OT-help! dr says 4 year old is overweight?

dana1003

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:confused: i have twin 4 year old girls..one is 25 pds and the other is 45 pds. according to the "charts" one is 10 pds underweight and the other is 10 pds overweight.:eek: i need actual foods or snacks that i can buy at the grocery store that anyone can recommend that has less sugar and less fat. the labels are very confusing!! :confused: we cant afford to go a nutritionist so any help from you guys would be great!!! also looking for healthy recipes...thanks.
 
I also have twins, but their weight is only apart by about 5 pounds. In any event, the weight difference shows. I keep a lot of fruit on hand and my girls have grown to love it. Bananas, apples, pears, pineapple, oranges, strawberries. I cut them up in pieces and make a cute-looking tray and I think it entices them even more. I do not keep a lot of snacks in the house. Hmmm, the hard part for you is that one of your twins is so small and she/he could use the extra food, so that makes things tricky. I buy oatmeal too and then mix it up with some fruit, just like when they were babies. We also do cheerios with milk and other non-sugar cereals. We do a lot of yogurt too. We keep the fast-food (mcdonalds, pizza) to once a week, usually as a special treat on Fridays. You could always give the heavier twin the skim milk and the small twin the whole milk. LOL, imagining trying to keep the milk separate... How about salad? My girls love salad with low-fat italian dressing. Add some shredded carrots to it and low-fat mozzarella cheese, even some chicken too. I eat salads every day and my girls want everything I'm eating. Hey, that's a thought. Maybe if you eat all the healthy food, then your twins will see you and want your food too. Just a thought. Good luck with the twins. That is a big weight difference. What were they born at? Mine were 4.2 and 6.2. They are still about 4-5 pounds apart, but about the same height.
 
Well i can tell you what my girls eat...LOTS and LOTS of fruit(apples, bananas, mango, grapes), and veggies (they eat anything and actually ask for broccoli). I think the key is to have it out and available at all times.
They only have juice if it is 100% juice (like Juicy juice) and even then it is only with a meal..but a lot of times they will have milk (skim or 1%) or water. They eat whole wheat bread, or whole grain white bread and if they eat cereal in the morning it is something like Mighty Bites from Kashi ( i do let them get a "fun" cereal every so often..lol) or oatmeal, pancakes...
They do snack...but in moderation on things like cookies and chips(i dont keep a lot in the house)...They love yogurt, you can get low fat or fat free plain and mix in something like All fruit jelly, or vanilla yougurt is yummy. They do like those 100 calorie snack packs from Nabisco.
Lunch is normally something like a turkey sandwich with carrots and a juice or water. For Dinner i make a lot of chicken (grilled or baked) and a few different veggies(love sweet potatoes) brown rice..Pasta and sauce once a week. We do not eat out at fast food places..they will get McD's maybe once every few months.
I dont think your 45 pound DD is overweight though..my dd just(11/25) turned 5 and is a very healthy 45 pounds (not heavy at all, although pretty tall). 25 pounds seems small , just because my 2 yo is 30 pounds..lol
 
Hi-

I'm sorry for your situation but I applaud your efforts to get the problem under control.

A question for you - does your dd always eat full meals? If not - i would cut out (or at least WAY down) on snacks. My own dd only really eats a dinner if she is truly hungry - otherwise she fusses about eating it. Our dinners tend to be healthier than the snacks I offer - so it is obvious to me why she'd RATHER have the snacks. So, try cutting out snacks entirely. If they are truly too hungry during the day - offer very small snacks only - maybe a few grapes or a couple of apple slices. That's one way I know whether or not dd is really hungry - if she is really hungry - she'll say yes to very healthy snacks - if she's not really too hungry - she'll just ask for something else (like animal crackers or a 'treat' on occassion) - so I know she's not really hungry if I offer her apples or grapes ONLY and she chooses nothing.
 

First of all, your doctor may be really wrong depending on your daughter's height. My DD was 32 lbs at a year and is 31 lbs at 2 years. She's far from overweight because she is so tall, though. I think she'll easily weigh more than 45 pounds at 4 years-old!

