My 4yr old "overweight"

Becles

Bella79 wrote: »

Morning all,


Thankyou all for your helpfull replys and not a troll in isight ! :j,
i was expecting some sacrastic comments.

I was laid in bed last night, giving this a lot of thought, ive def got to do something about our who health as a family, my mum and her family are over weight and there perspective of what healthy is is soo offf the mark, when they see someon who is slim they always say things like "ohh i wouldnt want to be like that", or "im glad e**** is not like that (my child )".

All my family serve massive portions and use lard to cook most things !, im not like them i have pretty good cooking skills and never use lard, sometimes i use olive oil but not often.

I can remeber my mother as a child jumping from one diet to another boxes of cambridge stacked up in cuboard, going to slimming classes with her. And then when she did well it was "ohh we will go out for a meal now as a treat" :wall:, or when she wasnt feeling well "ohh i cant diet when im not well, and one of her many quotes "strengh goes in at the mouth" lol, Hey im not blaming my wonderfull yoyo dieting mother, but my attitude to food is the same as hers, ohh im feeling down lets have a treat, ohh im not well lets eat, bored = EAT.

My husband on the other hand always had 3 meals a day and that was it, his mum told him that if she didnt buy him sweets he could have the money for his piggy bank, being the sensbile one of us 2 he chose the piggy bank idea lol.

This morning went well anyhows, shes usally asking for biscuits by now, shes had 1 weetabix with semi milk and some chopped strawberrys and milk, lunch will be a sandwich, we are going out later and wont be home till later so i will take her a snack of rasins. I myself have had weetabix and fruit so heres hoping fingers crossed to a more healthy way of life for us all. This has been the wakeup call ive needed, My daughter to have a healthy attitiude to food and hopefully at 4 im not too late to change it. x

That's a great post full of positive thinking. You should be proud of yourself writing that.

It's tough trying to relearn behaviours but stick with it and you'll get there. I've got food hang up's from childhood. The biscuit tin came out frequently throughout the day and if I was ill or upset, my Mam would make me a hot drink with digestive biscuits to dunk it in it. I'm full of cold at the moment and feel pretty yuk today and I'm seriously craving soggy digestives to make me feel better

msb5262

Great posts on this thread.
One thing I'd say is that it's not hard to get children to eat fruit, but vegetables can be a different matter.
Vegetables are more important in a child's diet because fruit can be high on the glycaemic index - it can raise your blood sugar quite dramatically, whereas vegetables don't cause this spike. Sugar is sugar, whatever its source.
Don't forget salad leaves, grated carrot, chopped carrot/cucumber/celery, vegetable soups, vegetables in dishes eg. casserole, bolognese, chilli, shepherd's pie...once children get into a food habit, it's easy to maintain. So try to build good habits!
Best wishes to all
MsB

Brighton_belle

With regard to vegetable and kids, I can highly recommend a 'spiralizer - very easy to use and makes 'spaghetti' or ribbons or curly bits out of raw veg that is so tasty - it has doubled the amount of veg I eat and raw is very good for you. Corgette 'spaghetti' really is tasty, honestly!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lurch-010303-Spirali/dp/B00008WVUT/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1306767420&sr=8-2

You can look up on utube to see how simple and quick they are to use.
I have no connection with the company - I just had never heard of them until 2 months ago and now love it and several RL friends have bought one since seeing mine.

Bella79

Hello,


Thanks for all your hints and tips, ive got one of those spiral things, will def give it a go.

Today has gone so well, shes cleared her dinner of hm shephards pies and veggies, shes just having a yoghurt now. This is the first time in a long long time shes eaten 3 square meals and NO CHOCOLATE, i feel even more guilty now cos all along she would have eaten healthy if id have given her the chance. Shes asked for chocolate once to which i replyed, "not today chicken, its not healthy to eat it all the time", me expecting a tantrum she just said "ok mummy" !:D

ailuro2

well that worked out alright then!!

Kids at that age can be little sods when trying to get them to eat their veggies, but if she's eating them in her shepherd's pie and not always following up with chocs or biscuits then I think that's all you really need to worry about!

pinkclouds

Bella79 wrote: »

Today has gone so well, shes cleared her dinner of hm shephards pies and veggies, shes just having a yoghurt now. This is the first time in a long long time shes eaten 3 square meals and NO CHOCOLATE, i feel even more guilty now cos all along she would have eaten healthy if id have given her the chance. Shes asked for chocolate once to which i replyed, "not today chicken, its not healthy to eat it all the time", me expecting a tantrum she just said "ok mummy" !:D

Yesterday sounds good to me. Hope today is going well too.

Primarni

I just wanted to say that I was a chubby solid little four your old, mainly because I was an active tomboy sort of child and built muscle as well as chubbiness.

I'm a size 8-10 now and have been since starting secondary school when I suddenly shot up and grew boobs.

Definitely feed your daughter as healthily as poss with a few treats here and there but I think there are stages where it's better for a child to be a little chubby so that they have the resources for their next growth spurt, or change in activity levels. (ie starting school.)