4 year review, very overweight

[catty]

Iv probably posted about this before but not been on here as much as i used to be.
I had my sons 4 year review today with the health visitor. I really dont want this to be about bashing my health visitor though as i actually really like her and the best one iv had!

Ok so my son is on a waiting list for speech therapy. She has put in another referral to chase that and also an audiology referral just incase its his hearing too.
Ok i can cope with that....

Then she did his height and weight - he is 91st centile for weight and 9th centile for height which comes back as very overweight. He is quite stocky and big built but it did hurt to hear that even though iv known hes been big since around 6 months!
So hes also been referred to a dietician on top of the other 2 things and iv to keep a food diary.

She has also managed to get him onto a football coaching camp for free (normally £100) which is lovely but i just feel terrible that hes going because hes overweight!

What should i do? I obviously need to really look at his diet and make some changes, i just am stuck feel like im really failing him

 

[loeylo]

Not got any advice but hugs. Do you think that's a true indication of his growth, or do you think he is maybe due a growth spurt or something?

If it's a true indication of his growth, does he look heavy or is he muscular? How is his diet and activity?

The reason I'm asking is my daughter fluctuated from 9th-91st centile for height, yet has always been between the 25th and 50th centile for weight.

 

[catty]

Yes it seems like a true indication as at his 2 year review he was also 'very overweight' we are being referred to the dietician because hes now been 'very overweight' for about 2 years

We go outside alot, we go to the park, ride scooters were aleays on the go. I have 2 other children and there both small

 

[catty]

Also to add i done an 8 week healthy eating cooking course to try and find healthy food options. I also am constantly trying to find healthy snacks that he enjoys. My daughter eats the same as him but is 25th centile for weight its so difficult! I suppose that when i keep a food diary i might surprise myself with how much i give him

 

[loeylo]

It's so hard isn't it? My daughter is the opposite but eats like a horse, right now she's around the 9th centile. I honestly believe people come in all shapes and sizes. On a positive note, we have found dieticians fantastic. My daughter sees one for food intolerances and they are so knowledgeable and non judgemental, even when I told them that my dairy intolerant 12 month old loves pizza!

I wouldn't stress it personally, well that isn't true, I so would stress it, but it isn't actually worth stressing over.

Does he look overweight? My daughter doesn't look anywhere near as tiny as she is. She's well proportioned, eats a healthy diet (which obviously includes treats!!) and is really active. I would imagine that your health visitor is just covering their back and referring it on to make sure everything is fine.

 

[Zephram]

I think it's a really good idea to keep a food diary and see what he's actually eating.

Are you giving him healthy choices? By age four most kids don't need to snack as much as they did when they were toddlers as their rate of growth is lower than it was when they were younger, which means they may actually require less food overall.

Something to try would be to not actually offer him snacks and wait for him to ask and say he's actually hungry all on his own. Don't give him cookies and chips, etc, for snacks, try carrot sticks and fruit.

Age four is a good time to address this issue as recent research has shown that parents are beginning to lose sight of what a healthy weight looks like due to the increasing size of the population. For example, it's perfectly normal to see ribs in a young child.

Yes, people come in different sizes, but if there is a big discrepancy between weight and height it's usually due to eating too much or eating the wrong things.

Good luck!

 

[catty]

He honestly says he is hungry allll day it drives me mad!!

Here is today

Morning - kids bowl of cornflakes (7.30)
10am - bowl of strawberries, blueberries and raspberries (kids sized bowl)
12 - cheese sandwiches and yoghurt ( ate 3 sandwiches out of 4, 2 slices of bread)

3- half a dohnut for being good getting his injections

5 - sausages, beans and sweet potato fries (quick meal as we were out all day)

He generally has pasta dishes such as - macaroni cheese, lasagne, tuna pasta bake, spag bol. And will clear the entire plate and sometimes ask for more.