As for snacks, my DD gets fruits and veggies, no juice, and all the milk and water she wants. We order about $110 worth of freeze-dried fruits from www.justtomatoes.com every month (free shipping on orders over $100), and this is what DD snacks on instead of crackers or other empty-calorie snack foods. DD's ped. commented to me that she eats so much healthier than other kids her age.
 
Can I ask how tall your girls are? I ask because my son weighed about 35 lbs when he was 4...he just recently got above 40 and he is almost 6! And my nearly 4 year old is around 40, too, and she is NOT overweight by any means. My physician has never commented on eithers weight, as long as they don't gain way too much over the year. I think serving healthier food is an all around great idea for everyone, and it will help your families for years to come, but I wouldn't stress way out over their weights, either. Serve healthier foods, and make sure they are getting lots of activity in their day.
 
This will save quite a bit of money (and calories too!):

Don't buy any sugary drinks. The only drinks my kids have are milk, orange juice, & water. They even take bottled water in their lunchboxes. When we go out to eat, my kids get water (although I would let them order a lemonade...they always choose water).
 
I agree that charts can be quite misleading. Her height is a BIG factor.
We just did ID cards at preschool and everyone of my 4 year olds were between 40-45 lbs. NONE are over weight. 40 inches/40 lbs seem to be the norm. 25 lbs sound more off the scale then the 45 lbs. I would think more about healthy habits than the numbers. Great suggestions on food ideas. Do not forget exercise is important too. Outside time, a dance class or some family activities are good choices.
 
We just got back from my dd's 4 year well visit. She is 41.5" and 44 pounds. He said she is just fine - her weight is 96% but with her height, she's not considered overweight. My son is 6.5 and is 47" and 53 lbs.

T.
 
I was also wondering the heights because my sil's ped tried to tell her that her twins were underweight (they were only about 9 months at the time), but they were also shorter than average.

I'll just rattle off what I do and maybe something will be helpful. I agree about the sugary drinks. My dd can drink milk, watered down juice or water. The juice is about 1 or 2 ounces of juice and 6 or 7 ounces water. She gets 2 cups of milk per day, but if she asks for a 3rd, she can have it.
For breakfast she has a little bowl of cereal like post shredded wheat with 1 or 2 frosted miniwheats in there, or she has a bowl of oatmeal. I use quaker rolled oats or steel cut oats and put a little bit of brown sugar in there. I make it with water unless she is in a phase where she is not into milk. Then she will have 1 or 2 kids of fruit with breakfast. Sometimes she will have a morning snack, but only if she ask for it. In that case she will have a banana, maybe 1/2 of a string cheese, a few pretzels, 1 or 2 fig newtons (they have whole grain ones now), yogurt. For lunch, she will have some type of protein and almost always some type of veggie. Once in a while, she will just have fruit with lunch. One of her faves right now is 1/2 a packet of Annie's mac and cheese with veggies mixed in. I'd say either equal amounts of veggies and pasta or more veggies than pasta. She likes broccoli and carrots mixed in. She also likes grilled cheese. I would skip the butter and just d 1 slice of cheese and I put veggies in the sandwich too. I also give them to her on the side. She will eat cooked veggies cold... actually, I will too now, especially broccoli. I also do the mission carb control tortilla. They have a lot of fiber. I make her wraps with 1/2 of a small one. I will sometimes take cream cheese and spread it in and then pack it full of veggies like cooked carrots, zuchinni, whatever I have left over from the dinner. Afternoon snack is just like morning... only if she is hungry. For dinner, we don't do pasta, potatoes or rice with every dinner. There are a lot of carbs and fiber in some of the veggies. I try to balance it out by looking at what we had the rest of the day. I do a lot of meat and veggie types of dinners. We eat dinner pretty early, so we do always offer a bedtime snack of some sort... yogurt, a bowl of cereal (cheerios, shredded wheat, quaker oat bran).

