What does your 7yr old eat in a day? How to help lose weight.

[Turquoisetamborine]

My son is 122cm and 4 stones 6 which is classed as overweight. He's 7. Neither me or my husband are overweight as I know this can be a factor.

From being underweight at age 1 (he only weighed 19 pounds on his first birthday) and having very little appetite up to the age of 4, he now has an enormous appetite and always seems hungry but not anymore than his friends when I have them over.

Yesterday he had two weetbix with semi skimmed milk and a small glass of juice for breakfast, a piece of fruit and a small bottle of milk at school break, packed lunch was a small pot of hummus, about 3 breadsticks, 4 strawberries, a frube, and a cereal bar, water to drink. My mam who collects him from school 2 days a week then fed him homemade oven chips, two fish fingers, beans and a slice of bread and flora followed by blueberries with a dollop of Nutella. Squash to drink.
He then came home and said he was still hungry so had a plate of roast butternut squash, carrots, mash and two yorkshire puds (he doesn't like the chicken and gravy we ate with it). Then had a cookie.
I would normally try to only feed him one meal on a night but he seems to be starving when he finishes school and then about 7pm as well. I took him off school meals as all he seemed to eat was pie, chips and cake most days and he said they were disgusting. He wasn't any less hungry after school when he had them.

He isn't particularly sporty but he does enjoy PE and sports. His dad plays football and tennis with him when the weather is ok and we have a walk every weekend. I've just started to take him to softplay once a week after school and he's interested in starting kickboxing next week. He swims with school once a week too.

Is he eating too much or just not exercising enough do you think? I've been through IVF twice this past year and then a high risk pregnancy currently so I will admit I haven't taken him out as much as I should on the weekends his dad is at work as I just haven't had the energy.

I think he needs a decent lunch to avoid having 2 teas. I'd aldo drop the fruit juice and cereal bars except as an occasional treat.

I would swap the breakfast juice for actual fruit, weetabix with banana, porridge with berries that sort of thing. Poached eggs on toast also a great long lasting filler.
Packed lunch watch the frube and cereal bar they are very high in sugar. Add some veg sticks.
Oven chips and fingers are fine occasionally and nothing wrong with beans and slice of bread. The after school munchies are common. Fruit great but mind the Nigella as its full of sugar.
The extra veg tea is fine but if he needs to stop gaining weight no cookie. Stick extra veg in when ever you can.
He sounds reasonably active especially as you are pregnant.

My 7 year old has 3 bowls of cereal for breakfast (wheatabix, fruit and fibre or cornflakes) then school dinners then for tea he tends to have cold meats salad and cheese, Jacket potato and cheese, Omlette, Pizza with salad, sandwiches and salad then a piece of fruit and either a yogurt or a biscuit. He is 135cm I dont know his weight but he is a healthy thin build. He does at least 1hr formal excercise eg swimming, football club etc a day apart from Sundays but on Sundays he walks the dog with me for about 45mins/1hr.
From what you describe I sounds like he is eating a lot in the evenings because his lunch isn't substantial enough.

Thanks. It's difficult to know what else to put in his packed lunch as he doesn't eat ham or chicken. He will eat very little meat and only eats mince because I tell him it's quorn mince. He's virtually vegetarian through his own choice. He will eat soft beef like beef stew if we are all eating that. He eats fish in the form of fish fingers and scampi. He had reflux as a small child and I think it stems from this as he was always being sick and meat and fish was particularly difficult to swallow. He would eat cheese in all its forms but that isn't exactly low in fat so I try to mostly give him hummus with occasional cheese and salad sandwiches or pittas.

I will lose the glass of juice and give him a banana with breakfast instead. What do your kids have in their packed lunches?

DDs (6 and 7) have a sandwich (best of both bread, crusts off), or a couple of crackers, a small pot of grapes or a banana, babybel or cheesestring, small pot of cheeseballs (so maybe half a pack of crisps), small box of raisins or a fruit yoyo, frube pouch and a few slices of cucumber.

That sounds very similar to what I send him in with Pliplops. I think more exercise is the key. I've sent him off to a church activity group with his cousin tonight after softplay so at least he will be running around.

I think the breakfast is fine, and one of the dinners is fine, but two is too much. However, the lunch isn't really enough and I would give him more at break time too.

My 7 year old isn't the best to compare against because she has quite a small appetite, but my eldest who is now 10 ate more when he was her age. For break I would send in something more filling than fruit. I'm not dismissing the importance of fruit, but it doesn't generally fill you up, unless it's something like a banana. I have seen so many kids come to school with a wee orange, or a small apple, or a box of raisins, or a wee bag of grapes for break because the parents are trying to be healthy, (which is great!), but it's not much to go on between breakfast at 7 and lunch at 12.30! Could you send something carb based for break instead?

