing football

Food:

I try and cook from scratch most times , but once a week it may be an oven meal and we have a family take away once a week.

Drinks - water all day apart from innocent smoothie

breakfast - cereal mainly coco pop type

lunch - sandwich or cheese on toast if home
or school packed lunch(sandwich, crisps, frubes yogurt tube, small choc bar, piece fruit, water)

**snack & innocent smoothie when he gets home from school

then dinner at 7pm

**snack before bedtime

I think the downfall are the snacks , he has never been a keen fruit eater and i struggle with the 5 aday hence getting the innocent smoothie after school, he is ravishing when he gets come and i have got into the habit of given him sugary chocolate things(brownies, chocolate crispies, biscuits)
(same as before bed he wants something 'chocolately)

i want to gradually cut down on the snacks/ crisps/chocolate and swap for alternatives low in fat/sugar etc.... but also careful how i do it (especially in lunchbox with the other kids comments) any food or brand suggestions much appreciated.

hope someone can help

oh I am smiling at him looking ravishing

okay

yes reduce snacks

smoothies very high in sugar, cut back on them, 5 a day is a bit of a con (whole other thread actually)

wrt packed lunch - take out the crisps and choc bar, you might want to make an extra sandwich , one piece of bread foldover style. Can you put in say carrot sticks, cucumber slices?

coco pop type cereals, again full of sugar. If he won't tolerate say porridge or plain cereals how about scrambled egg.

main meals - portion is key here. You might need someone more knowledgeable but I would be looking at 2 fists of veggies and one fist of protein for a ten yr old

moving around - are you able to walk to school? obv circs prevail here so I shan't go on about it. Have you a trampoline, does he get on and about on his bike after school with his mates?

One last thing:
DS1 has recently transitioned to secondary school and the homework load is onerous, so get a shimmy on this year whilst your DS has time

oooh sorry for essay

TBH that seems like a lot of energy in for not much energy out from what you've written.

If you say that the snack has to be a piece of fruit, plain toast does he still want it? What does he have at break time at school? Depending on what time you get up it's quite a while between breakfast and lunch and those chocolate cereals don't exactly keep you going.

No he does want toast & fruit as a snack

we also walk everywhere so he does move around quite a bit, and also on the go all the time at school play times, we do have a trampoline and he also goes on the exercise bike to see if he beat his mileage.

I will introduce different cereals away from the chocolate, i do pack a piece of fruit for the morning but never eats it - too busy playing he says.

I want to make the changes subtle and slowly if I suddenly take out crisps and chocolate bar from his lunch box he will question it and I really don;t want to make an issue out of it.
same with the snacks i need to get away from the chocolate stuff and offer healthier alternatives but if i go straight to fruit instead he will wonder why.

He has already asked why i weighed him and is he fat, so i want to play this carefully.

sorry that should say does not want toast & fruit as a snack

could you not conveniently "forget" to buy crisps when you go shopping? It's probably the texture he'd miss, so you could make your own 'pitta crisps' in the oven? v. good with houmous if he'll try it!

ok, subtle changes to food, supper time, when making things like spag bol or chilli concarne, grate a few carrots into the meet, its almost not noticable, or aubergine(cut them up small them they will almost disovle.)

when you make mashed potatoes, add parsnip, changes the flavour slightly, but not too, much. or carrot.

put carrots or spinich in freshly made rolls.

snacks, maybe he is not always hungary, try freezing, smoothies or fruit juice as ice lollies then offer this as a snack, that can be quite tasty.

make a pure out of veg, then put it in pasta sauce or on a wrap topped with cheese.

hope these few ideas help. :)

I know that if I start the day with something sugary, then I need to keep topped up with sugar all day to stop me feeling 'low'. Hence, I would stop with the cereal if all he eats are the sugary types. Eggs would be good, or toast and marmite? Start with that change, then as the other poster has said, just reduce the amount of 'crap' food you have in the house so the options aren't there.
It has been shown that 'overt' ways of changing kid's diets don't work very well (ie telling them not to eat this or that), and that covert ways - reducing their ability to make bad choices - does work.
However, you should try to sort this put asap, as your DS will be at senior school in a year and have much more freedom to make bad choices. Hopefully you can help readjust his palate this year to more healthy foods.
Good luck though, it is hard - you don't want to make an issue of it, while at the same time it IS an issue that does need to be dealt with...

He doesn't actually need snacks if he's getting 3 good meals a day. If he has a protein based breakfast, such as poached eggs on toast, or beans on toast (no butter cos the beanjuice makes it unnecessary) then that will see him through to lunchtime. Cocopops are crap, non filling and sugar based. My kids can have crisps in their lunchbox on a Friday, as Friday is treat day. Same with a chocolate bar. Swap the frube for a low fat yoghurt (I buy plastic spoons as my lot chuck teaspoons out). Portionwise, he'd have about a third less on his plate than you would. What you're doing with him is maintaining his weight, but making sure it doesn't increase so he can grow to the right weight/height ratio. It's not about him losing weight.

How about

omlette for breakfast
I agree crisps/choc bar as treat on Friday only
bread sticks and humous
my DS has tinned fruit as his bedtime snack.

hmm

I don't think the coco pops, smoothies, crips and chocolate bar will help.

thanks for all the constructive ideas.

he likes weetabix, ready brek & cornflakes so will offer those , we tried the omelette, beans on toast etc but he is not an 'eater' in the morning.

yes it is all about maintaining and not loosing

Would he eat a yogurt in the morning? Even a full fat one would be healthier than coco pops. Does he like nuts? Would he accept fist full mixed nuts as an afterschool snack?

My DDs wont eat eggs in the morning, but love slice plain frittata as after school snack.