If Music Be The Way To Get Your Child To Eat, Play On...

Apparently 1 in 4 Irish primary school children is overweight or obese. As I look around my son's school, I don't see that reflected in the kids in the playground. There are really very few kids who seem to be to be overweight, maybe 1 or 2 per class. And no one I would describe as obese, although I know the technical medical definition for this is actually surprisingly lower than most people might think. So there must be some schools where about half or even two thirds of kids are overweight. 

We definitely do not have a childhood obesity crisis in our house - more of a 'pleeeeeeeaaaaase eeeeeeeaaaat' crisis.  When it comes to one of the boys anyway...  An example: this evening, Matthew asked for seconds after he quickly demolished a bowl of pasta bolognese. After the two bowls, he devoured a big yoghurt and skipped off merrily to play in the garden. Meanwhile, Adam was languishing on the other side of the table, listlessly poking at individual pieces of pasta. Eventually, he consented to eat 6 spoonfuls of his meal and didn't want a yoghurt or anything else for dessert.

The battle to get Adam to eat has been dragging on now for far too long and has been very very frustrating. I had really hoped he would have snapped out of it by now. 

Matthew was a terrible eater for a long time and I tied myself in knots getting enough food into him.  I learned the hard way that you really can't make a child eat what their stomach tells them they don't want. One evening I really lost it and nagged the food into him. The result was not pretty - he promptly threw up. Nice. When he was about 3 and a half, he just started eating and has barely stopped since.

I was much more relaxed about Adam's poor eating as I assumed he too would snap out of it and I didn't want a repeat of the vomit scenario. So we got to 3 and a half and Andrew and I watched him expecting the 'ta da' moment as he happily started eating. Then we passed 4, still no voluntary eating, unless you count crisps. He is now almost 5 and that 'ta da' moment is still but a hope...

Plenty of people have told me to relax and that he looks fine and that he will eat when he decides to.  However, in Adam's case, we don't really have the option to wait and see when he decides he has an appetite. As he has growth hormone deficiency, it is extra important that he eats in order to allow his medication to do its job. This was made evident when we were at a recent growth check up.  These take place every three months.  He had grown, but much less than any previous visits. And he had lost weight. The doctor was concerned enough to order blood tests to rule out any other causes, but I knew it was just that he doesn't want to eat, doesn't seem to enjoy food at all, doesn't even want desserts and seems to be incredibly active and healthy with very very little food. Except for his growth, which is clearly impeded by his lack of eating.

So, here began a series of all kinds of ploys and incentives to get the child to EAT. Adam is a very very strong willed, quirky and determined individual, who is not easy to persuade to do something he doesn't want to do. Of course, with parental authority, we could have just insisted rigourously that he eat every meal, but I also want him to learn to enjoy food and to know what is a good diet. The trick was to maintain healthy eating and resist the temptation to pump him full of saturated fats, thereby upping his weight, yes, but making him a good candidate to become a statistic in later life. So, three square meals, healthy snacks - here we go:

Reward charts, threats, bribes, setting the oven timer as a deadline...  All fairly exhausting, and all had some success, except for the oven timer. This led to him eating nothing for the first 19 minutes, ramming it all in in a panic in the last 60 seconds, and then, yes, more vomit. 

Then, unexpectedly, the best incentive yet...  We have been playing all kinds of tunes from Spotify, mostly in the kitchen and mostly very very loudly. One morning I chose a song I like, which the boys were getting sick of. Adam was dawdling over his bowl of yoghurt, which was part of his breakfast. He asked to choose his own song. Without really thinking, I said he could choose a song, once he had finished his yoghurt.  Well, I never saw him eat so quickly and so well!  Then he skipped over to the the iPad and chose his song and had a good little dance around the kitchen.  

This was repeated for several meals and has had a great impact!  Meanwhile, the hard work has paid off, as his last growth check up showed that his weight was up and his growth rate back on track. It is great to have found a way to tap into his enthusiasm for something completely different, music,  in order to try to get him to eat. I am not using this with every meal for fear of music fatigue and although I know it will have a limited shelf life, and we will have to come up with a new and creative way to motivate him to finish his meals, for now, it is making for a happier, and fairly noisy Keene kitchen.

