[kindofcrunchy82]

hi everyone,

I have been having issues with my ds's sedentary lifestyle essentially all his life. He was a healthy baby and toddler but around 4-5 he kind of changed. i had always had troubles getting him to play like other kids. He has always hated being outside. until around 4 he was pretty lean and tall. Weight 50-75% and height 90% +. I think school, having dd and the divorce kinda did him in. He is still extremely tall. Just turned 9 and is 5'2" and his weight is at 95 for BMI. I took him to the dr last fall and he ran a bunch of tests and he was fine. Dr was not worried at all. He said since he is still growing height wise so much not to worry. But i still do. Dr said to get him more active and I have done so as much as i can. He did swimming, then karate, then tennis. But I am having many health issues so I cannot be as active with him...

He never asks to go outside. He does have a video game habit that may get in the way. But his diet isn't that bad. Dr asked if he drinks lots of pop and i said no. He likes sweets but they are drastically limited. It is just so frustrated because he just seems to lack motivation. He always complains if we go on walks or do anything outside ish.

I will continue to put him activities as finances allow but just looking for suggestions and am i overworried for nothing? I was always a bigger kid and didn't end up as an obese adult. I hover within 10-15 ish pounds of my same weight high end of normal/slighty overweight for my height since i was a teen. So it could genetic. I have lost sleep and worry about this all the time. My concern isn't that he is bigger, it is that for the first 4 years he was lean and then he went from lean to husky in a matter of months. Suggestions? thoughts? anyone dealing with this?

 

[tiffanymm]

My son sounds the same way. He's now going to be 13 next month and doesn't like to go outside when it's sunny and stopped wanting to play sports. He got thicker around his waste line around 10 years old. Now he shot up to 5'7 and thinned out. He's always been tall and big and his ab muscles always showed until about 9/10. We have a trampoline in the backyard that he jumps on or he will play football with his friends outside once the sun starts to set. Most of the time he plays video games though.

So all that said. I would keep feeding him healthy foods and try to encourage him to play outside.

 

[Wildflower]

I have a sedentary-ish 7 year old, following. I just wish I could find an outdoor activity he LOVED, you know? We homeschool and there is too much sitting....

 

[newmainer]

was just coming to see if there were threads about this.. .my son is almost 9.5 and in the past couple months he's put on probably a good 10lbs. He's waaaay bigger than all the kids on his soccer team.

He was a super chubby toddler... we called him the Michelan Baby Rolls, rolls, rolls... I keep thinking that the tween years are kinda like the toddler years... more needy, chubbier, getting ready for that next phase. But then I see all these other kiddos around same age who are all *super* lean I start to doubt.

Def. loving video games over here, and only certain outdoor activities (mountain biking..but not uphill! scootering, which we're trying to do more soon... soccer but it's only an hour or so a week). But says no to walks or hikes or anything like that.

But anyway, just wanted to chime in that I"m seeing the same trend over here. It seemed to happen FAST! And I think for some kids, it's part of their development. I'm 5'9" and my husband is just a hair shorter than me, but his dad (ds' grandfather) is over 6'

 

[moominmamma]

We homeschool and there is too much sitting....

I homeschool one while the olders are at school and I have to say that with homeschooling it's so much easier to ensure adequate physical activity, because everything is (theoretically) under your control, or at least amenable to your influence. Any day that doesn't have at least an hour of sports/activity scheduled into it we start with a walk of at least 30 minutes with huffing-and-puffing 20-degree grade to finish. In the winter we take a mug coffee (me) or herbal tea (her) with us too, and it's a lovely ritual. Now that we're living in town we now walk or bike on most of our errands. If we can't walk the whole way, we'll often park a half mile or a mile away and walk from there, or take public transit until we're in the area.

We don't have BMI issues, but I come from a family of slim-but-sedentary folk and I had to work hard as an adult to establish the habits of regular physical activity. So I'm very conscious of helping my kids build those habits as they grow up. We try to build activity into our daily lives as much as we can, not just treat it as an add-on obligation.

We've used pedometers or the step-counter on a smartphone (a Fitbit or similar device would work too) to monitor our walking and we typically get 12-15,000 steps a day. Tracking that count and pushing it to new levels has been a helpful way to minimize sedentary time while focusing on the positive. Another little tech trick that has helped us is to use ipods to play entertaining podcasts or audiobooks while walking. This is of course best for solo walking, not the sociable morning-walk-with-tea kind.

Miranda

 

[Nightwish]

I highly recommend Ellyn Satter's book "Your child's weight". It saved my sanity.

Basically just make sure you have regular meals and snacks - don't let them graze mindlessly in front of a screen. My job as a parent is to provide structure, their job is to eat as much as their body needs.

Offer opportunities to move and play outside. If I give mine the choice to play videogames or go outside, they would choose videogames in a heartbeat. So i just send them out and tell them to come back in x amount of time. My job is to provide opportunity to be active, their job is to choose how much to move.

Be ready for some overzealous doctors to put the kid on a diet. From what I've read, this backfires and makes kids be preoccupied with food and accelerates their weight. Once you provide structure and opportunity, trust the kid to grow according to their genetics.

I have a slim kid and a chubby kid. Both very active and athletic. They both eat the same kind of food.

 

[SecondtimeMama]

Don't boys plump up around 9 to gear up for the MASSIVE growth spurts? I know girls do, and they don't even grow as much as boys.

Being heavier isn't a problem, but not moving might be. Is he getting enough calories?

Hang on, is he 5' 2", 95lbs = 72%BMI or is his weight is closer to 115lbs=95%BMI? It wasn't clear from the OP. Asking because 95lbs would be totally fine.

 

[kindofcrunchy82]

Such an old post but my ds grew up to be quite tall 6'5" in 9th grade and is not overweight .