Childs Weight Gain

robh71

Hi
I cant see a more applicable forum so if there is please feel free to move mods.

Where to turn??

I am contacting you on behalf of our 9, soon to be 10 year old daughter. She is a happy healthy girl who we weaned off flixotide for asthma about 18 months ago. She was diagnosed with asthma at the age of 4, so was only this medication for approx 4 years.. Earlier last year we consulted with a homeopath as we weaned her off the flixotide. We had noticed some weight gain which I had put this down to the flixotide steroid. However since coming off this we haven't seen any reduction in weight, which is what we had hoped. I'm really unsure as the best way to approach this issue. The very last thing I want, is for her to get any sort complex about this, so I want to ensure we approach this very sensitively.
We all eat healthy, no sugary drinks, no fast food or takeaways, etc. All food she eats is freshly prepared and she's a good eater of veg and fruit.

Is a food intolerance test the way to go?? Should we engage with a dietician instead?

Any help appreciated

LeinsterDub

robh71 wrote: »

Hi
I cant see a more applicable forum so if there is please feel free to move mods.

Where to turn??

I am contacting you on behalf of our 9, soon to be 10 year old daughter. She is a happy healthy girl who we weaned off flixotide for asthma about 18 months ago. She was diagnosed with asthma at the age of 4, so was only this medication for approx 4 years.. Earlier last year we consulted with a homeopath as we weaned her off the flixotide. We had noticed some weight gain which I had put this down to the flixotide steroid. However since coming off this we haven't seen any reduction in weight, which is what we had hoped. I'm really unsure as the best way to approach this issue. The very last thing I want, is for her to get any sort complex about this, so I want to ensure we approach this very sensitively.
We all eat healthy, no sugary drinks, no fast food or takeaways, etc. All food she eats is freshly prepared and she's a good eater of veg and fruit.

Is a food intolerance test the way to go?? Should we engage with a dietician instead?

Any help appreciated

How many calories a day is she ingesting?

robh71

Hi
I have no ideas. Maybe we should start counting. How accurate can we be on this ?

seamus

Your first mistake was going to a homeopath. Ask your GP for a referral to a dietician. Calorie counting is much more difficult for children, their needs harder to predict.

robh71

seamus wrote: »

Your first mistake was going to a homeopath. Ask your GP for a referral to a dietician. Calorie counting is much more difficult for children, their needs harder to predict.

Thanks for reply. I would disagree with you on going to homeopath. After a few months she had our daughter weaned off the powerful steroid she was on, and is no longer reliant

Somedaythefire

You're better off talking to an actual doctor than than a pseudoscientific homeopath. Honestly, didn't think they were still around.

Graces7

robh71 wrote: »

Thanks for reply. I would disagree with you on going to homeopath. After a few months she had our daughter weaned off the powerful steroid she was on, and is no longer reliant

You did what was right for you. Many choose and are helped by homeopathy

peewee09

No harm to look at calories consumed. for this i'd recommend an app called my fitness pal. Its easy enough to use once downloaded and is great for an overall look at calories consumed.

Mars Bar

Before looking at calories I'd look at portion sizes. Portions being offered to children by their parents and increased dramatically over the past few decades.

Portion control would be an easier change for you and your child without the dreaded calorie counting.

antix80

Your child's eating too much. At her age she probably needs 1300 cals (v rough calc).
Ditch the homeopath nonsense. It might make you feel filling your head with new age nonsense but it's not doing your child any good. Put the money towards a diet plan.

It's probably potion sizes that are the problem. Fill a plate with veg, take it easy on the bread, potato, pasta and look out for high cals in fat and hidden cals in drinks. Make sure she's active.

antix80

Graces7 wrote: »

You did what was right for you. Many choose and are helped by homeopathy

The placebo effect helps adults. It doesn't extend to their children or pets.

Seth Brundle

antix80 wrote: »

Make sure she's active.

Is she doing much in the way of physical activities or spending her time watching telly?

clank :o)

similar to other poster take it easy on cut out all bread, potato, pizza, pasta, cereals and rice...

ie. Try going grain free for six to eight weeks (its suprisingly easy, should see changes after 2/3/4 weeks) cut out anything with wheat/flour in it (seems tougher than it actually is at first but actually fairly do-able)...

also consider sensible portion sizes as per mars bar... you'll feel satisfied with 'less' if you cut out grains - a small/medium size portion of meat or eggs for instance

andala

clank ) wrote: »

similar to other poster take it easy on cut out all bread, potato, pizza, pasta, cereals and rice...

ie. Try going grain free for six to eight weeks (its suprisingly easy, should see changes after 2/3/4 weeks) cut out anything with wheat/flour in it (seems tougher than it actually is at first but actually fairly do-able)...

also consider sensible portion sizes as per mars bar... you'll feel satisfied with 'less' if you cut out grains - a small/medium size portion of meat or eggs for instance

Yeah, DO NOT do that. A balanced diet is not based on cutting out any food groups, especially one providing carbohydrates.

