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

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.

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

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 --

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