Susie,

I understand your frustration and concern.  My son who is 9 and SWCAH has been working very hard to keep his weight under control.  He’s just finishing 2nd grade but when he was in transitional and first he put on 24 lbs.  I believe most of  this was due to the school lunch program.  He was always around 40 percent on the chart prior to that.  Then bam came 80 % .  At the start of 2nd grade we took him completely off the school lunch program.  I now pack his lunch and at first it was tough on him.  His two favorite things in life are eating and playing.  He changes schools next year as our 3rd - 5th graders are in another school.  As a result I met with our current school nurse and the "new" one last Thursday to review his needs.  The new nurse was asking about his eating habits and if he had restrictions.  I explained to her the issues we were having and how he eats now.  Our current nurse commented "you should see the lunches she packs for him".  When I did she asked if Ryan would be interested in helping her and the school counselor with a new program on nutrition they are introducing next year.  She thought if kids heard it from another kid it might help.  Well I asked my son and he said yes (to my surprise). 

Basically Ryan does the tread mill 15 min each morning and 15 - 20 min each night.  He does this 5 days a week.  We now send 2 - 4 fruits and 1 - 2 veggies a day, along with yogurt two water bottles.  The only "kid snack" type food he gets is pretzels or gold fishies.  I always use the snack size baggies as they are very small.  We always count out 1 serving of them.  I also send pickles to help with the salt intake.  For his sandwich he gets either turkey on wheat bread or just margarine on wheat bread.  He alternates between the days.  He chooses to have his turkey just turkey on bread nothing else.  At first it was very difficult but we talk about choices and he now helps pack his lunch.  Between his endo visits of Aug ’03 - Dec ’03 he put on ZERO pounds.  We were all so excited.  Between Dec ’03 and April he put on about 5.  But he played no sports during the winter.  Since April he has not put anything on.  We see the endo again in Aug and I’m hopeful that will still be the case.  He is currently playing baseball and now that the weather is nice again he is roller blading, skateboarding and biking more.  The added exercise is definitely something he needs.  He has very health breakfasts and dinners.  No second servings are allowed (for any of us).  Both my husband and I have lost 30 lbs each trying to help him eat better. 

But......... all this being said he is still a kid and needs to be able to eat like one sometimes.  He eats junk and ice cream.  But we always discuss choices before he just reaches.  I might point out that he had a snack earlier in the day that might not have been the best choice so does he really want that ice cream tonight.  Or we might point out that we are going for ice cream tonight does he really want that snack this afternoon.  Then I say the decision is his because he has to live with it.  To be honest he usually always makes the right choice when it left up to him.  He even chooses yogurt now when we go for ice cream.  I’m very proud of his efforts.

He begins playing football Aug 2nd.  We went for weigh in’s the other night.  Based on his age he could play with the 7-8-9 year olds (nope to heavy cut off is 75 lbs) he could play with the 8-9-10 year olds (maybe cut off is 95 lbs) or the 9-10-11 year olds.  All weight limits are in full uniform.  I really want him with the 8-9-10 year olds so we have discussed his need to loose a little weight this summer in order to do that.  He weighed in at 93 pounds full dressed the other day.  He is very determined about meeting this goal.

At the end of the day my goal has been to teach him not to preach to him because I don’t want him to loose self esteem.  I also don’t want to create a closet eater.  We discuss and so far it seems to be working. 

One last note.... your kids are at a tough age puberty is probably starting to some small degree and that seems to be when the weight starts to be an issue even for those without CAH.

Good Luck.

Judy