For packed lunch I understand the difficulties as my lot aren't keen on sandwiches so we can't rely on the fail-safes! How about brioche with cheese, hot cross bun, pancakes, crackers, wraps, pasta salad (often left over pasta from dinner the night before just popped into a tub), cous cous. Some of those are obviously healthier than others, but if they are alongside a balanced diet they are fine.

A typical packed lunch here would be maybe a wrap with philly, lettuce, cucumber and carrot (both done in thin strips with a potato peeler so it stays thin and the wrap can be rolled) and maybe some sweetcorn, or pepper slices. Some fruit - a tub of fruit salad always goes down well and they eat more of that than if I just gave them one type of fruit. (at the start of the week I do grapes, melon, mango, rasps, strawberries, peaches, blueberries etc... and pop them all in a big bowl and spoon it out into a tub each morning.), a yoghurt and some pretzel sticks. (much lower fat than crisps). Popcorn also adds a bit without really adding fat or calories (just stay away from the caramel and highly sugared varieties)

Pasta salad works well - pasta cooked with a stock cube for flavour and then some fresh small tomatoes, peppers, butternut squash, whatever - roasted with a little olive oil and plenty of black pepper and mixed through. Its lovely cold or hot and is healthy and really filling.

P.S. It sounds like you are doing a great job so don't be so hard on yourself. Sometimes life gets in the way and we can't be all things to all people (even our kids) all of the time.

I understand he is not keen on meat much but his diet seems very low in protein to me. I wouldn't be so worried that cheese isn't low fat - it will make him feel fuller longer and doesn't convert to fat so easily as carbs. I would also try to find more sources of protein he likes, maybe more fish - tuna, salmon?

DS has just turned 7. He is average height, weighs 4 stone. He is also overweight. I am really trying to get him to exercise more (he doesn't exercise anything like as much as your son) by incorporating it into the day, and I am also switching what he eats.

He has

Breakfast - cereal (weetabix or Cheerios) and semi skimmed milk, or bagel or English muffin or 2 slices wholemeal toast plus spread and marmite, small glass of milk

Packed lunch (he takes something out of this to have as a mid morning snack) - tuna/ham/cheese sandwich using wholemeal bread, maybe half a packet of crisps, small fromage frais pot or small sugar free jelly, carrot batons, piece of fresh fruit, squash

Tea - pizza or pasta dish or sausages and mash or fish fingers and potato waffle etc. yoghurt or fruit afterwards, squash

Supper - apple and another piece of fruit

He gets a packet of biscuits in his lunchbox on Fridays. At the weekends, we have a pudding both days. He is losing weight very, very slowly. More importantly, he isn't gaining weight.

I have cut out sides like garlic bread, now make my own pizza from scratch, make my own puddings (banana loaf or blackberry crumble) etc.

do you know he only has to grow 4cm to be in the healthy weight range? I would monitor portion size and let him 'grow into' his weight rather than trying to make him lose it

I think you need to try to get more protein in there, particularly earlier in the day. He appears to be overcompensating in the evening.

Today, DS2(8) has had (lacking in fruit and veg, but that's a sensory thing linked to his ASD)

Breakfast: A slice of fruit bread, pot of fruit yoghurt, egg sarnie

Lunch: Brown bread houmous sandwich, small piece of pork pie, home made banana muffin.

Whatever snacks he's been given at school (his 1:1 often keeps things like crackers or breadsticks to hand)

Dinner: About 3/4 of a marinated chicken breast, oven chips, small piece of cherry and almond pud with double cream.

Don't know his exact weight and height - about 135cm and 4 stone 7, at a guess. He's very slim, with no belly on him.

And give him the cheese. It's not low fat that he needs. It's just a little less food.

This is what my DS, who's 7, had to eat today:

Breakfast: glass of milk, 2x bowls of porridge with half a banana & dried apricots mixed in with some honey.

Snack at school: a small slice of malt loaf

Lunch: he has school dinners every day. Today it was roast chicken etc, which he'll have had a little of

After-school snack: half a cinnamon bagel, a pear & slice of cheddar with warm milk.

Tea: today was post-swimming easy meal of pasta with pesto & he had two helpings. Pudding was a yoghurt.

It's a tricky one, because I feel you can't feed children too much, especially when they're growing, as long as it's generally healthy and they're active. He's always asking for food and I give free rein of the fruit bowl & will give cheese or dried apricots as a filler too.

