Can we have a children's weight-loss thread? Food/exercise diary?

[FiveSugarsPlease]

Hello.

I probably should have posted in children's health, but thought here was more appropriate because of all the weight/fitness knowledge in the various threads.

My daughter is 5 years old. She is 3ft 7inches, and 3.7 stone.
Despite her school nurse/primary one check saying she's healthy, according to her BMI on the NHS website, she is classed as overweight and on the 95th centile for her age.

To get her back into the green/healthy BMI, it says she should be 3stone 4lbs - so only had to lose 3 pounds.

However, i don't like her hovering around the high end of the BMI 'healthy' range, so would like her to lose a bit more. Maybe down to 3stone.

Her diet is balanced/fairly normal. I think lack of exercise is the issue.

She has ASD (HFA) and dislikes places such as the park/soft play. She doesn't like crowds either. The rain upsets her, so she's pretty much indoors when not at school/after school club/Gran's house.

I'm trying to get her more active indoors, but it's tricky. We live in a maisonette so can't jump up and down in the living room without disturbing the downstairs neighbour. However, my bedroom and dd's bedroom is above our living room, so we're okay to dance around in there.

I've always had a healthy BMI, but do have some issues when it comes to food (my mother has always been on a diet, talking about her weight in front of me and my siblings when younger - she's also always been within a healthy BMI/slim). I'm currently 10st exactly at 5'7. I do my exercise each evening when dd is asleep on the exercise machine, which isn't exactly something dd can join in with.

I thought i could keep a diary of her food and exercise to try and keep me on track. It would be great if other parents in the same boat contributed, but i'm perfectly okay to just chatter away to myself each day if not. I'll start from yesterday, and i'll do today's entry tomorrow.

Tuesday - 28th May

Food:

Breakfast - 2 choc weetabix and semi-skimmed milk; 250ml orange juice

Snack (sent into school) - Ritz cheese dipper thingy and bottle of water

Lunch (sent into school) - Roll and ham with a sprinkle of grated cheese (this came back, she had only eaten the ham/cheese from it); bottle of water; yoghurt drink, a small pot of mixed strawberries+grapes.

Dinner - Bowl of homemade leek and potato soup with two small buttered slices from a tiger baguette.

Desert - offered her a bowl of three profiteroles (usually treats like this are kept for Sunday evenings, but i had bought it on impulse). She ate just one profiterole.

Exercise:

Nothing really that got her out of breath , so not sure if any of this counts.

5 minutes walking to school
She tells me she played tig at interval and lunchtime
15 mininute walk to shops after school
20 minute walk home
About five minutes running around at home chasing her balloon around the house (which did get her a bit puffed out, but not much).

She's not very active at all. I know her diet isn't perfect, but i don't want to put her on a strict 'fruit and veg' only diet. I want her to have something balanced. At least until i sort the exercise out. If i get her more active, and the weight still isn't shifting, then i'll look into making food changes.

I completely agree that the best method of weight control for young children is exercise.

I would also just give fruit for snacks and ditch the sugary cereal. Would she eat porridge flavoured with cinammon? Or with some pureed apple stirred through it?

Dd1 has a tendency towards chubbiness (despite lots of exercise!) and when I start to think she's chubbed up a bit I cut right down on treats.

Thanks, Ivana.

She's not keen on cinammon, but does love porridge - but only if it's sweetened a little bit. I admit, i buy the multipack of varied flavoured sachets. I eat the plain ones, and let her have the one like 'golden syrup', 'honey' etc. I totally agree with the sugary cereals. They just don't seem to fill her up, and she doesn't particularly like them either. I just give them if i'm in a rush. I really ought to pack this in.

I just wish the weather was nicer so we could go long walks/cycling etc. It's really hard trying to be active in a small-ish maisonette. I totally blame myself though. If i was more imaginative, i'm sure i could think of loads of things. Hide and seek etc. I might write a little list later to get some ideas flowing.

Wednesday - 29th May

Food:

Breakfast - small bowl of Honey Hoops with semi-skimmed milk. 250ml orange juice.

Snack (sent into school) - A small bottle (about 250ml) semi skimmed milk; an apple.

Lunch (school dinner - i'm quite annoyed with this as I'd went through the menu with dd that morning and helped her pick what she was supposed to buy - a sandwich, bit of fruit etc - she totally ignored me!) - A slice of pizza; small chocolate cake; small carton of orange juice; yoghurt drink.

Dinner - A baked potato with sweetcorn and sprinkle of cheese (she only ate half of this); two small slices from a tiger baguette with a bit of garlic butter on each (she left the crusts).

Treat - A mini milky way

Exercise:

5 minute walk to school
5 minute walk from school
General playing at interval and lunchtime
They had 30 minutes of gym at school

That's it!

All in all, a truly crap day. I feel horrible. I had planned to take her out on her bike but the rain came on. Then i had an email for work sent through so spent the afternoon doing paperwork sitting next to dd as she watched some TV/played with her dolls.

I ought to have left the paperwork 'til she was in bed, and got her moving around the house.

And her lunch was appalling. That is not what i wanted her to buy. Hopefully she'll choose something better today - the lunch we had discussed this morning from the menu. If not, no more school dinners.

I'm going to make a Fri morning her weigh in.

Why doesn't she take up a sport? Girl's football or netball team, horse riding, sailing?

