Hi, amandawood,
thank you for your most precious info.
My kids are 7 and 9. And the 9-year old is slightly overweight by the
BMI charts, although he was always very large for his age since birth.
For drinks I always give them IceTea light, which has maltodextrose as
sweetener. I know it's not perfect, but lately there were days where
I ran out of it, and they had water and were just fine. Maybe I'll
start doing it a "weekends only" treat.
They were doing a diet like me of too much rice,chips and pasta for supper,
so that will end when they come back from holidays, as I'm also not
up to doing something just for them.
One thing I will start doing is having soup around. In my country soup is
essential, it's always the start of a meal,and the main way of getting
vegetables. They like spinach and leek soup, so I'm going to be more
dilligent there.
The chocolate is another problem. How can you be in Switzerland and
not have chocolate :-) . I've managed so far, doing things with cocoa
powder when I have cravings, and maybe can do something for them,
like "nutella" or chocolate ice cream. It might be fun doing it together.
Overall I've changed my patterns of buying to focus on loads of vegetables
in the fridge always, so let's see if it rubs off on my kids.
Another thing I remembered is the snacks they take to school. I usually
send an apple puree "pot", but I'm going to start sending more protein
based stuff, like minibabybel or pic sticks, which they like a lot.
Let's see if I can implement these changes when school starts, I'd really
like to see my older kid with less belly fat, and better stats when we
go to the pediatrician.
Best of luck for all of you with kids!!

Oh, and on your friend's case. I have family with overweight kids, that
drink juice all day, all the time, because it's healthy :-( .
It is very bad when you can clearly see what is wrong with others but
can't really do much about it, specially to people you love.

Take care.