Obese Toddler

[justgettingstarted]

I have a wonderfully sweet and adorable 19 month old DCB that wears a size 4t He's not just built big he has a lot of belly and leg fat and I've seen pictures on mom's FB page of him drinking fast food milk shakes and eating french fries. When they play kitchen he picks up the play ice cream cones and says yum! I serve very healthy food but the little guy just LOVES to eat! He sits at the table before I've even finished cooking and says eat eat eat! An hour after a meal he's asking about snack. I'm constantly questioning if I should be holding back on the second and third helpings or letting him eat what he wants. He's so young I don't want him to think there's something wrong with enjoying food (and contribute to a future eating disorder) but I also don't want to contribute to his weight problem. I'm not sure I'm even wording my concerns right or if it's really my business as I'm not his mom, kwim? Obesity in children is such a problem now, how do you deal with overweight children in your daycare?

[3girls]

Childhood obesity is heartbreaking. I have a sibling set that is heavy. They eat way WAY less than my own skinny children and are more active too. I am sure it is sooo discouraging to them.

I would try loading this child up on water and plain fruits and vegetables. Avoid anything with sugar/corn syrup in it and hold off on grains and dairy as much as you can, only do the minimum your food program requires on those. These foods are are inflammatory and inflammation damages the body. If his body can get the right minerals and vitamins maybe it will correct whatever is going wrong.

If that doesn't work, you CAN say "lunch is over' or "kitchens closed!" and modify the asking behavior. One of my own seems to have a faulty "full" mechanism, sometimes she wants to eat again 5 or 10 minutes after a meal! I've gotten to the point where if its not time to eat I say "Oh sorry sweetie, kitchens closed!" and send her out. Then if she whines about being hungry I say "Dinner will be at..." A little harder with such a youngster but I think he will get the idea eventually.

[cheerfuldom]

I think you should look up serving portions for his age and stop giving him third helpings.....heck, I rarely do second helpings even.

[Kaddidle Care]

I always had to double the age of my children for clothes sizes when they were tots. If he has eaten 2 portions see if he will be distracted with a new toy or something.

My kids loved to eat until they were 3. Then they became more picky and are both skinny minnies now. I feel they can have chubby rolls at 19 months.

Feed him healthy while you have him. Unfortunatly we cannot control what a parent feeds their child.

[justgettingstarted]

Childhood obesity is heartbreaking. I have a sibling set that is heavy. They eat way WAY less than my own skinny children and are more active too. I am sure it is sooo discouraging to them.

I would try loading this child up on water and plain fruits and vegetables. Avoid anything with sugar/corn syrup in it and hold off on grains and dairy as much as you can, only do the minimum your food program requires on those. These foods are are inflammatory and inflammation damages the body. If his body can get the right minerals and vitamins maybe it will correct whatever is going wrong.

If that doesn't work, you CAN say "lunch is over' or "kitchens closed!" and modify the asking behavior. One of my own seems to have a faulty "full" mechanism, sometimes she wants to eat again 5 or 10 minutes after a meal! I've gotten to the point where if its not time to eat I say "Oh sorry sweetie, kitchens closed!" and send her out. Then if she whines about being hungry I say "Dinner will be at..." A little harder with such a youngster but I think he will get the idea eventually.

Thank you for the replies! My sister has always been overweight no matter what she does (she was even on lower calorie formula as a baby) she just has a very low metabolism. So I do understand the frustration and I guess this is why I'm concerned about this little guy. But he does eat much more than the others and will try to stuff food in his mouth with both hands if I let him (which of course I don't). He also is much less active and I have to encourage him to get up and moving during outside play. So I believe this is more an issue of the example being set at home than a genetic or health issue.

Unfortunately he won't eat vegetables or even most fruit so I sometimes use a second helping of other things to encourage him to eat them. He also won't drink water without a little splash of juice (to the point of not having a single wet diaper all day if I only offer water). I don't do a food program but I offer very nutritious foods. Not quite sure what to do other than keep offering good stuff, stop after one serving and encourage more activity (we went for a long afternoon walk yesterday and he could barely keep up). Poor little guy I wish parents would understand the lifelong consequences of their choices and example!