I think the earlier she associates exercise = fun, the better. And having a hobby growing up is essential, IMO.

Reading your OP, food is not the issue, calorie burning is.

You need to change your schedule.
Sell the exercise machine.
Buy both of you good walking shoes and start doing circular walks.
Go and buy the OS maps (1:25000) for your area and start to explore.
THen get into cycling,
Is there a swimming baths where the two of you can compete on distance (NOT SPEED, ENDURANCE)
get wii fit and compete at some of the balance games or step and the like.

Basically, both of you need to grow to consider being fit and active so much a part of you that all else is beside the point.

Could you wean her off the sugary cereals by mixing them up? So have one plain weetabix and one choc one. I think it's fine to add a bit of sugar to porridge if you like it sweet. It's still usually less than added by the commerical companies and you can slowly reduce the amount of sugar. How about ready brek which is very quick and easy?

Could you also ditch the juice? One thing that always comes out as being associated with obesity is drinking sugar - our brains just don't associate it as food and we don't reduce the calories at all at the next meal like we do if we've eaten something sweet - and all the goodness of the orange juice could be obtained by giving her an orange.

I always give my dd fruit or veg for snack at school. Is there any way you could up the veg? Does she like them? My dd has a big appetite and I try to fill up about half her (small) plate with veg. If she wants more, she has to finish all her food (the rule is she can leave one thing if she really really doesn't like it after trying) on her plate first.

If it's hard to fit in exercise during the week, maybe try and make weekends extra active? Personally I don't find that the exercise my dd does in her dance class is anywhere near as much as what she does when she's just running around with her friends so I wouldn't worry about hobbies/classes at 5 unless there's something she really wants to do,

I really sympathise, it's very hard! My dd is a little older and a real foodie and it's so hard to keep the balance between ensuring a healthy weight and not being overly restrictive.

Please don't give her a weigh day. You really don't want her to think that you think she's fat.

Would she eat scrambled egg or reduced sugar beans on toast for breakfast?

If she can't make healthy choices at lunch then can she take a packed lunch? We don't do school meals because I don't want them eating pudding every day (and pudding at school is always cake and custard or ice cream!)

I'd ditch the weigh-ins along with the juice & sugery cereal.

I'm amazed that a 5 year old can get through 2 weetabix and a glass of juice in the morning. My 11 year old can only manage one though she generally has a sprinling of Special K on top. Do you use semi-skimmed milk on her cereal?

Do you generally eat meals together? Make sure you're setting her a good example. Try and plan you meals so there's no impulse buying and try and cut out the bad stuff. Wednesday's dinner seemed a bit carbo heavy - no need for bread and potato.

I'm also surprised that your DD was allowed to chose her own lunch. Is this at school? Pizza and chocolate cake don't seem like very healthy food for a school or nursery.

How about a mini trampoline for exercise indoors? I know my DC spent hours on both the little indoor one they first had and the big outdoor one we have now.

Or maybe you could take a longer route to school?

you cant give a 5 year old a weigh in day and make her think she is fat! Child BMI is just a snapshot in time and will change very quickly as they still have a lot of growing to do. Look at portion sizes and the foods that are offered and let her grow into her weight rather than trying to get her to lose weight. Please dont let your dd get fixated on scales and weighing, etc when she is only a young child or you are setting her up to have an eating disorder.

p.s. she only needs to grow a few cm's to put her in the healthy weight area on the nhs site.

NHS advice for overweight children is that they should aim to grow into their excess weight rather than lose weight, so please don't give her a weigh in day. Just aim to make some changes, and her BMI will reduce as she grows upwards, and her weight stays the same. My daughter also tends to being a little chubby and loves her food, so I know how difficult it is. We got her more active last year by taking her on extra bike rides, and I also let her go the park opposite school every afternoon after school, so she has a mad run around for at least 30 mins every day, on top of the walk to and from school, PE/swimming etc. I do think you ought to look at how many calories are in the sachets of porridge, as far as I can remember, they are full of sugar. So maybe try ready brek as others suggested, and add a little honey and gradually reduce the amount. or a small amount of dried fruit or fruit purée with it. 250 ml of orange juice is loads of calories as well. I would try giving her water or milk, or very very diluted fruit juice.

I found my DD had a good growth spurt not much after her reception year weigh in which meant she really slimmed down all of a sudden so you may find that this happens for you.

Please don't weigh her, as the others have said. I think you can tell from her clothes how it's going.

Could she try dancing? What about swimming? Have you got a Wii? Just dance is good if they like that kind of thing. Bike riding? Scooting to school and back.

My DS is similar to your DD and like you we are focusing on uping the exercise and healthy eating. He does Beavers which is very active, not sure if that's something she would like.

Good luck to us both!

Too much sugar, 250ml of orange juice is too much, your dd doesn't need the sugary treats you are giving her, let her ask for a treat instead, no need to encourage it.

Lots of girls with anorexia are on the spectrum. Please don't weight your little girl.

My son was very overweight at the age of five, but he has slimed down a lot at the age of eleven. He hates sports with a passion.

As far as exercise goes it helps to walk whenever possible. Simple games like catch or playing tennis in the park help when it is sunny. Would it be possible to put your little girl into swimming lessons?

There might be some good advice here- definitely don't weigh her or make her think she is fat, talk about healthy voices not diet ones. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/1754940-Worried-about-my-daughters-weight-99th-percentile