Fat, Sick and Hungry for Change

I recently watched 2 documentaries/films on Netflix: Hungry for Change and the brilliantly titled Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. They are both about health, food and weight and I found them absolutely fascinating.

Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead is about an Australian guy called Joe Cross who suffered for years with an illness that resulted in him taking very strong steroids every day. At the start of the film, he is 41, overweight, unfit and unhealthy.  Having tried all kinds of conventional and alternative healing options, he decides that he needs to let his body heal itself.  But first he must change how he eats, give his body 60 days to cleanse itself and then see to what extent he can come off his medication and if his illness will be manageable without pills and potions.

It's worth saying at this point that he does all this under the supervision of a doctor. So he is pronounced fit to eat no food for 60 days and instead simply drink juice.  Juice which he prepares himself with a fancy juicer and boxes of fresh fruit and vegetables, including a massive amount of kale. He spends this 60 days in America, in New York and then travelling around, with the juicer in his boot, hooked up to a portable battery.  He is a very gregarious character and chats to all kinds of people about having only juice, about why he is doing this and about their health.  This gives rise to some jaw-dropping conversations, with people who are unbelievably honest about their health and their weight and their intention to effectively keep eating badly even though they know it will shorten their life spans. He talks to people everywhere, more or less accosting them, but in a very friendly way, and at one point meets a huge guy in a truck stop in Arizona, who has the same medical condition.  Much of this chat and interaction takes place in fast food joints or restaurants and you can't help but feel sorry for Joe, surrounded by big American portions of ribs, chips, burgers and cake, while he sips on his juice. 

However, he is changing before your eyes as the days are counted off.  So, the 60 days finishes, he has lost massive amounts of weight and heads back home, having come off all his medication and still in good health. At this point, I realised there was about half the film left to go, and I couldn't work out how they were going to fill the rest of it! Then something unexpected happened and it was just amazing...  I won't give it away!  I highly recommend this movie - it is well made, thought provoking and funny in places.

And it made me think about the idea of cleansing and juicing and then afterwards restricting your diet to mostly micro nutrient foods - effectively turning the food pyramid upside down. Extreme? Yes, absolutely. Fascinating nonetheless, and it stayed with me.
Then Netflix, as it does, decided I like films about fat people and food and suggested Hungry for Change.  This turned out to be a documentary about the food industry - the diet food industry in particular - and how deceptive and damaging it is.  There was a huge range of experts, who by and large spoke very well within their individual expertise. The myth of 'light' or  'fat free' foods was well and truly exploded as they went through the ingredients of some of these foods and their effects. Diet Coke in particular - you will never touch it again if you watch this... There were some fascinating stories from a few people who had lost startling amounts of weight and gone on to help others in this area. There were 2 women who were living with cancer long after they were expected to die, and whose complete change of diet, they believed, was largely responsible for their ongoing health despite their prognosis. Joe Cross popped up as well with his story! 

It could have been very formulaic; with talking heads spouting facts and theories, but the passion of all the speakers really shone through and I found it very interesting. Some of it was a bit 'Californian' for me, with a strong emphasis on loving yourself. While I may agree with the sentiment, it was a bit overdone onscreen.
However, I came away once again thinking about the importance of what we put in our bodies and with some very thought provoking statements ringing in my head. 
All the experts agreed that 'diets' as we know them, do not work and there is some crazy statistic about how many people regain all the weight they lose and more through diets that restrict access to certain foods, like the Adkins Diet. I am sure almost everyone reading this can attest to the craving for that one particular food that comes over you like a fever, when you are following a plan which includes a list of 'forbidden' foods... 

So how's this for common sense?  Instead of cutting things out, one expert suggested adding things in: healthy things. Increasing your fruit and vegetable intake and gradually crowding out the bad foods. This is in fact remarkably like what Slimming World gets you to do, which I am still following. You are meant to have 1/3 of your food be a portion of fruit or vegetables, every time you eat. It has the effect of boosting your healthy food intake, but it also automatically restricts the amount of 'bad stuff 'you eat, as you have to match it by a third each time. Gradually, your habits change, if you strictly follow this rule.

