Overweight child but exercise is challenging - any ideas?

[Brightlightsbigcity]

Didn't know if this would be more suitable here or a health thread?

Before anyone makes any judgement a on an unhealthy diet and laziness, DS has been a large child since birth, probably due to tall parents. He was happy and active as a younger kid, but developed physical problems around the start of school, which have been investigated - the effects are very painful lower joints with exercise, so he has been gradually less and less active, and started putting on weight. His diet is being constantly reviewed, which isn't fun for him as he sees others with plenty of unhealthy treats etc all the time. We tried swimming as a non weight bearing activity, but as the lower joints are still being used he can't swim for any appreciable length of time without pain, and gets embarrassed in swim group. Swimming ourselves doesn't achieve much real exercise.

He has exercises which are supposed to strengthen his muscles and therefore joints, to help with the pain.

Apart from monitoring his diet, Im stuck with what to do at the moment to help keep the weight down. Diet alone isn't doing it, I don't want to force him to do a minimal amount of painful activity, as the seems counterproductive for the long term future.

Does anyone have any good ideas? I'm stuck, and failing him. He's becoming aware of gaining weight, and doesn't like it either. He's not old enough to go to the gym or anything like that yet. Thanks for any suggestions.

Could you maybe get a few sessions for him with a personal trainer who can introduce him to strength training eg weights - might also help him to gain confidence

You're not failing him! You sound like a great mum.
I wonder if trying to focus on not sitting rather than full on exercise might help.
So whilst he might not be able to do school sports clubs, something like drama club, eco friendly club,that kind of thing. If that doesn't cause pain then it's at least up and about and burning calories.
Likewise just heading to the park for 15 min after school would increase time on feet. I'm not sure from your post if this is manageable for him.
The other thing I wonder is if it would be possible to get a swing in your back garden? Swinging and listening to music/ podcasts could become a good habit.

Good luck. It's so great he has you on the case for this.

Thanks for your replies.

I thought kids weren't supposed to do weight training until 15 or so because of development of muscles or something? I might be wrong, and you might be thinking of something completely different. He's years younger than this, I'm not sure what they could suggest, but it would prob be worth it. His physio is good on specific exercises for his problem, but that doesn't help the weight, unfortunately.

Adelino, we were walking the dogs together at one stage, but even that (20mins max?) was really painful for him. Unfortunately there's not enough room for a swing, it's a bit of a funny layout, without much on the flat. There's not much in the way of non sports clubs that I know of here, I'll gave to look around. He's not a very gregarious child, unfortunately. All that seems to have worn off over the last few years as his friends got more interested in footy.

The body coach does some kid specific workouts - could you put one of those on YouTube and do it along with him? They are only 10 minutes or so and differ exercises so wouldnt be just working the areas that hurt.

Young enough for a living room dance party? Big adventure playground for a good run round? Trampolining? Bouldering?

Might be a stupid idea, no idea of the physics of it, but trampolining? (my theory
being that he’s assisted once he gets going and the trampoline absorbs shock and lessens the stress on his joints?)

Poor love. What about something like Wii Fit (I'm not sure whether there's a more modern equivalent??) that he could do for a short burst a few times a day when he feels up to it?

I second the recommendation to get a personal trainer. I suffer with pain in my joints and mine has been invaluable in finding exercise I can do without making things worse. My problem is mostly cervical spine so less mat work and more pulling type exercises to train muscles lower down my back to take more of the load and reduce stress on my neck and shoulders. He also gives an awesome massage.

There will be something he can do without pain even if it's not vigorous exercise. Interval training might be worth looking at if he can manage short bursts.

What does he actually have? It sounds horrible for him

Diet would be the best way to tackle it as exercise sounds impossible. Static cycling helped me after a knee injury if that's something you could go together in the gym.

Private swimming lessons? Take him swimming as a family rather than in lessons.
Walking. Ordinary walking that increases stamina. Do it as a family with nice things at end as reward.
Cycling instead of using the car.
Incidental exercise through a more general increase in everyday activities like blackberry picking, gardening, cleaning.

Exercise is not a very effective way of losing weight. The old adage “You can’t outrun your fork” is largely true.
If your son is pretty much totally sedentary, due to his joint problems, then reducing his calories is the only sensible option.
Try filling him up with a nice low calorie home made green veg soup before his dinner, then give him a much smaller portion of dinner.
Switch all carbs to the whole grain variety, to increase fibre and reduce calories - brown rice, wholemeal bread etc. Avoid beige junk food - pies, sausage rolls, crisps. Increase the proportions of lean protein and green veg on his plate and reduce the stodge. Avoid frying/roasting and switch to casseroling or steaming. If you make stews, include lots of roots and lentils, let the stew cool after cooking and skim off any fat before storing it to reheat. Don’t have puddings, offer fresh fruit instead.
Any or all of these adjustments are potentially more useful than trying to find the least painful form of exercise for a patient with serious joint pain. You can re-introduce a small amount of chocolate or an occasional biscuit once the weight is down to a healthy level.

