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Children's weight issues for dieting Mum



 
 
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  #1  
Old November 20th 03, 12:55 AM
Andy Harmon
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Default Children's weight issues for dieting Mum

Wendy wrote:

My son's pediatrician suspects I might be starving him. Big sigh.

I've got three children. I've got a normal sized 12 year old who has no
health issues, has had menarche, stuff like that. She's slim but not
skinny. She exercises regularly.

I've got a 10 year old son who has a bit too much bodyfat for optimum
health but only a health nut would notice - half his class is bulkier than
him. I mentioned to his doctor once that I was concerned about the
development of new belly fat and the doctor looked at me like I was
nuts. (The doctor sees tons of obese children - no pun intended - and
didn't think my kid's fat roll was worth commenting on.) In retrospect I
wish I had never made that comment. It was soon after noticing my son's
trend towards rotundness that I made my major lifestyle changes to lose my
weight. My son's eating has not changed that much and we're handling his
slight weight issues by increasing family activities.

But my third child is very, very small. 28 pounds at four years
old. He's gained 1.5 pounds in the past two years. There are reasons why
he might be small - a critical illness last year where he lost a bunch of
weight (that he's since regained), the fact that all his siblings were
unusually small at his age, the fact that my kids are unusually active and
eat unusually healthy foods in comparison to their peers...

But the doctor knows I've lost 50+ pounds in the past year, and has
started wondering if I've got some sort of eating disorder. What to
do? I've got until Jan. 15th to fatten him up and then the doctor plans
to start doing all sorts of tests that I don't want to put my kid
through. (My kid is energetic and healthy - no colds, etc.)

Here's what I do. I put peanutbutter on anything possible. I feed him
spoonfuls of cod liver oil. I mix flaxseed into his oatmeal. I give him
Balance bars or Myoplex shakes for snacks. He has a snack cupboard with
a wide variety of choices available to him all the time (including pudding
& those dreaded almonds.) He is fed five or six times a day. He doesn't
have a huge appetite and is unpredictable in what he'll eat: tonight, for
example, he ate cranberry relish and whole wheat bread but passed up the
mashed potatoes and turkey and broccoli (which he usually loves.)

I don't buy cookies or chips or pretty much any refined flour products -
even the crackers are whole wheat ones. I only buy skim milk for the rest
of the family but I buy flavored 2% milk for him (because he won't drink
plain milk.) I'm thinking of mixing up infant formula for him again if
he'll drink it!

Any other ideas? He just came downstairs saying he's hungry for an orange
so I'll go get him one (yes, it's after 9 pm and no, he's not sleepy.)

Wendy


Wendy:

I have been reading some of the responses and people
are making ridiculous comments. You need a new doctor.
I have lost 70 lbs in the past 2 yrs and I have heard
that one friend thinks I have AIDS! People are so
content with being overweight .... while their health
is destroyed.

Keep an eye on your son's weight.

Andy
  #2  
Old November 20th 03, 03:58 PM
Kate Rambo
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Posts: n/a
Default Children's weight issues for dieting Mum

I'm replying to a reply because I don't have the original post. I'm also
snipping cross posting.


But my third child is very, very small. 28 pounds at four years
old. He's gained 1.5 pounds in the past two years. There are reasons

why
he might be small - a critical illness last year where he lost a bunch

of
weight (that he's since regained), the fact that all his siblings were
unusually small at his age, the fact that my kids are unusually active

and
eat unusually healthy foods in comparison to their peers...

Here's what I do. I put peanutbutter on anything possible. I feed him
spoonfuls of cod liver oil. I mix flaxseed into his oatmeal. I give

him
Balance bars or Myoplex shakes for snacks. He has a snack cupboard with
a wide variety of choices available to him all the time (including

pudding
& those dreaded almonds.) He is fed five or six times a day. He

doesn't
have a huge appetite and is unpredictable in what he'll eat: tonight,

for
example, he ate cranberry relish and whole wheat bread but passed up the
mashed potatoes and turkey and broccoli (which he usually loves.)

My nearly 3 year old is also *very* tiny. He is all of 23 to 24 pounds
fully dressed. He has gained
weight since he was diagnosed with his metabolic disorder, but not as much
as they would
have liked to see. We talked to the dietician at Cincy Children's and she
recommended giving
Lucas more fat in his diet. We cook a lot of his food with butter -- his
breakfast, on his veggies, etc.
( 4 tsp of butter gives you an extra 200 calories) and we give him olives,
which he loves.
6 of those gives another 50 calories. The list we were given also
recommended putting chocolate chips
on pancakes or even as a snack. The trick as you've figured out is to make
everything more calorically dense.

I don't buy cookies or chips or pretty much any refined flour products -
even the crackers are whole wheat ones. I only buy skim milk for the

rest
of the family but I buy flavored 2% milk for him (because he won't drink
plain milk.) I'm thinking of mixing up infant formula for him again if
he'll drink it!


What about something like Pediasure? Do you think he'd like that? We can't
do that (it has
starch) but it might be an option for you. I think that they come in
several flavors.

