[janie52]

Hi everyone
I raising my granddaughter and in the past few months have worried about her developing diabetes. She is 11 yrs old and weighs about 125. She is now wearing ladies petite clothes because that is the only thing I can find to fit her. She complains of being hungry all the time. I don't know if that is just a bad habit or what. I will not buy a lot of sweets because she will eat everyting in two days. On her mother's side of the family everyone was a type 1 insulin dependent. Am I worring about nothing?

 

[John.in.France]

Hi everyone
I raising my granddaughter and in the past few months have worried about her developing diabetes. She is 11 yrs old and weighs about 125. She is now wearing ladies petite clothes because that is the only thing I can find to fit her. She complains of being hungry all the time. I don't know if that is just a bad habit or what. I will not buy a lot of sweets because she will eat everyting in two days. On her mother's side of the family everyone was a type 1 insulin dependent. Am I worring about nothing?

If I were in your shoes, I would also be rather concerned. However I would suggest discussing it with a doctor before you hit the panic button.

John

 

[Shanny]

I agree about seeing a doctor. And you could always check her postprandial blood sugar. She should be under 140 (7.7) one hour after eating, and under 120 (6.6) after two hours.

 

[janie52]

Thanks John
We went to the doctor today to get booster shots and I did talk with her doctor. A blood test was done and she has to meet a dietician at the end of the month. Her weight has gone up to 144 lbs. Now we have to wait for results and I'm the meanest mom ever because Lexie is going to have to go on a diet.

 

[jwags]

I think you have to be procative in this case. Lots of times I'm sure my kids called me mean because I put diet restrictions on them. I also made them do a sport every season during school until they hit about 15. So at least they were active. Did they just do a fasting bg or did they do a test for Type 1 diabetes? The important thing is early diagnosis and treatment. She might also be insulin resistant and be a carb addict. The more carbs she eats the more she wants. The trick is to break the addiction. For most of us that means giving up all processed food. If it comes in a box or bag don't bring it into the house. It is tough at first but pretty soon she will change her taste for carbs.

 

[Spunky]

There are many low carb desserts out there, some good ones in the recipe section here. That should help her feel like she isn't so much on a diet, and make you not look so much like a meanie.

 

[silvertiger]

I was an overweight kid. My advice would be to change the eating habits of the entire family, and definitely to not just put her on a diet. You'd be amazed how kids can sneak food into the house, or eat it outside when you're not looking, if they feel they're being deprived.

I think if you all cut back on the carbs and stop the cravings, you'll be able to eat healthier together. If you just make her follow some diet, it's doomed to failure. There's a reason that 95% of diets result in failure.

I wouldn't even mention it's a diet change. Just stop buying the high carb foods and provide high fat snacks like cheese strings. Don't put pressure on her, and definitely don't make her feel like she's at fault or somehow lesser for being fat.

Also, you might want to talk to her and see if she's using food as comfort and why that might be. I gained a lot of weight as a child because I was using food to comfort myself. Good luck.

 

[WV Mom]

I went on my first diet at age 11. I learned how to count calories (read: control portions) and I lost 8 pounds. But the most important part was that I gained knowledge and skills that helped me stay fit and healthy for the next 25 years -- till PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) and insulin resistance changed everything.

 

[Guest]

An 11 year old girl has a lot of changes going on, both physical and emotional. I hope her blood tests come back okay. A RD would be worth a visit, they can help Lexie design a diet she can and will follow. 11 year olds should not be put on LCHF diets, she is still growing. Don't bring home fake sweets, bring home fresh produce. Carrots or an apple are great after school snacks. I will cross my fingers for Lexie.

 

[miss djax]

An 11 year old girl has a lot of changes going on, both physical and emotional. I hope her blood tests come back okay. A RD would be worth a visit, they can help Lexie design a diet she can and will follow. 11 year olds should not be put on LCHF diets, she is still growing. Don't bring home fake sweets, bring home fresh produce. Carrots or an apple are great after school snacks. I will cross my fingers for Lexie.

i strongly disagree with the bolded part.


11 is an impressionable age for a girl. i wouldn't put her on a diet either - i'd change the family food dynamic. issues around food, weight and body image are still developing and it would be easy to feel singled out if she's the only one in the family eating differently.

i'd engage the whole family in exercise. make it fun - hikes on the weekend, play soccer together, whatever thing can be made into family time.

i'd ditch all processed food, and start easing into lchf.

but make it a family affair. and involve the kids in food prep. that should help make it succesful.

 

[Patdart]

I almost wrote today, but at that age my daughter weighed about 144 and her father and I thought she looked somewhat 'overweight' but her god father, her pediatrician told me not to let her know I thought it, but to find a painless way to make it a challenge, so one night after dinner I asked if everyone around the table was happy with their weight after saying I sure wasn't so we all trooped in to the scales and weighed. We wrote down each persons weight and then all of us decided to let me be the cook and follow the old WW's diet sort of. We each set our own goal after checking what was 'normal' for our height and age. Her brother was underweight so we all agreed that he should be able to have some snacks that were off limits to us and proceeded to from that day eat b'fast and dinner together and we weighed in once a week. It worked, and she lost down to 120 which was okay for her bone structure and being pre-pubescent she grew and developed into a lovely adolescent with no more concern about her weight that the girls a couple of years older. Her father and I got to our goals also, and I continued to eat carefully and maintained our weights too. I still have the chart we kept and used each week...and, now her brother has caught up and surpassed any of us and needs to be careful. Doing it as a family made the competitive edge fun for us.

