Parent of the year #23

[AnaKhouri]

My son is 6. He weighs 60 pounds. He is in the 99th percentile for height, and at 3 I believe he weighed around 35-40 pounds.

[taxguykarl]

WTF? Who the hell lets their kids eat when they're having their THROATS EXAMINED at the doctors?!

No kidding, what was he thinking.....assuming he was for the sake of argument.

[Aria]

I got that a few years back and I will never forget it. I did have a bit of an appetite, but getting up to open a can of soup, zap it, and get back to the couch had me shaking like an aspen leaf. I didn't want to move for another 3 hours I was so tired from my harrowing 10 foot journey to the kitchen.

Oh god, I remember that... it probably wasn't H1N1, but my family caught a WICKED flu bug right after a massive trip to Costco. Half of our groceries rotted before we could eat them!

The funny part was when we went to a Weight Watchers meeting the week after and I'd dropped eight pounds. The lady running it was like, what's your secret?!? So I said I'd rather not say.

[MadMike]

I'm curious though - what's a more normal weight for a three-year-old? Half that? Less?

I think my son weighed about 30 lbs when he was that age.

[siskaren]

I think my son weighed about 30 lbs when he was that age.

Wow, that is scary to think that that poor kid weighed more than double what she should have!

[dawnfire]

my 2 year old is 35 lb but he's 80 percentile for height but a stockier build. in comparison his 5 year old brother is 44 lb and is tall and skinny.

[Monterey Jack]

Nothing makes me sadder than a morbidly obese toddler.

[skeptic53]

I was surprised that the flu test was positive, given how chipper and hungry the child was.

A 3 year old should weigh 26.5 to 38 pounds. (5th percentile to 95th).

[Seshat]

I've occasionally seen episodes of Maury (don't judge me ) where they have morbidly obese preschoolers on, and some of the MOTYs actually seem to be proud of the fact that they feed their kids whatever they want, whenever they want. Or they're defiant - "My kid says he's hungry - I'm not going to tell him no!" (Never mind the fact that they just had a meal an hour ago.)

A fruit bowl isn't hard to keep around, especially if the adults provide an example by grabbing and eating fruit from the bowl periodically. As long as the kid is allowed to eat from the fruit bowl at will, they'll not starve.

You can also keep some boiled eggs in the fridge, and perhaps some veggies - raw or cooked, whichever the kid is happier with. A mixture of both, perhaps.

A toddler can also grab a bread roll on his own, tear it open and put some veggies in it, or a bit of pre-sliced luncheon meat. Or both.


Plenty of healthy ways to let your kid feed himself on demand, even without your intervention at the time.

If you add the minor intervention of an adult, there's much much more than can be done.

[Sparklyturtle]

When I had my go-round with H1N1 in 2009, I was too busy shaking like a leaf and sweating through my sheets to eat anything, much less mass quantities of junk food. Shit, my appetite didn't really return for a week after the worst was over.

I'm the wrong kind of amazed at this kid.

I've had H1N1 too, and I remember feeling like that. Eat anything? I had to, because I'm diabetic, but I ate as little as I could possibly get away with. I went almost two weeks eating little more than saltines, because it was about the only thing I could force myself to eat. At least it hit while I was temporarily not working while the client was getting new computers and a new dictation system, so I had time to get well before starting work again, but I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

I'm not going to say, "That kid's going to develop diabetes!" because there are more factors than just being overweight and eating junk (heredity is a big one, which it is in my case) but being overweight and eating junk certainly doesn't help.

[bhskittykatt]

Dang, that kid has an appetite. When I get the flu, it's usually just gatorade for me. My appetite goes to hell.

I remember when I had my tonsils removed when I was 7, I was so nauseous that I wouldn't eat. She made some sort of pudding and whipped cream concoction that was probably delicious, but I didn't want it and she tried to force-feed it to me (and to this day, I can't do the combination of those textures without feeling ill all over again). I remember my mom on the phone with my pediatrician; she was in tears because I wasn't eating (I think the pediatrician told her not to sweat it too much, though I don't really remember). It wasn't flu, but it was nausea and my appetite was gone.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Where I used to live, there was this family across the road with two seriously obese kids in it. Their mother was obsessed with the thought of her children being snatched by Pedobear (this was a quiet village, not an intercity high rise, btw) so drove them everywhere, even to the primary school less than five minutes walk away. I felt so sorry for those children; their mother wouldn't even let them play in the street.

[Chromatix]

With the flu (or any other illness involving nausea) you want bland food, and highly nutritious if you can get it, but bland is paramount.

Herbal teas, traditionally chamomile and peppermint, are excellent for settling a stomach and providing hydration (which is more important than nutrition in the short term). As a bonus, they don't make too much mess if even that won't stay down.

While somewhat UK-specific, it's possible to make a nutritious hot drink using Marmite. This is a good second step, once herb tea can be kept down.

Dry or buttered toast is also worth trying. Don't bother with any kind of flavoured spreads - you're still trying to keep it bland.

Anything more sophisticated can be saved until some sort of normal appetite returns. It's usually only a few days.

[wordgirl]

I quail to admit it, but I could actually see my dad pulling a stupid stunt like the dad in the OP. Usually he was pretty strict (and always backed Mom's play even when he disagreed about discipline) but when we were sick, all rules were out the door. If Mom wasn't around, we got away with the most horrid behavior we could imagine. And we had good imaginations.

I can just picture the office staff at the family pediatrician cringing when they saw Dad in the waiting room. I doubt he would have let us go back with chips or soda, but definitely we knew that being sick was a one-way ticket to Candyville.

[Sapphire Silk]

Plenty of healthy ways to let your kid feed himself on demand, even without your intervention at the time.

I went grocery shopping with Evil Empryss last weekend. She bought 3 bags of frozen peas. I said, "that's a lot of peas, isn't it?"

She replied, "They're for the Evil Prince (her son, 14)."

Me: He's still eating frozen peas as a snack? He eats that many?

EE: Oh . . yeah.

The Evil Prince has been eating frozen peas since he was a toddler. He loves them, and eats them by the pound. He's a typical skinny early adolescence teen about to bulk up.