From Carol, Child's Age 10 - 10/07/08 - IP#: 78.46.247.xxx  Click here to reply  
My son is 10 1/2 years old and almost 100 pounds overweight. He was always a bit chubby but when his medication changed last year he really started putting on weight. He handled it well at first because he knows he needs the medication, but now he's really miserable. Over the summer he gained 30 pounds, and those last 30 pounds have been the worst of all. It's like his body reached the limit of how much weight it could tolerate. I noticed he was slowing down somewhat as he put on weight but I didn't worry too much about it until now. After this recent weight gain, he's always exhausted and uncomfortable. The slightest physical activity gets him out of breath and red in the face. Even bending over to tie his shoelaces is really hard for him now, and when he sits down he usually leans back to help his pants not feel so tight. I hate even asking him to go get the mail because he looks so uncomfortable hauling around that huge load of excess weight.
I know I should have done something sooner but I never knew it could get this bad. We dealt with the teasing and I thought that was the only real problem. I still have a hard time saying no when he asks for snacks because it's the only happiness he seems to have in life, even though I know it's making him more miserable. Does anyone have experience with helping a kid who's this overweight, or know of any exercises he could do to help lose some weight? He needs to start slow because right now just going upstairs to his room is a real burden.