my son is not verbal but does make it quite clear he wants more food. What works for my son is a visual schedule. Meal times and snack times are clearly identified. Beyond that its just not time to eat. Boredom has alot to do with wanting to eat all the time and thats just not for kids with DS thats for people like me too ;-). Redirecting them in to another activity and not making it obvious you are restricting and denying food is the key. If you blantantly restrict it could mean food becomes and obsession and something that seems in short supply so the child tries to get all they can.. Getting a child in to a club with regular excerise is also a good thing. A special olympics club perhaps?? I know lots of parents of male adults who kept the carbs low with their kids but gave plently of greens and protein and encourged weight lifting. These male adults don'thave the weight issue. Its my plan for my son when he gets old enough. I know its a tough one and different things work for diffent kids.Its sometimes nearly all of us have to face. Best of luck

thank you very much for you letter. In fact, I just called the special olympics today and they are sending me the medical forms I need. This all makes me feel like a better parent. What kinds of things do you distract your child with?

My son is overweight, too. I just try to be strong enough to tell him "no" when he wants to eat between meals. He is very particular about what he eats, so trying to get him to eat a balanced diet is really hard. As far as exercise goes, he's pretty lazy. He likes to jump on a trampoline, but ours got destroyed in hurricane Rita and we haven't replaced it.
One thing for you to check is his thyroid gland. A lot of people with Down Syndrome have hypo-thyroidism. My son does. He did lose some weight when we found out about this and started medication.Good luck.
Susan

I am using this book, it is called The Health Plan for Overweight Children. It really is helping me make better food choices for my kids. When I stated adding more fiber, removed soda, and encouraged water my kids stopped saying they were hungrey all the time. It was really easy to understand compared to some of the other things I have tried.

My sister does the special olympics club and she absolutely loves it! Since she has joined, she has lost over 40 pounds! I try to keep her active, I found her a better school that better suites her needs and she is flourishing so much now! I am so proud of her!

Good Afternoon,
I have a 26 year old daughter. She has always been active and hardly ever a tv watcher. She has ADHD as well as a few other things with DS...but keepingher avtive is the key. I have taught her abouthealthy eating and she does for the most part. Like everyone..she still has her treats. Her biggest is poutine or fries in general. So we established a day for they....so now we only have fries on "FRYDAY" She was in SO for almost 12 years. it wa a great sourse of exercise as well as making friends. SHe was always completely mainstreamed into the school and friends were a big commodity. She went on medication to help stabalize her moods...but it made her gain so much weight. she was ALWAYS hungry. I started giving her choices for snack. both healthy....she always chose one of them. Making her own decisions made her feel a little more in control of her life!! She became lazy and lost all her self respect. I took her off the meds and she lost 60 pounds. She looks famtastic now. She is back on the medication but a much smaller dose. She has gained a little wirght back..but we are keeping her very active in her community so she is getting alot of exercise. She goes to aquafit 2 times a week andhas just recently joined a local gym. My daughter has always been a sports finatic. so any sports she can join she does. OSO gave her the confidence back after being the bench sitter on the regualr team sports in the local community. She is no longer in it bacause we moved to a small town and there is no special olympics here . She has moved on to bigger things for her now and enjoys the social interaction with all the other ladies in her aquafit class and also the social aspect of the gym. I think she likes it more becasue of the med that go. Hey! she is human!!!
hugs Donna xoxo

You know what..it just occured to me......I was reading your profile and came across the part that said you suffer from hypothyroidism. People who have down syndrome are often dealing with an underactive thyroid. This is a huge cause of weight issues. I am sure you are a lready aware adn on top of it all...but just thought,,,just in case, ....it may be in your daughters best interest to test her thyroid.
Just a thought...
Take care ,
Donna xox