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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be concerned that a child who is born at 98th centile is obese by the time he gets to 3 years old by just following his centile?

58 replies

ClaraCloggs · 09/08/2010 17:13

I have a child, 3 years old. He is fit and healthy, wears clothes for his "age" (so have just started buying age 3 for the Autumn/Winter) with no size or fit problems, does not eat junk, does not have a particularly large appetite, is active. No fat rolls anywhere, legs look lean, almost spindly at times. Can see ribs when undressed (a few anyway). He is also tall, 98th centile for height.

Yet the NHS Healthy Weight Calculator which is designed for children aged 2 and above and adults says he is obese.

Okay, so if I'm happy that he is fine, what is the problem? Nothing, really. But this still irks me. For a start, am I going to start getting grief from my doctor, and advised to attend some cooking session or nutritional workshop that I am almost qualified to run myself? Secondly, they talk of an obesity epidemic, but if obese means looking the same as children his age, and wearing the same sized clothes, but just turning out the wrong numbers, does this even count?

I dont have to let anybody weigh him, or let anyone get involved in his diet or habits. There seems no reason to. If he had never been weighed or measured (done recently to be able to hire a car seat abroad) I would have no idea whatsoever that he were anything other than absoloutely fine.

Yet apparently he is some medical risk and is destined to die of a heart attack before he's even had his first beer or cigarette Hmm

What are your views on this situation?

OP posts:
EnglandAllenPoe · 09/08/2010 17:15

erm..something is wrong with the calculator?

Tee2072 · 09/08/2010 17:16

My views are that BMI is total bullshit and should be removed from anyone judging anyone about their weight and health.

Based on BMI alone, most athletes are obese because they are so heavily muscled that their height to weight ratio puts their BMI very high.

Ignore that page. Ignore the GP. Or tell the GP to use his/her eyes to actually look at your son, as opposed to looking at a number on a web page.

2rebecca · 09/08/2010 17:16

For children special BMI centile charts are used to determine obesity. As the BMI is a ration between height and mass (weight) then if his BMI centile says he is obese he is obese as his height is taken into account.
If you aren't sure which chart they are using and think he is being medicalised unnecessarily I'd ask for a paediatric opinion.

MrsWobbleTheWaitress · 09/08/2010 17:17

Surely only obese if his height were on 50th centile?

I don't know what you're worrying about. Why did you look at the calculator? You should only weigh a child IMO, if you want to find out for car seat safety or if you are worried about them. If they're healthy, active, eat sensibly and are fit and relatively lean, then there's nothing to worry about.

MrsWobbleTheWaitress · 09/08/2010 17:18

And was the BMI scale for adults or children, because they are different. And muscle can weigh more than fat, so a child who does a lot of exercise is likely to have a skewed result. A body fat calcuator would be more accurate but, like I say, unless you have reason to be concerned, why are you even looking?

peppapighastakenovermylife · 09/08/2010 17:19

I just used that calculator and although it says DS is a healthy weight he is quite near to the overweight category.

He is also very tall for his age. He just can't be overweight - you can see his ribs and all the dents of his spine - which sticks out when he leans over.

sapphireblue · 09/08/2010 17:20

If he's on the 98th centile for weight and height then he's not obese. If he was 98th for weight and only 50th for height, then he would be.

My 2.5yo DD is on the 91st for weight and height and is certainly not fat........I have to put a belt on her age 2-3 trousers to keep them up.

LibertyGibbet · 09/08/2010 17:21

My dd is on the 98th centile for weight and height (only know this as we were checking for a carseat recently). She is 3. She is slim, strong, muscular, active, fit, healthy etc.

Nobody has ever said a thing about it and she's always been on the same centile.

2rebecca · 09/08/2010 17:21

If a child is very muscular that can be interpreted as obesity by a chart. It sounds as though you haven't actually seen anyone yet about this though and just done an online test.

sarah293 · 09/08/2010 17:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Original poster
ClaraCloggs · 09/08/2010 17:27

I entered his height and weight into this calculator after a friend of mine said her daughter had come up obese on it.

He is 98th centile for height and 98th centile for weight and the NHS calculator I have linked in the OP says he is obese.

It is designed for children and it is apparently the same "ratios" they use to determine in a GP's surgery whether a child is obese or not. Same with the weighing measuring thing they do at school - my son would get a "letter" if they were allowed to weigh him and measure him (not that he is at school yet)

Yes, I know it is rubbish. I didn't do it because I was worried, but because my friend was messing around with it and I was curious. No, I dont have any concerns about him and no I'm not going to do anything about it.

But considering this chart is what is used to determine obesity statistics, do you wonder if perhaps they are a bit overkill? Is this obesity epidemic all its cracked up to be?

OP posts:
Original poster
ClaraCloggs · 09/08/2010 17:30

Just to clarify, I'm not concerned about him, (re title of thread) I'm concerned that the data that GP's use in their surgeries is the same as this, it seems a whole section of society are labelled obese who are not.

