My 4yr old "overweight"

LittleMissMPB

KiKi wrote: »

There was a fascinating programme on some years ago with that Super Nanny woman and she did a food special where she asked parents to gauge what was acceptable for a 7 year old (6 or 7, something like that). Most said that when talking about pizza, for example, two large slices was enough for a child. In fact, it was half of one slice, in terms of what they need to eat, from the point of view of calories, stomach size and nutrition. It's easy to feed children adult portions but they don't need it.

KiKi

They showed this not long ago. Quite interesting for anyone responsible for children in any capacity.

You can watch it here, I believe it is episode 4 although I may be wrong.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/jo-frost-extreme-parental-guidance/4od

Youdontseeme

As someone who was an overwesight child and still is an overweight adult, I can only give you some words of caution.

Dont mention her weight, diet, or deprive her of stuff her siblings are getting.

Cut out the chocolate, I dont know if you do have other kids but if you do make it half each rather than cutting it out all together, she'll just think she has done something wrong if you stop it for her all together.

Up her exercise, take her for walks (good chance for some "mum and daughter" time), get her swimming, anything which gets her more active, then even if it is puppy fat its not going to do her any harm.

I could go into details of what my Mother did to me but I hope your not that obsessed by having a slightly podgy child as she was.

Be very careful what is said in front of her (not just by you but any other "well meaning" friends and family) and what ever happens tell her you love her and she's beautiful without any 'but's'.

While I am of an age where I have to accept responsibility for my weight I know my issues stem from things that were said and done from around the age of 4/5.

Good luck.
YDSM

milliebear00001

If her centiles for height and weright match up then you have nothing to worry about.

My son (4) (and his older sister who's 7) both eat a reasonable diet, but I am not fanatical about it, and they have sweets and puddings everyday (slapped wrist) but they are also extremely active - everyday - an I mean 'breaking a sweat' active. This would be more important to me than most daily diets and food intake. Both of mine are wiry, without an ounce of extra fat but i have no idea what they weigh or which centile they are on.

Just like for adults, what goes in, needs to be burned off. It's a simple calories/exercise ratio. If she is overweight, then look at upping her activity levels, then reducing portion size - most parents seem to vastly overestimate portions for young children.

Plans_all_plans

My DD is 4 years old. She is 3 foot 7 inches tall and weighs 3 stone 1 pound. Not sure whether this is overweight or not, but she looks fine to me.

For breakfast she eats porridge with a sprinkling of raisins

For lunch: a brown bread sandwich (2 slices of bread) with either ham, beef, tuna in it.

For dinner: something like a beef stir fry, tuna pasta bake, roast dinner, salmon fillet and new potatoes and veg

She certainly wouldn't have chocolate every day. She may have a biscuit every other day - usually a fig roll.

She also sometimes has a snack of fruit. I think she eats quite big portions for her age, in comparison with her friends, but I'm quite happy with the way she looks and don't think she's overeating. I'd cut out the chocolate for your DD if I were you.

ETA: I thought my DD was overweight when I checked her BMI, but my husband has told me she's 3 inches taller than I thought, so she is a normal weight.

Dippypud

My son is now 23yrs old, when he was 4 he was in the 98 centile for both weight and height.

He always looked 'chunky' just before he had a growing spurt, also the waist size on his trousers got very tight for about 2 - 3 weeks, then he'd shoot up 2 - 3 inches in height.

Now he fit and skinny, sometimes it just the way people grow....:D

Bella79

Ahh, thankyou all for your kind words and helping me out, I am def gonna cut the chocolate out, i dont know why i do it , when i was young we got a treat on a saturday night with the video we hired !:D

She cleared a good dinner tonight, a tea plate size of shephards pie with hidden veg , i would have usually given her a biscuit afterwards, but tonight i just gave her a small glass of milk for bed.

Im overweight too, so i guess i have to blame myself but i will do everything in my power to make sure shes not the "fat girl" at school as its hell. But i dont want to make her paraniod either, i suppose theres a fine line. shes 3ft 6in and 3st 3lbs.

Plans_all_plans

At that height and weight, I wouldn't be too worried as she's tall. she can't look too dissimilar to my daughter.

Personally I think you should def cut out the chocs like you say and keep her exercising. The one thing I would say (and this is not meant to sound nasty) is that children with overweight parents are more likely to grow up overweight, so if you're overweight yourself, you could use this as an opportunity to get healthy too.

Bella79

Plans_all_plans wrote: »

At that height and weight, I wouldn't be too worried as she's tall. she can't look too dissimilar to my daughter.

Personally I think you should def cut out the chocs like you say and keep her exercising. The one thing I would say (and this is not meant to sound nasty) is that children with overweight parents are more likely to grow up overweight, so if you're overweight yourself, you could use this as an opportunity to get healthy too.

No it doesnt sound nasty at all, your right i am overweight and unhealthy, i need to do something about it. I will my daughter growing up happy and healty it the most important thing, she will be my motivation !

BitterAndTwisted

Bella79 wrote: »

Ahh, thankyou all for your kind words and helping me out, I am def gonna cut the chocolate out, i dont know why i do it , when i was young we got a treat on a saturday night with the video we hired !:D

See? It was a treat because that's exactly what it was. Once these snacks are eaten every day they just become part of the normal diet, and cease to be a treat at all.

Back in the Dark Ages when I was a nipper I don't think we even had sweets once a week: budgets were tighter than a duck's wotsit back then. Access to fresh fruit was limited as well for the same reason. Still, my Mum baked every Friday so something nice was to be had now and then, just not every single day. We were all as thin as whippets as well.

shy-but-need-help

Another one agreeing that it's not what centile they're on but how that centile lines up in relation to their height one, 94th weight centile doesn't necessarily mean overweight as long as their height is in proportion. I'm not keen on the whole centile thing as they panic alot of people if they are under or over the 50th centile line- all 94th centile means is that in a sample of 100 kids that age 93 would be lighter than your daughter, 6 would be heavier... everyone has to sit somewhere in the line up.

My oldest son (second child) is built like the side of a house- he was teeny 7lber born (my tiniest of five) and from age one onwards we were told he was overweight as he went above the top centile, however his height did too- so what they were actually telling us was he wasn't over weight, his size- both weight and height- were out of sync for a child of his age. He's 8 now and already comes up to my armpit and wears the same size shoe as me!!! He's still "overweight" according to their fantastic charts but there's not a scrap of fat on him, he doesn't sit down for more than 5 minutes at a time... he's just going to be one of lifes heavier built men.

His sisters and brother have all been raised same diet, same household, same activity levels/opportunities- two of them are tall and slim for their age, and the other 2 are complete dots! I wouldn't let it stress you out too much.

We work on the theory they can eat anything but they have to eat in balance and moderation- no food is a "bad" one as long as it's eaten in moderation and as an exception, not a rule and providing they stay active. I think it's a better lesson to teach them rather than avoiding certain types of food. So I agree about cutting down on the sweets/chocolates as a daily treat, if it's daily it's got to the point where it's not a treat but part of a daily diet.

We have open fruit bowl policy in our house and that works well for when they want to snack.