[youretooloud]

I would definitely stop the thirds.

But, i'd let a child eat as many vegetables as he wants. Lets face it, nobody got fat from eating carrots. We are fat from eating all the yummy processed foods. (I said as I stuffed two chips o hoy cookies into my mouth)

I have kids who's parents are proud because "He at three baby carrots!" But, they forget that he ate that with a bowl of ranch dressing.

One of our neighbor kids is 3 yrs old. He's a monstrous child anyway... says and does the most horrid things. His parents do NOTHING.....anyway, the other night, he ate a fulll brand new package of bologna by himself in just 15 minutes, then a few minutes later he came outside with a burrito and a doctor pepper.

He weighs almost 60 lbs. My oldest didn't hit 60 lbs til 6th grade.

[Buxterboo]

Is it possible that he might have a medical condition that is going untreated. like diabetes or thyroid problems? If the parents are feeding him junk all the time the answer to this is probably no. But if the junk food is just a once in a while thing maybe he does have a problem.
I say once in a while because if you look at my facebook you would thinka ll my kid does is eat junk food. This is not the case. I just think junk food makes funny mess pictures (think cookie all over the face baby pics that we all have at least one of )

[Sunshine44]

I've had two kids like this. One the parents were oblivious. They wouldn't give much 'sugar' or non organic things, but made sure to load the child up with starches and grains. And the child ate constantly!

Here I wouldn't give food all day, but they are still a little overweight. I think it may be somewhat normal for the child.

[countrymom]

I also bet the child is eating out of boredom. I would stop all extra foods. You offer him healthy foods. If you don't stop this craziness then who will.

this weekend we went to canada's wonderland (amusement park) there was a boy about 11 or 12 yrs old. He was so obese, if not over 200 pounds. Poor kid, he couldn't go on any rides because he couldn't fit in any of them. But he was driking a super large slushy. Luckily he had nice friends who stayed with him, but you can tell he wanted to go on rides so bad.

[justgettingstarted]

Is it possible that he might have a medical condition that is going untreated. like diabetes or thyroid problems? If the parents are feeding him junk all the time the answer to this is probably no. But if the junk food is just a once in a while thing maybe he does have a problem.
I say once in a while because if you look at my facebook you would thinka ll my kid does is eat junk food. This is not the case. I just think junk food makes funny mess pictures (think cookie all over the face baby pics that we all have at least one of )

I don't believe there's a medical issue here. Mom brought him here from a center because he was getting sick too often. He's got asthma and allergies and she takes him to the doctor all the time. She's very attentive to medical issues. I get what you're saying but the way he acts toward food is very concerning. If I even mention to another child that I'm going to start making lunch he runs to the table. If I make something he doesn't like he starts crying and lays his head on the table.

I'm going to use the "kitchen is closed!" approach tomorrow and see how it goes.

[Kaddidle Care]

He's not even 2 yet. Please don't stress on this so much. My kids went into the 4T size at 2 and stayed in it until 4! They were quite rotund at 19 months and they enjoyed eating too.

To me it's just too early to worry about obesity. I worry more about the underweight babies at this age.

[BumbleBee]

The asthma may be a contributing factor. Many inhalents/nebulizer treatments are stimulants and can make a child hungry all the time. I would give 1sts, 2nds, and if he is still hungry offer him more vegetables as thirds. If he doesn't want veggies that's fine, but don't offer anything else for thirds.

If he goes to the doctor all the time, they probably weigh him regularly and if there is a true weight problem they will make note of it.

[spud912]

Yeah I agree. My little brothers were huge babies and toddlers. You would never know it now because they look skeletal at age 17. They just thinned out more and more over the years. They were easily in sizes 2-3 times their actual age.