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 Miles, child's age 16

Hey everyone, happy early new year. My son Miles recently went to the doctors office for a year end physical, and he weighed in at 378 pounds at 6’1. Miles has always been a big kid, but I didn’t anticipate him being this big. He’s never brought any attention to me about his weight, but I’ve noticed that simple things like stairs or bending to tie his shoes often gets him out of breath, and it’s very hard for him to find clothes that fit his growing size. This is bad, but we’ve neglected to go to the doctor during covid for health reasons, and his last physical was at 14 right before the pandemic. He was big then, about 5’7 and 220 pounds. Gaining nearly a hundred and sixty pounds in two years brought alarm to his pediatrician, but not much was said. Miles’s appetite is humongous, but I never wanted to have him feel hungry or develop some kind of food insecurity so I always had food available. Admittedly, often times that would be fast food due to the convenience of it, and to satisfy his hunger. I always gave him some money to get a snack after school, but this snack has turned into a full blown fast food meal every day after school unfortunately. This is also bad, but I usually bring home fast food twice a week for dinner when I work late, it’s hard being a single working parent and cooking every night. I realize that Miles’s weight is an issue, but I’m unsure on how to exactly address this with him. I’m a guidance counselor and psychologist by trade, and I know that approaching this the wrong way could have a detrimental effect on his wellbeing. The ideal thing would be to let him bring this to me, but it’s difficult to sit back and watch him get fatter. Does anyone have any suggestions or thoughts?