Fighting the fat

When Marielle was on treatment, she was on high dose steroids 5 days every 21 days. Now, steroids make you want to eat, you crave things, usually high fat, high salt things and honestly you do not want to fight with a 3, 4, or 5 year old when they are on steroids. The phrase "roid rage" might have been created to explain the rage that athletes using steroids get but believe me, you ain't seen nothing if you haven't seen a 4 year old in a fit of 'roid rage.

So, the entire time Marielle was on treatment, which was more than 2 years, we kept the house stocked with things she might crave, from sausages to chips to chicken nuggets. While on treatment, her weight crept up. When she started treatment, she was normal weight, maybe a slight bit on the slim side. When she ended her treatment, she was overweight.

It's kind of funny, in a weird way, because people picture kids with cancer as being very thin and sallow. But, for young kids getting pumped full of steroids, the "ALL look" is big, fat cheeks and a big tummy. (Steroids shift weight from other parts of the body to the stomach area.) So you wind up with a child who has a "beer belly".

I do not want my children, especially my daughter, to have to fight fat her entire life, which is pretty much the road I've been on, so I decided we were going to begin "operation eat right". Starting last January, I ditched all that high fat, high sodium food. We all eat healthier now.

My goal was not to have my girl lose weight, just not gain weight as she grew. As a result, she has grown 1.5 inches since last June and lost .6 kilo (about a pound). She is now a normal, healthy weight. I'm so happy about this and my hope is that she has now changed her tastes and craves healthy food.