I'd second keeping a diary of what she eats, buying a food scale to weigh everything precisely as it's a real eye opener to see what suggested serving portions are in real life. Keep track of her food intake for 2 weeks and do ask for a meeting with dietitian. At 10 she is still growing and about to hit puberty so her body will be changing a lot and the last thing you want to do is starve her or deprive her of nutrients.

My 8 year old had weight problems, we had him tested for allergies and it turned out he's allergic to wheat, gluten, rice, potatoes, soy, apples and carrots. He's been on gluten/wheat free diet for a month now and he's lost that 'puffy' look so in your case investigating food intolerance could be the way to go.

Stay away from witch doctors, the chances are she'd be equally fine had you weaned her off her meds without their help anyway. Homeopathy is basically water so, while it's essential for living, you can get it from a tap without paying for being lied to.

jackboy

robh71 wrote: »

Hi
I cant see a more applicable forum so if there is please feel free to move mods.

Where to turn??

I am contacting you on behalf of our 9, soon to be 10 year old daughter. She is a happy healthy girl who we weaned off flixotide for asthma about 18 months ago. She was diagnosed with asthma at the age of 4, so was only this medication for approx 4 years.. Earlier last year we consulted with a homeopath as we weaned her off the flixotide. We had noticed some weight gain which I had put this down to the flixotide steroid. However since coming off this we haven't seen any reduction in weight, which is what we had hoped. I'm really unsure as the best way to approach this issue. The very last thing I want, is for her to get any sort complex about this, so I want to ensure we approach this very sensitively.
We all eat healthy, no sugary drinks, no fast food or takeaways, etc. All food she eats is freshly prepared and she's a good eater of veg and fruit.

Is a food intolerance test the way to go?? Should we engage with a dietician instead?

Any help appreciated

Did you consult your GP about taking your daughter off flixotide? If not, you should do this now. You could talk to the GP about the weight issue at that visit.

A homeopath that claims they can help someone wean of a medical treatment is actually an extremely dangerous con artist. All homeopathic treatments are fake. This is not my opinion, it is scientific fact.

Graces7

antix80 wrote: »

The placebo effect helps adults. It doesn't extend to their children or pets.

Now there is a closed mind.. homeopathy is far from new age and has already helped this child. Th effect is not placebo

Many conventional use it also in combination with standard health care

Many pets too have benefitted; ask google; they di not have scepticism

Glad OP has an open mind

Somedaythefire

Graces7 wrote: »

Now there is a closed mind.. homeopathy is far from new age and has already helped this child. Th effect is not placebo

Many conventional use it also in combination with standard health care

Many pets too have benefitted; ask google; they di not have scepticism

Glad OP has an open mind

Homeopathy is pseudoscientific bollocks. It’s not a closed mind, it’s science

Princess Calla

How over weight is she?

Firstly if I was concerned I'd be talking to my gp to make sure there wasn't any other health issues.

However, I do remember in school girls putting on weight around this time, puppy fat, as it was called then. Puberty hit and it fell off them.

Please be careful with diets and discussions around food with her. The last thing she needs is to be insecure about her body.

Seth Brundle

Graces7 wrote: »

Now there is a closed mind.. homeopathy is far from new age and has already helped this child. Th effect is not placebo

erm, how on earth can you tell?
There's absolutely no evidence that it worked or not given what we know!

banie01

Graces7 wrote: »

Now there is a closed mind.. homeopathy is far from new age and has already helped this child. Th effect is not placebo

Many conventional use it also in combination with standard health care

Many pets too have benefitted; ask google; they di not have scepticism

Glad OP has an open mind

Rather than advising people to ask Google.
Can you share one actual double blind, peer reviewed study that demonstrates ANY actual efficacy for any homeopathic remedy that lies outside the sigma variance?

The only thing homeopathy has ever successfully treated is an overstuffed wallet and perhaps dehydration.

Graces, I have great time for some of your posts but quite often you make pronouncements of "fact" based on absolutely nothing more than your age, experience and misinformed opinion.
Please, should you have evidence to support the assertion that homeopathy works.
Share it.

If not, withdraw your statement or at least edit it to present it as opinion rather than fact.

antix80

Princess Calla wrote: »

Please be careful with diets and discussions around food with her. The last thing she needs is to be insecure about her body.

Not speaking as a dietitian here but puppy fat caused by a "healthy appetite" (overeating of healthy foods) is no harm at all coming to an age where her calorie intake will soon increase to by 1000 calories a day in a short space of time. At least the child will be getting the required calories and nutrients.

The important thing is it's not caused by comfort eating, eating foods with no nutritional value such as excess fat or carbs, or a sedentary lifestyle.

Last thing you want is a pointy-nosed dietitian giving the child a complex.

antix80

Seth Brundle wrote: »

erm, how on earth can you tell?

She must have read her tea-leaves this morning.

