Advice needed re: diet for 6 year old

2

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  • sillygoose
    sillygoose Posts: 4,794 Forumite
    All sounds OK to me diet/weight wise but your quite entitled to consider it, we all want to get to right.

    My 'pet hate' is allowing grazing and wandering. Sitting eating is relatively boring when your six and probably seems like forever I bet. Especially when you have done it sooo many times before :rotfl:

    A friends daughter who was many might say on the light side did this a lot, nibble the nice stuff then 'full up!' and off... having had just enough to dampen the hunger pangs. She improved after they restricted it.

    I certainly wouldn't force a child to eat or clear a plate, call me old fashioned but mine were taught to stay at the table until the meal was done. Meal time was meal time, play time was play time. With no chance of escape they usually ate their proper fill. Especially if you present a realistically child sized meal, I prefer a child to easily finish a meal and ask for more than struggle or have to leave food, it puts them off.

    Of course this may be of NO relevance to you at all, in which case ignore me, I just mention it in case it helps.
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  • oystercatcher
    oystercatcher Posts: 2,326
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    I see so many overweight children around. I really hope you aren't comparing your daughter with them. If the school health team say she is a healthy weight why would you not believe them ? It sounds like she is eating plenty.

    Why all this eating in the car on the way to and from school ? It doesn't sound healthy to be teaching her to constantly graze while travelling. When will that piece of fruit become a bag of crisps or a bar of chocolate ? Probably when she is old enough to travel alone and buy her own snacks ! Just give regular meals and healthy food and don't compare her with other people's obese children.
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  • warehouse
    warehouse Posts: 3,362
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    Sounds very normal to me OP, in fact she eats better and healthier than my youngest did at the same age.
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  • MrsSippi
    MrsSippi Posts: 287 Forumite
    edited 9 October 2017 at 8:19PM
    I have a very slim daughter, she's always eaten like a sparrow and would rather graze than have a large meal, she's just never had the capacity for a lot of food in one go.

    She's always been perfectly fit and healthy, hit her milestones, had beautifully clear skin and strong hair and nails. Her periods came when expected etc., She did go through phases of looking more skinny when she got taller but then filled out again.

    I've never made an issue of her weight or eating habits TBH, I think that's asking for trouble. She also likes crackers/yoghurt/cereal, lol. I would just keep and eye on her and let her know it's OK to be naturally slim. There's so much publicity now days about the damage in shaming larger girls, but slim girls can suffer the same abuse from peers, especially as they get older.

    Thabks for the reply - to be clear though I haven't said anything to her as obviously I don't want her to be thinking about it at all. Again, I would say I'm not worried - I guess it's that I haven't got another 6 year old to compare her too and tbh even in her class there is such a variation of sizes and Weights it doesn't tell me a lot.

    I just want a bit of reassurance I guess - if it turns out she's a completely normal weight we can carry on as before but if she is underweight I know to try and tackle this a bit.
  • MrsSippi
    MrsSippi Posts: 287 Forumite
    edited 9 October 2017 at 8:20PM
    I see so many overweight children around. I really hope you aren't comparing your daughter with them. If the school health team say she is a healthy weight why would you not believe them ? It sounds like she is eating plenty.

    Why all this eating in the car on the way to and from school ? It doesn't sound healthy to be teaching her to constantly graze while travelling. When will that piece of fruit become a bag of crisps or a bar of chocolate ? Probably when she is old enough to travel alone and buy her own snacks ! Just give regular meals and healthy food and don't compare her with other people's obese children.

    I'm not comparing as such (well not in a negative way). It's more I was thinking is she a bit skinny/thin so I suppose the natural thing to do is look at others the same age. Obviously there are massive variations even within her age group but it can sometimes give a very general idea of what others are like. There are some in her year who appear a lot bigger/heavier and others who look slimmer than she does.

    FYI - she does sometimes have a bit of fruit on the way to school but a. We don't go in a car (I'm not sure why the assumption?) - we walk and b. School is about a mile away which i know isn't that far but it is quite a walk for a 6 year old and she's burnt up quite a bit of energy getting there so I don't think it hurts to give her a snack on the way, esp as it is healthy. She doesn't graze either - she has breakfast at home, a snack provided by School, lunch provided by the school, and then a snack and later tea after school. We often go to the park after school to so she's running around and burning whatever's she's eaten off then too.

