I know how you feel, I have an 8 year old son and when he was about 5 he was like " Man you sure have a big fat belly". I told him that it wasnt very nice, and that when you call someone fat it hurts their feelings.After that he would say "look at that fat belly" and I would say, yeah its fat because your big butt lived there for so long, ( because he was saying it in a joking manner so I just joked back with him) I will say that since I have lost so much weight he said to me not too long ago, Mommy why is your belly not fat anymore. I told him it was because I had been exercising. I was beaming after that, because we all know that kids tell the truth. I was like, wow, if a child that always said I had a fat belly is now calling me skinny butt, thats a good thing. So just think of it like this, if he is telling you that now, he will eventually observe that you are getting smaller and it will feel really good

Thanks to everyone who has responded. It is nice to know that it doesn't just happen to me. When watching tv today, we saw a weight loss commercial and he says to me..."Mom, I want you to look the way you used to be! Different body, same face." OK...now if that doesn't kick me gear I dunno what else will.

I love this thread! My very precocious (nicest term I could think of) 8 year old was joking with me one day about being wierd. I said, "it is okay! I'm weird too." He says "You sure are, mom! All the other mommies have their babies and then get skinny again, but not you, you just get fatter and fatter." He got to have a nice long discussion with his daddy about how to control the words that come out of his mouth.

The poor kid has clearly got some issues with food. He's in the 10% of height and 10% of weight, so he is very tiny for his age. He's extremely active and hardly eats. The PE teacher put up a sign about "GO food", "SLOW food", and "WHOA food". Now he's labeling everything that he eats as one of the three. He hates veggies so most go foods are out. But now he's not wanting to eat cheese and 2% milk because only skim is a GO food. I understand the whole concept of teaching kids nutrition, but yikes! My dude is going to wind up with an eating disorder! He's afraid to get fat like me, but he doesn't understand that his tiny little butt needs the extra calories in the 2% milk. What is a mom to do? He's a big reason I'm on this journey.

Kimbie

I appreciate that kids are honest and they usually accept things that adults wouldn't, like my disability is nothing to my ex bf's son (who incidently pokes his grandad in the tummy regularly and laughs about his fat tummy lol!) As a kid my mum lost lots of weight and I didn't like it, I wanted the safe, squishy mummy back!

Kids do thend to learn fast...when they shouldn't. My niece is almost 2 now and she is constantly showing her stomac to be like us (my mom, sister and I are all overweight). I noticed that we started telling to stop making herself FAT by sticking her stomac out.

I'm sure that in no time she will drop that bomb on us.

So sorry it happenned , at least you know you are not raison an idiot and a liar ( always look for the silver lining..right???)

I guess we can all use your experience as motivation...I know I will.

Thank you for sharing.

It is so sad that kids are so concerned about their weight at such a young age and usually its the ones that don't need to worry and end up with distorted body images.

I've never been through this & b/c I can't have kids, will never hear it from my own kid. But I am sorry it happened to you.

My little guy noticed it when he was about 4. He asked dad if mom was fat, and my husband just about died. He kept telling our son, "don't ever call anyone that", over and over. I was surprised at my husband's reaction, and really ashamed that he had to defend me over fat. My son will never call anyone fat though. Which is a good thing.

Yesterday, one of my neighbor's little guy called another little boy's mom fat. His mom was in shock. She went and had the boy pick some flowers and give them to the overweight mom and apologize.

It's such an innocent observation when they're young.

Did anyone see the Oprah with Sarah Jessica Parker? She was talking to Oprah about her son noticing people's shapes. It was hilarious. It was like she suddenly realized she shouldn't have brought this up on the Oprah show. She seemed a bit uncomfortable.

When I was in high school, we taught a preschool class. We all had a 'buddy' to walk to the park. My buddy looked over at me and asked if I had a baby in my tummy. I told him no, I just eat too much sometimes. He goes, "yeah, me too. But when I eat too much I poop alot, do you?" I just about died, and it made me forget how hurt I felt. My son is almost 3 so I hope I will get all skinny before we have the same conversation

I think I used the "having a baby" thing too long.. I see these skinny moms that just had a baby. I'm way out of hand. This thread gives me motivation to start and try harder than ever to get skinny again. I remember HOW GOOD I felt, How on top of the world, how HAPPY! I want my son to know me like that, not like I am now, being upset because I don't like how I look, being out of breath after bending over to pick him up, having a terrible time getting up off the floor after being there playing with him. I am really mad at myself for getting to this point.. I've got to change. I felt so sad when I read this. Its got to be hard. It's tough love you know?