Dad's Addiction

My son is dealing with a weight issue. He is ten and short for his age which does not help the weight issue. For about two years, our pediatrician, whom I adore, has been warning me about what to do. I have not been faithful to it.

My son's two addictions, and yes, people, they ARE addictions, are candy and soda, specifically root beer. If he could have a diet of just those for the rest of his days, he would be a happy camper.

The pediatrician does not agree with diet soda at all. He wanted me to cut out his soda drinking all together, but I reduced the amount instead. We are not down to one drink a week. The other time is water or 1% milk.

There is no candy in the house. When the "sweet tooth" bug attacks, there are chocolate rice cakes, 60 calorie yogurts, and ice pops.

There is no more hamburger, there is ground turkey. There is fresh fish, instead of fish sticks most of the time. No more salami for lunch meat, there is turkey instead.

Every once in a while, we will get a treat, but nothing to sabotage what we are doing.

He is still gaining weight....why? Two things.

#1 He is a "sneak" eater. The reason I can have NO soda in the house is because he will sneak sips. All the baking chocolate chips are gone, the sprinkles are gone. Anything that was candy like....gone. He will sneak pieces of bread, mostly at night before bed. He feels still hungry. He doesn't drink very much water, hates the taste, and that would help fill him up. He is so used to eating whenever he wants to, that it is really hard for him to stop.

#2 His dad. We are not together. He has a visitation during the week and every other weekend. These weekends consist of candy and soda, soda and candy. Chocolate syrup for milk, slushies for the heck of it. On and on. YES, he knows the situation, because even after telling him repeatedly my fears as I have watched him gain and gain, it must have HIT him one day and he called me to share his fears of diabetes and heart problems for our son. Thought that would have ended all this chaos. Oh how foolish I was.

My son now has fears:

Mom, I am afraid I am going to have a heart attack if Dad doesn't stop having this crap at his house.

Mom, I am afraid I am going to have a stroke.

Mom, I am afraid I am going to have diabetes.

Mom, I am most afraid I am going to have cancer.

I tell him to stand up for himself and tell Dad to stop buying this stuff. He tells me, "Dad said it is his 'addiction'." Well, obviously, Dad wants to make it our son's, too, and it is.