To me i thought this was good he eats everything and loves fruit. His favourite food is carrot so i honestly thought his diet was great

 

[Eleanor ace]

Aw, sorry you're feeling down about it . I bet the dietitian will be really helpful though and it's great that Lucas is getting onto the football course .

His carb and sugar intake today sounds quite high, if that's a typical sort of meal plan for him you might find that making some substitutions will have a big impact. It must be really hard if he's saying he's hungry all the time though, I find snacks the hardest thing to manage as there's only so many raw carrots a kid can eat before they start moaning for a pb&j an entire pack of petite filous .

 

[Zephram]

That seems really light on vegetables. Definitely room for improvement! Make sure he's having 7 servings of fruit and vegetables per day - I would probably cut some of the carbs and sugar and replace with veggies. Lasagne and macaroni cheese are dishes that are very high in calories too and I would limit these to sometimes food instead of having them often.

 

[catty]

Thanks ladies,
Id say this was actually less food than his norm as hed probably normally have a plum or orange at some point and usually with his breakfast he has some blueberries or banana through his cereal but didnt want today.
The sausages and beans was a rushed meal which isnt often.
He was moaning for more food today again but didnt want the raisins id packed.

What type of evening meals do you do? Id say he has veg through his spag bol. He loves broccoli so i normally give him a few bits of that quite often and carrots but a0art from that now im thinking of it i probably am not doing enough veg at all

 

[loeylo]

Raisins are also full of sugar, dried fruit is worse than fresh fruit so I'd try to have him eat more fresh fruit. My daughter used to love raisins but we stopped giving her them when I realised how bad they were.

Try switching to wholegrain carbs rather than white carbs if you don't already do this.

I'd add more protein personally. My dd usually has a meal plan like this:

Breakfast:
Wholemeal toast with butter, boiled egg and asparagus spears
Or
Bran flakes and milk
Or
Grilled tomato, mushroom and onion with scoop of baked beans on wholemeal toast
Or
Porridge oats, fat free yoghurt and red berries

Morning snack
Piece of fruit (usually tangerine and banana)
Or
Cheese fingers, olives, cherry tomatoes and crackers

Lunch
Cheesy beans on toast
Or
Tuna pasta with peas and broccoli
Or
Cheesy scrambled egg on toast
Or
A one of the hot breakfast options
Or
Soup and wholemeal bread

Afternoon snack
A plain biscuit
Or
4-5 dark chocolate drops
Or
Yoghurt with honey and fruit
Or
Fruit
Or
Crackers and cheese
Or
Dry cereal

Dinner
She eats the same as me, I do slimming world so the sauces are always vegetable heavy (there is a macaroni cheese made with blended butternut squash, a healthy lasagne, we do pitta/wrap pizzas, we do a curry made from blended cauliflower)
I then serve at least 1/3 of each plate vegetables.

 

[lau86]

Just to give you an idea here is a typical day for us (it's not really much different to you though?!)
Breakfast- porridge or branflakes (their choice)
Snack at play group- biscuit
Lunch- sandwich with cheese, tomato and cucumber, orange
Snack after school- piece of cheese
Dinner - chicken with oven chips and broccoli
Yoghurt and fruit after (I get plain natural yoghurt)
We also mix up dinners and do cottage pie, spag Bol, fish, things like that.
My son complained of being hungry a lot and it helped when I switched his breakfast to multigrain porridge.

 

[.Mrs.B.]

Some easy swaps I would make would be to swap sausages for something like fish fingers in the quick meal, swap the beans for peas, swap 'kids' yoghurts for natural yoghurt and swap any sugary cereal for non sugary.
Weetabix, shredded wheat and oats are great low sugar cereals. If a cereal has more then 10g of sugar per 100g then I don't buy it. Some 'kids' cereals can be as much as 40% sugar, it's bad how things are sold to us.

 

[.Mrs.B.]

Also, at this age it's easy for kids to 'grow' into their weight. The dietitian should focus on not gaining weight rather than losing weight, they should be looking to maintain his current weight until he 'catches up' with it.