Also, with my 7 year old DS, his growth spurts are more obvious. He'll be ravenous over a period of weeks & will start to look a little 'podgier', but then all of a sudden he'll look taller & slimmer. The other two are totally different...they always look 'in proportion'.

Maybe your DS is due an upwards growth spurt?

My DS is lower end of healthy weight (126cm/23kgs which is under 4 stone).

Today he ate:

Breakfast: Bowl of cheerios with FF milk
Lunch: Small tub of houmous, 3 bread sticks, fruit yoyo (1/2 pack), frube, chocolate mini muffin, water

After school snack: Crunchie, squashum (drinking yoghurt), milk

Dinner: 4 chicken nuggets, oven fries, jelly, Muller crunch corner, water

So not dissimilar to your DS (although my DS's is probably more calorific!). My DS does no sport (he has dyspraxia) but we walk about a mile to school each way. Otherwise I can't see why your DS is overweight and mine isn't.

My DS is lower end of healthy weight (126cm/23kgs which is under 4 stone).

Today he ate:

Breakfast: Bowl of cheerios with FF milk
Lunch: Small tub of houmous, 3 bread sticks, fruit yoyo (1/2 pack), frube, chocolate mini muffin, water

After school snack: Crunchie, squashum (drinking yoghurt), milk

Dinner: 4 chicken nuggets, oven fries, jelly, Muller crunch corner, water

So not dissimilar to your DS (although my DS's is probably more calorific!). My DS does no sport (he has dyspraxia) but we walk about a mile to school each way and I insist we go to the park/beach/something on foot both days each weekend. Otherwise I can't see why your DS is overweight and mine isn't.

Sorry that may not be much help but I don't think you're feeding him loads compared to most kids his age

Sorry for DP

my dd has just turned 9yo, today she has eaten 2 slices of toast with honey and an aptimal yogurt drink, school dinner which today was a roast dinner and rice pudding, after school she had a sandwich, bag of crisps and small packet of biscuits. She also had a few marshmallows that she got for her bday this week and a yogurt before bed.

Not a lot of fruit today looking at it but thats unusual normally has at least 2 pieces if fruit a day.

Not sure how tall she is but very long legged and in age 10-11 clothes, she weighs 5 stone.

I would say that 2 teas is probably too much, I would give him a snack after school but something filling like a banana, oatcake or cereal and then a dinner at 5-6pm ish.

My

My dd if she has a pack lunch normally has either a tuna or cheese sandwich on wholemeal bread, a bag of crisps, a satsuma, a frube or yogurt drink and either a small piece of oatcake or biscuit.

Drinks squash or water.

My DS is also overweight. Probably more so than yours. He is 133cm and 6 stone 5. He has 2 eggs with smoked salmon for breakfast, school dinner, a bag of crisps when he gets home, dinner of pasta or meat, pots and veg then a banana. He is dyspraxic so struggles with exercise and doesn't like after school clubs etc. We can't walk to school as it is 2.5 miles away and I have to work in school hours a 6 mile drive from there.

I do feel sometimes like he eats a normal amount for a boy his age but is somehow still fat but then I think he probably does overeat but I think the lack of exercise is the biggest issue. DD is very slim and I didn't do anything different except breastfeed her for longer. They get a similar amount of exercise.

I don't know the answer I just keep trying to increase his activity.

I would agree with dementedpixie, afaik the aim with kids is not to get them to lose weight but rather maintain it and get a healthier lifestyle in place. I certainly know that's what a friend of mine was advised when her 11yo was weighed last year and deemed overweight.

I noticed in that programme Eat Well For Less that the kids portions were about twice what I give to my dcs. There were little boys eating four sausages and four potatoes for example. I don't even give dh four sausages. It's worth checking portion sizes and suggested servings.

OddFodd yes that is very similar to his diet. I would love to walk him to school as that would have really helped him exercise but it's 3 miles away so not really practical. It's nice to hear I'm not doing too badly though.

After school clubs will be starting again after half term so hopefully I can get him into one of those and concentrate on upping his activity levels. I'll be on maternity leave in 5 weeks which will really help as I can take him to groups etc rather than relying on family to do it.

Thanks for all the ideas. I'm not allowed to send in a snack for him at break, the school provides fruit daily and I pay for milk.

I will give him cheese more often for lunch. I've made his packed lunch for tomorrow. Cream cheese with wholemeal pitta, chopped up peppers and tomatoes, a frube (I need to finish them) and some plain popcorn. He's at his grandad's straight from school tomorrow but they are very on board about his diet and will feed him something like a mince dinner with potato and veg with just a yogurt or ice lolly afterwards. He's going to take him swimming as well and he's also going with school tomorrow.

Just hope he has a growth spurt soon!