Question
I wrote before about my 7 year old son asking if he’s fat and complaining about his thighs. While I agree that it’s a teaching moment about treating others kindly, the truth is he probably does have a real weight problem. He’s approximately 53” tall and his doctor weighed him in at 84 lb yesterday, a 7 lb gain in about 3 months! I have no idea how to approach this. My husband and I do not have a weight problem, although its definitely a conscious struggle. As a teenager, I definitely flirted with eating disorders and no small part of that was because my mom and sisters always complained about how fat they were. Not a pattern I want to repeat. My son, like me, is hungry all the time. At home I push fruits and vegetables for snacks, water to drink, and very small treats after dinner (he usually chooses a lollipop or something small anyway). I’m not really surprised by his summer weight gain because at daycare he’s allowed as many servings as he wants. This will stop when school starts, but I need to teach him to choose fewer servings when they are available, but I don’t know how to do that without coming out and telling him that he’s getting too plump and needs to cut back. As a side note, he’s pretty active, with lots of swimming at daycare and on weekends and a strong interest in sports. We live in the deep south though, and other activities like biking or running are downright miserable right now. But even indoors he’s always moving.
