Overweight toddler?

[BekahMomToOliver]

My DS turned two this month. We had his well-baby visit this week and he's wayyy off his growth chart for weight, and my doctor was quite concerned.
He's 42 lbs and about 37 inches tall. My doctor says I have to really watch what he eats and keep him really active, but I told her I already do that and she couldn't really give me any advice.
He's picky about veggies but I sneak them in to things he likes and he gets them that way. He likes pasta and bread but it's almost always whole wheat and whole grain, he drinks ALOT of water and rarely has juice. He's a big protein kid, he loves eggs and fish and peanut butter (the no-added-sugar kind), so he eats those several times a week, but my understanding is that that's a good thing at his age, right?
He's a stocky kid, but I wouldn't say he's fat. No rolls or anything, he has the typical toddler pot-belly but that's typical, right?
My doctor said we should be worried about his weight. I have weight issues myself (alot of pregnancy weight to lose), so I wonder if she's kind of assuming I'm feeding him junk. I just don't know what to think or do about it all.
So, any opinions? Would you worry? And if so, what more can I do?

[Bokonon]

Has he always been on the top end of the chart, or is that a new thing?

[BekahMomToOliver]

Nope, he's always been that way. Even when I was pregnant, he always measured in the 75th to 80th percentile. He was 36 lbs at his 18 month visit, I believe, but she (doctor) didn't seem worried then.

[sapphire_chan]

Is his father or other relatives tall? Because by both height and weight your ds is over the 95th percentile so my guess is that he's just going to be a big person. Not fat, not overweight, just big as in asked all the time when he's going out for football big.

If he loves protein, I'd get him more of that and less of flours even whole grain ones. While he sounds fine to me, you might find that he ends up eating somewhat fewer calories if he has a chance to load up on fats and proteins before having any grains.

[starlein26]

It sounds like he's gearing up to be a big/tall guy. Is he otherwise healthy? Developing normally? If so, his weight would not be of concern to me. It sounds like you're doing everything you can as far as healthy eating!

[Meems]

At DD's 2 yr well baby check she was 38 lbs and I don't know how tall, but she was off the chart for weight and like 99th % for height. My ped said she was just fine. At 3, she's 36 lbs and as tall as a 4 year old. Compared to last year, she looks SKINNY! But she doesn't look chubby at all anymore.

I spent a good bit of time worrying about her weight and I wish I hadn't. She leveled off and is perfectly fine.

It sounds like he has a good diet, and that with daily exercise is all I would do.

[mommy2maya]

Originally Posted by BekahMomToOliver

Nope, he's always been that way. Even when I was pregnant, he always measured in the 75th to 80th percentile. He was 36 lbs at his 18 month visit, I believe, but she (doctor) didn't seem worried then.

Probably because of the high rate of weight gain in the 6m. Also, those stats are about 50% for weight for a 5.5yo. Also, the disparity between height and weight is a bigger concern than if his height and weight were correlated.

I think I would be concerned. Obviously not restricting my child, but I'd be interested in making sure that there were not any medically going on to make my child so big, and disproportionate. I would be concerned about metabolic or thyroid function. Looking at a weight for stature chart for a 2yo, a 37" child would be 31lb to be at a 50% height/weight correlation. 85% would be 34lb.

Hugs, mama, as I do hate to be the voice of dissent, but if it were my child I would be concerned, mostly because of the disparity.

[Kuba'sMama]

Without knowing all the facts and not seeing your child I think I might be a bit concerned. My 6.5 year old son just turned 40 pounds (he IS a bit slight, but within average). My almost 4 year old daughter is 32 pounds.
I'm just saying this purely looking at the numbers alone, not to be judgemental or negative or anything like that. It just jumped out at me that at 2 both my kids weighed about half of your ds (22 lbs. or so)
I would probably see a nutritionist and have blood work done to rule out thyroid issues or anything like that. I don't think I would take advice from the internet regarding something like this, there are so many factors that could influence his weight. He has to be properly examined.
I don't mean to worry you at all! I do think that I personally would look into it, again, going by the numbers alone.

[BekahMomToOliver]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.
In regards to heights and weights in the family, my nephews are all big kids. They're all either over six feet tall or heading that way quickly, with average height parents. Both of my grandfathers and my XH's father are in the 6'5"-6'7" range, so his being tall isn't really out of line if he's following in their footsteps. The weight thing was what I found kind of alarming. I was speaking to my eldest sister and she thinks her eldest son was about the same size at 2, which is a bit reassuring I guess.
I guess he could be more active, we get alot of snow up here so we don't get out every day. I'll start having him walk with me instead of taking the stroller, maybe? And I'll look into a trampoline or something for inside.
I'll try cutting him back on carbs a bit, I guess, but I have to admit I'm not entirely comfortable messing with his diet too much. He has it pretty balanced right now.
As for thyroid testing, would he have any other symptoms I could look out for? I'll check in to that, though.

