dreaming primitive seeks help with overweight kid

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=238x3668

Oh my.

Dream Girl  (25 posts)      Sun Dec-27-09 07:46 PM
Original message
 
At a loss....seeking weight loss advice for my 9 year old boy
My son has been heavy since about age 5 and it has been a concern of his doctor, but so far no medical problems. Problem is he is getting heavier and heavier. He is now about 115 pounds. It breaks my heart that we can't find pants that fit him and his wardrobe is stretchy shorts, sweat pants etc. jeans even husky jeans are impossible. He has a huge tummy and stretch marks!!

I am at a loss. He is very active. This past fall he was playing three sports (soccer, flag football and water polo). He is a great athlete and loves physical activity like snowboarding and skate boarding and his favorite school activity is recess.

He does have a hearty appetite, but we don't eat a bad diet though it could be much, much better. I try to push vegetables and read labels to avoid bad ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, etc. We never have soda in the house although he might get one once a month at parties, traveling, etc He does love to watch tv too and tends to snack while he watches it. This is the one thing that I think could be contributing to his obesity.

My husband's two other boys were also quite chubby when they were younger, but slimmed down in their teens. One of them is downright skinny as a young twenty something. His cousins on my hubby's side also showed the same pattern. How worried should I be??? Will he slim down or take after my side of the family which tends to be overweight? I was slim until I hit my forties.

AwakeAtLast  (1000+ posts)        Mon Dec-28-09 12:18 AM
Response to Original message
 
1. I don't have a lot of answers

Does he like fruit? I have a daughter who would rather eat applesauce than just about anything else. If there is a favorite fruit I would try to make that the snack of choice.

My other suggestion is to take out everything that is processed.

Tumbulu  (787 posts)     Mon Dec-28-09 12:54 AM
Response to Original message
 
2. I would try to make sure all animal products are organic or at least free range hormone free as the cocktail of hormones given to conventional meat and milk and egg producing animals all do the same thing. They switch the animals system into "get fat as fast as you can with the lowest input" mode. I think that these same hormones persist and effect us in the same way.

Plus the food tastes better and it costs more, so unless you have lots of money, you have to buy less of it.

Can you try to supply almonds and walnuts (in shell so he can crack them himself) instead of chips for snacking?

Dream Girl  (25 posts)      Mon Dec-28-09 03:34 PM
Response to Reply #2
 
6. That makes sense about the hormones, but we already eats organic eggs and drinks organic milk almost exclusively and have done so since he was born. His school serves mostly organic products too (he's very lucky). Meat not so much, but he doesn't really love protein that much. I do get grass fed hamburger and will move towards organic chicken for the new year. We are not huge meat eaters, though he loves lamb which I think is usually grass fed. Except for the occassional In & Out burger maybe 2-3 times a year, we don't do fast food at all.

He does like his carbs, bread and pancakes in particular. He will not eat whole wheat, so I buy the white whole wheat bread (which I'm not so sure about). I wonder if a low carb diet would work for him? Would be nearly impossible to implement.

Oh my.  The kid's probably got haemerrhoids by now too.

MorningGlow  (1000+ posts)      Mon Dec-28-09 10:45 AM
Response to Original message
 
3. I'm going to risk sounding like a broken record, but has the doctor checked his thyroid?

Your son's experience sounds EXACTLY like mine when I was little, and it turned out that I had a thyroid problem inherited from both sides of my family. I was a little chubby when I was 5 or so, and my family just called it "baby fat". But by the time I was 8, I was clinically obese. And this was in the early '70s, back when there were hardly ANY fat kids. It was torture--and I had done nothing to "make" myself fat. My physical system just went off the rails, and I started gaining weight like crazy, no matter what I did. Does that sound like your son?

My pediatrician tested my thyroid regularly, but I never received any medication. I don't know why, as nobody explained things to the 8-year-old they were sticking with needles. Maybe the doctor thought I'd grow out of it--but now we know that people don't "grow out of" a thyroid problem, as it's a chemical imbalance just like any other that impairs a body's ability to function properly.

