Why Is Your Overweight Child Eating When Not Hungry

Usually children eat when they are hungry. If your child is looking for food as soon as he leaves the supper table, this indicates there is a problem. Reasons your child is eating all the time could be to fulfill an unmet need or because it is self-comforting. It could be for oral gratification because of a Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) or because he is stressed, depressed, angry or frustrated.

Where To Start

Start by bringing your child to your family doctor. Explain what you think is happening and follow through on the tests your doctor will probably ask your child to have. When any medical conditions are ruled out and you still feel your child eats when he is not hungry, continue looking for answers. Ask your family doctor to make appointments with other health care professionals who work with overweight children, such as registered dietitians, psychologists, and exercise physiologists.

Is This Really Serious

Your search for answers is very important. This unhealthy eating habit will lead to overweight and related health problems that may follow your child into his adult years.

The KidsHealth.org site states: “The number of overweight kids has increased a lot over the last 30 years. Today, 15% of kids ages 6 to 19 are overweight. That's bad news because being overweight can lead to health problems, like diabetes and heart disease.”

As your child progresses through school, being overweight is a terrible burden in terms of his own physical wellbeing and on his social wellbeing. It should not be this way, but overweight school kids are often the greatest victims of bullying and they experience all the heartaches bullying entails. Seek help for your child as soon as you notice there is a problem because the road before you see results could be a long one.

What Can a Parent Do On His Own

Parents know their child best and they are the ones who can observe them around the clock. To keep track of your observations, write dated, journal entrees that you can share with his/her healthcare professionals. When your child grabs something to eat between meals, jot down the events/activities going on or that are scheduled to happen soon.

Talk with your child to find out how he/she is feeling. Question your child about his day, about what is going on the next day, about his friends, about his classes and teachers.

Schedule a conference with his teachers to find out what is really going on in school. Share with your child’s teachers your problem and ask them for their help is solving it. Arrange to have chats with your child’s friends and their parents. Sometimes answers can only be found by adding many details to make a big picture.

Your child may eat primarily for oral gratification, rather than to satisfy any real, physical hunger. If this is the case, his overwhelming urge to bite or chew can be redirected to acceptable, safe chewables or at least to crunchy, raw vegetables that have few calories. Many choices of chewables are available in Special Needs Stores and online. Provide your child with sensory oral-motor tools to see if they can stop his unhealthy eating habit. Girl in photo is chewing on Kid Companions Chewelry http://www.chewelry.ca/

So you had a problem. You tackled it immediately. You sought professional help. You are not giving up before you see positive results. Throughout all this you remain your child’s strongest ally and supporter. This is what good parenting is all about…what more can you do?

Please add your suggestions on what else could be done to help such a child.

Related posts:

*What Goes In a Personalized Sensory Box

*Why, When and How To Talk To Your Child's Teacher

What Is a Personalized Sensory Box

Children with Sensory Processing Disorders (SPD) have difficulty interpreting information through one or more of their senses. As a result, these children have problems regulating their responses to sensory information. For these children and their parents, each day brings overwhelming challenges which lead them to seek professional help. Usually they will be sent to an Occupational Therapist, to address sensory integration / sensory processing needs.

One of the strategies used to calm or to stimulate the senses, is the use of a personalized Sensory Box. A Sensory Box is just a container where you place items for your child to explore with his senses. Simply stated, sensory boxes provide a medley of sensations ~ smells, feels, movements, sights, sounds, textures… to increase environmental awareness, relaxation and cognitive stimulation. Parents should have a sensory box at home and also one for their child at school.

Sensory Box Goes To School ~ What To Do

Following the recommendations of your occupational therapist, work with your child’s classroom teacher, child’s teacher assistant and/or special needs teacher and decide what would be best to place in your child’s individualized sensory box to be left in his classroom. 

Be sure to personalize the box with your child’s name and have a convenient, easily accessible spot to place it in the classroom. Or better still, have the child help you decorate and make the box HIS. Decide who is responsible to clean the items, remove the worn items and buy and replace new items. Maintaining these boxes takes commitment and organization, but is well worth the effort.

Have a plan on how the other students will be told about the sensory box and how to prevent other kids from using the items. When explaining this to the class, it would also be an optimum time to discuss why some children need sensory boxes or other special needs aids. Moreover, bring out and read to the students the special needs picture books on Sensory Processing Disorders. List and links to reviews below.  

