Expert: Dr Graham Smith - 10/15/2009

Question
dear doctor my 6 year old daughter is gaining too much weight too fast. She is weighing almost 7 stones with a bmi of 23. She was extremely petite until last year she had a parapharyngeal abscess, she was In hospital for 10 days and given medication intravenously she was very very poorly. They did not operate on her because i refused but ever since she has ballooned up very fast. it is not that she has an unhealthy diet she exercise alot as well, my GP is not helpful please can you help me was it the medication that they gave to her that has done this to her. Thank you in advance
Mum

Answer
I assume the medication was antibiotics. This would not be the cause. You put on weight when you eat more calories than you burn up. To reverse this process you need to burn more energy than you take in. This means eating less and/or exercising more. The science is very simple - putting it into practice is less so.