Dieting for an 8 yr. old?

DixieDarlin wrote: Well, it's not really a diet, just a change in certain things.
When he went to his appt. today, he weighed 93 lbs! That is way too much for an 8 yr. old to weigh. So starting tomorrow, we are changing things up.
Instead of the sugary cereals, he will be eating Special K with Splenda and fat free milk for breakfast. By the way, he loves Special K. He's eaten it before when we ran out of their cereal and now he wants it all the time.
For lunch, I'm cutting out the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on regular bread and replacing it with 98% fat free ham on honey wheat bread.
And since I cook Weight Watchers recipes for dinner, dinner time will be no problem.
My grandmother almost flipped out when I told her what I was doing. She said you can't put a child on a diet. Well, this isn't really a diet, IMO. It's just a healthier way of eating. Being the weight that he is, IS NOT healthy for him at all. Besides, when he starts football, it's probably going to make him shed a few pounds anyway.
What are your opinions? It's not like I'm starving him. I'm cutting out all of the junk and feeding him healthier things.

aspenblue1 replied: Sounds like a good diet to me. I try to keep sweets from Isabella know so hopefully she wont have a taste for them.

momof2girls replied: My daughter is almost 9 and weighs more then him she is chunky but she is tall I am 5'4 so she has to be at lesat 5
her pedi told me she cant really gain now, to eat healthy no junk, no soda, no juice, no junk!
so we eat veggies and protein, and we do let her eat stuff sometimes like tonight we had pizza, she is a kid my goodness... she does not have any health problems but we dont want her to have them either....
how tall is your son? does he eat alot of junk?
My daughter has never really been aloud soda and lots of junk, poor thing it runs in the family! lol

DixieDarlin replied: Shannon, they told me how tall he was today but I can't remember if it was 47 or 49 inches. I was too worked up about his meds, kwim?
I don't let him have a lot of junk. Hardly ever does he get junk but he does drink lots of juice. I'm not too thrilled on sodas but I did agree to let him have two diet Mug root beers a day (one with lunch and one with dinner). Mug root beer has no caffeine so that's why I agreed to that. If he wants something to drink in between, it's going to have to be water.
The last time he went to his neurologist was in Jan. and he weighed 77 lbs. So he has gained 16 lbs. in less than 7 months! That's not good.
I tried to tell my grandmother that he may be healthy now but if I just let it go and let him keep gaining weight, then what about years down the road? I just feel like I need to do something about it BEFORE it becomes a problem, kwim? Besides, I don't want him being teased at school.

amynicole21 replied: Sounds like a good plan to me It's not a diet, but rather a change for the better.

jcc64 replied: One of my 3 kids is a few lbs overweight- he's almost 12 now. I think the changes that you mentioned sound sensible and healthy, but I strongly caution you about making too big a deal about food, dieting, and body image. My mother did this to me as a child, and as a result I have never had a healthy relationship with food. In high school, I was anorexic, and I've yoyo dieted my whole life. I would advise that you quietly make healthy changes in the food you make available to him and the rest of the family as well, and then let it go as much as possible. I told my son, who is approaching the intense years of self consciousness, that the easiest way to cut down on caloric intake is to only drink water, which is what we should all be doing anyway. But I'm not gonna beat him over the head with it everytime he drinks something sugary when he's with his buddies. In the end, the motivation really needs to come from him. I know you mentioned he plays football. Keep him active, away from the video, and I'm sure he'll be fine.

momof2girls replied: I know its hard enough for kids these days!!!

A&A'smommy replied: Although I'm not a mother of a child that age I think its wonderful for him to be eating healthier foods! I hope to keep my kids on healthy foods when they are growing up!

momof2girls replied: I agree I never tell my daughter she needs to lose, I just say we need to eat healthy foods so our bodies will be healthy...

There are some good things out there to drink, juice has soo much sugar but now she mostly drinks water or lowfat milk.

Im not sure if the school your son goes to does this or not, but Azaria buys lunch at school and they have a snack cart they can buy from and its all junk, chips ice cream and stuff, a few ok things but mostly junk.
I found out she had been getting these snacks everyday at school eventhough I told her not to, so I had them put a lock on her acct that she cant have that type of snack. Only if I ok it first.
I feel bad sometimes because she will say all her friends get snacks and she cant, I tell her you will thank me in HS when you have the best skin and hair, never saying anything about her being chunky.
I do feel bad I wish we could all eat what we wanted and not worry about it.

if you ever wanna talk, let me know.

You have ALOT going on!

DansMom replied: I think some of those meds can contribute to the weight gain too---did the doctor mention that possibility? It seems like your diet plan will be a good one. My nephew had to cut back on junk food and get more exercise, and that alone seemed to do the trick.

jingraham2121 replied: I don't have children in that age range at all, but I was DEFINATELY a heavy kid. I just wanted to let you know that whatever you do, do not mention the word DIET. Just changing the eating habits for the entire family should help a lot. My mother started me on diets when I was 6 (told you I was a little potato) and unfortunately I have been a chronic dieter my entire life. I think it was because it was pushed on me from an early age. Meds are definately something to look into, too. SO many of them nowadays create weight gain.

Hope you don't mind me commenting even though I don't have kids this age. Good luck with the whole situation. I hope what you try works.

DixieDarlin replied:
Yes, I discussed that with his doctor and the meds that he's on doesn't cause weight gain. I have always been careful about his portions (even though I sometimes catch him getting more). But I think all of the juice that he drinks has a lot to do with it. I give them 2% milk with their meals but in between, he was drinking more juice than he was water. Actually, it was rare that I was able to get him to drink water. Now he's drinking fat free milk with his meals. And I'm making sure that he drinks plenty of water.