These are our regulars, but we have other treats in there too. We do distinguish between snacks and treats. I think snacks can be healthy and it is good to eat a little bit all day, but treats we eat because they are good, not really to fuel our bodies.

I have few tricks for anti-fruit or anti-veggie phases. I make fruit smoothies with yogurt and fruit in the blender ( I have a magic bullet... LOVE it!) and I will sometimes make freeze pops with them to get fruit in. I also put wheat germ in there for fiber. Sometimes I will use whey protein, just depends on my mood.

I also cook and puree veggies and put them in spaghetti sauce, meatballs, hamburgers. I make baked ziti with tons of cooked veggies in there. Put cheese on anything and my dd will eat it. Just go easy on the cheese and buy reduced fat. I still offer veggies on the side when I "hide" them in there, especially if she is anti-veggie at that time. She has had 3 or 4 weeks in the 3 years, where she is just not interested in fruits or veggies, so I learned to improvise. :rolleyes1

The only other thing I was thinking (just because it is an issue for us in the winter) is to make sure they are active. We really struggle with this in the winter, especially now that we are so busy, but we have to stop and take the time to play "run around the house."
 
wow! thanks for all the fast replies...

they were born at 31 weeks.
the one whos is 25 pds was 2pds 11oz
the one whos 45 pds was 3pds 1 oz

yes my challenge is fattening up the little one while curbing the other. the smaller one is very picky where the other eats things i didnt like till i was an adult. i thought i was doing a good job before. i bought the 100 calorie snacks, kelloggs 90 calorie bars, sun chips w/ a sandwich at lunch. i think i was failing on the juice part?? i read somewhere they shoudn't have more than 14gm of sugar per serving but i just recently purchased i think it was juice harvest which is suppose to have veggies in it, the grams were 27?? thats what confuses me..should i be giving her stuff w/ no sugar added or is the substitute worse then the actual sugar (eg-asparatame)? correct spelling? so pancakes are ok? i give them sugar free syrup..keep the advice coming!! this is better then what i found on the web:wizard:
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Aww, they are adorable. I would be more concerned about the little one than the bigger one, honestly. The bigger one looks just like my 3 year old daughter, so maybe she is overweight as well, but to me they just look like normal chubby preschoolers. Here is a picture of my daughter---I really think their proportions are the same!
 
Your girls are adorable! I'm no Dr but to me they look well proportioned for their height. DS was a premie and will be 5 in March and is 37 lbs and 39 inches. My BF's DS just turned 5 and is 55 lbs. and much taller then DS. My point is I don't put too much emphasis on weight unless they are extremely under or over weight. As long as they are gaining weight and eating properly I wouldn't worry too much. DS will eat things like oranges, bananas, apples, strawberries, blue berries as a snack. He is a chocolate fan so I let him have some M&M's! He likes to eat salads with me. Will your girls eat that? I make sure DS has breakfast, lunch and dinner and a snack between each. He doesn't drink soda, but drinks a lot of juice and milk. Pretzels are a OK snack as well as granola bars/cereal bars. Are they eating fatty foods or fast food?
 
Aww, they are adorable. I would be more concerned about the little one than the bigger one, honestly. The bigger one looks just like my 3 year old daughter, so maybe she is overweight as well, but to me they just look like normal chubby preschoolers. Here is a picture of my daughter---I really think their proportions are the same!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16325170@N00/1865034513/

OMG! Your DD is so cute!!!
 
My dd4.5 is 38" and 28lbs. She is considered underweight. She has some gluten issues. She is on a limited gluten (wheat protein) diet. She also had lactose issues, but is outgrowing both. Your "bigger" twin does not appear overweight to me. My ped said that as long as she is "plotting" along on the chart, meaning that she is following her own curve no matter how far below "normal", she is fine.

On both of them though, I would avoid apple juice. It is the worst juice you could drink. It has a lot of sorbitol which can cause diarrhea and slow weight gain, but can also be responsible for the gain of too much weight in some kids. Depends on the kid. Stay away from juicy juice. It says 100% juice, but it is all APPLE juice, with other flavors added. I use Welch's grape juice instead or Ocean Spray cranberry mixes. I do allow the cranapple. I also buy strawberry banana juice in the cold juice section.

