What to do about an overweight daughter?

Question

My 10yr. old daughter is over 160lbs. Even though she is pretty tall and always active, is just can't lose any weight. Right now she is cutting down on her intake, but I just feel so bad for her since I know she still has a lot of growing to do. I try to tell her about her weight problem without upsetting her, but she is very sensitive. Her friends accept her since she is very nice, but health wise I know this can't be good for her. Both parents and kids with a simplar problem please respond.

Answer 1

Change your whole families diet to eating healthier. I have a 5 ingredient, 15 minute cookbook that is weightwatchers. You can find it at oxmoorhouse.com. This even includes deserts. When you go grocery shopping, get fruit and healthy things. Since you cannot cut out everything unhealthy all at once, you should look for some snacks like 100 calorie packs. This will help the whole family lose weight. Good Luck!!

Answer 2

Just love her. She will be fine. Cook healthy meals. Encourage her to eat wisely. But stop telling her she's over weight. She's going into one of the roughest periods of her life -- adolescents -- she doesn't need any more pressure. You be her safe place. When she's ready she'll do it on her own. And what's wrong with the kids liking her cause she's nice. Would u rather they like her for her HOT body. Come on. What would that improve in her life? She'd have older guy looking at her and coming on to her.

Worry about her self esteem and making sure she know how important she is (whether she's overweight or not).

Don't borrow problems.

Answer 3

Wow! She sounds just like me when I was 10. In 6th grade, at the age of 10, I was 162 pounds. I read PETA's Vegetarian Starter Kit (which is more of a small magazine) and became a vegetarian. I lost 20 pounds in two months. Now, I am fourteen, and I feel extremely lucky that I learned about vegetarianism because it has made me so much more aware about health and why I should eat healthy while I'm young. I am a lacto-ovo (meaning milk and eggs) vegetarian. I made a food plan for myself based on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes (beans, peas, and soy products), dairy and dairy alternatives (i tend not to drink milk, i drink Silk enriched soymilk), nuts and seeds, and water. I try to take a multivitamin everyday. I go to the YMCA to workout sometimes.

Look at Suzanne Havala's Dummies Guide to Vegetarianism and PETA's (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) Free Vegetarian Starter Kit (you can order that one online at www.peta.org. look on the left side for a link that says free vegetarian starter kit)

Here's my food plan that I follow:

Food Plan

Daily Servings
qWhole Grain - 5 Servings
qFruits - 3 Servings
qVegetables - 6 Servings
qNuts + Seeds - 1 Serving
qLegumes (Beans, Peas, Lentils, Soy Products) – 1 Servings
qDairy and Dairy Alternatives – 2-3 servings
qWater – 4 16 oz. bottles
qSupplements (Multivitamin-maybe One-A-Day Kids for her)

1.Breakfast
q1 serving whole grain
q1 serving fruit
q1 serving dairy or dairy alternative
q1 bottle of water
q1 supplement

2.Snack*
q1 serving whole grain

3.Lunch**
q4 servings vegetables
q1 servings fruit
q1 serving whole grain
q1 serving dairy and dairy alternatives
q1 bottle of water

4.Snack*
q1 serving nuts and seeds
q1 bottle of water

5.Dinner **
q2 serving whole grain
q1 serving fruit
q2 serving vegetables
q1 serving legumes
q1 serving dairy and dairy alternative (optional)
q1 bottle water

*Snacks are interchangeable
**Lunch and Dinner are interchangeable


Here's one for meat eaters (I made it for my mom because she is overweight and needs to lose weight):

Daily Servings:
qWhole Grain - 6 Servings
qFruits – 4 Servings
qVegetables - 5 Servings
qNuts + Seeds + Legumes - 1 Serving
qMeat, Poultry, and Fish – 2 Servings
qDairy (Eggs, Milk, Yogurt) - 2 Servings
qWater - 8 Servings
qSupplement – 1 serving

Food Plan

Breakfast
q2 servings whole grain
q1 serving dairy
q1 serving fruit
q1 supplement
q1 bottle water

Snack
q1 serving nuts + seeds + legumes
q1 serving dairy
q1 serving vegetables

Lunch
q2 servings whole grains
q1 serving fruit
q2 servings vegetables
q1 serving meat, poultry, or fish
q1 serving dairy
q1 bottle water

Snack
q1 serving vegetable
q1 fruit
q1 bottle water

Dinner
q2 servings whole grain
q1 serving fruit
q1 serving vegetables
q1 serving meat, poultry, or fish
q 1 bottle water

Modify them if the servings are too much or too little. Remember, the Food Pyramid is not for everyone. Six servings of grain could be too much for a 10 year old, whereas a 15 year old might want more.

See the structure of the food plans? Breakfast, Snack, Lunch, Snack, Dinner. That allows you to have three solid, filling meals a day, but if you get hungry, you can always have a healthy snack in-between.

With the food plans, you make meals. You must pair the food plan with serving size guidelines. For instance, for my food plan for dinner i might have:

1)PASTA SALAD
q1 cup of rotini pasta w/ ¼ cup Italian dressing
q1 cup cooked vegetables (steamed broccoli + carrots?)
q1 veggie burger patty
q1 whole piece of fruit, ½ cup fruit, or 3 medium slices melon
q1 bottle of water

or

3.VEGGIE BURGER
q2 slices of whole grain bread
q1 veggie burger patty
q1 slice of cheese
q½ cup of lettuce
q3 slices tomato
q½ cup onions
q1 cup veggie finger foods OR ½ cup baked French fries w/ skin
q1 whole piece of fruit, ½ cup fruit, or 3 medium slices of melon
q1 bottle of water

Well...that's all I can think of right now. Make sure she gets alot of exercise. Enroll her in a hip hop dance class, or maybe a salsa dance class.

Hope this helps!

Sincerely,

Kali =)

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Answer 4

See if Weight Watchers has a chapter
for kids - My 18 Year old niece use them
and She lost the weight She wanted to lose
Work with Her keep her spirits up,and try
to explain to her, to be healthy she needs
to lose weight. tell Her to try and do it now
before She becomes a teenager,it gets
harder as we age - see Your Doctor

Answer 5

just dont be harsh about it i was way over weight when i was 10 i had absolutly No friends...so she is lucky to be such a sweet heart, i was an outcast, my big sister always told me i was fat please never say that, because she will grow to be not so sweet if you do tat, if she is eating irregularly then fix her diet but if she eats like ne other kid, say pringles and/or chocolate then dont bother she'll grow outta it i promise i did i look proud to sya prety good these days 5 yrs l8er

Answer 6

Maybe u should take her to the doctor because my lil cousin was like that and then they found out it was her thyroid and then after that she started to lose weight because they fixed the problem.