We have been working to help our daughter lose weight since she turned 5, she is now 7. Many endocrinologist and pediatric nutritionist visits later she still needs to lose over 20lbs.

We keep her in swimming twice a week and she walks 1km back and forth to school most days.

She is very aware of her nutritional needs and makes good food choices independently most of the time...we always allow her to enjoy the party food when with friends but the rest of the time we go LC.

I believe that a reasonable weight loss goal for a young girl is 1/2lb a week.

I would love to hear from others trying to help their "babies" lose weight. I don't know but I think that the issue for such young kids and their parents might have a different twist than working with tweens and teenagers.

My husband has lost 92lbs since June 2003 and I have lost 27lbs since Oct 2003...our household is focused on healthy living.

In the past my daughter has become so concerned about her food intake that she was asking about the fat content of cucumber! This was when we worked with the pediatric nutritionist once a month. I reduced our visits to every two months with the doctor's agreement about J's food concerns. My fear is balancing our need to lose weight for our health and "creating" a little girl with an eating disorder and body image issues. We talk about healthy bodies and healthy body image at every teachable moment. We also talk about language...fat is not a bad word.

Sorry for this epic story but I wanted you to know many of the issues that we have faced. Hope to hear from you soon.