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Parenting
: How is my 4 year old dd 1 point off having a bmi that makes her obese???
(23 messages)
After watching Too Fat to Toddle and my mil commenting on my dd's weight I decided to weigh her and measure her height and work out her bmi. It is 18 which means she is definitely overweight and nearing obese. Ok, I'm her mother and maybe too close to see the reality but I don't see her as fat let alone obese. Hand on heart we feed her really healthy food - no fizzy drinks at all ever, fruit as snacks, brown rice, brown bread, skimmed milk, etc etc. She runs around every day at nursery and has just started ballet - she is on the waiting list for swimming classes too. What can I do but starve her fgs? I'm not talking about any of this infront of her as I'm well aware of the implications of doing this. What can I do? Will she lose the weight naturally or should I worry?
BMI charts definitly don't work for children - I got the Wii Fit for my birthady which works all that jubbins out for you. In order to play the games you have to 'register' each person playing and according to that my DD (who's so thin that trousers that fit her length, fall down on her waist) is overweight, as is DS2 who has the same problem. If you have to check whether she is in proportion, it's far better to use the charts in the Red book, which are at least aimed at children.
My ds was really chubby as a child, in fact when he was 8 months he was practically off the charts. The HV told me to put him on a diet but as he ate really well, no junk and was active, I didn't heed her advice. He is now as skinny as a rake, he was just really chubby as a child. If she's active, doesn't eat rubbish day in, day out then I wouldn't worry about it too much tbh, I know several teens who were quite chubby toddlers, none of them are overweight now.
I think some kids are more muscular than others, and muscle weighs heavier - people are always amazed at how much I weigh, but I'm a size 10 - 12. My DH is VERY muscular, and so are both our kids - wear the size for their age (often too loose around the waist) but are on a bit higher percentile for weight than height
For reason I was expecting them to be redheads though....must be the 'Flame' thing! I'd never 'worry' about a child's weight (unless they're obviously being unhealthily affected by it) until they were in their teens. DS1 is starting to get a bit chubby, but at his age IME that tends to happen just before puberty - he's likely to top 6', so needs to build up before he does that scary shooting up thing boys do! If you just looked at him now though, and didn't consider his age etc, you'd just maybe he's overweight.
On the children's BMI chart a BMI of 13.5-18 is considered normal, over 18 is overweight.
It depends a great deal on a child's build though, my daughter's BMI hovers between 17.5 & 18.5*. People can't believe it when I tell them - she's slim but extremely athletic (a swimmer's build) strong, muscular arms & broad shoulders. I tell her she's lucky to have such a wonderful strong body
(*well I've worked it out three times in the last two years, out of curiosity really, it isn't an obsession!)
I used the child bmi chart and also the centile graph. She came out as being in the 85-90 percentile which means is at risk of being overweight. This can't be wrong can it? Btw she is 3 ft 3 and weighs 2 stone 11 lbs. If anyone can reassure me I'd feel a lot better.
Too much obsession with little lines on graphs in this world. The lines are all about a normal distribution. SO, if you gathered 100 children of the same age and arranged them in order of weight, and then went and found the child standing in the middle of the line-up, that child would be on the 50th centile. But she wouldn't be on the 50th centile if it wasn't for the fact half of the others are heavier than her and half are lighter than her. Not everyone can be average!
Lulu15 - 90th centile means that your LO would be towards the heavier end of the line up, but not out of the normal range. If she's healthy and happy and active, you need have no concerns.
My DH was a huge, chunky and heavy baby. He's now 6'3" and weighs only 11 stone. I'm not fat, I have a "comfortable" size 14 figure, but I was a smallish baby. You just can't tell. Tell your MIL to go away and leave you to enjoy your lovely little girl in peace!
Really it is quite easy to tell if a child is overweight, although I understand your concern about maybe not being impartial. Why don't you ask a couple of friends for an honest opinion? Even if your dd is a bit chubby that's quite normal at nursery age.
I think BMIs can be a bit misleading anyway. I read once that Brad Pitt would be overweight and George Clooney obese according to their BMIs. I'm sure that many professional athletes would be too.
Feed your family Fabulous fish cakes for a fiver. With our Fabulous fish cakes recipe you really can feed your whole family a delicious meal for less than a fiver. This is just one of five brand new purse-friendly recipes from Sainsbury’s. Take a look!
Thank you (isn't it weird how you can take pride in something that you had sod all control over? 
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