I'm guessing the answer is no, but is cycling possible?
You can get a shaped float to out between your legs, and swim with just your arms. Is he old enough to try that?

As an adult, weight is 80% the food you eat, and only 20% about the exercise. I'd keep looking at the food side of things, and exercise as best you can without causing pain, but I'm certain that us easier to say than to do.

Poor him! It sounds awful.
I’d keep looking at diet. what’s his diet like? Reducing bread and processed baked goods will help.

How is he doing a couple of 10 minute walks a day?

I mean how would he get on doing a couple of 10 minute walking sessions.

How old is he? In my experience, boys can gain a fair bit of weight just as they start to hit puberty.

I agree that whilst it's good to be active, weight gain is mainly down to food. Portion control and regular snacking are probably the culprit if you are generally cooking healthy meals.

A lot of it with children is illusion too, use thinner bread and a protein based filling for a sandwich rather than say, cheese and you've much reduced the calories but it's still a whole sandwich in their eyes. We switched to stronger cheddar for my cheese loving son as we can use half the amount and he still gets his cheese fix.

Is standing painful? If not, maybe something like archery or golf could work?

How is he cycling or on a scooter? Do knee or ankle straps help at all?

Swimming really is the best non impact sport. Could you get him a private teacher (who knows about his joint problems) or take him yourselves? Even if he's not swimming loads, he'll still be moving and not snacking during that time.

This sounds really tough for you both. Has he ever tried a hydrotherapy pool? Might be worth giving it a try.

Other than that as PP said it does mostly come down to diet, can you get him interested in healthy cooking, youtube/pintrest etc have loads of recipes. Would he enjoy helping you cook - would help him understand nutrition and it could be something fun to do together that's not too physical.

Does he have physio or occupational therapy?

It sounds like you really need to get to the bottom of his joint problems.

DS missed basically a year of sports as misdiagnosed as Severs disease through NHS with advice of complete rest and stretching exercises. I recently got fed up and went for a private consultation at £70 , turns out he has achilles tendonitis and complete rest weakens the tendon and stretches do nothing for it. Now a mere 3 weeks later DS has been doing the dynamic exercises and is back to doing rugby.

Are you happy with the medical advice you've received so far ? Have they said if it's good or bad to keep exercising when he's in pain , as not being able to do 2 short walks a day sounds very serious.

How old is he? What about Body Coach kids’ circuits as mentioned above, and buy a punch bag and gloves. Bill it as fun boxing training. You can do it too 😃

It’s true that exercise doesn’t really help with weight loss, but will make him fitter and less inclined to eat junk

Rookiemere, yes, we went for various ultrasounds, x rays and other appts last year, and its a problem with his connective tissue, meaning that over time since it started, his joints have misaligned and some muscles have weakened while hes been using others to walk with hips, knees and ankles out of alignment. Obviously the exercises will be strengthening the correct muscles and hopefully helping to correct this as much as possible, but there will always be a weakness and pain from having to use some muscles more than normal just to keep things in alignment. I have been totally happy with the docs and physio we've been using.

The pain develops over time, so our best bet is probably short bursts of low impact exercise. Thanks for the ideas. To answer a few q, we already have a nice big trampoline, but have been told not to use it too much because of the impact on the joints. We have a Wii fit, and just dance, which is good for short sessions.

I know weight loss is a lot of good diet rather than exercise, but I don't want him to be totally sedentary and this to become a habit. We've done some small walks, but not regularly - dh is away, I've had lots of other things to deal with recently, including ill ppl and pets, and tbh, neither me nor the DC feel like a walk after all necessary trailing around we've been doing at the weekends. I'll have to try and get back into that.

He has mentioned a punching, actually, but there's not really anywhere to put one! I'll have to look into private swimming lessons, it's been on the back burner and I was debating how useful it would be, as obviously his joints ache with movement, not just impact (as previously mentioned) but it's probably much better than impact exercise, esp with the added weight now. And a private tutor would be able to tailor it. Thx.

At my pool an unbelievable number of people swim just using their arms (ie. with a pull buoy). Is he any good at front crawl and/or backstroke? Cos they're really easy with just arms. It'll take a while to strengthen his arms up but it's very effective.

Hope you find something that works.