Worried about DD

[Snailinashell123]

Hi,
My DD is almost thirteen, 5 ft 7 and 8 St 5. She looks a bit overweight, as she carries the majority of her weight on her stomach, however we have never made an issue of this. Yesterday, I found that she has been keeping a food and excersie diary, and on any given day has not had a net calorie intake of over 500. It makes me feel terrible that she is unhappy about the way she looks, how can I build her self esteem and stop her restricting her diet?

how can she look overweight @ 5'7'' and 8st 5lb?

Agree with PP, I'm around the same height but a stone heavier and look very slim. Have you been to the doctors of all the weight is on her stomach? Would also recommend GP for eating disorder support. B-eat is a good website to look at for support (I think)

Does sound like a good idea to seek outside help, but in the short term would it help to look at the NHS healthy weight calculator with her? You could show her that she's happily within a healthy weight range for her height and age (I'm sure she would be with what you're describing!) and talk to her about how different people grow at different rates?
I wonder if it's hard for her that some of her contemporaries (I'm guessing she's year 8) will be very much shorter and slighter. My 12-nearly-13 DD is a bit the same, she's grown early, and she's well into puberty and filled out nicely - although because we're a small family she's nowhere near your dd's height - whereas a lot of her friends still look like little girls.

EllaMenoPea - young teens will always weigh much less than an adult but not look skinny in the same way - dd ways loads less than me (and I tend to be underweight), is more or less the same height, but doesn't look unreasonably skinny at all. I guess their shoulders / hips etc just haven't broadened out fully, and most of their height tends to be legs at that stage!

If she's eating 500 calories a day for an extended period then that stomach you see could be malnutrition.

I don't want to worry you but you need to see a health professional immediately.

Ah, that makes sense, sorry!