Small children and diets???

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  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    Hopefully she's following advice and diet instruction from her doctor, which one would assume is a healthy diet. A "diet" doesn't have to mean calorie deprivation. She's getting and following professional advice. I say good for her!
  • noneya2010
    noneya2010 Posts: 446 Member
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    My 5 year old is a pretty "thick" guy and I was concerned about his weight and asked the pedi last visit. He is actually in the 95th percentile so the doc said he'll be fine just increase his physical activity. I will say this -- I am always the one watching what I eat and most of the time, my son wants what I'm eating (my mother-in-law lives with us and is from India so she usually cooks so I usually fix something separate for me to avoid having to figure out how much cals, carbs are in her food....). He is a great eater - will eat anything you put in front of him. However, I have also noticed here lately that he is constantly saying "I'm hungry" right after eating or he will go in the pantry and help himself. So, I've stopped buying easy grab snack stuff (fruit roll ups, etc.) and try to give him a choice -- carrots/celery and ranch or a piece of fruit. Most of the time, he's really not hungry - he's just eating out of bordome.

    So I guess I'm kind of mixed on the putting a young child on a diet. I think with my son, he loves to eat a grilled salmon salad becasue I'm eating it -- not becuase he thinks it a 'diet' food. Small changes incorporated into their diets are good but they also need 1 hour MINIMUM of physical activity per day, recommneded is 2 (this by some experts from a conference I attended last Friday). That's kind of shocking since they don't even get daily PE in school anymore!! Time to start walking the neighborhood while the little one rides his bike with me!!

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