    I think it's a bit presumptuous at this age for you to assume what she may or may not buy herself for snacks when she's older. Obviously I will have to trust her to be sensible when she goes to secondary school but for now I think her snacks are ok.
  • MrsSippi
    MrsSippi Posts: 287 Forumite
    warehouse wrote: »
    Sounds very normal to me OP, in fact she eats better and healthier than my youngest did at the same age.

    Thank you. Maybe I am over thinking it :o
  • MrsSippi
    MrsSippi Posts: 287 Forumite
    sillygoose wrote: »
    All sounds OK to me diet/weight wise but your quite entitled to consider it, we all want to get to right.

    My 'pet hate' is allowing grazing and wandering. Sitting eating is relatively boring when your six and probably seems like forever I bet. Especially when you have done it sooo many times before :rotfl:

    A friends daughter who was many might say on the light side did this a lot, nibble the nice stuff then 'full up!' and off... having had just enough to dampen the hunger pangs. She improved after they restricted it.

    I certainly wouldn't force a child to eat or clear a plate, call me old fashioned but mine were taught to stay at the table until the meal was done. Meal time was meal time, play time was play time. With no chance of escape they usually ate their proper fill. Especially if you present a realistically child sized meal, I prefer a child to easily finish a meal and ask for more than struggle or have to leave food, it puts them off.

    Of course this may be of NO relevance to you at all, in which case ignore me, I just mention it in case it helps.

    Thank you for the advice. I try and offer her snacks/meals at rough set times (ie breakfast is always the same kind of time and the same with other meals/snacks) so it negates the need tocgraze but I do understand what you're saying.
  • Anoneemoose
    Anoneemoose Posts: 2,258
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    MrsSippi wrote: »
    I'm not comparing as such (well not in a negative way). It's more I was thinking is she a bit skinny/thin so I suppose the natural thing to do is look at others the same age. Obviously there are massive variations even within her age group but it can sometimes give a very general idea of what others are like. There are some in her year who appear a lot bigger/heavier and others who look slimmer than she does.

    FYI - she does sometimes have a bit of fruit on the way to school but a. We don't go in a car (I'm not sure why the assumption?) - we walk and b. School is about a mile away which i know isn't that far but it is quite a walk for a 6 year old and she's burnt up quite a bit of energy getting there so I don't think it hurts to give her a snack on the way, esp as it is healthy. She doesn't graze either - she has breakfast at home, a snack provided by School, lunch provided by the school, and then a snack and later tea after school. We often go to the park after school to so she's running around and burning whatever's she's eaten off then too.

    I think it's a bit presumptuous at this age for you to assume what she may or may not buy herself for snacks when she's older. Obviously I will have to trust her to be sensible when she goes to secondary school but for now I think her snacks are ok.

    I wouldn't worry about the after school snack. If she's hungry, she's hungry. As long as she's actually physically hungry - as opposed to bored etc, which it doesn't sound like at all - then she needs to eat. It sounds like you have it just right.

    My dd has always been a bit the other way and slightly 'overweight', but she eats a wide variety of food, isn't massively active as she's not a sporty person but she likes walking and bouncing like a loon on the trampoline. I used to be worried but then I learned just how rubbish the BMI calculator is, and even more so for kids. As long as she's active and happy and does eat a good variety of foods, then it sounds like she's absolutely fine.
  • Sounds fine to me.

    My DD (5) is a skinny little thing and yet eats really well. She's just very active.
    She puts a bit of weight on then shoots up in height and is suddenly scrawny again :)

    That's just kids I think.

    I give her healthy snacks 95% of the time if she is hungry between meals, otherwise I give her a treat (she's a kid after all)
  • I was always skinny when I was younger, underweight and looked ill. I ate so much but also spent a lot of time running around outside. Then puberty hit and I've been heavy since then!
    Don't worry. If she isn't ill, she'll be okay. If she eats healthy foods, exercises and is happy, she's fine.
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