Ds 6 overweight?! Height/weight

[toddle]

My son got weighed and measured recently and from this a quick google for a BMI thing it came up his overweight. However I'm confused if anyone could give me some insight please

It said his bmi is 17.5 which I thought was in the healthy range unless it differs for children. It then said about his weight for age but surely his weight for age is going to be high if his height for age is also high?

I've had a look at a height/weight growth chart and as far as I can tell he is on 91st for height and 98th for weight.

I don't think he looks overweight but then I've seen our ideas on normal weight have become skewed so guess I could be wrong.

[Ariela]

This is the problem, the figures are based on average - somebody has to be one end or another. We also got the 'your child is at risk of being obese' - when she was 2nd youngest yet 2nd tallest AND by far the fittest in her class in year 5 or 6 I forget which, she was a good runner and at sports day could overlap all the class bar one or two in the 600m race. (We walked 2 miles each way to school and back, she swam and rode and generally spent all day out in the fields 'doing' rather than sat at a computer/TV screen)

Nobody has ever said she is fat. Nor have they said she is thin, she is well built muscular rather than skinny, would never fit a size 8/10 for example - shoulders too wide.

[Taytotots]

Did you try this one www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-weight/bmi-calculator/? As Ariel's says someone has to be at the top for height and weight centiles and if these are in proportion that's fine. I think this calculator gives you the bmi (e.g height to weight ratio) as a centile and there is a very large normal range.

[RonaldMcDonald]

I think you know if your kid is overweight
If he is feed him fewer sweets and processed crap
More veg fruit and water
Look at portion sizes and make sure they are kid sized

From what you’ve said he sounds fine.

[toddle]

Hi thankyou for the replies.

I presume he is heavier then the average 6 year old as is his also taller then average. I was just concerned the way the original website put that across.

Just got a bit worried I'm maybe blind to something I shouldn't be, when I see you should be able to see his ribs apparently. He has a good varied diet with occasional sweets and some processed crap in there too, although these are treats not daily. He is very active bikes for minimum 30 mins a day and has an additional 2 and a half hours of planned activities a week.

[titchy]

Children's BMI should be between 13 and 17. So yes he is overweight. You DON'T use adult ranges for kids.

[PurpleDaisies]

Are you looking at adult charts and getting confused?

[PurpleDaisies]

I think you know if your kid is overweight

People really don’t though. I’m not saying the op is one of them, but you can’t assume people notice when they need to pay more attention to their child’s diet and activities.

[LovingLola]

Can you see his ribs?

[GrumbleBumble]

It would think it's very unlikely that a child on the 98th centile for weight isn't over weight, at 6 my son was 99.9th centile for height but only 50th for weight so being tall doesn't automatically put a child into the top weight centile.

[steppemum]

There have been many threads on this.
The general consensus seems ot be that the children's height/weight check doesn't appear to be able to take the height into consideration for the weight.

In that sense centiel charts are a better check - if they are high on the weight one, they should be high on the height one.

But most parents do NOT know if their child is overweight. Many, many people just think they are a 'bit stocky' our perception of weight has changed so much, that we don't see over wieght children or adults as being overweight any more.

[steppemum]

Grumble my ds was like that , but he really was skinny! he had not an ounce of spare anything, no trousers would stay up as he had such a skinny bum.

[GrumbleBumble]

Steppe mine too, age 8-9 trousers at 6 for leg length but falling off and still wearing 2-3 shorts. A more useful indicator for the OP may be to look at his weight centile for the age that he is average height for if it is still high then it might indicate an issue (BMIs are not a perfect system it is possible to be healthy with high or low BMI).

[User323676890]

steppe it’s simply not true if they are high for height they should be high for weight! My son is also 91st for height but 9th for weight. Very fit and healthy, and eats well. He is on the skinny side for sure, but 98th centile for weight does not equal ‘in proportion’. That’s a kid heavier than 98% of kids that age.

Also OP note your sons weight is the centile ABOVE his height. Believe the BMI calculator, he’s overweight.

[User323676890]

Use this tool and select ‘child’:

www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-weight/bmi-calculator/#check-your-bmi

[steppemum]

Hula - I didn't say tall children should weigh more, I said if they are on the top for weight, they should be on the top for height.

In other words, if they are heavier than average, it should be because they are taller than average. If they are heavier than average and NOT tall, then they are probably overweight.

