ParentStuff-well I think we finally have to do it....

Cita

 What I do with BF (lol) is subtly restrict his portions at dinner (as in, just make sliiightly less than usual) and then offer fruit smoothies as dessert. Usually an hour or two after dinner (we eat early) so he has time to get hungry again.

 

 

I'm pretty certain that if the lad ever reduced my portions, sneaky or otherwise, I'd leave him  I'm an adult and part of the perks of the grown up club are that I get to decide what and when I eat

 

for Elias, I think that offering more fruits and veggies as snacks and more activities are a great idea. (hopefully you have some cool times of the day...it was still 90 at 10 the otoher night here in AZ)  He may just be in that plateau area before he shoots up in another growth spurt. Since his gain seems to be in one area, rather than getting universally chubby, I'd think it should disappear once he shoots up again.

Ah, on the water....Walmart has a Sam's Choice water that I LOVE...black cherry, tastes just like cherry soda and ZERO calories.

 Is the yogurt lowfat? Have you counted up the three yogurts a day? Plus if you switched to skim instead of lowfat milk. We did that a couple years ago and the kids whined for like, a month, and then they got hip to it. They didn't need it, DH and I did (LOL).

I cut up veggies like celery and carrots and "little trees" and have them ready in the fridge. They disappear through the day. I also recently declared a moratorium on the sweet drinks after a long battle trying to get the kids to brush their teeth after meals. They have cold bottled water in the fridge, period. They do have little packs of vitamin fizzy flavored stuff they can put in them if they want, but most of the time they don't bother now.

They also like fresh berries. I let them help themselves anytime - they put them in a cup and put a bit of sugar over them. That's fine with me - if they follow it with 500 mls of plain water the sugar won't do any harm.

Patrick cooks breakfast rather than doing the packaged kids' food stuff (except maybe a couple times a week). The meat is turkey bacon or sausage (or venison sausage in season), and egg beaters.

I was worried about all the low fat stuff messing with them, but they are growing like weeds this summer. They eat TONS of food, of course - but since most of it is healthy I don't feel the need to put the brakes on.

When we go out to eat, they can have whatever as it's a treat, not a regular thing. We do eat a lot of red meat (lamb and venison) at home, so I worried some about their omega-3 levels. I have been trying to get them to take fish oil regularly but it's not like the dogs - you can't hide it in their ice cream!

they don't sell yogurt that isn't that I have noticed. It's all low non fat stuff more's the pity from my perspective LOL. I had full fat stuff in Europe and it tasted sublime!

Berries have a really short shelf life and he'd really be the only person eating them...sadly. My daughter detests anything grainy or seedy...they both like grapes tho. I just hate buying fruit because aside from apples nothing lasts very long here in our house. And then you get those danged tiny flies that seems to magically appear when fruit is around...bleah.

I can try to keep something frozen for him tho.

 You are not alone Gina.  Madison seems to eat evrything in sight.  I cannot fill her up!  She weighs in at 59 pounds!  I am 5'4 and she stands at my chest.  I think she is going to be taller than me!  All I can say is good luck and if your grocery bill is anything like mine, I'm sorry!!

Don't put limits on how much, or what he eats, as that will make it more of an issue and he is WAY too young to be dieting or worrying about his size or food or anything.  If he's hungry and wants a biscuit, go with it - don't try and push an apple on him instead.  He WILL pick up on that. 

Never make a big deal out of food being wasted.  This "I must clear my plate" rubbish is unnecessary and makes you keep eating after you should have stopped.

Give him slightly smaller portions at mealtimes.

Get a bit tougher on manners - if he is shovelling food into his mouth and/or eating fast, ask him to slow down.  My dad always said you should chew your food 20 times before you swallow.  Recent research shows that there is truth in this - digestion starts in the mouth, and if food isn't being digested properly he is going to get hungry more often, and going to be carrying around a lot of "waste food" in his body that never gets used up.  Put the fork down and chew thoroughly - if he really savours that first helping more, maybe he won't feel like the second one quite so badly?

