From Felicia, Child's Age 11 - 08/31/01 - IP#: 64.12.103.xxx  Click here to reply  
This goes along with my last one. She is 5 foot 1 inches tall. Thanks.
Reply from tony, Child's Age 11 - 03/30/02  - IP#: 212.3.162.xxx
my daughter used to be the same weight as yours and i told her not to worry because all you have to do is eat breakfast' lunch then dinner do 10 sit ups a night she lost a lot of weight and also when she starts to grow in height she will get slimer.JUST DON'T EAT JUNK FOOD.
 
Reply from Sue, Child's Age 12 - 09/02/01  - IP#: 62.64.187.xxx
Felicia,
Don't panic. My daughter, too, was overweight and although it seemed daunting at first and like we had a big mountain to climb, we got there eventually.
I will tell you what worked for us.
1. Get your daughter low fat versions of her favourite foods or cook lower fat versions. Loads of recipes on the internet and stuff in the shops that is low calorie and low fat, and also fun. We got low fat pasta, pizza etc etc.
2. Write down everything she eats and calculate roughly how many calories a day she should be eating. This is very boring and laborious and requires discipline and honesty but you have to know what she is eating and how much. We started off on about 1200 a day for a week and then gradually upped it. That isn't a lot of calories but in our case my daughter was drinking lots of low cal soups and taking some extra vitamins so she didn't feel hungry or tired. Doctors would probably advise against just 1200 a day but I knew it was important to my daughter that she saw a weight loss in the first week or so otherwise she may have just given up. Your choice.
3. Try and get your daughter to take more exercise, even just a walk with your after dinner will help.
4. Get your daughter to drink more water - at least 2 litres a day.
5. Eat more fruit and veg. My daughter loved low calorie dips and carrots. We also had a rule that any fruit she ate didn't go on the calorie list so she could eat as much as she liked.
6. Don't be disheartend if one week she doesn't lose. There is no rhyme or reason to it. You have to look at it over a period of months and not days. I worked out that my daughter lost about 1-2 pounds a week but some weeks nothing and other weeks a pound and the odd week she lost 3 pounds. It did slow down very much at the end.
7. Try to avoid weighing your daughter every week. Like I say, if she doesn't lose one week she will get disheartened.
We sat down at the beginning and I explained that we would view it as a 3 month exercise of better eating habits. My daughter has a very sweet tooth so we found low cal lollies and ice lollies but a low cal jelly at only 7 calories a serving. She loved that! Do your research and read labels. You will be surprised yourself how much fat and calories are in some foods. Good luck.