Like your son, my diet wasn't bad. I was less active than your son, but that was because of other health issues (low blood pressure and a D deficiency that made me woozy if I was too physical). His high level of activity and decent diet should mean that he'd be a "normal" size. (Snacking is a problem, but if his metabolism were normal, it shouldn't be that much of a detriment. I have a normal-weight son who eats constantly and is less active than your son, and he's not gaining weight.) I was put on a strict diet and exercise program when I was 9, and it did NOTHING. My body did NOT budge for anything except puberty, when I slimmed down practically overnight, and I stayed skinny well into my adult years.

However, I found out later, that was because I had swung from hypothyroid (TSH too high, metabolism too slow) to hyperthyroid (TSH too low, metabolism on fast-forward). This happens with lots of thyroid patients (the pendulum swinging between the two extremes), and it's NOT healthy--contributes to weakened heart muscles in the long term. (Now I'm back to hypo and overweight; the pendulum swings don't stop.) Do you know if there's any history of thyroid problems on your husband's side?

The bottom line is a child who eats normally and is physically active should NOT be obese without some underlying medical problem that has gone undiagnosed.

I would urge you to request that your son's pediatrician check his TSH level as well as his free T3 level (thyroid hormone). Be warned, however--most doctors don't know the first thing about thyroid problems. Most just check the TSH and declare it "normal" if it's in the old acceptable range (between 0.5 and 5.0), which doctors who understand thyroid problems now have rejected as too broad. The new acceptable range is much more narrow. (As an adult, my TSH was 2.5 and I was half dead. It turns out that I function best when my TSH is around 1.0, which some doctors consider too low.)

Likewise, most doctors don't know how to treat thyroid problems, especially in children. Like I said, they expect them to "grow out of it", which does not happen. Thyroid must be treated with medication to balance the body's chemicals. However, most doctors will prescribe Synthroid, which is just about useless. Natural thyroid is better than synthetic by far, but lately natural thyroid has been difficult, but not impossible, to obtain. But that's another story.

In the meantime, you can read more about thyroid problems here: http://thyroid.about.com . See if the symptoms sound familiar. Most important, don't let the pediatrician brush you off. If you feel that there's something wrong with your son, hold his/her feet to the fire until you get to the bottom of it.

Dream Girl  (25 posts)      Mon Dec-28-09 03:27 PM
Response to Reply #3
 
5. Thank you so much!  

I never thought about an imbalance; just was looking for a magic diet bullet of some sort. I will follow up on the thyroid question and see where that goes...I will check out the link you posted. I fully expect to get brushed off by the pediatrician. I hate taking him there because I get lectured about his weight and given leaflets about childhood obesity, diabetes, etc. It makes me crazy because I know his diet is probablly better than 80% of kids who are normal weight.

Dream Girl  (25 posts)      Mon Dec-28-09 03:36 PM
Response to Reply #5
 
7. Just realized it was you MG. I know you from another DU board

I changed my name a while back but we chatted briefly about our kids. My son was the one who hated cops!!! You are always so helpful.

[JohnnyReb]

Natural thyroid is better than synthetic by far, but lately natural thyroid has been difficult, but not impossible, to obtain. But that's another story.

Heard that at a Cattlemans Association meeting over 30 years ago....You can thank us meat eaters for that and other useful drugs derived from dead cows.

[jukin]

Under Lord Obama Hell Care the kid will be refused treatment because his BMI (Body Mass Index) is over the established norm.  Sorry.

[GOBUCKS]

Send the kid to Las Vegas to live with Joe and the Tons o' Fun family. A few years on the giganticus diet, and he'll be ready for a great career in the county fair industry.

[Baruch Menachem]

Rule 1) no snacks in front of the TV
Rule 2) no TV
Rule 3) Vegies and fruits only until he gets down to under 90lbs.
Rule 4) no peanut butter or any other kind of oil.
rule 5) dry toast (on legs!)