OMG It's official DS is overweight, what can I do ?

[rookiemater]

DS 2.11 has always been well padded, right from the minute he came into the world at 9.7.5lb.

I stopped BF fairly quickly because DS had tongue tie and other issues.

He is a bit of a fussy eater, again probably our fault.

We noticed that his tummy was getting a bit big so I decided to compare him on the charts. It turns out that for his age he is on the 92 percentile for BMI, which they classify as overweight bordering on obese.

I'm not sure what to do. He is very active and he goes to activities with the CM such as kindergym and toddlers and swimming and soft play with me, plus he walks short distances.

His diet isn't great but it is more of a restricted nature as he has a few things that he will eat - weetabix, oatabix, bananas,apples, bread ( all types), jam, sliced ham and chicken ( sometimes), carrots, hoummus, pizza,cheese, chicken nuggets and oven chips. He loves sweets, cakes and crisps but only gets them in very limited quantities. Oh we are also toilet training and he has a bit of an issue around poos so I don't want to cut down on fruit juice ( 2 small glasses a day) as I feel this would impact on his pooing.

I noticed over the weekend that he kept saying he was hungry for lunch or dinner even when he had just had a snack ( of banana or apple) so wonder if he has just got into a bad habit of eating when bored ?

Both DH and I are what you would call strapping. We will never be waif like but are on just the right side of sturdy, so genetically DS is never going to be a skinny urchin.

Clothes wise he fits things in the correct age range 2-3 yrs old. He has a long body and short legs.

Should I do anything or will it just sort itself out ?

I'm so pathetic! But my mum started giving bitesize to my DD and they look like they are covered in sugar so I stood in the supermarket and read the sides of the packet to make sure that she wasn't being pumped full of sugar (my DD is on the 98th percentile for height and weight so I obsess about things like sugar). So I was panicked when you said they had loads more sugar in!

May send a link of this thread to weetabix and hope they send me vouchers for advertising their healthy breakfast options.

Shredded wheat bitezise has absolutely nothing in it except for wheat. God have you lot not seen the advert

Ooops you're talkng about weetabix minis

I've found semi skimmed milk actually has slightly more calcium.

DS (2.7 and 32lbs) easily eats 2 weetabix plus 2 rounds of toast.

nappyaddict....your ds sounds exactly like my dd who is the same age. She eats a mahoosive breakfast; 2/3 bowls of cereal and fruit/toast as well sometimes. No sugar added and water only to drink, plus semi-skimmed milk. I figure she must need it, as her height and weight are on exactly the same centiles, so hopefully no cause for concern.

How heavy is your dd?

Around 33lbs, I think (our scales say 15 kilos). For a girl that puts her on the 75th centile, but she is 94/95cm tall, so her height matches as well.

Goodness me, he's a toddler, it's normal to have a bit of chubbiness surely? His diet, though not massively varied sounds OK to me. I really wouldn't be making an issue of food at this age, surely that's only going to create problems? And so what if weetabix contains a bit of sugar? It's better than sweetners and other random ingredients which no-one can even pronounce. You said yourself he is very active. What if he were to get a tummy bug and lose weight- wouldn't you want some reserves so to speak? The only thing I would tend to do is not to tolerate too much fussiness, ie, if he doesn't like what's on offer then don't offer alternatives but don't make a big deal either. Oh and does his height match his weight centile wise? If it does then he's in proportion anyway.
I was really quite chubby up until about 5, but pretty skinny thereafter. I pretty much eat anything and everything and so does my DS, aged 1 (who is gorgeously chubby!)

Haven't read the whole thread, but wanted to point out that the method of working out BMI is not meant to be used for children.

If you are genuinely concerned then you should go and see your Health Visitor who will be able to advise you as to whether there is any cause for concern or not.

Get a nice big bowl, fill it full of fruit, leave it somewhere he can reach and tell him he can snack on anything from the fruit-bowl whenever he likes. Mine love that.

Oh, and try not to make it a big deal...deep breaths...and relax

Hi he is on 50th decile for height and 92nd for weight.

From reading all the replies some of the food options we have been providing aren't perhaps the healthiest so am taking on board rationing of fruit juice and will offer more fruit as snacks.

Thanks all.

rookie, have a look on eatwell.gov.uk for the healthy eating guidelines for children. Might help you and dh to work together.

Obviously I can't see your ds so have no way of knowing whether you are right to be concerned but very small children do look like they have big tummies, as their livers are quite large in proportion to their bodies (something like 3/4 adult size). If he's getting plenty of exercise, lots of opportunities to run about, and a healthy diet for his age (NOT the sort of low fat high fibre diet advised for adults) then I wouldn't panic. Maybe he's just about to have a growth spurt.