DD 5yo overweight - need a chart please!

[OhFuckBloodyHell]

Just had the letter with the results of DDs measurements done in school.

She's apparently 93rd percentile, and 91 is the line for overweight.

I'm completely shocked. I thought she was a bit tall for her age, but never thought she would be overweight. (she's in age 6 clothes but that's just for the length of leg and arm, age 5 still fits her waist/chest wise) and she looks slim, to me, anyway. In fact I measured her for a nice dress the other day and she fit the 5yr old bracket perfectly. But I guess that could be because it's 'normal' for kids to be overweight?!

Anyway, what I really want is a bloody chart to show me what weight range is healthy now, and going forwards. Like the coloured adult ones you see in the hospital. Has anyone seen one?

I think I've managed to establish her actual bmi is 18.

Fiddling with the numbers on the NHS website, it looks like 600g less would put her smack bang on 91st percentile. But I'd really like to see how far off healthy we are in real terms, and be able to keep an eye on it regularly to see if we're heading in the right direction.

Any help gratefully received!

Well this https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2018-03/boysandgirlsbmichart.pdf would suggest a BMI of 15.5 would be 50th centile, so right in the middle.

Can you see play with the calculators to see what weight would give that?

For children as a rough guide they should be the same centile for weight as they are for height. So if she is 93rd percentile for both weight and height that's perfect. 10-20 centiles out either way is fine too, it's if she was 93rd for weight and 50th for height then there would be a problem.

Firstly, I wouldn’t panic. It doesn’t sound like she’s very overweight at all.

However, I would take it as a nudge to keep an eye on things.

I was always tall as a child which made me look like I wasn’t overweight but I was overeating massively and suddenly just piled fat on at around 11. I believe there’s research that shows that children who are tall for their age are more likely to end up overweight.

You can Google for school age girls percentile charts.

I know that the recommendation with kids is not for them to lose excess weight, just try to slow their weight gain a little so that their age catches up, iyswim.

Did they compare her height percentile against her weight? My friend had a similar letter when her son was around this age saying he was overweight but his height was comparable and he was so skinny she struggled to buy trousers for him! Clearly someone had weighted him but not took into account his height. Like your daughter he wore a size up so his sleeves and legs were long enough.

Do you have a red book? It has charts all the way from babyhood to adulthood.

www.rcpch.ac.uk/resources/uk-who-growth-charts-2-18-years this link should get you to the charts

These are the growth charts.

www.rcpch.ac.uk/resources/uk-who-growth-charts-2-18-years

I think the info you've been given is a bit misleading - if she's on the 93rd centile, that means 7% of girls her age are heavier and 93% are lighter. That is worth flagging up to check whether she is overweight, looking at her diet and lifestyle for any risk factors, but also looking at her height. If she is also on a high centile for height then she may be in proportion.

It is not the case that everybody over the 91st centile for weight is overweight, although some of them will be.

I think the bmi is comparing the height and weight, isn't it?

I'm going to have to try to find the red book, aren't I....

(btw, username not relevant to this, in case anyone thinks I'm in a complete panic!)

Thank you for the charts!

So, she's 91st for weight, and 75th for height. Not ideal.

Please don't worry too much. Just look at what she's eating in a day and ensure it's good nutrition and reduce (not eliminate) snacks. Portion control is something else we tend to get wrong even as adults. She isn't very overweight and by mentioning it at this point you can ensure it doesn't become a problem. Don't make a big thing of it to her though, just gently and gradually edging towards better food choices as a whole family will work

Thank you.

Yes, I think it's probably portion control that's the problem. Also, we used to have a stairgate across the kitchen door so she couldn't come in if I was cooking. She can now open that, so has been getting herself food when she finishes school. It started with fruit, but it's definitely been edging more towards biscuits and bread lately.

BMI isn’t used for children in quite the same way as adults, the centile lines are more appropriate.

Overweight children can initially grow taller than their healthier weight peers (but then typically stop growing at a younger age) which is one of the factors that complicates the use of BMI in children.

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

You can't quite do it like the adult charts, because age comes into it to.
But this will let you input age, weight, height and show you where on the scale she sits.

My child has food when they get home from
School but it’s never help yourself, make her a plate.

91st and 75th doesn't sound like a disaster. Sounds like a similar build to my son. Maybe just keep an eye and encourage healthy habits, rather than a whole overhaul of your lives. Maybe just say after school snack will be fruit for everyone and biscuits are for having with tea on social occasions rather than as a snack? Bread to fill up after meals if still hungry or as a component of a meal.