Stark

She's mistaken. It was my magic rock that helped the child. Don't believe me? How closed minded of you!

The sheer stupidity of taking an asthmatic child off of their medication without consulting a GP, even an alternate one if you don't like the original prescriber, is mind blowing.

It's bad enough if it's just based on your own opinion, but to take such action based on the advice of a quack homeopath and then give a moments notice to people who say it's any more than a placebo is just full on nuts. You might as well do a dance during the harvest moon whlie a witch chants in the shadows or say a decade of the rosary and bless the child with holy water. Homeopathy is not medicine.

Why would you do this to your child? The mind boggles.

Your child is overweight for a reason. That may be related to the steroid, but the steroid was prescribed for a reason by a registered medical practitioner and rather likely for good reason. The two may or may not be related and at this point neither you nor anyone else knows that, but only a careful re-evaluation by a medical professional should lead you to assume it's safe to stop the medication.

Take your daughter back to a GP, raise the issue, follow their advice. Do not take the advice of strangers on the internet who think they know better. Just like you, they don't. I don't either. Go and speak with a GP, ask them to dig into the issue and take expert recommendation as the best thing you can do for your daughter. And if you still think you know better, or that your quack homeopath should have a louder voice than the GP, I hope someone else can step in to advocate for your daughter.

I'm serious. Bonkers stuff.

Graces7

Graces7 wrote: »

Now there is a closed mind.. homeopathy is far from new age and has already helped this child. Th effect is not placebo

Many conventional use it also in combination with standard health care

Many pets too have benefitted; ask google; they di not have scepticism

Glad OP has an open mind

Grace, that's a load of nonsense and it's potentially dangerous to be applauding the OP's actions. As a lifelong asthmatic, I know very well that doctors don't routinely prescribe prophylactic steroids for children unless their assessment has concluded it's of importance to the treatment of the underlying condition and in particular with asthma, that it's intended to mitigate the risk of death in the event of a serious asthma attack.

Now you can give your cats whatever you want, following the advice of random strangers on the internet. I can find google results telling me all sorts of stupid things are sensible or recommended, despite knowing full well that they're not. But this is a child and the father has a duty to do what is right by her and no internet resource should stop him from consulting with a professional.

If he wants to visit a homeopath or go and light a candle for her afterwards, fine. But he should begin and end this discussion with a healthcare professional, a doctor, not somebody who will willingly recommend a child with asthma be weaned off a steroid, just because some book he/she has tells that some root or plant will substitute.

That's bad advice, given to and followed by someone who I can only trust wants the best for his daughter. He should dismiss it, as the nonsense it truly is, then get back on track under the guidance of a medical doctor.

antix80

JayZeus wrote: »

The sheer stupidity of taking an asthmatic child off of their medication without consulting a GP, even an alternate one if you don't like the original prescriber, is mind blowing.

Maybe I missed the bit where she said she didn't consult a GP. Seems mildly irresponsible if that's the case. GPs are usually pretty receptive to weening patients off medication in some cases-that would include steroid inhalers.

banie01

JayZeus wrote: »

not somebody who will willingly recommend a child with asthma be weaned off a steroid, just because some book he/she has tells that some root or plant will substitute.

That's bad advice, given to and followed by someone who I can only trust wants the best for his daughter. He should dismiss it, as the nonsense it truly is, then get back on track under the guidance of a medical doctor.

A drop of water containing an ultra dilution of whatever plant is recommended that is so low that it may even be undetected via spectral analysis.

A memory of touching the active ingredient is more likely to be present in the water than an actual active molecule.

Anybody entrusting the care or treatment of an Ill child to a homeopath needs to have at least a serious conversation with a mental health professional rather than trust the quackery that homeopathy represents!

Even as an accompanying "treatment" its akin to snake oil and child endangerment.

Goldengirl

Graces7 wrote: »

You did what was right for you. Many choose and are helped by homeopathy

Agree with that , but should go to a doctor as well. To be honest I can't believe that the small amount of topical steroid in flixotide would cause any steroidal side effects , so I hope you didn't pay this person too much money!
Shouldn't mess around with a child's diet without getting proper advice. So much damage can be done at this age as you are aware.
Try the obvious low hanging fruit yourselves, no pun intended.
Clear out junk food and make healthy alternatives , fruit and nuts , available.
Try preparing and cooking with her some low sugar low fat foods and she will start to choose them herself.
Encourage evening activities like swimming or camogie, and ditch housework and take all the family out for the day at the weekends where possible, cycling , hiking . Have fun. Make sure she sees you enjoying eating healthily and enjoying activities.
Don't mention HER weight, just how all of ye want to stay healthy and as fit as ye can .
A lot of prepubescent children go through chubby phases before a growth spurt and it is just the body's way of ensuring they have nutritional stores on board . By allowing her to eat what she needs of healthy food it will balance out. But no diets please! You must consult your GP before you try anything like that.