please settle a debate

Question
Please settle an argument between my mother in law and myself. I hope you will be patient reading this. My husbands side of the family has morbid obesity problems. My mother in law, herself, is 450 pounds. My 2 year old daughter has been a HUGE eater from day one and still begs for food constantly and is a bottomless pit. She can eat adult portions and always cleans her plate. This has always concerned me so I only feed her healthy foods and she has regular snack and mealtimes (no eating between these scheduled times). My daugher is not overweight yet because I control her portions and give her healthy food. Anyway, my mother in law thinks my daughter has something medically wrong with her. She says she has never seen a child eat like this and beg for food and eat adult portions. She feels my daughter either has a vitamin deficiency which is causing her to crave food, or she has a tapeworm (give me a break!) I feel the reason my daughter is this way is because there are obesity genes in the family and obviously obese people are over-eaters. My mother in law wants my child tested by her pediatrician for some kind of medical problem. I feed her a balanced diet and she gets a vitamin supplement everyday. I think there is NO medical problem other than my daughter will be a big eater (due to her genes) and we just have to keep an eye on it. Whose right? Me or my mother in law?

Thanks for reading this.  

Answer
Hi Joanne, in my opinion mother knows best and that means you not mother-in law. There are of course some syndromes that can cause voracious appetite, but at age two I think she would be to young to diagnose. If your daughter drinks a lot of juice and eats a lot of carbohydrate foods like macaroni,crackers,cookies and other foods of that source, she may just crave carbs. Overweight people crave carb foods and that's where the genetics play a role. Of course a growing child needs carbohydrates for energy, but try to give her foods that are high in fiber, not just high in sugar. If you could limit sugar in her diet, that might be helpful also. I'm sure she doesn't have a vitamin deficiency or tapeworm but that's a good question for her doctor. Good Luck, hope I've helped. Laura Kraemer,Slimkids.com

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