Reply to Not sure if my 8 year old son is overweight or obese?

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[quote=Anonymous]If you're concerned, do not wait for his next official checkup, which could be months away.

Talk to his doctor yourself, first, without your son there.

Explain your concerns and lay out what you are doing and what you observe, for instance, that he always wants seconds etc. The doctor may say (and this is right) that kids sometimes develop a belly just before shooting up in height, which then means their weight and height together are fine and the belly tends to go away then. But since you are worried, enlist the doctor to work with you; arrange to bring your son in for a "checkup" even if it's not time for the annual visit, and arrange in advance for the doctor to talk with him one on one -- without you there in the room -- about how many kids need a lot more exercise than they realize and about how it's good to learn to think about what he eats. Your son might hear all this much better from the doctor than from you, mom.

Be sure the doctor measures your son's BMI, too.

Also, someone mentioned getting him into a sport. Sports are fine, but not all kids like or need organized, team sports. And some team sports are no more than a few times a week, or involve a lot of time spent standing on the sidelines or waiting to play -- when daily exercise could end up providing much more muscle development and calorie burn. Exercise with him. Get the whole family involved. It's tough to do now in the wet, cold winter, but you could do a short bike ride each day (even 15 minutes is helpful if it's consistent!) in spring and summer, and if you really need to, get a stationary bike at home and require him to ride it during whatever TV he watches at weekends, too. Think outside the box for exercise but ensure that he does not see he's the only one doing it, and that he does not think it's just "because mom thinks I'm fat."

See if he'd be interested in an individual pursuit. Fencing actually is very active and burns plenty of calories if kids do enough bouts in a class period, for instance. But he also needs to be active at home.[/quote]

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