Is 91 ALWAYS overweight

[Fooshufflewickjbannanapants]

My 11 yr old son had a medical appointment this week and as part of it was weighed and measured. Long story short he's on the 91st centile for weight.
Now he's gone through puberty, and as he's grown so tall (98th centile) I didn't think he was anywhere near overweight.
I casually mentioned it as a friend asked me how he's gone on and she asked me what I was going to do about it?
So am I being totally blind here?

Have you checked his BMI? There's a children's version on the NHS website

Centile charts are where you would stand in 100 people (in the most basic terms!)

So if 100 people your ds age lined up

He'd be the 98th tallest
And the 91st heaviest.

BMI is used to compare height to weight.

But it's usual for your height and weight to measure up.

Being on 3rd centile for height and 99th for weight would be an issue and vice versa!

Yes it's 61 on there, but wasn't sure how accurate bmi is iykwim.

It doesn't really work to compare height to weight centile in quite that way. If it did then it would be impossible for someone very tall to be overweight.

61st centile for BMI is healthy range so no need to worry then!

How would anyone know from your op?!?

So if 100 kids line up, he's 91st. So?. What if they're all slim?

You need to know what his weight is, and what his BMI is.

It doesn’t seem like there’s anything to worry about to me?

I’m not saying you would, but be very careful not to obsess and give that little boy weight issues.

So he’s 98 for height, 91 for weight? Sounds fine, his weight is below his height.

His BMI is fine. Why wouldn't it be accurate? The whole point is that it's a good guideline for the vast majority of people.

He's 162cm tall and 47 kg as I mentioned up thread I did bmi for kids and it comes out at 61

Just look at him. If he has spare flesh, and is already taller than most then it may not be prep for a growth spurt. If he has, just increase the amount of exercise you do together and subtly reduce portions and only keep boring snacks in the house. But focus on healthy exercise and eating for energy and brain power, never weight loss or body image.

No, it’s the same as in his little red book. My oldest is 75 for weight, she used to 90 as baby but it was all fine because her height/length has always been much higher.

At what age is not been able to see their ribs nolonger the quick measure? I’m not sure certainly for children under 10 this seems to be standard.

@BarbaraHoward I think it was just me doubting after the other person said I needed to tackle it!
I feel like a right muppet now.

She's probably just confused - 91st centile for BMI is the threshold for overweight or obesity or something isn't it?

You can't consider weight without considering height too, and for kids you also need to consider age.

Ah I hadn't thought of that! To be honest it's tricky to tell when you see him out and about as he's a wheelchair user, I obviously see him when I help him dress etc you can see his ribs. I should just have taken two seconds to think.

His BMI isn’t 61. That would be super morbidly obese.
He’s on the 61st centile for BMI. This means that out of 100 kids his age, you’d expect 60 to be “slimmer” than him, and 39 to be “fatter”. He’s about in the middle of the healthy range I think.

Thanks I translated it wrong 😑 but that's the number,

A couple of things jump out:

You say he's just had a growth spurt. If you think about it, bmi will be higher just before a growth spurt (when your body has stored up the materials, but you haven't yet grown) and then will drop after your growth spurt. So if some kids his age haven't yet had their growth spurt and he has, then he's probably higher than 61st centile in reality. Not necessarily a problem, but worth being aware of that context.

Even more importantly, you mention that he's a wheelchair user. I would expect that this will result in him having different muscle mass than most children, which muddles the bmi centiles. I have no idea how much it changes it - but I wonder whether you could find that out?

Being in a wheelchair also means that some easy ways of increase fitness aren't available to him (eg signing him up for more active extracurriculars and having family trips out involving walking), so I think it's even more important to look into it now before it becomes a health problem (discreetly, so that he doesn't worry!).

You're definitely not being a muppet to think about it!