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.