Visit www.askdrsears.com . He has a whole section dedicated to nutrition along with menus you can print. The information he has on his site has proven indespensable to me. He goes into all of the fruits and juices.

Also, stick to 100% whole wheat. Many bread that say whole wheat are not 100%. Look for the 100%. That is all we buy. As young as they are they will adapt quickly. I only started this a few years ago.

The fruit and veggie tray ideas are great. You can put yogurt out to dip it in as well.

Avoid the artificial sweeteners. These are not good for you. Try to stick with natural and organic. Organic is getting much easier to find and the price is going down.

Now, I know I am rambling, but my last bit of advice is to not worry. Do not put your little girl on a "diet". Just put out healthier choices. Do NOT limit her food, just limit the junk. She NEEDS a certain amt of fat and calories for proper development.

OK, I am done. Sorry for the rambling. I hope at least something makes sense and helps. :upsidedow
 
Your girls are adorable!!! The smaller one reminds me of myself.....and she may always be small. I started out at 3 lb 2 oz (this was in the 70's) and I've been underweight all my life, by the charts. I'm perfectly healthy, just small. I'm now 31, and I'm over 100 lbs for the first time in my life. No matter what I did (until the depoprovera shot, lol), I just could not gain weight unless I was pregnant. I tried 6 meals a day, milkshakes, nothing worked.

No advice for you, just wanted to tell you how it's been for me.
 
You really should stay away from any kind of juice, except as a special treat. They should have a piece of fruit instead. Juice is too easy to get a lot of calories w/o realizing it. When they eat the fruit they will get full sooner and get more vitamins and fiber.

Also, the 100 calorie packs and such are just a gimick. They still aren't good for you no matter how you package it. You are better off giving them fruits, veggies, protiens (cheese, peanut butter, yogurt, etc).

Also things w/artifical sweeteners can actually make some people feel hungrier.
 
Aww, they are adorable. I would be more concerned about the little one than the bigger one, honestly. The bigger one looks just like my 3 year old daughter, so maybe she is overweight as well, but to me they just look like normal chubby preschoolers. Here is a picture of my daughter---I really think their proportions are the same!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16325170@N00/1865034513/


WOW! She's really photogenic, isn't she? That pic needs to be on a magazine cover. Beautiful!
 
I also have twins, but we are on the opposite end of the spectrum. My twins are 8.5 and weigh around 48 lbs. At one point my Dr. gave me a talking to about them being below the zero percentile for weight and I told him that I'm sure they would eat all the junk I would give them, but I wasn't willing to give them junk just to gain weight. That makes no sense. He agreed. It is really more important to look at how they are on the charts over a span of time. If one is consistently in the 10th percentile that is okay, or the 90th consistently that is okay. It is when they go up/down on their percentiles then you shoudl look more closely I guess. That is what I was told by several nurses. I just make sure that we have healthy snacks and healthy things for meals. I have gotten rid of just about all processed junky snacks. If we are out I don't try to keep them from having them, I just don't have them in the house very often. I figure if my kids are truly hungry they will eat the healthy snacks mlike fruit, veggies, cheese sticks, yogurt etc. The things that I thought were healthy that are not at all are the things like granola bars, the Nabisco 100 calorie packs, etc. An Oreo will never be healthy whether it comes from teh regular pack or the 100 calorie pack. Your best bet for both girls and your whole family is to shop the outside aisles of the grocery store. Once you go into the aisles you are only buying the processed junky food anyway. My kids were picky when I started this plan, but since they have ceased to be picky, or at least much better. I still have one picky one, but even he will eat chicken, steak, steamed clams, turkey, pork, apples, grapes, pears, broccoli, peas, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, and carrots among some other things. It takes something like 10-15 exposures to something to develop a liking for it, so make sure you only have healthy options in your house. As long as they are eating healthy options and their growth curve stays consistent, I wouldn't worry about what the scale says.
 

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