Nov 13 2008
Does your child with Down syndrome over eat?
From the time Tim, my son with mosaic Down syndrome, was very young he never seemed to know when he was full. He would eat until he would get sick. And, if I didn’t watch him carefully, he would sneak food out of the refrigerator or cabinets and eat everything in sight!
This was when he was about 3 years old.
Now, at 22, I still have the problem, just a little differently. I have taught him about food portions and self-control. I have taught him that he can ONLY have 2 cookies instead of the whole box in one sitting. I have taught him to limit his intake on sweets and things that are not healthy, but I have also taught him that over-indulgence of anything is not good for you.
However, sometimes no matter how much I have taught him this, he does tend to sneak things every now and then and especially if it is sweets.
A few years ago I was working outside of the home and one day I came home and Tim had eaten a whole case of granola bars! That is 48 GRANOLA BARS! Needless to say, I was not a happy camper! I told him that I hoped he stayed up all night having to expel those 48 granola bars and I hoped he didn’t get a wink of sleep! (unfortunately, he slept fine that night, so no lesson was learned there)
When talking with many other parents over the years I have found that Tim’s over eating is not exclusive only to him. And, yesterday when I was on the phone with the Prader-Willi Association I found that we are not alone in having these issues that are usually characterised in Prader-Willi.
Last year, one of our researchers had added this question about over-eating to her research, but I haven’t had a chance to get with her on the results. And, I would like to know how many more are experiencing this who have any form of Down syndrome.
So, I have made a survey with just a few questions on it. I would really appreciate it if you participated in this survey. This is for families who have children (any age) with any form of Down syndrome.
Thanks in advance for participating. Together we can find out all kinds of information to help everyone who has any form of Down syndrome!
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