Does anyone have overweight children?
IBCLC & Nurse JC asked: Does anyone have children or babies who the doctors say are overweight based on a height and weight chart? How do you feel abo...
IBCLC & Nurse JC asked:
Does anyone have children or babies who the doctors say are overweight based on a height and weight chart? How do you feel about that? Are you doing anything different to change your child’s diet or increase activity?
Michael
Does anyone have children or babies who the doctors say are overweight based on a height and weight chart? How do you feel about that? Are you doing anything different to change your child’s diet or increase activity?
Michael
I son is a skinny little thing because I feed him healthy and he gets lots of outside play time. There is a lot of overweight children…I do blame the parents yet at the same time….sometimes it’s easier/cheaper to eat off the dollar menu at McDonalds than it is to spend $600 a month to stock your house with food (That’s how much it costs in my area…SF Bay Area…groceries are EXPENSIVE) so I know families are doing what they can but it’s expensive to eat healthy now days.
My child isn’t in this situation, but my sister was considered “overweight” by doctors at the age of 4. They guided my mother towards giving her a healthier diet (the girl loved hot dogs!) and with their help, my sister was able to slim down a bit. Unless the doctor becomes alarmed and tells you directly to change the child’s diet, the extra chub might just be ok to deal with for now.
You should always be teachign you child to eat healthy and be active, though.
I operate a home day care, and I had a child in my care who was 4 years old and 62lbs. He was HUGE, and not even tall for his age.
The doctors constantly told his mother to stop feeding him so much and try to improve his diet, but she never really did anything about it. When he was with me, he would get healthy foods and normal toddler portions, however his mother let him eat a LOT.
It’s not necessarily that he ate a lot of junk because he didn’t, but she would just feed him more than a 4 year old should be eating. She’d let him snack whenever he wanted, and instead of fruits and veggies he would have crackers or something — which is fine, but NOT fine if you’re going to let him snack multiple times between meals! Also, for dinner and stuff he’d eat like a packet of easy mac, and 2 hot dogs. No fruits, no veggies, and he was allowed as much of the food as he wanted.
A lot of people don’t realize how small a toddler’s stomach is! Good question to ask to help raise some awareness! Bad eating habits taught at such a young age really stick with children and typically, overweight kids become overweight adults. Nothing wrong with a couple extra pounds, but obesity is very unhealthy for you and causes numerous health risks!
None of my sons are overweight, but my nephew is in the 95th percentile for height and the 125th percentile for weight, or vice versa. I can’t remember which way my sister in law told me it was.
He weighs more than my 5 year old who weighs 34 1/2 lbs and my 2 year old who weighs 27 1/4lbs. My nephew weighs 37lbs (the last time I knew, which was 2 months ago) and is only 22 months old. The doctor’s assume something is medically wrong with him, because the tested him for ms without telling or asking my sister in law.
I unfortunately believe he is autistic, but who am I to say. I just see alot of the tendencies in him of an autistic child. The tantrums out of no where, no verbal communication, no Speech at all for that matter, alot of grunts, flapping of the hands or arms, hitting, pinching, biting, grabbing really hard and other little things that I find weird. He has actually grabbed me so hard that he drew blood. Not only that but he smacked me in my face and left a hand print.
I think that he is autistic or very aggressive. Either way its not good.
As far as my sister in law doing anything about it, YEAH RIGHT, when someone can tell me how to get her to listen to anyone, and someone can tell me how to tell her I think she should bring up autisum to her dr., then maybe she will do something about it. But until then she will keep telling everyone that there is nothing wrong with her son. Unfortunately for a new mom that is always true, until it is too late.
I just wish I could tell her how I feel and see things about my nephew that make me think he is autistic. Any advice, you can email me. Thank you.
Thank you for posting this question, I have had that on my chest for awhile and needed to clear it.
My children are skinny! My four year old is almost 5 and is 38 pounds, and my son is 2 almost 3 and is 30 pounds. I feed them healthy things. I live in the eastern part of the USA and i spend about 250-350 a week on groceries.
Our pediatrician has not told us our daughter is overweight. She has always been off the charts in height and weight.At first it made me feel strange to have such big girl, she is literally a head taller than most kids her age group. She just turned 2 and weighs 36 lbs and measures over 3 ft is height.
-To the mother who thinks all children who are bigger are fed McDonald’s, please don’t make assumptions it comes across as very ignorant. Your child being thin is affected by his activity and diet but genes play a HUGE factor in weight regulation, so don’t go tapping yourself on the shoulder just yet! Some children are just bigger than others, regardless of their diet and activity level. My daughter is very active and eats healthy and about 60% percent of her diet is strictly organic, the rest we make sure has no additives, nitrates,low sodium etc. Food is expensive anywhere, we spend around $600 for groceries for our family of 3. We can afford to eat healthy but many families can’t so yes often times the dollar menu is a more economical solution for those struggling families. I don’t blame the families so much as the government, the European Union won’t accept our exports of meat and dairy b/c of all the hormones we pump in it. What about the US corn sub-sudies…almost everything contains high fructose corn syrup! Healthy food is just more expensive, and sadly it is a luxury for many!