No kids here, but if you do, I have a question for you.

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I raised an over weight child. He wasn't aware of it (and still isn't at 23 years old), but I monitored his food intake somewhat. When I fixed his plate at dinner, I made it look as full as everyone else's, but it wasn't. He had seconds if he wanted, but again, I managed his plate in a way that led him to have no idea I was controlling his intake.

He's now 6'3" and about 280#. So not sure I had much of an impact... But I grew up with a girl whose parents CONSTANTLY said horrible things about her weight and "are you eating AGAIN" and other less than helpful commentaries. I swore I would never do that if I had an overweight child. And I didn't.

I guess I should add my children are 5, 4, 2, and 1. (and the answers to the usual questions that follow are - Yes they are all mine. Yes they all have the same father. Yes my hands are very full. Yes I know what keeps causing this ) Yes I am done.)They are also freakishly tall which they didn't get from me (5'3) or their father (5'5). They also have no problem with their weight. My daughter has always been in the 25%, but her pediatrician says that so long as she stays growing on the same curve she is okay. Like most mamas I love my children more than the air I breathe and want them to live long,happy, healthy lives.

no, my daughter is only two so getting her to eat anything at all during the day is a victory to me!

No. I feed them normal, regular meals and snacks. When they are hungry I feed them more. My kids are healthy, active and slender. I have no worries about them gaining weight. Gaining weight is a healthy part of a growing kid's life. Sometimes I worry they are too slender, but the doctor says they are perfectly healthy and they are slender just like my husband and I.

No. Never.

I was gonna say the same

Ok, so I will be one of those people that disagree with everyone else.....

Yes, I have four children who are all healthy and not over or underweight. Ages: 9, 12, 14, & 16. I count calories, fats, sodium, and sugar, for all of them. We talk about each meal and what is in it. We talk about what is healthy and and what is not. We also talk about why it is or is not. I show them labels, and google ingredients that we don't know. I want my children to grow up knowing what they are putting in their bodies and why it is so important.

NEVER.. He can eat whatever he wants, he is an active little boy and as long as he is eating enough and is content i'm not worried what so ever. It's a far cry from how I grew up, with my dad putting diet pills and a set amount of cereal in my bowl, while my younger brother was able to eat to his hearts content!

I don't count calories for my 2 year old. I do keep an eye on her weight and height. She likes to stand on the scale after I've been on the scale, so it's pretty easy for me to keep track of without her realizing I'm doing it. She just thinks it's cool that the scale lights up.

We don't regularly have junk in the house. No chips, no soda, no cookies, nothing like that. I don't think having that stuff around is a good idea. We don't have chicken nuggets or cheese noodles or hotdogs, none of that typical kid food.

She loves meat, whole wheat noodles, and some fruit and veggies. Some days she eats a LOT, other days she doesn't eat hardly anything. It would be hard to keep her on a regular diet for that reason. There are days that most of her food just goes untouched and she makes up for it the next day. We get her a small fry at Mcdonalds once a week, but that's the extent of the fast food she gets.

I'd like to think that just not having junk food in the house and taking her to the park everyday is enough to keep her weight under control without resorting to calorie counting.

My mom used to calorie count for me when I was a kid. It led to yoyo dieting and I got fatter than ever. If she just wouldn't have bought chips I doubt I would've been overweight at all.

I do think it's important to help a kid that's becoming overweight, but, that help should also come in the form of finding exercise they enjoy. With kids it's easier to restrict junk food than it is to calorie count.

No calorie counting for my kids. We provide them with meals that have a combo of meats & vegies, and then a yoghurt for dessert. If they get full, and don't want anymore that's fine, as long as they've given it a go. But if they can't finish their dinner, they can't have dessert.
We also teach them to have treats/junk food in moderation, but they can eat as much fruit and vegies as they like. We always have a bowl of fruit on the table if they get hungry between meals.
Both children are in the healthy weight range for their age.

Not yet...he's only 20-months-old, but seeing as how I am a diabetic...you can be sure I will teach him how to eat properly.

I'm in the process of raising awareness in the house. My kids eating habits are worse than mine & I think the only reason they get away with it is because they are kids. The only vegetable they will even consider eating is corn. They are both 12, girls and are extremely picky..they want fat, sugar & carbs..Period

One of them made 2 fried egg sandwiches w/ cheese the other day for lunch, two hours after eating a bowl of cereal. She knows I've been counting calories & watched me scan stuff into my phone so I asked her to come watch me scan the sandwich stuff. It was pushing 800 calories, she gave me such a wonderful look..lol When I asked her what that was for she said "I didn't want to know, I was fine not knowing" I didn't say another word, 10 mins later she gave the 2nd sandwich to her sister.

I'm not going to stick her on any diet but just raising awareness on that one thing I have noticed her looking at labels, pointing out high calorie items and both of them jumping on the treadmill a few times over the last week (It may be because thats what the laptop is attached to now) hahahaha

Yes, I am very aware of almost exactly how many calories are in the foods my daughter eats. She is almost 31 months old, and is in the 4 percentile for weight (up from 2, yay), 7 percentile for height. She just doesn't care to eat very much or very often. So when I do offer her food, I do my best to make it as calorie-laden as possible, without being too loaded with sugar. Whole chocolate milk, high-calorie yogurt, 100% fruit juice, nothing "lite". I slather her pancakes with butter, and scramble her eggs with it and try to get in cheese when I can. She loves fresh fruits and vegetables and, if I don't time the parts of the meal right, she'll fill up on cantaloupe, tomatoes, broccoli, or raspberries and not want anything else, taking in only about 50 calories or less for the meal. She doesn't care for candy, cake, or cookies, so it's not that I'm feeding her that sort of thing. It's a struggle every single day.

Never have never will. My son is now 19 & is about the same size as I am now. He has ADHD so he burns off heaps each day...no need ever for me to count anything with him. Even as a child he was able to eat everything & still be skin & bones.

Absolutely not. Children will self-regulate, unless we interfere. Research shows that being an overweight child has no correlation to becoming an overweight adult. However, children whose parents are concerned about the weight of the children are more likely to become overweight as adults - even if the kids are thin as children! If offered a good array of foods, kids will figure out what they need and will sort themselves out.

Someone else mentioned monitoring her daughter's weight after her daughter stepped on the scale - my 2 year old followed me onto the scale this week, and I resolved to never weigh myself in front of her again. I set a good example with healthy eating and exercising (she sees my husband doing P90x, I run with her in my stroller, we do lots of fun stuff together), there is zero benefit to her seeing me worry about my weight.

Edit: I wanted to also add that children encouraged to eat more will eventually begin to eat less over time. Children encouraged to eat less will overeat given the opportunity. I recommend Ellyn Satter's book, Child of MIne, for all parents.