How Do You Put Your Child on a Diet?

Oct. 14 -- Stephanie Lamartina has been fighting with her 8-year-old daughter — but it's not about cleaning up her room, or making sure that she isn't late for school.

It's about food. Lamartina is desperately trying to save her daughter from what she fears will become a lifetime of obesity.

"She was a chubby baby, a cute chubby toddler," Stephanie Lamartina told Good Morning America's Parenting Contributor Ann Pleshette Murphy. "And she just always looked so cute. And it really didn't go overboard to where it was a problem until I'd say like in kindergarten."

Sydney was beginning to endure some teasing at school.

"This girl, she told me I was fat, and my and my other friend — she thought that was kind of sad, and she thought I was kind of fat," Sydney said.

At age 8, she weighed 104 pounds, and was 63 percent over her ideal weight. Her mom has been frantic— and experts would say, rightly so. Parents whose children are overweight should act early, and not assume their child will grow into their appropriate weight.

Link to Adult Obesity

According to research, without help, a child who is obese at age 6 has a 50 percent chance of being an obese adult, which means they are at serious risk for heart disease, diabetes and stroke.

But how do you put a second grader on a diet? It's anything but easy, as Good Morning America discovered when our cameras rolled on Sydney and her family for a week.On a typical morning, Sydney has had breakfast, but asks for more.

"Mommy, can you make me a tortilla?" she asks.

"No, this is it, you already had some!" her mom said.

But four minutes later Sydney was in the pantry looking for another snack.

In the afternoon, when she got home from school, the story was the same.

"No more Syd. That's enough!," Lamartina said. "You don't want to ruin your dinner. You've had enough snacks, you've had fruit."

"One more, mommy!" Sydney asked.

"Sydney!" her mom yelled back.