Nutritionist for Teens

[Anonymous]

My 13 yo DD falls into the overweight category and our pediatrician suggested taking her to see a nutritionist. We are open to doing that if it will help, I am just not convinced it will and will just end up being a big waste of $$$.

I would say that DD eats decently at home and has a pretty well rounded diet, but her main issue is that she eats way too much and isn’t active enough. She eats large adult size portions and snacks a ton with friends after school/on weekends.

She knows what foods are healthy and what is not, we talk to her about portion sizes, eating slowly to know when you’re full, etc. - so none of that would be new to her.

For those who have seen a nutritionist with their child, what exactly do they do and was it helpful?

[Anonymous]

I think it may be helpful to hear it from someone that isn’t you: what “balanced” actually means and looks like. Even if it is just a one time consultation- I would do it. I’ve

[Anonymous]

At 13 it’s totally normal to eat adult sized portions.

[Anonymous]

Oink

[Anonymous]

We have a guideline in our house that the kid must either do a sport or some sort of activity per season. They gave up swim team last spring, but we joined a gym as a family.

[Anonymous]

^(PP) Put the money toward something like that instead.

[Anonymous]

We did and it was very useful- but you should pre interview first- and find someone with teem experience.

[Anonymous]

Registered dietitian. Not nutritionist!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Registered dietitian. Not nutritionist!

Any recs? Nova preferred.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 13 yo DD falls into the overweight category and our pediatrician suggested taking her to see a nutritionist. We are open to doing that if it will help, I am just not convinced it will and will just end up being a big waste of $$$.

I would say that DD eats decently at home and has a pretty well rounded diet, but her main issue is that she eats way too much and isn’t active enough. She eats large adult size portions and snacks a ton with friends after school/on weekends.

She knows what foods are healthy and what is not, we talk to her about portion sizes, eating slowly to know when you’re full, etc. - so none of that would be new to her.

For those who have seen a nutritionist with their child, what exactly do they do and was it helpful?

The most important thing I took away from the nutritionist was not to do the bolded, that research shows that kids react to pressure like that by overeating. Removing pressure, and trusting my kid more led to my kid trusting their body more and they went from being an overweight tween to a fit older teen/young adult.

I'll also point out that teenagers generally need more calories than adults. So if you're not letting your kid have adult sized portions of the healthy foods you're eating for dinner, it's not surprising that they're replacing those with snacks.

[Anonymous]

I’m in a similar situation with my DD 13 who is bordering on overweight according to her BMI. She already weighs more than me, yet she’s still shorter than me. She quit her sport six months ago. This is the culprit. We’ve tried to get her to work out in our home gym, walk the dog, etc. but it’s just not the same as having a team sport where there’s a coach pushing you to really sweat and get your heart rate up. We do not wanna make an issue out of it and make her feel self-conscious so we are not going the dietitian route quite yet, but in six months if things haven’t changed, we will.

[Anonymous]

Why don't you have a nutritionist for the whole family and you all intentionally eat more healthy? Also family activities, make her do a sport or activity. Even having a trainer could help. You should have it to. Lead by example that being active every day is important. Also having tons of fruit around the house for snacks etc and make to drink lots of water! Maybe sign up together for a 5k race or something so you can train together.