My son just turned 6 in March - He weighed in at 81 lbs. at the Dr.'s yesterday, I was shocked because he was 79 two weeks ago, and then prior to that about 3 weeks, he was 75 and one year before that he was about 65 - what is going on? He is not sedentary, plays outside, inside goes to school, has gym. He eats pretty normal I would say, althought when I first realized he had put on 11 lbs. in one year, I cut out school lunches and started packing his lunches, has not helped. His lunches include for example a fruit cup, a GO GURT, a 1/2 peanut butter and jelly sandwich and he has milk with it at school. I rotate that with main dish as spaghettios or chicken noodle soup. 90% of the time he does not eat all of it. We have normal dinners - I'd say we eat out or order in about 2-3x per month (pizza or Mcdonald's), but he has chix nuggets. Yes, he does have major cravings for carbs like french fries, corn dogs and sweets, but I limit them to 1-2x per month if I can. He's just blossoming a little too much. He's clearly overweight. He drinks sugar free Koolaid (no calories, no nothing in it), drinks maybe 1 diet pepsi a week, otherwise, drinks water and skim milk.
What medical problems can cause such rapid weight gain like this? I realize there may be some issues with the way he eats and needs more exercise, I just think this rapid of a weight gain there has to be something wrong internally. Maybe a low thyroid problem?
He has a low tolerance for exercise as I do. I was just diagnosed with Fibromyalgia (I am 38). I bought an exercise DVD, actually two of them and we tried it together and he pooped out on me not even halfway through.
Any suggestions? I can take constructive criticism ;)
Thanks.