They all commented on the need to read labels. And there was huge enthusiasm for juicing, and for cleansing.  There was a strong suggestion that if you planned to change your eating habits, you should have a juice cleanse for a week or 2 and then gradually add foods back in.  It was interesting that, although weight loss was mentioned, the bigger benefits were related to health and also to beauty; nails, hair and skin will be hugely improved by this apparently.

So there we are. Should I dig out my juicer and go for it? It is tempting to try to have juice only for a couple of weeks.  By all accounts, the first few days are tough, but then you feel great and have loads of energy. I must say, I am really considering doing this, perhaps in a month or so.  

But mainly, what I am left with is a change in my thinking about food. It is so hard not to continually associate changing your eating with weight; at least it is for me as this is something that I have been engaging with for years, in particular the last 3 years. This leads to so many conflicting thoughts: 'Who am I doing this for? I should be able to eat what I want! Maybe I'll just be fat and learn to be happy with that... Why do I feel the need to conform to a societal norm or a stereotypical understanding of beauty? There is too much pressure to be thin from skinny celebs! Why should I care what others think? I wish I was thinner! My clothes don't fit... Oh crap, I have a party in 3 weeks and nothing to wear...'  Please tell me I am not alone in this spiral of useless thoughts!

But if you switch it to health as the issue, the perspective changes and the goal becomes bigger and more important. In this context, I am motivated to continue to follow the Slimming World plan, but for different reasons from now on. Yes, of course I still want to fit into that dress I looked nice in 3 summers ago...  But I also want to be healthy, energetic and here for a long time yet! And it would be interesting to investigate further how diet, not 'a diet', but diet, could perhaps improve or even shut down the colitis which I have.
The 2 films described are highly recommended. They are both on Netflix, but it may have been the American version thereof that I was watching.  Try these links for more info too: http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com and http://viooz.co/movies/4394-hungry-for-change-2012.html. If you google the film titles, you should find that you can see trailers at the very least.

Would love to know what others think of these films! Too extreme? Or perhaps Food for Thought?

Less of a Person

It's been a while since I have blogged!  Life has been pootling along in a nice rhythm of school runs, football, swimming and housework... Nothing has really been exercising me or getting me riled up enough to blog. And I am not blogging today because I am riled up, but because I am inspired...

 I just got back from a Slimming World meeting in Stillorgan.  The usual stuff was going on: women queuing happily to pay for the week and handing fruit into the basket to be given to the slimmer of the week. 

Then everyone joins the queue for being weighed.  This queue is noticably less chatty and relaxed.  People start stripping off as much as they can get away with before they have to get on the scales, so the side of the queue looks like a jumble sale: boots, scarves, jumpers...  I have seen women take jewellry off.  If your jewellry is going to make a difference to your weigh in, it might be time to de-bling somewhat... Just a thought!

Sighs of relief or grimaces of disappointment follow the weigh in and people find a seat and congratulate or commiserate with each other. Then the awards go out: people get a round of applause and a certificate for reaching certain milestones, like a half stone loss, or 10% of their body weight. This evening Rachael, the group consultant, called forward a lady and told us she had reached her target weight.

A very slim, very nervous lady came to the front.  She looked really slender and pretty and I immediately assumed she had probably lost a couple of stone and used to be a bit plumper.  But no, she had lost over 8 stone. I think it was 8 stone 2.  EIGHT STONE TWO!!!  That is 114 pounds, about 57 kilos. That is just phenomenal! At first I thought she was telling us her current weight, but thought she was a bit tall for that to be her final target.  I was very shocked to realise that was her total loss - amazing!

Yet she had no loose skin or anything like that as she had exercised once she lost enough weight to do so. She told the group that she had gone from a size 22/24 to size 10 and can get both her legs into one of the legs of her old jeans!  She spoke about how different her life was now and how much healthier she has become since she started this in May 2011.

It was really inspirational to see her and there was a palpable sense of awe in the room at her tremendous achievement. It was especially encouraging when she talked about the weeks she had gained weight or the month when she plateaued and was stuck at the same weight. Yet she stuck with it...

So, I am feeling motivated and am continuing to enjoy the Slimming World journey!  I have my own jeans story too: Andrew bought me jeans in America last March, which was brave!  I could barely get them over my knees, never mind do up the button.  Last week I tried them on again and they fit! I was very very pleased! Maybe he should buy me the next size down for continued motivation? Maybe not...