My sweet son

J

janeybz

Cathlete
Hi! My wonderful little seven year old boy is not so little! He is about 80 pounds and about 4'2". He has always been a pretty big boy. The nurses in the doctor's office called him a buddha baby . :). He plays soccer in the fall and teeball in the spring and rides his bike and plays the rest of the year. His younger brother wanted to start martial arts so he was going to try too. He couldn't do one good push up or sit up during the PT. EEK! His father kind of freaked and said that Andy had to start karate even though he doesn't like it. Instead we started doing sit ups and pushups every night at home. And I'm making sure that he does at least a half hour of something athletic every night after school. I signed him up for the Presidnetial challednge where he'll get a patch if he works out for six weeks. He seemed to think that was kind of neat. I guess I'm asking if you guys have any suggestions to help my little guy like physical fitness more. I want him to get into better shape, but I don't want to be a drill instructor. Working out now will help him with the things he really likes - soccer and baseball. My DH doesn't seem to have much faith in my plan to be his personal trainer. I'm really torn. I don't want my son to go down a path toward obesity, but I hate to badger him about getting out to ride his bike and stuff. Are we over reacting to his not being able to do one good sit up and one good pushup? I was never pushed to be physically active as a child and I struggled with weight issues through my mid twenties. I love exercise now and I wish I had discovered how great it is earlier! I don't want him to have the embarrassment of not being able to do stuff in gym class like I did.

Sorry so long!!! Had to vent!
Jane
 
I have very strong feelings about this issue. Childhood obesity is such a horrible thing, it is so sad and I consider it a form of child abuse. Heavy kids are treated so horribly in school by their peers (and society), I think we owe it to our kids to encourage a healthy lifestyle. I stand and applaude you for taking action and doing what you can to raise healthy children, that is FANTASTIC!

While I do not have any advice on how to make physical activity fun for your kids, my best suggestion is just to keep him active with soccer and other sports. Get out there with him and kick the ball around, play hide and go seek, see which one of you can jump rope the longest, put up a basketball hoop, work on plyometrics. Also, refrain from eating out, fast food should be illegal! Cook healthy meals and provide healthy snacks. Do you have a gameboy or play station or xbox? Pack it up! Use it only for rewards.

I think it is critical as parents to start this stuff with our kids from day one, especially the eating. You and I are fumbling around learning and trying to eat right. If our kids do it now, it will be second nature to them as adults. Again, if we teach it now, it will be second nature to them as adults...no learning, struggling, fumbling. They do it because it is all they know!

DON'T GIVE UP! EVER!!!! You're doing great so far!:*
 
my son isnt overweight but he LOVES my urbanrebounder!!! UR even has a kids workout but i dont have it! my son also likes to be like his mom and he has a video..elmocize!!! also, the wiggles dance around alot..it is quite a workout....and finally alot of children are losing weight with dance dance revolution. there was a big thread awhile back about this on videofitness.com you could try to search it. i would also think the MD or one of his nurse practioners could give you suggestions to enhance/improve his fitness.
 
Jane you are doing the right thing....get him active. As said before, make sure he is eating the 'right' things. Also as said before, limit or exclude the time for video games and television. My poor son did not have a t.v. from the time he was 8 years old until he was 18. Now at 20 he doesn't even care to watch it, thinks it dumb.

You're being a great mom!!
 
My nephew sounds identical to your son. He is 6, in first grade, and outweighs my 10 year old daughter by 18 pounds. (He's around 80 pounds too). Although he does play on a tee-ball and soccer team, neither one has helped him at all in the weight department. He does love his video games, so for Christmas we bought him the dance pad that plugs into a Playstation 2. It has a game with it, and you should see the sweat the breaks out on everyone's forehead as they play with this thing!

Now I'm going to really open a can of worms here on this forum. Does anyone know of any scientific evidence or just plain ole hearsay that MAY indicate that taking a child's tonsils out MAY lead to obesity? My nephew had his tonsils taken out at the age of two. In that year alone, he gained 22 pounds. Also, I have two adult obese cousins who had their tonsils taken out as preteens. Even though they are both older than me, I have seen pictures of them as children. They were thin, healthy kids! I have also seen pictures of them that were taken during their late teens, and they were already on the road to obesity. Is this just some weird, freakish think that happened in my family, or has anyone else noticed the same problem in children who have had their tonsils taken out?
 
