Son is overweight

[Chattycatty]

My ds (7) has adhd and asd and has a massive issue with food. The foods he will eat is nearly all high calorie, carby food. He won’t eat any fruit or veg (except banana) no meat (except tinned ham) white bread only no rice no potato if it was down to him he’d live on chips or pasta (plain with cheese). He’s overweight and getting bigger all the time we do some exercise but probably not enough he’s very clumsy and hates team sport I don’t know how to improve things

Portion control is really important. Even if you stick with the same foods, you need to measure the amounts and not allow him any more. It’s tough, but his health depends on you making the right choices.

Also, try to find an exercise you can do together, like swimming or walking/scooting to a play ground. Bouncing on a trampoline is also fun.

Marking my place here my ds is a bit younger than yours and is overweight as he is very obsessive and compulsive with food he has asd with pda. I feel your as it is very difficult.

My ds is not overweight but sometimes does put on weight and could be heading towards overweight. He has autism and most definitely will not change his diet I have found the things Springer mentioned really do work. Portion control and increase in exercise. For my ds the exercise is swimming every week and regularly walking to place instead of going by car. And also just going out for a walk. Also, there is a disability session at a trampoline park which ds enjoys.

We’ve done the day with no snacks offered fruit everytime he asked and a long walk /scoot this afternoon. I’m thinking of a multi vitamin as a banana every few days is obviously not going to do much

Hi Chattycarty your son sounds pretty similar to mine! DS 7 is in the overweight range but recently we’ve definitely making progress with him. He’s dyspraxic so really struggles to try anything new or with a different texture to what he’s used to. His coordination difficulties mean although he loves football, he’s unfortunately pretty terrible at it so he ends up disheartened. We tried different sports with him and came across climbing and a disability running club. The climbing is indoor and can go with DH a couple of times a week. He can see himself improve each time and his confidence is building. Its great exercise which is one thing but he actually eats less when he comes back. Alot of his problems i think were boredom eating of crisps and chocolate so i think keeping busy and active is having a dual benefit. The weight is coming off and he feels great in the process

My ds enjoyed indoor climbing toonhe has even got me into it but I find it a bit scary.

Have you seen a dietitian? My ds has been referred to one twice and I did find it helpful especially to check what supplements he would benefit from. My ds takes a multivitamin. The dietitian worked out he needed one that included iron and was even able to tell me exactly the amount of iron he needed.

We live in a tiny remote village with a swimming pool but that’s it so not many activities available to us. I could get hold of a health visitor to see about a dietician though.

Although it might seems a bizarre suggestion, ballet and gymnastics have been great for my DS (9 with ASD). His balance and coordination improved so much from all the practice he gets, and that’s made other sports much easier.

We are lucky that he has two male coaches at gym, who are lovely 21 year old twins. It’s really good to have a role model he can copy at gym, and they talk to all the boys about the benefits of gymnastics (including having a good body for attracting the girls/boys later on!!).