Kate R.


  #3  
Old November 20th 03, 06:23 PM
dragonlady
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Children's weight issues for dieting Mum

In article ,
Ignoramus1904 wrote:

In article , Kate Rambo wrote:

My nearly 3 year old is also *very* tiny. He is all of 23 to 24
pounds fully dressed. He has gained weight since he was diagnosed
with his metabolic disorder, but not as much as they would have
liked to see. We talked to the dietician at Cincy Children's and
she recommended giving Lucas more fat in his diet. We cook a lot of
his food with butter -- his breakfast, on his veggies, etc. ( 4 tsp
of butter gives you an extra 200 calories) and we give him olives,
which he loves. 6 of those gives another 50 calories. The list we
were given also recommended putting chocolate chips on pancakes or
even as a snack. The trick as you've figured out is to make
everything more calorically dense.


What is the name of his disorder?

i


And how can I acquire it?

(No, that's a joke -- I have a great deal of sympathy for how hard it
must be to try to put weight ON, since I know how hard it is to keep it
OFF. From my point of view, it just sounds more enjoyable. One of my
brothers was a very skinny child, and I remember some of the things Mom
had to go through to try to keep his diet calorically dense.)

meh
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care

  #4  
Old November 20th 03, 08:00 PM
Kate Rambo
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Posts: n/a
Default Children's weight issues for dieting Mum


"dragonlady" wrote in message
...
In article ,


And how can I acquire it?


It's really funny--I've cut out starches (almost completely) and have
reduced my symptoms of IBS *and* lost 25 pounds since the end of August.
But why I've been overweight since college if ( and this may be a big if) I
can't use starches is a mystery to me.

(No, that's a joke -- I have a great deal of sympathy for how hard it
must be to try to put weight ON, since I know how hard it is to keep it
OFF. From my point of view, it just sounds more enjoyable. One of my
brothers was a very skinny child, and I remember some of the things Mom
had to go through to try to keep his diet calorically dense.)


The hardest part is knowing that you are feeding your child and he/she is
still tiny. I had someone threaten to call family services on me because I
was obviously starving my child (while he was sitting in his stroller and
eating).

I assume that your brother eventually grew. Even though I was very small
(30 pounds at 4), I certainly seem to have caught up in college ( I grew 3.5
inches).

Kate R.


  #5  
Old November 20th 03, 08:34 PM
Robyn Kozierok
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Children's weight issues for dieting Mum

Wendy wrote:


But my third child is very, very small. 28 pounds at four years
old. He's gained 1.5 pounds in the past two years. There are reasons why
he might be small - a critical illness last year where he lost a bunch of
weight (that he's since regained), the fact that all his siblings were
unusually small at his age, the fact that my kids are unusually active and
eat unusually healthy foods in comparison to their peers...


I've got a tiny one too, now 2.5yo. Like your son, his growth pattern
is similar to that of his older siblings (and mine as a child), so we
mostly figured it was probably just a familial growth patter, but because
it was so pronounced in my third child, we didn't want to rule out any
other potential causes, so did agree to some testing. We had a sweat
test done to rule out cystic fibrosis, and some blood work and a fecal
fat analysis.

I've got until Jan. 15th to fatten him up and then the doctor plans
to start doing all sorts of tests that I don't want to put my kid
through. (My kid is energetic and healthy - no colds, etc.)


You don't have to consent to testing you don't want your child to have,
of course. But as I'm sure you know, this may lead them to suspect
abuse/neglect. Unfortunately, sometimes "failure to thrive" is caused
by either incompetent or neglectful parents, and so it casts an unkind
suspicion on all parents of tiny children.

I only buy skim milk for the rest
of the family but I buy flavored 2% milk for him (because he won't drink
plain milk.) I'm thinking of mixing up infant formula for him again if
he'll drink it!


Try Carnation Instant Breakfast in whole milk for more fat, calories,
protein, calcium. We mix in some half-and-half as well for even more
fat. We also use the half-and-half in place of milk on his cereal.

It sounds like you're doing lots of things to help him get enough fat
and calories. You might document what he eats for a few days to
hopefully satisfy the "experts" that you are in fact feeding him enough
(both quantity and quality).

Good luck!
--Robyn
  #6  
Old November 20th 03, 08:41 PM
dragonlady
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Children's weight issues for dieting Mum

In article ,
"Kate Rambo" wrote:

"dragonlady" wrote in message
...
In article ,


And how can I acquire it?


It's really funny--I've cut out starches (almost completely) and have
reduced my symptoms of IBS *and* lost 25 pounds since the end of August.
But why I've been overweight since college if ( and this may be a big if) I
can't use starches is a mystery to me.

(No, that's a joke -- I have a great deal of sympathy for how hard it
must be to try to put weight ON, since I know how hard it is to keep it
OFF. From my point of view, it just sounds more enjoyable. One of my
brothers was a very skinny child, and I remember some of the things Mom
had to go through to try to keep his diet calorically dense.)


