to be raging mad at the gp and want to make an official complaint?

[enzed]

Sorry for the long post

We have just got back from my daughter's 8 month health check. Before she weighed her, the doctor took one look and suggested I was feeding her too many snacks - quote "are you feeding her too many sweet snacks?" and suggested that I should be careful because she obviously has a genetic disposition to be big (after looking at me).

Now, if I was over-feeding my daughter I wouldn't mind being told, but this was before my daughter was weighed. She is growing up the 91st centile for both weight and height, and was on the 91st centile for weight and 75th for length when she was born. She has never jumped up or down a centile line, just stayed on it more or less.

When she commented again on her weight, I asked her if dd had moved up the centiles, and she grudgingly admited that she was still on the same line but "hopefully she would go down a bit when she starts walking".
At that point I informed the dr that I really didn't think my healthy 8 month old needed a) a complex about her weight or b) to exercise for weight loss purposes yet. and got no reply.

Now it maybe that I'm a bit sensitive, having endless drs accusing me of eating too many sweets etc, because I'm overweight, when it's not true, but I just don't want my daughter to have a label already on her drs records at 8 months, when she is actually perfectly healthy according to the weight guidelines. Should I complain officially or not? I'm so angry with the dr, I can't make a rational decision!

[CarGirl]

I had the paedeatric (sp?) registrar try and tell me that my 10 month old was overweight and that I didn't understand the centil lines

She was on the 91st centile for both height and weight as they had just measured both.

TBH I can only think he looked at me (5') and didn't bother to look at her height centile and assumed she was short!

[poppettpops]

I think the GP is right to bring it up if he
/she thinks it's an issue.

I'm sorry if this is insensitive/not politically correct, but there are far too many fat children in the world and I'm often astonished in the way many of them clearly have a weight problem because their parents do and feed them inappropriately.

I know that there are extremely rare genetic / condition causes when a person will get or remain fat even if they eat very healthily and the correct portion sizes.

But the epidemic of overweightness in the UK is really scary.

[sapphireblue]

I think it's worth a letter to the practice manager, yes. The GP had made you worry unnecessarily and told you that your baby is overweight when she isn't. She obviously has trouble understanding what the centile charts mean! DD1 is on the 91st centile for height and weight but is in no way overweight!

[hairytriangle]

um woops Forgot to log out from the username that the previous person that used this PC uses :blush:

It's hairytriangel here.

[TheCrackFox]

Have you thought about signing your baby up for Weight Watchers?

YANBU, I would be inclined to start to just think the doctor was an idiot and try to get any future appointments with a different doctor.

[MumNWLondon]

Your DD is only going to get complex about her weight if you give her one, as she wouldn't have understood what the GP said, to get you thinking about this hence IMO the GP was right to say she hoped she would go down a bit when as a child on the 91st centile as they started school would be overweight.

I think you are being oversensitive. Your GP was doing her job and IME the children at my DDs school who are overweight are the ones with overweight parents.

If you really want to make sure that your DD is not overweight as she grows up you are going to have to be very vigilant on portion size and also what she eats.

[enzed]

poppetpots,

I agree that obesity is a problem for children in the UK, and if my daughter had jumped up the centile lines then I would have expected the GP to be concerned, but to guess just by looking at her, is like looking at an adult - informing them that they should be losing weight without seeing what they actually weigh.

Also, my daughter has had her growth spurts, grows out first, so looks chubby then suddenly grows in length and looks leaner again - I thought that was normal for babies?

[NarkyPuffin]

The GP could have been more sensitive and was OTT.

I don't think it was a bad idea to check her diet though. One of the biggest indicators of future obesity for children is the BMI of the same gender parent.

[enzed]

mumnwlondon,

can you explain please? I don't get how a child who is on the 91st centiles for weight and length will be overweight when the go to school if they stay on those centiles, or do I not understand the charts properly?

[Habbibu]

My dd was 99.6th centile for height and weight until 6 mo, then dropped to 91st for both. her dad is 6' 3, so she's likely to be tall - if your dd was 50th for height, and 91st for weight, say, that would be one thing, but surely she's in proportion. dd is 3.8 now - still very tall, still in proportion. Not skinny, but you can see her ribs, etc, and she is in great shape.

[colditz]

Hmmm, I dunno. There is a tendency to be very blind to your own child's weight problems. I know a woman who exploded in indignation when the HV told her that it's not healthy for her daughter to need trousers 4 years too old for her just to fit her fat legs in.

This woman said to me "As if she's fat! She's a bit chubby, most kids are chubby when they're four, for God's sake, the way this cow went on, you'd think the poor girl was obese!"

If this child isn't clinically obese, I'll eat my shoes. Yet her mother is entirely blind to it.