[spreadingchestnuttree]

What is his height and weight? Normally people don't talk about absolute BMI for children, they talk about BMI centile.

[Tinty]

Actually I think BMI is often incorrect for Children, when my dd was 6 she was on 50th centile for weight for her age. Ok you might think, perfectly fine, same weight as many other Children her age. But she was tiny over half a head smaller than the next smallest child and a head shorter than the taller ones.

They do not take this into account. On her height she should have been weighed as if she was a 4 year old and then her weight would have probably put her in a much higher centile for her age. I think she was on the 9th centile for height or maybe less? So she had a little round tummy and I couldn't see her ribs, but according the NHS BMi calculator she was absolutely fine.

Luckily she grew taller and slimmed down, but I don't think that the school weight check is particularly helpful for outliers who are not average for their age. By the way then they didn't measure their height just their weight. So it said X weighs X amount and is on the 50th centile perfectly fine for her age.

[titchy]

Tinty - BMI is a ratio of height to weight so it;s rubbish to say she should have been compared to a 4 year old - her height IS taken into account.

NB it's very misleading to use a younger child's BMI for age as children have very different builds as they grow up. Compare a baby's body shape to a 9 year olds.

[toddle]

Hi thankyou for the further replies i do really appreciate them.

As some of you have said our idea of weight and what's healthy is becoming skewed which is why I have posted.

He is 6 and a half, 127cm, 4st 6lb. That website says he is on the 88th centile. So I think I've maybe got the whole thing wrong to start with. I was trying to follow graphs on my phone screen so guess I could have easily moved onto the wrong bit.

I've attached a screen shot along with some pics (hope this is ok). You can see the bottom of his ribs as he is moving but I wouldn't say you could see them when he is still.

[User323676890]

Steppemum but that is still misleading. A school aged child who is 98th centile for height AND weight at age six is still considered overweight. They aren’t ‘in proportion’. It’s false reassurance to say otherwise.

[toddle]

@Hulahulahula

I've attached some pics of what I hope to be accurate graphs this time and marked them. He appears to be between the 91st and 98th on both.

From my un educated guess this would mean he is in proportion, his weight and height are equally above adverage?

[User323676890]

According to the NHS centile calculator, anything above the 90th centile is outside the healthy weight range, so 88th is top end and I’d be trying to look very honestly at his diet.

Centiles for height and weight don’t work together to give you proportion. It’s like saying a man who is 6ft 2ins and 16st is in proportion because he’s tall. He isn’t, he’s still overweight, just tall and overweight.

It you select ten kids your sons height, statistically 8-9 of them will weigh less than he does. Does that make sense? I’m not trying to be unkind, but point out there’s a false premise here.

[Lumpy76]

I wouldn’t worry. He’s in the green and he’s otherwise well. No, he probably can’t afford to put extra weight on without growing taller but atm the he is NOT overweight. As a mum of 8 dc even my super skinny girl goes up a few percentiles before she has a growth spurt. It’s goes something like ordinarily 5th percentile, up to 7th-9th percentile, growth spurt, down to 2/3rd percentile and then back to 5th (we’ve had to monitor her weight a bit as she was dropping off for a while so I know what it does!) With the others you just see it...get a bit bigger, grow, look slimmer again. If you feel his diet/exercise levels are ok then they probably are! If I were you I’d just be aware (as you are). Xx

[GrumbleBumble]

The thing is being at the top of the height range is fine - there isn't (outside of very rare growth disorders) such a thing a "too tall". There is such a thing as too heavy and with a few exceptions children in the top weight centiles are too heavy. Looking at the photos and charts the OPs son is towards the top of healthy (for context he appears to weigh the same as my some who is nearly two years older and 15 cm taller) so she needs to be aware that while he is a healthy weight now if his weight gain outstrips his growth he might tip over into over weight. On the other hand he might gain a few cms in height and drop BMI.

[toddle]

No I 100% appreciate being educated on this. It's exactly what I came here for.

I always presumed if he was as tall as he was heavy he was ok. In terms of being healthy. Out of curiosity why isn't someone whose taller expected to weigh more? I'm 5ft 9 myself so I have a healthy weight for my height (I think might be wrong on this too) surely I will weigh more then my friend whose 5ft

I just want what's best for him. His half brother has been very very overweight from around this age which I guess is where the concern came from. I know how upset this made him when he couldn't fit in clothes. I know this isn't even close to where my ds is at the moment but I would rather be aware then find myself with an upset child.