 

[Eleanor ace]

My kids normally have:

Breakfast: porridge (most days)/ wholemeal toast with honey (once a week) / cereal (once a week)

Morning snack: fruit (1-2 pieces, usually a banana and some grapes/nectraine/apple, occasionally raisins (but like once a week or less)

Lunch: if at school, DS usually has a jacket potato with beans and cheese, DD1 will have whatever it is, they both usually have a pudding too! If at home, I make soup (tomato, leek & potato or veg) with bread / sandwiches (ham salad) with cucumber and carrot sticks, often they'll have crisps if they have sandwiches / cheese, ham, tomato and spinach omlette / a "picnic" of veg sticks with thousand island dressing to dip, ham, cheese, breadsticks. Yogurt and berries or a petite filous (2 for the bigger 2) for pudding and fruit if they want it.

Afternoon snack: fruit and half a bagel / Soreen / pb&j sandwich / chocolatte / crisps

Dinner: stir fry / pies (cottage pie / fish pie / chicken and vegetable pie) / spag bol (I make my bolognese 50% veg, courgette, mushroom, carrot, celery, peppers) / fish cakes with rice or chips / fajitas / pasta bake. Veg on the side, 1-2 servings.
Pudding: rice pudding / yogurt or petite filous / jelly or cake 1-2 times a week

Most days I start out with good intentions and by dinner time they're over their rda for sugar . They eat a lot of fruit and veg so I don't feel toooo bad. DD2 doesn't really like veg and hates most fruit so I have to get creative and pack meals with hidden veg; she chucks most of it on the floor but at least I can tell myself I tried .

 

[catty]

Thanks its good to see what other people are giving there kids.

Fri he had -
7.30am - cornflakes and banana
8.30 - started saying hes hungry
10- small amount of blueberries and raspeberries (asking for more)
12 - lunch of some cheese cubes, brown bread sandwich with ham and cucumber and yoghurt.

1- saying hes hungry
1.30 - yoghurt bar
5pm - dinner of mashed potatoes, carrots and homemade steak pie, gravy - plate cleared

6pm - im hungryyy
7pm bed

 

[catty]

https://i1164.photobucket.com/albums/q564/catherinerobertson89/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20170718_174503_144_zpsggvjvjze.jpg

https://i1164.photobucket.com/albums/q564/catherinerobertson89/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20170721_091332_968_zpsasfi1cvk.jpg

Here he is. As you can see little sister is a skinny minnie

 

[CaptainMummy]

They are cuties! He looks really short so he might take a big stretch and really grow into his weight. I know of a few little boys who have done exactly that and are now very slim! I don't think he eats badly, better than mine! My girls are always hungry and snacking and apart from home made soup, they dont eat any veggies whatsoever (not for lack of trying!)

 

[Eleanor ace]

DS could eat for England; he's just turned 6 and eats more than DH for breakfast. He had 4x Wheetabix with milk, 1x slice of toast with honey, most of a satsuma and a banana for breakfast today. Less than an hour later he's asking when it's time for lunch . I let him eat as much as he likes as long as it's healthyish! Otherwise he gets so grumpy. Fruit, veg, smoothies, breadsticks, eggs done various ways, bagels/cumpets/sandwiches; all are consumed in massive amounts here.

 

[Rags]

Hi, I wouldn't normally post on a thread about diet as Ds and I are pescetarian and I've never been a big believer in low fat products as they often have added ingredients to help the taste.
Anyway, this said I was wondering what/how often your Ds drinks? A long time ago I was told that if you feel hungry have a drink of water - if you still feel hungry ten minutes later then you need food but often mild dehydration can feel like hunger. The idea of still water is that unlike fizzy drinks it doesn't bloat you and cause hunger but unlike milk or still juice/fruit juice it isn't a food/calorie source, it's purely about hydration. He seems to be saying he's hungry very soon after eating which is why I'm asking.