"Ophelia" > wrote in message
...
>
>
> "Julie Bove" > wrote in message
> ...
>>
>> "Ophelia" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>>
>>>
>>> "Julie Bove" > wrote in message
>>> ...
>>>
>>>> She does have a thyroid problem, and not being full grown does make it
>>>> a
>>>> tad hard to control. Her hormone levels fluctuate more than an adults
>>>> would. So her weight will stall or she'll even start to gain again
>>>> until
>>>> she gets her thyroid medication adjusted.
>>>
>>> Difficult when medical issues complicate matters. Once they are sorted
>>> I expect the dancing will take care of the rest. Then she may well be
>>> 'super slim')
>>
>> Not likely. Pretty much everyone on both sides of the family is
>> overweight.
>
> But were you all dancers?

No. I was. My mom did take a ballet class during the first year that I
took ballet. And my aunt did tap dance because my grandma wanted her to be
like Shirley Temple which according to my dad she was anything but. I was
extremely thin as a child. Cause unknown. I tried and tried to gain weight
and could not. Got sick with a stomach ailment, again cause unknown for a
period of two weeks at about age 15 or 16. Weight got down to 85 pounds. I
had developed anorexia in that I was afraid to eat or drink anything with
calories in it. Apparently at that age my brain just wasn't registering
that I would die if I kept on doing that. I just knew that I was going to
avoid anything that made me throw up. I had suffered not only from
projectile vomiting which was very painful but problems at the other end as
well.

Things came to a head in science class when we were taking our vital signs
and I had none. Not joking. At the time I called the teacher over to
check. I have always had a pulse that is hard to find. Still do. But my
BP was registering something like 10/0 and I knew full well how to use the
cuff because we had one at home. The teacher joked that I should be dead.
Not long after is when I fainted and he called my mom.

She took me to the Dr. where he prescribed a pill that he said was a vitamin
to pep up my appetite. To this day I don't know what it was but it gave me
such a strong urge to eat that I wolfed down an entire box of Saltines and a
jar of peanut butter. Then dinner. My mom's friend, a nurse had come over
for dinner and was horrified at how much I ate. I should add that prior to
getting sick, I did always eat a lot. Not *that* much but more than your
average person because I constantly felt hungry for reasons unknown. But I
couldn't gain an ounce. Well this time I did. Weight shot up to 145 which
is perfectly normal for a person of my height which at the time was around
5'6" to 5'7" Am not quite 5'8" now. At some point after that I grew a
little more although at the time it was assumed that I quite growing.

That was the start of my weight problems. In looking back for several years
of my adult life, I was slim, but not severely underweight. I had a very
active job and continued to dance (on my own) and even teach dance, although
at this point in time it was Disco.

I'm not entirely sure at what point my overweight troubles began but they
have remained with me. I did at one point lose enough weight to get down to
170 which is still overweight for my height but I did look slim. I was very
muscular due to workouts with weights for one to two hours a day. And that
was too much and subsequent muscle and tendon injuries sidelined that. I
have resumed using the weights at some points but never to that degree.

My mom was not overweight as a child due to lack of food. 8 kids in the
family and although at times they lived on a farm, there still wasn't
enough. She describes periods of time when there was flooding in that house
and they had to move to this other house that was not nearly big enough for
them and had no closets. My grandpa owned a variety of businesses over the
years including a restaurant but he apparently was not a good business man.
He owned a Western Auto store when I knew him and refused to ever mark
anything down which according to my dad caused the demise of the store. Now
he was not overweight but he also died very young. My mom's mom was short
and chubby and had a great propensity for eating sweets. Most of my
remaining aunts and uncles are large. The youngest aunt AFAIK is not but
she lives in another state and I haven't seen her for many years.

My other grandpa was quite large and he died when my dad was young. My dad
was very overweight all of his life as was my aunt and my grandma always
looked as this as a good thing. In fact she made horrible comments about
people who weren't fat, perceiving the extra weight as being healthy. She
remained a large woman until her final days when she became afraid of the
world around her and wouldn't go out to get food. My brother and I sent her
cans of microwavable chili because it was by then the only thing we knew of
that she would eat. She commented on it frequently. She did lose some
weight once in the nursing home if only because she became combative and
refused to do anything that was asked of her. Like eating.

But I have seen pictures of the older aunts and uncles and they were for the
most part all overweight.

Now my husband's family was for the most part all plump. The paternal
grandma was not so much but by the time I met her she was very ill with
various things including cancer. She had been a model at some point in her
young adult life. So perhaps she wasn't overweight. And both of his
grandpas died long before I knew him so can't speak for them. But all of
the other relatives that I meat had quite a lot of extra meat on them.

Diabetes and thyroid problems run on both sides of the family as well. Had
I known of this prior I might have rethought the notion of having a child.
But... I didn't even know about the diabetes until I had genetic counseling
and by then I myself had gestational diabetes which was the start of all my
current medical problems. Only then did aunts and uncles come forth telling
me either that they had it too or that great and great great aunts and
uncles had it. I did know that both of my parents had a thyroid problem.
And my FIL and his mother. I didn't know how serious the consequences of a
thyroid problem could be. I myself developed it during pregnancy but my
problem was different than my daughters. I would go hyper and hypo. So for
me to gain or lose 10 pounds in a week was nothing. All the while eating
the same diet given to me by the dietician. So I know now how much an out
of whack thyroid can affect one's weight.