[Habbibu]

But that's a bit different from the OP, isn't it, colditz?

[mamatomany]

Every fat kid at my daughters school has a fat mother and you cannot help but wonder if being sensitive is causing that child to suffer ill health because nobody wants to state the bloody obvious.

[Mingg]

My mw told me to put my 8 day old on a diet because obviously he was eating too much - he was on the 25th centile and was not back at his birth weight back at that time. Two days after another mw told me to feed him more because he obviously he was not feeding enough.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

but the OP's child is in proportion for weight and height.

[gorionine]

I would say something as once I should have and I did not.

I was in the GP surgery reception chatting with the dr. He said somthing like "I always see you running up and down the road (by that he meant rushing), do you ever stop?" At that moment arrives a nurse who I have never seen in my life who probably thought he was jocking because I am overweight and said "well at least walking a little bit would not hurt you, no need to run just yet!" I could not say anything! Thankfully, GP told her that he had not yet see with his own eyes another patient walking quite as much as me (I brisk walk 7 miles a day just for the school runs). I found the experience humiliating!

""One of the biggest indicators of future obesity for children is the BMI of the same gender parent."" maybe but surely that can only be verified if said parent is obese due to bad lifestyle? I am obese because I confort ate while depressed at one point in my life. I hope none of my Dcs will ever go through depression like myself and if they don't they will not become obese just because I am IYSWIM.

[coventgarden]

Utter codswallop that a child on the 91st centile at starting school age is over weight.

[Firawla]

if the height is also on the high percentile lines i dont see how it makes them obese or overweight?
i would just ignore the gp, they may be qualified in their profession but they do not always know what they are talking about.
i had some comments from gp when i took my ds (now 7 months) for the 6 week check, he was actually quite a bit older than 6 weeks when he had it done, which i think gp did not realise at first (although you would think it was obvious looking at him, and i had said!) and he started to get too worried about his weight, told me to give him much less than the normal recommended amount of milk for his age etc which i just ignored as he has never been a particularly greedy baby anyway so did not feel he was overfed at all, he doesnt finish bottles and only just now at 7 months starting to accept food. he is still about the 98th percent weight, and totally off the scale length...some babies are just big, and when they are very long too then it makes sense because otherwise they would be extremely skinny if they are on 99th percent length and 50th on weight, which is not necessarily healthy either, what's healthy is to be roughly in proportion.
i really wouldnt worry too much about your dd she sounds fine. dont know whether its worth making a complaint or not but yanbu being annoyed. i dont think he can write overweight on her records or anything, only plot it in the red book, which speaks for itself as she is following her line? plot the height on the length one too so u can show she is on the right corresponding percent there

[enzed]

thank you gorionine, I have PCOS and an underactive thyroid, which took about 15 years to be diagnosed - since diagnosis and medication, i've not put any weight on, but despite doing a lot of exercise, never get it off (hence I thought I was being over-sensitive because of all the hoo-haa i've had with gp's in the past).

And I agree that I will be very careful with my dd, but I don't want her to have a complex and it be mentioned at every drs appointment I take her too, because as far has I understood my dd is in proportion with weight and height (and head circumferance!), so I don't think I'm being blind to her size!! And by the weight, she's just under 9 months and is just in 9-12 months clothing now.

colditz - eat your shoes, my child is definitely not clinicaly obese thank you.

[MumNWLondon]

Yes, but GP based her comments on what the baby looked like not the charts. She clearly thought the baby looked a bit overweight, and she could see that she was a tall baby, which indicates that she doesn't look in proportion.

Might not be relevant at 8 months but you can get children's BMI charts (think from age 2) which would give you better idea if the weight and height was in proportion as don't think you can necessarily say that because both 91st centile its ok. From age 5 there are body fat centile charts.

[gorionine]

Enzed,I am not sure but I think Colditz was talking about the girl she knows, not yours when saying "if that girl isn't clinically obese..."

[Habbibu]

enzed, I think colditz was talking about a child she knew, not yours.

[whomovedmychocolate]

enzed - if you have PCOS you need to know that if your daughter becomes overweight she is much more likely to develop it too.

Not saying your GP is wrong but perhaps he was trying to say to you 'watch it, she may end up like you' which is not of course a pleasant thing to stay but at least it's clinically informative and accurate.

I worry about DDs weight but have been so put off by my experience with the HV I don't feel I can go back and talk to them.

[enzed]

ok sorry, i take it back colditz (being over sensitive).

and the more I think about it, the more I think the GP just based her opinion on me - I have friends who's babies weigh more than dd and had no comments from the gp.. i'm a bit calmer now, and going to speak to the health visitor - she knows dd better than the gp.