[Afryn]

Hey - For what it's worth, I have a very stocky little boy, also. He was 10lbs when born and has always been at the top of his weight chart. He's 18m now and is about 35 lbs of very solid chub!

Luckily, I also have a little girl (2.5yrs) who is tall and ridiculously skinny and weighs less than he does.

He eats exactly the same healthy food that she does, gets the same amount of physical activity and just weighs weigh more than she did at that age. Looking at them, you can see their genetic heritage pretty clearly (DS takes after his maternal grandpa).

If your doctor's worried, that's stressful but it doesn't sound like he/she thinks it's a medical issue. And it sounds like you're doing a great job with nutrition (even if the doc is secretly doubtful), which would be my main concern.

Basically, it's just going to be an issue that you'll just have to be aware of throughout his life.

For example, my dad has always been stocky and struggled with his weight and when my sister was born, she clearly had the same issues (huge baby!). My parents actually become vegetarian at one point to try and help her weight.

So we're already making plans to try and get our son really involved in sports someday but we don't sweat the belly. He's so extroverted, he has other charming traits!

[BekahMomToOliver]

Originally Posted by Afryn

Hey - For what it's worth, I have a very stocky little boy, also. He was 10lbs when born and has always been at the top of his weight chart. He's 18m now and is about 35 lbs of very solid chub!

Luckily, I also have a little girl (2.5yrs) who is tall and ridiculously skinny and weighs less than he does.

He eats exactly the same healthy food that she does, gets the same amount of physical activity and just weighs weigh more than she did at that age. Looking at them, you can see their genetic heritage pretty clearly (DS takes after his maternal grandpa).

If your doctor's worried, that's stressful but it doesn't sound like he/she thinks it's a medical issue. And it sounds like you're doing a great job with nutrition (even if the doc is secretly doubtful), which would be my main concern.

Basically, it's just going to be an issue that you'll just have to be aware of throughout his life.

For example, my dad has always been stocky and struggled with his weight and when my sister was born, she clearly had the same issues (huge baby!). My parents actually become vegetarian at one point to try and help her weight.

So we're already making plans to try and get our son really involved in sports someday but we don't sweat the belly. He's so extroverted, he has other charming traits!

Thank you I found that really reassuring. Actually DS's dad was just commenting that the little guy's diapers and pajama pants seem a bit less snug tonight. Boy, was I glad to hear that! I hope he even's out, I think eventually he will, but in the meantime it's unnerving to have a child so off-the-charts.

[Violet2]

My DD is 40" and 40lbs at 2. Actually, she's probably more than 40lbs at this point.

But we are tall and stocky in our family. My SIL is 6'2".

I try not to worry. We feed DD good food, we watch sugar and empty carbs--she doesn't like bread, rice, or pasta anyway, but she doesn't like meat either. We avoid crappy food with hfcs and junk food. Buy organic. Whole foods. Heck, I make our own yogurt just to control the amount of sugar DD gets in it. What else can we do? Starve her? .

There's a lot of pressure for us b/c of the childhood obesity 'epidemic' at ped visits but I honestly can't think of anything else we could do differently. As she gets older, we'll definitely emphasize physical activity and will tweak her diet if necessary but I know it took me until 18 to grow into my weight. I was chubby for most of my childhood and didn't even out until my late teens.

So ???? It's hard sometimes to have the big kid. I feel your pain so to speak.

V

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by BekahMomToOliver

I'll try cutting him back on carbs a bit,

eep! Not cut back, just give him a fat or protein to start the meal off so that it's easier for him to decide when he's had enough of the carbs. It may or may not have the effect of limiting carbs, it'll just help make sure he isn't inadvertently having too much because of the way they make people want to keep having more and more

[mrspineau]

If you are feeding him healthy foods, then maybe your portion sizes are off? maybe he is just taking in too much. If he is eating say, three square meals a day, try giving him 5 or 6 small meals (smaller portions) a day and see if that helps maybe.

[motherhendoula]

Hey - wondering if i could revive this old thread - OP - now that your DS is 4 - is he still big and tall?  did he even out?  My son will be 2 in August and he is close to 50 lbs.  (in March he was 45.6 lbs and 36.5" tall)  - my goal was to keep him at that weight until he was 4 (ish)  but the bathroom scale is telling me differently and frankly, im a little surprised. 

We also have really large people on my DH's side of the family and DH himself is 6' 2".  Both DH and i are overweight (seriously overweight)  and im not sure if the pediatrician just sees two fat people and imagines us sitting on the couch feeding our son Twinkies all day long....his only real suggestion to me in March was to have DS drink more water.

