The only parenting advice my mother gave me, unsolicited, was never use the phrase "My Kids Will Never...". This is advice that I have followed pretty well for the past 8 years, but now I am wavering. Not so much in the behavior of my monsters, but in things I was never going to do as a parent! One of the things I swore I was not going to do was make my monsters conscious of their weight and now I have. Maggie, my littlest monster has chunked-up and I fear it is unhealthy. Understand that my other two come in different sizes as well, but neither is "unhealthy". The baby however, needs to eat more healthy and do more activity and as her mom and supplier of her food, this really falls on me and not her! I know that I need to lead by example and therefore need to exercise more myself and with her.
I feel that I have failed her as a mom and now am having to focus on what she is eating and how much. I am trying to do this without pushing it in her face. I have never told her that she needs to "diet" a word that is rarely used in our home. I have instead tried to focus on healthy eating and exercise.
I don't care what she looks like, that is not what this is about. It is about a healthy lifestyle and a good foundation for life. I hope I do it right and don't force her into a "weight" or "appearance" obsession for the rest of her life!
Any suggestions?
1 comment:
This is the only thing I have to offer: When I was going through a similar thing with Kelton (before he lost all that weight he was in the 90th percentile, where he had been all his life but the doc told me he needed to drop some weight. I could smack her now though.) a friend told me to stop worrying and don't try to cut back on calories (well you know - no real butter, 1% milk instead of whole...easy changes that benefit the whole family) so much as focus on eating healthy and getting some physical activity. Unlike adults, kids are still growing tall so as long as she doesn't gain weight, her weight will stabilize as she grows taller.
It was a relief to me because that is what happened (before we entered the weight loss era and problems). So just concentrate on making small changes for the entire family and adding a bit more moving around and before you know it, she will be growing taller and things will work out fine.
:)
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