At first, the adults working with your child will initiate the use of the items but the goal is for your child to learn to self-regulate and use these items when he needs them.

If all is done correctly, when your child gets an item from his box, the other students should see it as natural as getting a tissue to blow his nose or going to the pencil sharpener.

A personalized sensory box…so simple but oh so effective.

How have you made use of a sensory box?

Related posts:
*What Goes In a Personal Sensory Box

*Picky, Picky Pete ~ A Boy and His Sensory Challenges Written by Michele Griffin and published by Future Horizons. Review here *Sensitive Sam ~ Sam’s Sensory Adventure Has a Happy Ending! Written by Marla Roth-Fisch and published by Future Horizons. Review here

*The Goodenoughs Get in Sync ~ Five Family Members Overcome Their Special Sensory Issues Written by Carol Kranowitz and published by Future Horizons. Book review here

*Special People, Special Ways ~ Each page portrays positive images of children with various disabilities Written by Arlene Maguire and published by Future Horizons. About here

Holidays Ring "Hollow" For Some Special Needs Kids

Holidays and celebrations, like Easter, Thanksgiving, and birthdays, should be a happy time in families. When I think back to those days of celebration, when our children were growing up, the memories I have are not at all happy ones.

If I had known what I know now about my child’s sensory issues, we surely would have done things differently. Thirty years ago Sensory Processing  Disorder (SPD) was not talked about, not written about and certainly could not be googled, tweeted and discussed on Facebook.

[picture: my oldest, now an adult with a special child of her own...]

Being the oldest one of our family and having a huge kitchen, it always fell on my shoulders to welcome relatives and share a meal for these occasions. So this scenario has many reruns with a few different scenes and endings. However, in retrospect, the main theme was always the “Perfect Storm” for a highly sensitive child.

Let’s walk through a typical ‘special day’ of celebration. In our home, we would all rush about to get ready to attend a church service. Like was the tradition back then, going to church meant wearing your ‘Sunday Best’. To a sensitive child that meant stiff, itchy, ready to scream uncomfortable clothes and shoes!

So some sounds are hard to endure for these children. To her, the high pitched voice of the choir member singing the solos was like the screech of a nail on a blackboard. And did I mention the church bells, especially the smaller ones that ping, ding and dong during the service. Now let’s listen to the human noises that make this poor child shiver in her black patent leather shoes with the tight little straps. Coughing, sneezing, blowing noses…what torture for a sensitive child to be surrounded by such noises.

Special occasions in church come with huge, colorful , flower arrangements. To a sensitive nose the mixture of the sent of flowers, ladies’ perfumes, men’s aftershave, leather coats and burning candles all make for a nauseated feeling accompanied by an awful headache.

To this child who does not want to bring attention to herself in any circumstances, walking up the church aisle, going to communion and greeting the other church goers after the service must have been her own little crucifixion. And added to that were the photo taking sessions at home, the gift unwrapping done one by one while all the others watch, the endless questions by well meaning relatives and the requests to play the piano for the ‘happy gang’.

Finally it is time to eat. Table is nicely set, guests are seated, food is plated and begins another round of agony for the sensitive one to sit through. The oldest member of the relatives is deaf and very set in his ways. The preparation of his cup of tea is another irritation for the one sensitive to high pitched sounds. With his spoon, he mixes his sugar while all the while tapping the sides of his cup…he is deaf so the tapping changes to bagging the sides. This is the last straw for the poor child who has kept everything in for much too long, a vocal tic like the barking of a dog is heard. The table guests become all quiet and my deaf, too old to have figured it out, father-in-law says: “ Since when do you have a dog?”

Pain written on her face, she gets up and escapes to her room. With a lump in my throat, tears in my eyes and a vice-grip squeezing my heart, I try to make light of the situation. I connect to my robot mode to continue my role as host of another ‘special day’ that we should have celebrated differently---if I had only known.

For all those who understand Sensory Processing Disorder, what accommodations do you make for your special child on these special days?

Related Posts:
*Special Valentine's Day Gifts for Parents and Teachers

*Spread Valentine's Love: Help Children with Autism Celebrate!
*Learn to Be Flexibley: Reduce the Anxiety of Getting Gifts