It seems to me that adults have to at least look overweight to be obese. I've never seen a woman who wears a size 10 who is obese.

If they start labelling children obese who are in this category (I really wish I could show you a photo of him but I wish to remain anonymous) what is it going to do psychologically in years to come? I'm just a bit daunted by those issues.

OP posts:
MrsWobbleTheWaitress · 09/08/2010 17:31

Ok, I just had a look for my two oldest, aged 5 and 7. The 5yo looks far leaner than the 7yo who has been putting on weight (a normal amount) recently, probably to do with her age. 5yo is nearly underweight, but still comes under healthy weight. 7yo is slap bang in the middle of healthy weight. Both around 50th centile for height.

maryz · 09/08/2010 17:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

pjmama · 09/08/2010 17:34

My DD has always been 98th for weight. HV told me it's only a cause for concern if a child who was previously lower suddenly jumps up to 98th, may indicate an unhealthy diet and excessive rapid weight gain. As long as the line on the chart is fairly steady as the child grows, then that's just what's normal for that child.

StealthPolarBear · 09/08/2010 17:36

that is ridiculous!!

Mahraih · 09/08/2010 17:37

This silliness continues into adulthood: tall people weigh more!

It's ridiculous to expect a child who is taller than 98% of his peers to weigh the same as them.

However, it takes a very muscly ADULT person to skew a BMI chart to the point of being obese. Slightly overweight, perhaps. I used to do athletics, trained 4/5 per week and was primarily made of muscle, as well as being 5'10.5" (and female) and eating a lot. I still never hit overweight.

I think we just need to get better at recognizing obesity, rather than relying on charts.

CheapHawaiian · 09/08/2010 17:37

I used to get grief about my eldest son's weight from the GP and from Health Visitors. I always said, politely, "Can you just check his height, please?" And then point out that surely being extra tall would explain the extra weight.

Every one of them would then shamefacedly agree that his weight really wasn't a problem. But why don't these people just use their eyes.

DS is 11 now and 5'5" with size 9 feet and I still get Hmm reactions when they only look at weight.

Original poster
ClaraCloggs · 09/08/2010 17:37

Why then, PJMama, would they NHS be telling you she is obese if its not a problem?

At the very least, parents are being given conflicting information, are they not?

Would you be allowing your child to be weighed and measured at school, and if you got a letter home offering you a chance to go to cooking lessons or nutrition classes, would you be offended, or would you go?

OP posts:
wahwah · 09/08/2010 17:39

Not suggesting this is he case for your DS (as his height and weight centiles match and my dc were the same) but most parents of obese children CANNOT see that their child is overweight- it's an odd thing a school health adviser told me about. It explains why parents get so defensive about being told when their child is overweight and don't believe it...

Original poster
ClaraCloggs · 09/08/2010 17:41

I've also read a fair bit on here that parents who have "allowed" their child to become obese are negligent in their eyes.

Fair enough if we are talking proper obese of the kind where you weigh 12 stone at 9 years old and even less extreme types of "fatness" (to differentiate from "obesity") but its all a bit mind boggling.

I'm not going to take any action or do anything about it, and I'm genuinely not concerned about him as an individual at all. But I do think its a worthy topic of conversation considering it seems sometimes all the media can ever talk about is the obesity epidemic which is effectively measured from statistics generated from doctors surgeries and schools doing national measuring jobby using this very chart! Hmm

OP posts:
EnglandAllenPoe · 09/08/2010 17:47

there is something wrong with that calculation!

I just use the same calculation and DD comes out obese. she's actually rather on the slim side. enough for MIl to allege i was underfeeding her!

and she wasn't on the 98th centile at birth (only slightly over 50)

though she is tall, and wears 4/5 clothes mostly.

Original poster
ClaraCloggs · 09/08/2010 17:48

I've seen that before too WahWah and it is a bit Confused when there's a chubby little madam standing there in a size 5-6 outfit who is 3 who's parents are oblivious.

That aside, the size of his clothes thing makes me less concerned. In fact, after a growth spurt at the start of the summer, I nearly bought him a size 3 pair of jeans because the size 2 seemed short in length, but didn't in the end because they wouldn't stay up round his slim waist.

To be fair, if I mess around with the chart a bit and shave off a pound he immediately goes down to overweight and I think if he maintains his weight for the next 6 months he would, at 3 and a half be 91st centile and not even overweight.

So obviously he's not much into the obese category - there's obese and obese. Same with adults, some will be "only just" and others "a fair bit"

Just made me start to doubt the validity and point of the whole campaign, to be honest and wonder if half of them are in their heads due to this slightly random chart and if just left alone, without all this random and fairly differing depending what school you go to info, they might just turn out fine after all...

OP posts:
spanxaremyonlyfriend · 09/08/2010 17:51

If you put in the heights and weights for a 98th% 3yo boy from the red book chart it comes up as healthy weight. It also says the child is on the 82.5 percentile Confused.

StealthPolarBear · 09/08/2010 17:56

I just tried it - 105cm and 20kg and get overweight, and at the obese end of overweight