Making my issues her issues?

October 10, 2004

In a message dated 10/10/2004 5:35:34 PM Central Daylight Time,

> Does anyone else have this problem? Do you stress about your child

> inheriting your weight issues? Any advice from any of you?

>

I know exactly what you mean! My seven year old son is overweight, 130

pounds! We limit his portion sizes at meals, we do what we can to limit his

snacking, we encourage him to drink water as much as possible, and if he does

drink

a soda, it is sugar free. He also plays soccer which is hard on him because

he's so big and has a hard time running with the other kids and keeping up, but

he sure does try. Other than all that, I don't know what else to do. My

husband and I are convinced that he inherited our love for eating.

Speaking of issues, one thing that my husband had to remind me of...

Whenever my son would eat too much or eat something he wasn't supposed to, I

would " yell " at him. So, what happened was he started hiding food and lying

about what he was/wasn't eating. When my husband brought this to my attention,

I thought back to my childhood and remembered my parents doing the same thing

to me. They would criticize me for eating too much of the foods I loved,

like chocolate, and this wouldn't make me stop eating them, but it turned me

into

a " closet " eater and I would hide food. I saw the same thing happening to my

son and it crushed me. So, I stopped getting on to him for eating too much

and let him have snacks, I just try to politely stop him when he's had enough.

I'm hoping the mistakes I've made with my son won't be passed on to my

daughters. It's a constant worry to me as well. I've been in therapy since a

year

after my surgery for my eating disorder, trying to deal with my issues so that

I not only don't gain the weight back, but also so that I can try to prevent

my children from having the same issues. It sure isn't easy!

Mommy to Duel 5/28/97, Caitlin 1/13/99, and Caris Marie 10/06/04

12/11/01 Open RNY

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