Make sure he drinks plenty!  A lot of times we (adults too) confuse "hunger" and "thirst" signals.  So just bring him a glass of milk or squash a couple of times a day, to up his liquid intake.  If you do that just before a meal it may also affect the AMOUNT he eats?

Don't eat in front of the telly (if you even do that).

Don't be suckered in by "diet" products.  Seriously, there are nations getting FAT on diet products.  "Low fat" usually means "high sugar", so you have gained NOTHING.  As far as yoghurts go, I think bio-yoghurts are best.

If it were my kid, I would worry less about him carrying around a gut than carrying round a shed load of food issues, so keep it real low key and trust that it's just puppy fat and he will grow into it. 

 Puppy fat, lol! My eight year old was pudgy when he was six, too. All over, not just tummy. He's whipcord thin now - these two are on the go all the time.

I forgot another healthy hunger-buster. Nuts! If nuts are okay of course. Check out Nuts Online (seriously). They've got zillions of munchies for growing appetites. The dried fruit is incredible - the dried strawberries are like candy. It's still fat and sugar, yes, but it's also fiber and lots of good nutrients.

Look for full fat yogurt at the health food store - or even some groceries now carry it (look for "cream on the top";). Even better is Greek style yogurt - the low fat has the creamy texture of full fat, but it's more protein than fat. I sweeten it with Polaner fruit preserves rather than buying pre-flavored styles. The kids love mashed bananas and strawberry in theirs!

do sweeten the Greek style yogurt though.  Do not do as I did and buy a honey flavored cup thinking it sounded spectacular and bite into it all unaware

I swear it was like vomit with a tiny hint of honey

 

I'm sure had I been home and had some fruit or something it would have been fine, but I grabbed it at the store for a quick lunch and had nothing on hand.  Ack

 Well, I am an oldster, but I can tell you that my kids lost that "puppy" fat when they had friends to run around with...neighbors or preschool buds.  I had to drag them in for lunch.  I know things are different now, but I do still think that interaction with others of their own age and sex is so-o important...he might just need the stimulation from other little boys.

just an fyi, any drinks that taste sweet or flavored and have zero calories, are full of artificial sweeteners which are awful for everyone, but ESPECIALLY kids. Please don't let your kids ingest that crap.

As for Eli... more whole foods, more water, more exercise, less sugar, less processed stuff.. you already know.

Eli's always been heavy for his age/height, yeah? I seem to remember him always being a bit bigger than my cousin's daughter, who was always bigger than every other kid their age pretty much (she's April '03). She's just over 4' tall now and like 60 pounds. She always had lots of chub, but in the past year or so she lost all the chub and I swear the kid is pure muscle. She's got abs and legs most women would kill for, lol. I don't think her diet has changed a ton, but since she started school last year she's been way more active than she ever was before. She still easily puts away 5 full-sized slices of pizza if she spends the night here, so I can only imagine it's the exercise... haha

 And Gina, don't spend too much on groceries, cause I have a feeling you're gonna have to be buying a whole crapload of new clothes for that boy in a couple months....

My nephew was like that all the time he was growing up.  As soon as my sister started to notice a gut on him, she knew it was time to start saving for a new wardrobe.  He'd literally shoot up 5 or 6 inches in a few months time.  

And cutting out the juice or at least watering it down can cut out a good 300 calories in a single day.  A tip I learned from my own weight loss struggles.

Just went and read my black cherry water, and while there are a ton of unrecognizable things in there, I'm not seeing anything that would be fake sugar.

From what I've seen of Gina the past several years on this forum, I'm thinking that Eli is not going to feel singled out or have his self esteem impaired by a dietary change.  JMHO.

 Ingredients of Sam's Choice Flavored Sparkling Water:

carbonated water, citric acid, potassium citrate, natural flavor, aspartame, potassium benzoate ( a preservative), acesulfame potassium.

Aspertame is fake sugar.

Well, yeah, I looked for that.  Wonder why it isn't on my label?

 This is the product, right?

 

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=11303918