The hardest part is knowing that you are feeding your child and he/she is
still tiny. I had someone threaten to call family services on me because I
was obviously starving my child (while he was sitting in his stroller and
eating).

I assume that your brother eventually grew. Even though I was very small
(30 pounds at 4), I certainly seem to have caught up in college ( I grew 3.5
inches).

Kate R.



Yep -- over six feet, and struggles with being overweight. (He
literally grew an inch a month for one year -- a full foot in 12 months.)

All of us were on the underweight side until we hit adolescence -- since
then, four of the six of us have struggled with being overweight. My
Mom was the same. Dad jokes that when he met mom, she was a perfect 36
-- 12/12/12 -- and that he got her pregnant so she'd have SOME shape.
(She was only 15 at the time.) I'm not sure how old she was when she
started struggling with being overweight.

meh
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care

  #7  
Old November 20th 03, 11:05 PM
Kate Rambo
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Children's weight issues for dieting Mum


"Ignoramus1904" wrote in message
...

Just curious, how did that happen? Was it a relative?


No, a stranger. Some people like to make problems when none exists. I
suppose it makes them feel important. I couldn't figure out why she'd even
bother. It wasn't as if she knew our name or address or any other pertinent
data. She couldn't have turned us in! All of the relatives had watched
Lucas eat--they KNEW that we weren't starving him.

I wish people who don't have any information would be careful about what
they say. At the time, we were waiting for an appointment with a second
gastroenterologist and getting flak from family about not leaving things
well enough alone.

I personally have learned that you shouldn't make comments on weight of kids
you don't know. The child could have celiac disease, CF, or a myriad other
problems.

Kate R.

P.S. Since one of my posts didn't go through: My son's pancreas does not
produce amylase, the enzyme that breaks down starch. It triggered symptoms
that had him tested for CF, celiac disease, and a lot of other possible
problems. Luckily, it's a relatively easy problem to handle.


  #8  
Old November 24th 03, 04:26 PM
Wendy
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Children's weight issues for dieting Mum

In misc.kids Andy Harmon wrote:
Wendy wrote:

My son's pediatrician suspects I might be starving him. Big sigh.


I just noticed that Andy "helpfully" cross-posted this to misc.kids and
misc.kids.health. As it happens, I read and post in both places. I
posted this in my diet group because it pertained more to the issues of
having lost a lot of weight and the struggles of meeting the calorie needs
of five very different individuals in one house than the issues associated
with making my child be different than he is. I answered in
alt.support.diet about the medical aspects of it.

I guess I'm posting this to say that I'd prefer not to have my posts get
cross-posted. I consider it an etiquette faux pas. It's also not
terribly useful if I don't know to follow the threads in the other groups!

Wendy

  #9  
Old November 24th 03, 05:49 PM
Jenn
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Children's weight issues for dieting Mum

In article ,
(Robyn Kozierok) wrote:

Wendy wrote:


But my third child is very, very small. 28 pounds at four years
old. He's gained 1.5 pounds in the past two years. There are reasons why
he might be small - a critical illness last year where he lost a bunch of
weight (that he's since regained), the fact that all his siblings were
unusually small at his age, the fact that my kids are unusually active and
eat unusually healthy foods in comparison to their peers...


I've got a tiny one too, now 2.5yo. Like your son, his growth pattern
is similar to that of his older siblings (and mine as a child), so we
mostly figured it was probably just a familial growth patter, but because
it was so pronounced in my third child, we didn't want to rule out any
other potential causes, so did agree to some testing. We had a sweat
test done to rule out cystic fibrosis, and some blood work and a fecal
fat analysis.

I've got until Jan. 15th to fatten him up and then the doctor plans
to start doing all sorts of tests that I don't want to put my kid
through. (My kid is energetic and healthy - no colds, etc.)


You don't have to consent to testing you don't want your child to have,
of course. But as I'm sure you know, this may lead them to suspect
abuse/neglect. Unfortunately, sometimes "failure to thrive" is caused
by either incompetent or neglectful parents, and so it casts an unkind
suspicion on all parents of tiny children.

I only buy skim milk for the rest
of the family but I buy flavored 2% milk for him (because he won't drink
plain milk.) I'm thinking of mixing up infant formula for him again if
he'll drink it!


Try Carnation Instant Breakfast in whole milk for more fat, calories,
protein, calcium. We mix in some half-and-half as well for even more
fat. We also use the half-and-half in place of milk on his cereal.

It sounds like you're doing lots of things to help him get enough fat
and calories. You might document what he eats for a few days to
hopefully satisfy the "experts" that you are in fact feeding him enough
(both quantity and quality).

Good luck!
--Robyn




I have a nephew like this -- his older brother was good sized as a
small child, but this one is tiny -- his Mom was worried until I showed
her a picture taken when my husband was about 15 with his 6 younger
brothers -- my husband who had hit puberty was good sized and his
brothers were just all tiny [although only a few years younger] -- in
his family the kids are tiny and then grow when they hit puberty -- all
those little guys [including my SIL husband] are all now between 5'9 and
5'11 but they were dinky little guys --
 




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