Are you a parent of an overweight child?

My husband and I have always been slim, and as such, we figured that our children would be similarly built. Most of our extended family are also at a healthy weight. And we were right- well, 63% right.

We have 3 children, ages 11,5,4, and our oldest and youngest are small, but our 5 y/o is a big boy. Where I live, there is a prerequisite program that must be attended by soon to be kindergarteners. When we took him, the nurse measured his height and weight and according to the charts, he's in the 95th percentile. That was almost 2 years ago.

He is 3'10" and 56.6pds. It doesn't seem to unreasonable now that I'm looking at it in black and white, but then the image of his belly come to mind and I know that he is possibly overweight.

I don't believe in putting kids on diets. I figure that from here on, I can have healthy meals and snacks for him and he'll grow into his weight. Since he has started kindergarten, I think that maybe he's already starting to slim out a bit.

Is there anyone out there who has had/does have an overweight child? Any advice would be welcome!!

- I have a doctor appointment scheduled for him in 2 weeks regarding this very topic

Kids hit growth spurts all the time. Your boy might be going through one right now. See if there are any Pee-Wee sports or activities that your sone might like to do. Alot of YMCA's across the country have sports programs where they rotate the sport every couple of weeks. Your son will like meeting all the new kids, and you'll get to have a couple of hours a week for yourself and hubby!!

Hi, i don't have an overweight child but i just thought i would say i think that you are doing everything right. Early intervention is the way to go. Healty snacks and taking him to the doctor is the way to go.

Also maybe get him into sports or some form of fun 'exercise' like swimming.

My son is only 2.5 years old and one on the way so no problems with weight.....

Have a great day and don't worry:)

great idea

As a former overweight kid, I wanted to chime in and say I think you are definitely on the right track.  In my opinion, he's definitely not in need of a "diet."  I also think that if you tried to talk to him about his weight, he wouldn't understand, and it would probably affect him negatively.  Now that he's started school, he's probably getting some teasing about it, so he probably knows that he's "different." 

I think that providing him with healthier foods will be the best way to succeed.

Also, again speaking only from my own experience, definitely encourage him in the realm of physical activity.  If he doesn't have a bike yet, get him one if you can afford to, and let him ride as much as possible (maybe even start taking bike rides together as a family.)  Expose him to a variety of other activities like little league sports and martial arts classes.  If he shows an interest, get him involved. 

I'm not saying this to place any blame, because after a certain point I had the ability to make choices, but - my parents never encouraged me to play sports or do other physical activity.  I remember a couple of times that I wanted to join teams, but they always had a reason why they couldn't let me do it (usually involving lack of money or schedule) so I gave up asking.  I think that if I had seen a little more encouragement from them to be physically active, that I may not have ended up where I was.

Either way, if the doctor gives him a clean bill of health, then I say your plan is a great one! :)

Thanks all!

Laura, I really enjoyed reading what you had to say, with you seeing it from an entirely different perspective.

I don't think that he's getting any teasing at school. yet. He's definitely the tallest boy in the class, and we wear clothes on him that don't accentuate his chubbiness.

You're right about him not understanding if I tried to talk to him about it. I never have, because I don't think it's necessary at this point. Why would I want to point out to him that he has a weight problem?? To me, that just puts a horrible stigmatism on a young child. I would never do that. I want him to feel confident and happy, not tell him that his body is all wrong. And really, it was ME and MY HUSBAND that bought the food that helped him get bigger than he should be.

He does have a bike and loves to ride. He has a big brother and is always trying to keep up with him, so he's plenty active. His brother is on a school soccer team this year and my 5 y/o talks about it often, saying he wants to play too. We live in the country and have big wide open fields surrounding our house, so they have oodles of room to run and play.

Again, thanks for your input- it really shed a neat light on the whole thing! :)