Jane,

As a PE teacher and coach, I obviously believe in exercise and physical fitness for children. A great way to motivate boys who are already involved in sports is to have them pick some of their favorite athletes and have them explain what the athletes represent to them. You, in turn, can explain that those athletes must work very hard, eat well, work in the community, etc. etc. to be who they are. Boys seem to respond well to that kind of motivation. Explain that being fit is great and ask them what they think. It is so important to listen to your son and have him come up with his own reasons to work out and to be fit. Your reasons are not nearly as good as his own for motivational's sake because HE needs to understand and believe in what he is doing no matter his age.

YOU should be VERY PROUD of yourself that you are taking the time to help him! Give yourself some credit here and take a deep breath. Many boys are heavier at a younger age for a variety of reasons and are able to be just fine when they become teenagers. But, hang in there - you are a great parent.

jenni
 
My son won't play team sports (he's autistic) we found a karate dojo with a great program that meets 3 - 4 times a week for an hour session. The karate moves in The Matrix inspired him. He's really into working out now, plus for a boy it's not a "sissy" thing.

The style my son works out in is Shojin Ryu, (Okinawan) it is a real formal graceful sytle. Respect at the dojo is paramount. The Sensei and students all address each other formally. It's great.

Plus later on it life if someone gets on his nerves.....HAI!!!!

Dave
 
I don't really have any specific suggestions for your son but I do agree that just keeping him active in the sports and things he enjoys will help. When you are doing an activity that you enjoy it almost doesn't seem like work or exercise. I think you are doing the right thing.

Also, I don't know of any scientific evidence but my husband had his tonsils removed when he was really young. Je was really skinny. He didn't eat much because he didn't have much of an appetite. His tonsils were too large and they caused him to gag easy so food didn't look appetizing. If someone had a bit of spaghetti sauce on their chin and he saw it he would actually throw up. But as soon as they took those tonsils out he never had that problem again and started gaining weight. The pictures of him before and after are amazing. He wasn't obese but just kind of chubby and today he still could stand to lose about 20 pounds. I was showing him Step/Jump/Pump (I was having technial problems with the player and wanted him to see what the DVD did - of course it didn't do it) and while the warm-up was playing he said "I'd be passed out on the floor by now".
 
Children suffering from being over weight is soooooo sad.

My DH was a very "over weight" child from the age of 7yrs to 14yrs. And it was unfortunatly due to his mothers over feeding him and only serving lots of fatty meals.

And a child, between those ages, does not have a choice of what to eat at meal times, or an understanding of how "much" to eat.

So do you know what he did? (and I beleive he almost started the "step" craze by himself back then) he got soooooo sick of feeling really bad about himself and the taunts at school, that he found two huge concrete slaps and nailed a strong wide piece of wood sheet on top and started "steping" up and down, up and down, twice a day. Before school and after.

Started to eat only half of his mothers meals, refused deserts, and swoped his soda drinks for water. WHAT A DIFFERENCE in a few months, and I have photos to prove it.

Then joining the Army at 18yrs old helped him keep it off.

I feel really proud of him when I remember that story

Marion
:)
 
Thank you to you all for these great words of encouragement!! I really needed that! We will keep working out together! Just since Monday, he is getting better at sit-ups! I think pretty soon he will be able to keep up in gym class better which I think will be great for his self esteem and maybe help him to want to do more activities. Thanks again!

Jane
 
I think what you are doing is wonderful. Keep it up. Also, my boys used to go for long walks with me, with or without the dog. We live in a small town, and even in winter, we would walk to the library, the store, the video store or just anywhere. We also went to the parks and walked on trails and biked and rollerbladed and skateboarded too.

One other thing, I let my boys wrestle if they have been cooped up in the house too long. If things start to get too rough, I break it up. It's great exercise for them!
 
My seven year old is 4 ft 2' but barely weighs 53 lbs. He eats all day but I make sure, he moves a lot, too. We only have man-powered outdoor toys, bikes, scooters, kettcars, jumpropes, hula hoops, basketball hoop, volleyball, tethering ball etc. and a big trampoline (I always jump on it, too)Those outdoor activities usually means that you as a parent have to play basketball, participate in a hula hoop and jumprope competition if the neighborhood kids can't play. It's a lot of fun!

When we go shopping, I always park in the back, no matter how much the kids are complaining. He is playing his share of video games but he is still very active. If you have a dog, you can take walks together, if you don't have a dog, take walks anyway after school. He'll like that. Don't serve him FastFood or TV Dinners for supper!

The kid's wanted an electric scooter for Christmas like everyone else in the neighborhood. They got a new kettcar instead and they (and all of the neighborhood kids) use those a lot more than the electric scooters. They just love racing up and down the hill. The easter bunny will drop off some inline skates ;-) (for me, too).
 
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