Dyspraxia, hypotonia and weight

[Flopsygrowsup]

Hi -DS 9 has mild dyspraxia and hypotonia. Until he was about 6.5/7 he was solid but not overweight - he will be v tall and already has size 8 feet and util then was on 90 centile for height and 92 for weight so in proportion. He is dairy and egg intolerant and mildly gluten sensitive. Now he is overweight with a significant belly. We are really struggling to,work out why in order to help him. He does swimming twice a week, horse riding once, cubs, and walks to and from school each day which is 1.2 miles each way. Yesterday he had asparagus, tomatoes and ham for breakfast then hummous, carrot, cucumber, tomatoes and cheese for tea and then we had roast pork for tea with potato, runner beans, sprouts and cauli. He had 8 squares of willy wonka chocolate.

My DS (12) also has bad dyspraxia and has to watch his weight.

It is not a very balanced diet in your list, so he may be sneaking food. He needs to have some carbs for breakfast along with a little protein in addition to fruit/veg, so consider giving him a piece of wholemeal toast with a boiled egg for breakfast, plus some sunflower spread, and a piece of fruit if he is still hungry. Keeping the ham in would also be fine. For lunch he also needs something like pitta in addition to the houmous. Tea sounds fine but a home made apple crumble would have similar calories to the chocolate but be more filling and have a better nutritional content. he also should be having half a pint of semi skimmed milk and a yoghurt each day in addition to the above.

Also riding won't be as energetic as some other activities he might try, although it is recommended for dyspraxic children, of course. Trampolining might help, and getting him riding a bike in the better weather might be good too.

My sons dyspraxic and eats only a limited diet. He is also a snacker. I let him fill up at breakfast and that keeps at bay. He goes to the fridge after school but its full of yoghurts and I try to get fruit in him as soon as we get through the door.

But hes a flapper, jigger so is never still. He has just started gymnastics as well.

Thanks - I do think he needs a bit more carb he has porridge on school mornings and has fg bread as he is egg, gluten and dairy intolerant some of those suggestions are undoable. The chocolate is a once a week treat. He had veg curry last night carrot, cauli chick peas, coconut milk and home made samosa

My son is dyspraxic and we had serious problems with his weight since he broke his femur at 9, only just evening out as he is very tall and shooting up at 13/14.

We noticed that ds1 was craving sugar all the time (5 apples a day if we let him), but also strangely enough not that interested in carbs like pasta or baked potato or rice. What he liked was protein, so when I read a book about increasing protein intake, it was like a lightbulb going off, as ds was clearly needing protein, but not getting enough. Before that I had just assumed the healthiest diet for him was lots of good quality filling carbs.

So now we just give him as much protein as possible, chicken, egg, meat, fishfingers, lentils and it seems to have taken a lot of the sugar cravings away.

He has also joined a running club in order to get his D of E, and that too is helping. But unless they want to exercise it is quite difficult to get them to do it. Ds is good at stamina sports like walking but less good at any sport which requires dexterity or speed. Tennis also helped, he was terrible at it to start with, but once he learnt how to do it, it helped his overall fitness and he enjoyed it. Swimming has not helped at all, as he just wallowed rather than doing proper laps.

Btw, although obviously and some children have a significant problem with their weight at 9/10 and they will continue to be overweight, I have seen a lot of boys with bellies at 10/12 turn into tall fit young men. It does seem to be a preparation for a growth spurt later at 13/14 as long as they don't gain weight, but grow into the weight they already have ifysim.

sorry, no and.

Thanks swan

Swan's right. IME children can grow outwards before they grow upwards. My (dyspraxic and hypertonic) son did this, his tummy lasted a year and a bit before he started to shoot upwards. Just because he's a little overweight now it doesn't mean that he will stay like this.

Thanks ladymary. Whilst I'm on the dyspraxia/hypotonia discussion have any of your dcs started developing "funny ways" eg no wanting sauce on food just side, foot phobia, germ phobia. All mild at moment but no idea why they have started in last 6 months

Ds1 is extremely sensitive to smells, although not particularily keen on washing . I think there is some sensory stuff going on there with the dyspraxia, although he is a very greedy. I am amazed how he will appear to be gobbling everything up and then refuse to eat a tiny bit of parsely or a little piece of courgette, and look as if he's going to be sick

Oh, I know that, Swan. I'm fairly sure that's a sensory thing. He may improve as he gets older

It sounds a little OCDish, flopsy. My old neighbours son had a germ obsession. He used to wash his hands so much the skin cracked, which made it worse. I think it was stress related. I don't know what the answer is for this

Yes Flopsy but mine got serious MH problems so unusual. Normally that doesn't happen.

Ds def not over keen on washing - think that's normal for 9 year old boy. He came down from shower after rugby with dry hair and muddy knees! Huge protests went sent back to repeat with shampoo and shower gel.

Think the sauce not touching is a sensory thing.

You may well be right re stress he's had a lot on grandma died, grandad and othe e grandma v ill. 2cousins died one 6 weeks one 33 yrs. I had a heart thing. Now we are moving. Poor kid he's such a star