I have eliminated sugar (all sugar, syrup, honey, malodextrin, agave, all of it!)  and all flour from my own diet.  I have lost 30 lbs since January.    We dont give the baby any sugar, he does have multigrain bread - one slice a day.  Everything he eats , i make from scratch.  We lean on meats and vegetables primarily and for DS also lots of fruit. No juice or dairy.   In a typical breakfast he can eat one egg, one piece of toast and one banana. (that is his biggest meal of the day) 

He is typically asking for more food after about 2 -3 hours.  I am nursing him typically between 3 - 6 X in a 24 hour period. 

We started walking every morning - he can walk 1/2 mile by himself - we also take a long afternoon walk to  a playground about 3 x week - some afternoons we will walk to do errands.  He is pretty heavy to push in a stroller and i only pick him up if i absolutely HAVE to!  He loves to run around and play ball - we dont have a yard unfortunately - but we have a playground nearby. 

Im really not sure what else to do.  I have a feeling his portion sizes are off (because of course, mine are)  but he eats what he is given and often asks for more.  I would hate to NOT give him food when he is asking for it - but it seems like that is my answer.   

What do other 21 month olds eat for breakfast?   Will he naturally thin out when i wean?  (that wont influence me to wean him early, but it would be something to look forward to!) 

Im just not sure what im doing wrong....

[marsupial-mom]

A lot of the comments above are great. Here are my suggestions for anyone with an overweight toddler:

- Add more fruit. Fruit (usually) has fiber and Vitamin c and beta carotene. And kids usually love it. Don't get worried about sugars in whole fruit. That's not a problem. Only worry about sugar when it's added or when it's not whole fresh fruit (as in juice, dried fruit, canned fruit, etc). Whole fresh fruit will fill up his tummy so he will have less room for pasta and bread.

- Try plant-based protein: more beans! They have fiber too like fruit so they fill you up faster. That's one big reason why vegetarians and vegans tend to be slimmer than people who eat meat. Try lentils, split pea soup, refried beans, chickpea salad, navy beans and rice, vegetarian chili, minestrone soup with beans, etc.

- More exercise: perhaps a toddler karate class or swimming lessons? Does he have a balance bike or a scooter? Even just try turning on some music and have a dance party with him!

- Toddlers love to copy others so the more you can demonstrate healthy habits, the better.

[Bokonon]

Originally Posted by motherhendoula 

Hey - wondering if i could revive this old thread - OP - now that your DS is 4 - is he still big and tall?  did he even out?  My son will be 2 in August and he is close to 50 lbs.  (in March he was 45.6 lbs and 36.5" tall)  - my goal was to keep him at that weight until he was 4 (ish)  but the bathroom scale is telling me differently and frankly, im a little surprised. 

We also have really large people on my DH's side of the family and DH himself is 6' 2".  Both DH and i are overweight (seriously overweight)  and im not sure if the pediatrician just sees two fat people and imagines us sitting on the couch feeding our son Twinkies all day long....his only real suggestion to me in March was to have DS drink more water.

I have eliminated sugar (all sugar, syrup, honey, malodextrin, agave, all of it!)  and all flour from my own diet.  I have lost 30 lbs since January.    We dont give the baby any sugar, he does have multigrain bread - one slice a day.  Everything he eats , i make from scratch.  We lean on meats and vegetables primarily and for DS also lots of fruit. No juice or dairy.   In a typical breakfast he can eat one egg, one piece of toast and one banana. (that is his biggest meal of the day) 

He is typically asking for more food after about 2 -3 hours.  I am nursing him typically between 3 - 6 X in a 24 hour period. 

We started walking every morning - he can walk 1/2 mile by himself - we also take a long afternoon walk to  a playground about 3 x week - some afternoons we will walk to do errands.  He is pretty heavy to push in a stroller and i only pick him up if i absolutely HAVE to!  He loves to run around and play ball - we dont have a yard unfortunately - but we have a playground nearby. 

Im really not sure what else to do.  I have a feeling his portion sizes are off (because of course, mine are)  but he eats what he is given and often asks for more.  I would hate to NOT give him food when he is asking for it - but it seems like that is my answer.   

What do other 21 month olds eat for breakfast?   Will he naturally thin out when i wean?  (that wont influence me to wean him early, but it would be something to look forward to!) 

Im just not sure what im doing wrong....

For a child that size, I would want a thorough work up.  Since you know he is not eating junk all day and he gets good exercise, I'd be concerned about a thyroid imbalance.  For comparison sake, my son is almost 7 and isn't 50 lbs. yet.  My 3 year old is 28 lbs. and the same height as your son.  She's slender, but I think the heaviest of her peers around the same height is 38 lbs.

