If you are an adult and not a parent, type your child's age as '0'

Check here if you are a teen or preteen and type your age in the Child's Age box

Your first name:    Your child's age:

Type your reply below to the message that you clicked on. You can keep typing
even when the box looks full. Click at the bottom to put it on our bulletin board.
For security reasons your IP address will be recorded and partially displayed.

    Message Replying To

From Sarah, child's age 16

I am writing here looking for ways to help my 16 year old son David lose weight. We have been worried about David's weight for the past 6-7 years. Up to a year ago he was trending around the same line of 8-10lbs overweight, and with the doctor's advice we attempted (and obviously failed) to encourage healthy eating/activity levels to which David was always very combative over (never violently, just yelling/refusing to do anything). His favorite argument was that he was just a little overweight and to have to limit his diet or start exercising more was unfair. In the past year he has gained a lot of excess weight. He also started a job working at a restaurant (his decision) and we believe eats a lot there plus our (normally healthy) meals as well. He also stopped playing football halfway through the year for reasons he refuses to say. Around a year ago he weighed 169lbs at five foot ten and looked chunky but not really fat. As of yesterday he weighs 212lbs at five foot eleven. He looks like a completely different kid, and its really sad to see. Around four months ago when he weighed in as 196lbs we started to really hammer home our message and start to encourage him to lose weight but he continues to go out of his way to refuse help and even go so far as to go out of his way to disobay our wishes. It got so bad a month ago that after what both me and DH thought was a fair, friendly discussion about his weight, which he actually brought up, and us suggesting we try to lose ten or so pounds to start, he huffed out of the house and returned half an hour later with a large bag of McDonalds and sat down at our kitchen table eating it in front of us and challenging us to take the food from him (mind you by this point he weighed more then either of us). I'm at my wits end and to make it worse, outside of this issue he is a funny, normally well adjusted teen who has nearly-all As, is popular, has a girlfriend we all love, etc. And I'm really, really scared about his health. He has started getting winded really fast and when I have pointed it out to him he refuses to admit he is winded. Most of his new weight has gone to his belly, and once or twice now I've caught him struggling to bend over and tie his shoes from a sitting position. Outside of when he has to wear pants with a belt (work and special occasions) he wears sweatpants, and almost always pairs that with a sheatshirt as well. Those pants he does own have 41 (plus) inch waists and he wears extra large shirts, though honestly quite a few of those are getting tight on him. I just need some help to motivate an unmotivated teen to start working to lose weight. Its having quite an impact on his whole family.