My 7 year old daughter is well over weight, so I'll give you a back ground .. I split with my husband nearly 4 years ago.. He is ex army active duty and has PTSD .. Luckly he met a wonderful older woman not too long after we split. She's great with my kids. But she buys them through her great cooking, which I love too. My youngest daughter is obsessed with food, I've tried talking about healthy eating, I limit my groceries to healthy choices .. And so far that's working .. But the other day she said I'm not fat like you mum and I don't need to diet! She's 7 and a size 16 .. We don't do take out I limit her choices to healthy options and the phychologist said she comfort eating .. I have a very close relationship with both my girls but my youngest has the body shape and mind of her grandma ( fathers side) I don't want to make her too aware of her weight causing an issue.. What can you suggest and please be kind it's a daily battle.
5 Replies
If she has a psychologist keep working in that and teaching her ways to express and cope with her emotions in other ways. Take her to a nutritionist because they can advise healthy slow weight loss and help educate on portion control.
But you are the adult and it's ok to say you've eaten enough now
Sit down with ex and new partner and again explain concerns on her diet when she is there and how grateful you are to have her show so much love to your daughter and you love her food but think she needs to portion control. Get her into physical activity.
I wonder how tall she is? She doesn't sound like she's at the healthy end of the scale. Emotional eating at 7? That's a concern has she been to a child psychologist to address the issues that have caused this? Does she exercise often (at least 1/2 hour a day) limiting her to healthy food choices is great but if she's not exercising then it won't help. Her Stepmum and dad need to get on the wagon too. Encouraging a healthy lifestyle is the start. But she also needs to know she is not skinny and that you love her either way but it's in her best interest to be healthy as it will affect her future. Juvenile diabeties is also a worry. The world is a cruel place and as she gets older she will find that out. My mum never told me I was becoming chunky and I was teased constantly which made my comfort eating worse. I hated my teenage years and if I could tell my teen self anything it would be loose weight stop eating crap and exercise more.
I would be really mindful of language that you use in front of her try not to use words like "fat" as it can stick with people their entire lives. Try and word it that we are becoming more healthy..