Obesity is a problem which a few other children also face in our family. My son is very fond of eating. but seeing his condition we as parents try to give him low calorie food. His height is normal. Mentally he is sharp and gets good grades in the school. Is very sensitive about his appearance and has a great desire to get smart and slim. His urge for the food is more than the kids of his age. We have conducted his thyroid tests which were found normal.He faces a lot of problems pertaining to respiratory infection and has to be given strong anti biotics every odd month to get over with disease. he was born premature with almost 6-7 week left in his DOD, was weighing then only 2.5 Kgs. VItal signs were normal. Some of the doctors here in Pakistan think that he is a case of Pickwickian syndrome but after studying on the syndrome I am not convince.Please help us make our child live a normal life. God bless you
216537
tough love.  do it now while you can still instill some good eating habits.  the hair is his hormones growing crazy.  happens to fat women tool  ask your doctor about it.  but sounds like he likes to eat and it's already causing health problems and you want to be a good parent and deal with the health problems but you're not getting to the source which is his diet.  just bite the bullet now, go see a nutrition and do what he/she tells you to do.
544648
Yes, do you see any signs of anorexia? I have a friend that is very skinny but she has a VERY HIGH metabolism. Do you notice any loss in appiette? How about hair loss? Does she ever talk about how"fat" she looks? If so I would talk to her mom or convince her to see a doctor!
17648
Dude is right. Toss out sodas, chips, cookies. Turn off TV and computer, excercise together.  Get whole grain cereal. No fast food. Even if the teen doesn't like veggies, keep offering. Mini carrots are an easy introduction to veggies.\n\nI am assuming that the teen has been seen by a doctor who has measuered height/weight etc. Try to enlist the doctor's help. Be sure that your opinion of the teen's situation is backed up medically.  Some parents become overly concerned about weight issues.\n\nIf your family needs to chage, do it as a team.  It is tough to change, but it is also very difficult to be overweight.  Show your love and support. Your job as (parent?) is to teach survival skills and lead this person into a health adulthood.
668129
don't mess with asthma!  Trying a bunch of natural nonsense drugs may get him into a life and death situation.  Look at your house, see what is causing his problems, smoking, paint fumes, animal dander, dust etc.  eliminate it from your environment and pray for him to outgrow it.  a number of kids do.  As for the weight, you caused it by overfeeding him, you have to take steps to help him eat healthy foods.  Keep him away from jusk food, no soda, no cookies , no crackers....teach him to eat good food and he will lost the weight.
630729
I just emailed you! Lol! I have a 7 year old with autism who is on a gluten free/casein free diet. He is EXTREMELY hyperactive. Before I put him on the diet (he was almost 3) he would be even MORE hyper after eating foods with milk, and would have these crazy laughing spells. He already bounces off the walls, but it was obviously more so with the milk products, not to mention the stools he would have after eating them. I was changing like 10 pull ups a day. He would not even touch milk after I took him off of the bottle but he was addicted to cheese, and cereals/crackers with wheat in them.  AFTER I put him on the diet, within a matter of only a couple of weeks, he just stopped peeing on himself. Period, including at night. So to me I related that directly to the diet. I have wanted to give up on the diet sometimes, but you know, every time I let him have some foods which he normally doesn't have, he acts even more hyper than usual, and if you knew my son you would find that hard to believe! Lol! I have considered Feingold as well as vitamin therapy(B6 and Magnesium), but with my financial situation and stress level, any more changes would just be really hard for me to enforce right now. I also had completely takem him off of sugar for a long time, but I have caved and so he has it every now and then. I can't really tell if it affects his behavior or not. I am still looking for a solution that works, I am just kind of burned out by the trial and error of it all!
51518
I feel your pain, and share your view in general on medications. I have a daughter, now 8 years old who has ADHD. They told me when she was six that she needed to be medicated and I absolutely refused to consider it. I thought that medication was being used way too often and I was not about to put her on it. Well, things continued to get worse for her, me our family as we tried to control her behaviors without meds. She started losing her friends, doing poorly in school, and her brothers started to resent her for the behaviors she would act out and ruin our family outings. I finally agreed about 6 months ago  to try her on the lowest dose possible to try to make things a little better. Now, I regret not doing it sooner. She is by no means perfectly behaved or on task, but she is now able to do her school work with minimum redirecting, sustain friendships, and has control over her behaviors. This medication has not altered her pesonality or put her in to a dazed state like I thought it would. It really has just helped her to be able to live a more normal life. She still has her times when she doesn't want to listen, do homework and pouts or cries, but it is now within reasonable limits. I agree that medication should not just be handed out like candy, but sometimes the child really does need it. With proper monitoring and dosage your son should be fine. The only side effect my daughter has had is a little weight loss, but even that tapered off after the first 2 months. She is a much happier child now, and it is a much more peaceful house. I wish you luck with your son, and in making this decision, as I know it is a hard one to make. I fought it for 1 1/2 years. Good Luck.
52754
I would be glad if our schools went to something like that, at least I would know they were getting something healthy. Right now, if they want to eat a fried chicken sandwhich everyday they can, and when you are 6 years old it's a pretty yummy choice, I think that offerring the healthy versions of food will help kids get into the habit of eating things that are good for them which in the long run will help with weight issues. Kids should not be coming home to all out binge on whatever junk they want either, this type of eating can also lead to life long struggles with weight. There are also alot of kids out there that don't get healthy meals at home either, so at least now they will be getting 5 a week.
