8 YO DD starting to gain weight.

[user1488481370]

My just turned 8 YO DD has started to gain some weight in the last few months. Prior to this she was very slim.

It’s no great mystery as to why she has gained weight, I’ve caught her sneaking chocolate and crisps on multiple occasions. I don’t know how to handle this? I don’t want to give her a guilt complex around food but at the same time I want to make her realise that these foods are an occasional treat.
Generally speaking she’s always been a good eater in terms of fruit and veg. I try to cook for scratch where I have time. I’ve also noticed a change in the amount of exercise she does.

She used to love going outside and playing in the garden with her sisters but now she would much rather sit and watch TV.

I am going to have to invest some time in her and make an effort to go for a walk every day I think. I used to struggle with my weight and know how difficult it is to get it off and keep it off.

Any suggestions? She’s such a confident girl and I don’t want to give her a complex about her weight and knock her like I was at her age.

Can you put it up high under the guise of “Mummy is finding it just too tempting within reach! If you’d like some please ask me okay?”
And try and get her out more. If she’s like mine she’ll grumble, haha. But try and pep it up.

Stop having it in the house and buy ONE cake or ONE packet of crisps for her when the time is appropriate.

Now is probably a good time to teach and talk about healthy lifestyles

I wouldn’t talk to her about it at all but I would stop having unhealthy snacks in the house and I’d try to find a nice way to up the amount of exercise she’s doing.

To be honest I always feel a bit twitchy about these threads as so many people have different ideas on whats over weight, put on a bit of weight and what is enough to eat. My friend has anorexia and she felt her dd was getting 'tubby' she absolutely wasn't and her Dh threw out the scales when he kept catching her weighing her dd. They are both stick thin.

Kids have different growth spurts, weight gain then height gain.

If she isn't overweight by the charts OP just push on with the low snacks, eating fruit and and getting out of the house more.

She isn’t overweight by the charts but definitely starting to ‘fill out.’
I was just wanting some advice on how to approach it without making DD aware. We’ve always spoken about healthy lifestyles and healthy eating since she was small.

I don’t feel as though banning unhealthy snacks from the house will help in the long run. My mum did this and I went wild with them in my early teens when I was allowed out etc. I think she needs to learn that those foods are there but she doesn’t need to constantly snack on them.

@Emmelina

Can you put it up high under the guise of “Mummy is finding it just too tempting within reach! If you’d like some please ask me okay?” And try and get her out more. If she’s like mine she’ll grumble, haha. But try and pep it up.

I agree with this, can you put the snacky foods somewhere out of her reach so she will need to ask if she wants something from there?

That's what I would do, and I'd probably say that these foods aren't for all the time as they can be bad for our teeth so they're only for treats, but she can have 1 (or whatever) a day.