Medical update on Cameron

Let me be clear...what I say here is in no way an insult to my son. I'm what the medical community call obese. But, we normal people would call me a fat-ass. So, when I discuss my son's weight problem it is not to be mean, but in fear for his health.

A year ago, Cameron was 66 pounds and 48 1/4". Sort of a normal weight for a kid his size. In the past year he has grown about 4 inches and gained 25 pounds. Seriously, he's starting chub up. If you look at him he's not obese. But he's pushing it. He's 91 pounds and 51 1/2" this week.

When he first started his meds up here 2 years ago his weight dropped from 61 1/2 pounds to 51 pounds. For a child who wasn't even 4 feet, it really showed. He was skin and bones again. We put him on pediasure and eventually changed his meds to 4 hour pills so he'd get his appetite back. It came back alright.

We know why he's so big. The kid sneaks food all day and all night. We've been through periods of him hiding food. Imagine making a bed and finding cookies and candy under the pillow. We've never denied the child food. In fact, when he's on his normal ADD meds we are pushing food on him.

We don't want him to have a weight problem so we discussed it with the doctor. We've opted to change him back to an 8 hour dose. For the sleep problems we are giving him melatonin. So far it does not help. But the bottle is old. I'll get a new one this weekend. Not real confident it will help though. Nyquil won't even put this kid out! He can sleep, but he does not get to sleep until 3-5 a.m. We'd like to get him to sleep by midnight and up by 10. Before you tell me to just get him up earlier...we tried that and he still stays up. He's just grumpier and more oppositional.

Doctor said it takes 3 weeks to change a pattern. I'll update in 3 weeks.