561276
Last year my son developed a very rare disease, that typically affects toddler age Asian boys ( my white son was 8) it was very uncommon, and we kept going and going to the DR, as more symptoms finally kept coming up,one DR finally thought he recognized it, but my son was forming it atypically, we kept going back, FINALLY diagnosed it!   3 weeks of being horribly ill 104 fever constant for 3 weeks! and 4 days in the hospital, and 6 months of follow up with a cardiologist. My point is KEEP taking her, they will find something, it could be a very rare thing! They brought ALL the personnel in the room to look at my son because NONE had ever seem this disease!!!
582846
Mom and Dad:  the kids to not do the shopping for your family, do they???  Why will you not give them healthy foods to eat??  You're caving into their wants, not their needs.\n\nYou teach your children by example:  In other words, "NO MORE FAST JUNK FOOD".  Bring in healthy foods into the household and that's it.  They might throw a tantrum for a while, but they'll get hungry enough and soon will be eating right.  At this point, you are killing your children slowly.\n\nA parent does not "lose control" over kids; they give it up cause it's alot easier than fighting with them about everything.  You're going to have to bite the bullet and do what is best for them; and that means, don't give in to what they want no matter what.  Get them involved in meal preperation.  Get educated on healthy meals and different recipes to try.\n\nCheck out this web site and maybe you can watch the show also.  It's full of good information for families like yours.  "Honey, we're killing the Kids!"\n\nhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/health/tv_and_radio/honey/
185579
I'll keep this short and just give you the main points.   First of all with her weight I would want to test for type 2 diabetes.   Also what was birth weight of babies? If either were about 9 lbs or greater that also increases her Chance of getting diabetes. Then you add the First degree Relatives suffering cardiovascular problems so early in life means you have a very Strong genetic link to having heart disease yourself. I know she is only 19, but with all her Risk factors she should have her bad cholesterol (LDL) under 100! We also are finding new evidence in current studies that show cardiovascular benefits are ever better when LDL is under 70.  Also blood Pressure is very important. Her blood pressure should be as close as possible to 115/75. If her BP is above 140/90 then She has added risk of heart disease.  If diabetes, BP, and Cholesterol aren't controlled than many years could be taken from her life.
261441
Health for both of my kids.\n\nMy daughter has an agonizing, painful disease and has had 3 surgeries.  There is no cure...she's 17\n\nMy son is 15 with an undiagnosed abdominal pain and has had 2 surgeries (now they think it's an abnormality in his heart)  \n\nBoth of my kids just want to be able to go to school and be healthy enough to enjoy their teen years.\n\nI'd give anything for them to be healthy....
310949
The meds are probly not the answer. Take a look at life style. Elimanate candy and juink food. Make sure he gets 3 balanced meals a day. Plenty of sleep, and of couse a little one on one parent time.
467783
1. We found out my son had cancer when he was examined in a hospital for what we thought was hypothyroidism\n\n2. He had a difficult time eating at first because the cancer had metastasized. The primary tumor was extremely large and had displaced his heart and compressed his stomach. He could only take small bites. Oddly he didn't look like he'd lost weight because his belly was swollen with fluid.\n\n3. He eats a lot of pizza!!\n\nWe found out that finding something that appealed to him was the most important thing. It's all about calories at that point! It seemed to have worked too . . . he's doing quite well, and still eats pizza. ;-)
401912
I can try and help you! If you e-mail me with everything he eats on a daily bases. Then i can try and figre out what is going wrong. Alot of foods that say they are low in fat are actually higher in sugar than normal 'no fat taken out foods'. Also you need to make sure he is eating the right things at the right times. It's all about balance. E-mail me for more help, i am a weight loss and nutrition coach so you can ask me anything.\nTake care\n\nLittle.lost
626424
Yes- when a parent allows a child to become obese s/he is causing physical and psychological damage to that child. Sounds like abuse to me. I'm disgusted by any parent who's willing to take 20 years off their child's life and doom her to "fat-girl" taunts just because burgers are yummy, cheap and easy. \n\nThat said, if it WAS viewed as abuse by the powers that be it would be impossible to enforce. Kids come in so many shapes and sizes and sometimes it doesn't mean anything. A child who is fed nothing but cheetos can be quite svelte due to a quick metabolism or active lifestyle. By the same token there can be children like my sister and I. We were born two years apart to hippie parents. We were both fed organic salads, whole wheat bread and never any refined sugars. Our parents were extra careful with our diets- and yet at the ages fo 10 and 8 respectively, I was thin and she was fat. Now that we're adults we have similar, healthy figures, but she just held on to her "baby fat" longer than most. \n\nSo yeah- it is abuse but it would be too hard to enforce it as such since kids are so variable.
230324
Definitely talk to his doctor, it may not be his diet. It could be an underlying health problem.
49124
my son is small in frame for his 19yrs. and he hates it so he went to the store..(Wall-Mart) and got some big giant jug of protien powder that taste like Bannanas and some vitamin energy bars...............and I promise 2 months later you can really tell a difference , He is also into working out and he still eats lot's of fruits and veggies. I don't think it's healthy for someone to overload on protien but and a bit extra maybe...