How Do You Put Your Child on a Diet?

Oct. 14, 2002 -- 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.

Only 25 minutes later, Sydney returns to the snack closet for the third time.

Restock the Pantry

Because of the problem of children sneaking into pantries on their own, stocking pantries with low-calorie options is a must. Children can not eat what isn't there.

"Sydney, did I say you could have that biscotti?" her mom asked. "You know you've had enough snacks."

Regular meals can also pose difficulties, because of Sydney's tastes in food, Lamartina said.

"At mealtime it was a real problem because the only thing she was interested in were the pastas and the rices," Lamartina said. "She did not want to eat any of the vegetables or the meats."

She has dismissed the lean foods that would fill her up and help her lose weight.

"I don't really want chicken every day, I don't really want broccoli everyday, I don't want vegetables everyday," Sydney said.

"You don't want to be healthy?" her mom asked.

Her mom took her to a specialist, where they did tests on Sydney.

Diagnosis: Clinically Overweight

"According to her body mass index score and her dexi-test she has a clinically overweight condition," said Dr. Melinda Southern, a clinical exercise physiologist and the co-author of Trim Kids.

As the director of a pediatric obesity laboratory at Louisiana State University, she's also the doctor who may save Sydney's life.

After testing, Sydney joined the program — a child based exercise and diet makeover. Parents should not sign up their kids for adult diet programs.

Sydney lost her first six pounds by increasing her physical activity and improving her eating habits. One tip that made a big difference was having Sydney eat all of her food at the table, to cut down on snacking.

"The largest challenge with Sidney has been the food," Southern said. "It's a challenge to have her pay attention and to select the healthy foods that are available and to eat less of those that aren't healthy or to eliminate then altogether."

Sydney says that she sometimes still sneaks food.

"I do that. I did that a lot, actually," Sydney said. "Because sometimes I just felt like eating a lot."

Now that she started on her diet and exercise program, she feels good, though.

"I've been feeling good inside," Sydney said.