How many points for a child on WW?

[married2grumpy]

My DD is only 6 but has recently gained quite a bit of weight. I have been sort of lax on the portion sizes with her and all the junk she eats in school doesn't help. Her teacher rewards her qith candy and they've had several parties in the clas in the past 2 months. Lots of candy, cupcakes and cookies!

I'm doing WW and know the points for everything I eat. I would like to start monitoring her points too, just to see what she actually eats in a day. I don't know how many points children are supposed to have when on WW. Does anyone know?

I will not tell her she's "dieting" because we don't use that word in our house. I just say I'm eating healthier so my body is stronger. She can relate to that without having a poor self image (I hope).

Thanks for any info on WW for kids that you may have!

 

[MelanieC]

Hi there,

Well they don't really have points values for age 6 because that is kind of young, but my dd12 did go for a bit last year to help her get some of her eating under control.

Basically, her points were the same as anyone elses but she got 4 extra points per day (could be 2 extra, but for some reason I was thinking it was 4) to use for extra calcium.

I am imagining that your dd6 would be under 50lbs so she would get 20 plus 4 points. I actually had my dd do 22 points, and have her eat 4 extra per day (again, maybe I got the 4 extra because I gave her 22 points instead of 20????) I can look into this and ask at my next meeting too.

I think the best thing for a 6 year old, is to teach her about serving sizes and about healthy eating. You may want to look at the www.3aday.org and www.5aday.org web sites and try to make sure she gets the proper amount of nutrients each day. She will be full from eating her dairy, fruits and veggies and maybe won't want to snack on the junk.

One thing you should do, and hopefully your DH is game to the idea is clean up her environment. She can't eat what is there and if you buy it for her, you enable her to eat it. Now school is another story, but if you at least have her environment clean at home this is a huge step.
Get a lot of the processed, white flour foods out of your home. Get her used to eating 100% whole wheat flour now, trust me its harder to have a 12 year old switch than a 6 year old. My 6 year old eats healthy if I give it to him. My 12 year old is a lot more vocal about complaining. Have tons of fruits and veggies available to them. Cut up fruit and keep it in the fridge. If it's there, my kids eat it. They love fruit like pears. I also introduced apples and peanut butter as a snack and they love it.

Now if only I could get DH to not keep ice cream and things like cookies in the house. He is as bad as the kids and I am slowly working with him too to clean up his eating and have his diet be healthier. Its working though. Last night he asked me to fix him some pineapples while I was preparing my plain yogurt and pineapples. I had him try them with the yogurt and he loved it. He actually took yogurt with pineapples to work today. This from a guy who doesn't get any calcium except for ice cream.

Today I printed out things from the 3 aday calcium website and I am going to challenge my family to have one milk/one yogurt and one cheese a day to satisfy their calcium needs. Slowly, it gets ingrained in their heads. Maybe they will be eating healthy once they are in their teens. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Good luck!

 

[married2grumpy]

She loves fruits and vegetables. Actually, she likes all foods! She has yogurt quite often and we don't usually have too many snacks in the house because both DH and I are watching our weight. She gains weight very easily. She is fairly active but still gains easily. I just don't know what the "normal" amount of food is for her. I know I can have cut up vegetables for her to snack on but she will snack all day. I don't think that is a healthy habit to get into either.

With points I can gauge exactly what she eats to see where the problem lies. She does weigh more than 50 pounds, she's about 59 pounds now.

I'm having a hard time finding her tank tops for our upcoming trip because she needs a bigger size for her belly but then it's too big everywhere else!

What's hard is my DS 5 is very thin and I don't deny him seconds when he asks because he needs to maintain his weight. This morning he had 2 big bowls of Cheerios and I had to tell her no to seconds. She understands she can't overeat because it's not healthy for "her" but it still is hard for us all.

I'll check out the web sites you listed. Thanks!

 

[CheapMom]

Very similar situation here- dd (8) has big appetite and is large around the middle, she is very active
ds (7) eats nothing, thin as a rail
Walmart has jeans in 1/2 sizes now that have a larger waist, we use those, they fit great.
Spoke to the doctor about her weight/height ratio (she is 4 ft 8, 80 pounds) He said to limit junk food, keep active and not to worry about it- she is at the high end of the normal range.
Since turning 8 she has grown a 2 inches but not gained any weight so she is thinning out some.
I am not going to give you any advice but I just thought I would share my experience.

 

[Nancy]

One thing to remember is that little girls tend to carry more weight in their belly area...it's that baby fat that hasn't gone away. CheapMom..my 14 year old was like that too..she was very middle heavy until about 10 years old..she is also on the tall side. One summer I bought her new clothes all elastic waist, nothing fitted in the waist. Over the winter she shot up 3 inches, never gained any weight and all the clothes I bought the summer before were falling off of her! (it's that baby fat stuff)

I would not put her on points. Just watch portion size at meal times and try to limit her snacking..even of healthy snacks. When i first started WW I was amazed at some of the portion sizes. especially cereal...1 cup of cereal is one portion and that was probably about 1/3 of what I was eating.

I also don't use the word diet around my house. With 3 girls I am always stressing that weight is just a number. They know that I am trying to lose weight because of my health. The 2 older ones are much more aware of what goes in their mouths too. My 14 year old has actually lost some weight since I started WW (not that she needed to), so has my 15 year old.

 

[CheapMom]

oh BTW, marriedtogrumpy- 6 was about the age that I thought my DD was getting a little out of proportion. Tread carefully here- very difficult territory to navigate. Probably asking the pediatrician's opinion (not in front of her) would be the best advice I could offer.

 

[Purrrrfecta]

I worry about my son and his weight. He is starting to carry fat around his middle. I am having him watch his portions by having him take his lunch to school. He is 7 1/2 years old 4'6" and 77 lbs.

I have a ton of weight to shed myself so together we watch what we eat

 

[tw1nsmom]

How tall is your daughter?