Two of my three children are overweight. I feel like a failure as a mum and worry my friends judge me By Anonymous Published: 02:10 BST, 10 June 2024 | Updated: 02:14 BST, 10 June 2024 e-mail View comments Am I fat?' My nine-year-old daughter asks me one morning standing in front of my bedroom mirror. 'What? Don't be silly!' I say, flustered.
'Why do you say that?' 'Because one of the girls in year three told me I had a big, fat tummy,' she says. 'What a rude thing to say! There's nothing wrong with you. You're lovely,' I tell her.
She shrugs and goes back to peering at her profile in the mirror. The problem is, while she is lovely, my daughter also has a very 'healthy appetite' and has in fact developed a sizeable tummy over the past year or so. She has always loved her food, but just seems to have piled on the weight in recent months.
Carrying extra weight as a child puts you on a direct path to conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, while losing it cuts the risk dramatically I've found this to be puzzling and disturbing in equal measure. We don't mainline junk food at home. I like to think we eat well — the usual stuff: spaghetti bolognese, home-made chicken curry, roast dinners.
I do wonder if I overload her plate on occasion, but when I cut back on portions, or replace potatoes with salad, she says she's still hungry. And I don't want my daughter to think that going hungry — as so many girls and women do in the pursuit of a smaller tummy — is normal or righ.