One of her little brother's treats was keeping peanut butter around and once I bought a new jar and put a label on it telling what the calorie content was as it seemed to have a hole in the bottom. We laugh about that ploy now! It seemed to keep the hole, but we did manage to get to our personal goals....

 

[mbuster]

I agree with silvertiger and miss djax, a change in eating habits should be something for the family. There is a history of diabetes if I read right, so there is a potential and I assume the meeting is set up with the dietitian based on that. Hopefully the test come back OK.

As far as food choices, LCHF is not a bad choice unless nunya knows what specific carb or carbs are necessities for growing up. They, carbs, will not be completely eliminated, even with LCHF, so if they are necessary, they will still be there . I would probably just as disagreeable to a vegan diet as nunya is to LCHF, because i don't think you can get enough protein. And I, like nunya, "have no bullets for that gun"

I agree some fruits may be better snacks, apples over potato chips for sure. I would definitely reduce carbs even if there is not a diabetes outcome to the blood test this time. If there is, someone that young may be able to get by on the ADA recommendations, but i would keep a close eye on the BG and be ready to further reduce carbs. Continue to eat as you do now, and it will be an almost certainty diabetes will be a future outcome. Is betting it won't be worth the risk?

 

[Guest]

Sometimes (or really LOTS of times) in the youngsters today, the activity needs some work as well as the diet. If a kid is living her life on the smart phone, the tablet, and the tv, then there is some other work to be done to improve the activity. I don't know why I have been tagged as disagreeable to a LCHF diet...I just don't think it's okay for a growing kid. Maybe she has high blood pressure, maybe she has some cholesterol issues, maybe she is lacking some other vitamin or mineral that affects the metabolism. If diabetes is her future outcome, it did not come from her diet...it came from her genes. And she needs support to learn to manage it...beyond the food!

 

[mbuster]

My grand kids are prime, and typical, examples of junk food eating high tech kids. They all have iPods or Nintendos or similar such things and don't have a clue whats going on around them when they are playing on them. Don't see them outside playing much. When I was a kid if you stayed inside , you were sick or the neighborhood bully promised someone a butt whoopin'

They live on chips and cookies and fries and mcnuggets and soda pops. You can't tell your kids anything about how to raise theirs ( you can, but some things haven't changed- they don't listen any better than we did). When they come over and want snacks, they go to Nana cause Pawpaw tells them they can have some of his whale blubber

All I can do is warn the mommas and daddies what may lie ahead. There is an old saying along the lines of you are what you eat. And I believe you can eat yourself into type 2 diabetes

 

[janie52]

Thanks everyone
A few things about Lexie, she has real physical growing pains. When she a growth spurt she complains with her legs, back and hips hurting. That is the only time she is still. She kicks around a soccer ball, rides a bike and plays basketball. I try to watch what she eats and have asked the neighbors not to feed her.
Lexie has a friend a year younger than she is and she did weigh 180. She is a boarderline diabetic and is now on blood pressure meds. Her grandmother and doctor have put her on a diet and in the past month she has lost 5 lbs.
We do a lot of sugar-free snacks and I'm trying to get her to give salads a try

 

[WV Mom]

One more thing: even if nothing works right now, there may come a time when a switch in her brain flips and she becomes a weight-losing dynamo.

That happened to my youngest. She started getting "soft around the edges" in kindergarten, even though she was always physically active: competitive soccer and swimming, along with no TV or video games, and a childhood spent outside, running around the neighborhood. Our house was not a junk food mecca -- we even had an exchange student comment about this -- but a person can also overdo healthy food.

The summer before her senior year in high school darling daughter weighed 320 pounds and had finally had enough. Over the next year and a half she lost almost 100 pounds, and she's kept most of it off for a decade. Her weight fluctuates a little bit, but she says on top of it, minding her food intake and exercising like a fiend. She runs or walks in 5k or 10k races -- or even half marathons -- all spring and summer long.

It's amazing how motivated a girl can get when she wants the boys to notice her.

Anyway, I'm not advocating that you do nothing. I'm just saying that if nothing works now, there may still be hope in the future.

 

[Patdart]

As my pediatrician told us, self-image is fragile stuff and girls and boys a bit later tend to 'beef up' a bit right before their puberty comes into play. He was most concerned, rightly or wrongly, that a kid maintain the best they could heading into the confusing teen years with all the peer pressure and hormonal changes about to become issues.

 

[Shanny]

As my pediatrician told us, self-image is fragile stuff and girls and boys a bit later tend to 'beef up' a bit right before their puberty comes into play. He was most concerned, rightly or wrongly, that a kid maintain the best they could heading into the confusing teen years with all the peer pressure and hormonal changes about to become issues.

This is so true, so very important. Whether lean or beefy, youngsters need to know that is not the basis for their worth. Strengthening their self-worth is of utmost importance. These years are hard enough without issues of self-esteem.

 

[janie52]

Hi everyone
I got the results back for Lexie and she is fine. Her CBC and TSH test are normal. She is not 5 ft tall and 144 lbs. If I can her back down to 115 lbs I'll be happy.

 

[John.in.France]

Hi everyone
I got the results back for Lexie and she is fine. Her CBC and TSH test are normal. She is not 5 ft tall and 144 lbs. If I can her back down to 115 lbs I'll be happy.

Good to hear. And glad she won't be joining the club - for hopefully a long, long time! (if ever)

John