Both Nathan and Toby had appointments at the Early Childhood Centre, or whatever they call it here in Victoria….Maternal Health Centre or something. Anyway, Toby was there for his 18 month check, and Nathan for his 3.5 year check.

I was surprised that Nathan had an eye test done. He was given a sheet of paper with some shapes and letters on it, and the nurse put glasses on him with one eye blocked out. She asked him to look at a card she was holding, and then point to the shape/letter on his sheet. After a couple of letters, Andrew just said to the nurse that it would be easier if she just asked him what letter she had rather than pointing to it on his sheet. It made things a lot faster. The nurse told Nathan he was very clever to know his letters, and he said yes, he is very clever. Hehe.

At all these appointments the kids are weighed and measured, and I know that for 2 years or more Nathan has been on the 50th percentile (spot on average) for height, and he has been on the 90th percentile for weight. He has always looked solid, but I have never thought of him as fat. Today was the first time that anyone has calculated a BMI for him, and his was in the red part of the scale…ie too fat.

We were essentially told that we should cut down on snacks. Now I know that neither Andrew or I are great role models in the weight stakes, but I have been so conscious of this over the years that I have been really strict with what the kids eat….to the point that I think that other family members think I am over the top strict. I totally believe that the kids do not need sweet foods, and I hate it when we are out and about and people offer the kids lollies. I feel like such a meanie when I say that they can’t have them, so sometimes I relent and allow it, but this is not often. We have tried to discourage things like Easter eggs, and most have disappeared (easy when they don’t really crave these treats and are young enough to forget about them). On occasions when we might get an ice-cream, we all share a single ice-cream. Same goes for biscuits…the kids never expect an entire biscuit to themselves, we share them. I figured this was a nice way for them to have a taste without getting overdosed on things they shouldn’t eat. If we have dessert after dinner, usually it is after the kids are asleep, otherwise they are allowed a tiny sliver, but again dessert is rare in our house. In general we don’t give them fizzy drinks (never!), or prepackaged snacks, or fruit juice, or lollies or fried foods. So what do we eat? We eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and probably the killer is that the kids adore carbohydrates…pasta, bread, potato, cous cous, etc.. So is this the problem? Or is it that I put a small drizzle of honey onto their porridge in the mornings to make bland oats seem a bit nicer?

Basically, I truely believe that though we may stray occasionally, the kids have a very healthy and balanced diet (the parents need more discipline but that is another story) and eat moderate amounts os food. I never force them to finish a meal, as I believe they know best when they are full. Most of their outside meal snacks are fruit or the stealing of veggies that I am cutting up for dinner. We verbalised some of this to the nurse and she said that if it is all true then he should be a better weight, and we still need to look at what he eats and get low fat milk, cheese and yoghurt, none of which he eats much of. She suggested we might like to have an appointment with a nutricianalist.

I know that childhood obesity is a big issue in Australia, but I am so sad that all my efforts to have my kids eat a healthy diet with loads of exercise have still resulted in being told I have a fat child and I should be concerned (though the nurse admitted he looks well proportioned). Before today I had a healthy concern about their weight, but now I feel like a failure as a parent, that I could not keep Nathan from being classified as fat and being told we need to do something about it or he will pay for it in the school ground. Once again, visiting the maternity and childhood nurse has resulted in me being upset and stressed. I swore off these places years ago….I sort of think I should not have bothered going back. The only reason I did was because I wanted Nathan weighed and measured. Sheesh.

And then, of course, Toby is weighed and he is on the light end of the scale.