A few months ago, I voiced a concern about SD's weight. She was very overweight when I met her (she was 5 and wore size 12 Capri pants because they fit her like a regular pant length, or she wore stretch pants) She was so round and always looked uncomfortable.. she never had the energy to play. Anything more than a couple of minutes, she'd be out of breath and sweaty.
DH moved in with me when she was six. Over the next nine months, at our house we cut out dessert and soda. We also cooked healthy and did portion control. She slimmed down quite a bit and lost the round face and could play and wore normal size clothes. Then her mom left and she started having some issues with food. She started to complain she is hungry all the time. Then she started to sneak food and we'd find the debris in her room. Then she was doubling up on her lunch... buying hot when she took a cold. [and we know that it's probably emotional eating and she was talking to her counselor about it, but she was still doing it and nothing seemed to get through to her] So, this was all happening before she went to her mom's house for summer.
Well, she weighed 89.5 lbs. on the last day of school. BMI charts for her age and height (56 inches) say she should weigh 62-87 lbs., so she wasn't too much over that. She would consistently come back from her mom's weighing 92 after a weekend and by the next week, she'd be back to 89. So, DH brought it to BM's attention that he's concerned about SD's weight. BM told us that she was going to make sure SD didn't just sit around and play video games and eat all day.
Now, it's two weeks before school and SD has gained 15 lbs. in nine weeks. She now weighs 105 and none of her clothes will button. According to the CDC website (BMI calculator), SD is now considered 'obese' which concerns us. [and on the weekends she's been with us, she'll lose about 1.5 lbs by Sunday from her starting weight on Friday] Which I also know the gaining/losing is not good for her either, it messes up her metabolism. But, she loses that because we feed her normally and have her play outside at least once on Saturday and once on Sunday. (30 minutes each time, more if she wants.. but she usually doesn't want to stay out there)
She'll go outside to play and come back every 5 minutes to get a drink of water and whine that she's tired and can't she just watch a movie in her room? We have talked to her over the last couple of years about making good food choices, portion control and exercise. So, I'm not sure it's fair to put the blame on her mom, she's 9 and she should take some of the responsibility for her choices. However, I do know she tells us her mom lets her eat anything she wants and she doesn't have to ask, she just goes to the kitchen and makes what she wants, when she wants. And she says she mostly plays video games in her room.
I told her at the end of last school year that I was going to sign her up for dance class this school year because she wants to be in dance. Considering her current weight, I am not sure it would be good to put her in a class where she might be teased or feel self conscious. She's cried in the past about kids teasing her at her old school because of her weight. It may be difficult for her when she comes back to school and the kids notice her weight too. I'd really like some opinions on whether I should go ahead and put her in dance or would it do more harm than good?
Has anyone been through this and what did you do? We are hoping that when she comes back for school, that she'll lose some of the weight because we encourage her to play outside and want to get her involved in sports. We also don't let her cook whatever she wants, whenever she wants. (mainly because DH is a neat freak and doesn't want her making a mess, doesn't want a huge grocery bill, and doesn't want his daughter to be obese)
iloveexercise
freezetag
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