From Tiffany, Child's Age 9 - 01/26/02 - IP#: 63.212.191.xxx Click here to reply
My daughter is 4'8", weighs 120 pounds. I've asked her doctor for some guidance with her diet but the only thing he says is "she eats too much". She is an extremely picky eater. Her diet consists mainly of meat and potatoes, she does'nt like rice or pasta. The only veggies she'll eat are carrots, broccoli, and green beans. Fruit is out of the question. I've tried to cut down her portion size but how much is too much, what is the proper portion size? Then the fighting starts, because she's still hungry, and I tell her she has had enough. The oddest thing about all this is that she can not sit still. She would rather be off with her friends doing everything from playing with dolls to riding her bike to playing in the pool. When she does sit down to watch tv, she bounces. Diabetes runs in my family and every time she gains another pound I get more concerned. I need guidance.
Reply from Ayanna - 03/01/02 - IP#: 208.59.93.xxx I am writing because I work for the Ricki Lake Show and we are developing a show on overweight kids. We are changing the format of the show, so it's to help not hurt. If you are interested in sharing your story and getting help, please contact me at 800-820-8288 x 257. Thanks for your time.
Reply from SueToberman, Child's Age 12 - 01/27/02 - IP#: 62.64.237.xxx You are actually kind of lucky that your daughter will eat brocolli, carrots, green beans. I can't get mine to touch those foods except carrots with a low cal dip. Your doctor sounds not much use. Is there any chance you could go to another doctor? If not, you are pretty much on your own with this. My daughter was almost exactly the same height and weight, although 2 years older, so not drastically overweight but you are right to be concerned. I am not 100% sure about this so please do some more research yourself but I have a friend who believes passionately in food combining and that certain foods shouldn't be eaten together because they lead to weight increase. I think it was that proteins and carbs shouldn't be eaten together i.e. meat and potatoes. Like I said, do some research on this yourself because I could be wrong. Regarding portions, again a difficult one especially if your daughter is complaining she is still hungry. It could be that it is still early days and her stomach has to 'adjust' to eating less and in time it will adjust. In our case I used to give her a low cal soup - tomato or chicken - before her main meal so she never complained of feeling hungry. You can also increase her portions of the veg she likes. It is difficult because you can't force her to eat fruit or pasta or rice. She sounds like an active girl in which case she is probably burning up calories quite quickly, which is good but this is also probably making her hungry as well. You could try shrinking the portions very slowly, so slowly that she might not even notice. Another point to note is that some girls do put on weight pre-puberty - at around 9 or 10 - and that will very often go when puberty begins. To summarise, see about changing your doctor if possible, do some research on food combining. I am sure there are lots of articles on the internet and try and increase your daughter's meals with soup before the meal and extra veg. You can get very low cal jello with low cal cream and she can have quite a sizeable portion of that to fill her up. Good luck. I hope this advice helps.