[JudiAU]

My kid was that kid at that age and my ped wasn't concerned. But in the last year he has grown somewhat taller but put on ten pounds. I do now think that unless we hit a growth spurt soon that we need to be more careful about his diet and activity level. Little things like MIL handing him a half of an adult pastrami sandwich as a snack, etc. And thinking it was a great thing he ate it all. Um, no.

We live in an area with a LOT of kids that are heavy and obese and more than obese. I think it is worth paying attention to his diet.

[dimitroff03]

Hi motherhendoula.  I, too, am the mother of a future football player (as most strangers say...)  He's always been off the charts for weight and just about there for height.  He was 20lbs by 2 months, 30lbs by 6 months, and 38lbs at 12 months.  He turned 2 in March and was 50lbs and 38"...as tall as most 3 year olds we meet.  Especially in that first year and a half I can't tell you how many times I heard, "woah, he weighs more than my 4 or 5 or 6 year old!"  Yes, yes he does.  He was exclusively breastfed as an infant and didn't become interested in any food until well after 1 year.  Even at 18 months he wasn't eating much with probably 80-90% of his calories coming from breast milk.  As he neared 2 his interest in food started to increase and, although he still would probably rather nurse than eat food, it's probably about 50/50 right now.  I'm in no hurry for him to wean and am quite fascinated by the child-led weaning process. 

Anyone who has a child at one end of the spectrum or the other is going to have a more challenging time simply because everything in life is compared.  Our babies are always bigger than everyone elses simply because out of 100 babies, ours are the 'biggest'.  There has to be one that weighs the least and one that weighs the most and either of those will likely be a very different size than the baby in the middle because there is a wide range of people in the world.  I have really had to sort through many mixed emotions of my own over this - especially during his first year.  Some people thought he was the cutest, chubbiest baby they had ever seen and just adored him.  Others were downright mean or rude about his size and made me feel very, very insecure.  While I am on the thin side and live a very healthy lifestyle, my husband is overweight and I know that made things more of a concern to him from time to time. 

But what I always came back to was to ask myself, "is he healthy?"  Being healthy is SO much more than just about weight alone, especially for babies who use up fat differently than adults do.  When it came down to it, I knew that he was getting the very best in the way of nutrition, was active, was meeting and exceeding all of his milestones, and has always been a happy, secure, and emotionally healthy child.  His doctor has never had reason to be concerned and I knew I shouldn't either.

I feel like I finally found my peace about it all maybe 3 or 4 months ago.  That's when I stopped obsessing over his weight, over what others thought, over when he'd start to thin out, and over worrying about if he was nursing too much/not eating enough and so on.  I have concluded that he will probably grow up to be a very tall, strong built man, and that his body knows what its doing.  With each month that goes by his energy only increases (as is typical in a 2 year old) and I can see a big difference in his size from even 6 months ago.  He still wears the same size clothes that he did last summer (4/5) but is a lot taller. 

Your job is to offer a variety of healthy foods, model a healthy lifestyle, model a healthy body image, and trust his body tell you both what it needs.  If you are concerned that there is a medical problem contributing then start by getting that checked out.  But if that has been ruled out I'd say stop worrying about his weight and focus on having fun & living well. =) It sounds like you are doing an awesome job of working on your own health (way to go!!) and your son will follow suit.  Your lifestyle is what his normal will become so just keep challenging yourself to learn more and do better.  I'm amazed at how much I've learned about real nutrition in the past year because of wanting to set the very best example for my children.  I've found that, for me anyway, the more I immerse myself in quality info about healthy living the easier it is for me to do and the more excited I get about it.  Some good movies I've seen include Food Matters, Hunger for Change, The Beautiful Truth (although slow, had good info) and Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.  Also, here's a website I've gotten a lot of resources from: http://www.westonaprice.org/.

Hope that helps!  If nothing else, at least you know there's someone else out there who gets where you're coming from and has a big guy who can someday play on the same football team with yours.

[motherhendoula]

Thank you all for your replies - and especially you Dimitroff03 - i  dont think i have ever said this....your baby is bigger than mine!  lol - i actually 'met' a mom on the Babywearer site whose LO was built like ours is - and she also said he wasnt all that interested in food either and still preferred to nurse more than eat solids 16 months.  Maybe thats why its more upsetting to me - this didnt really happen until he started eating solids  (born 8'8" , 4 months 16' ; 6 months 19'8" ; 13 months 34' )  his weight really began to balloon around 8 months old when he started eating in earnest.  

I know what he was eating was exceptionally healthy (a typical lunch at that age was spinach, black beans and catfish)  so i never bothered to watch the amount. 

DH has a cousin who is 6'10" ...and if DS turns out like him - i know i will look back and laugh at these years -  and in my heart of hearts i believe that nursing him will result in an adult who is less likely to be overweight....

i guess the scrutiny is harder when both parents are overweight and im already starting my 'defense' to my pediatrician  - which is wrong of me....