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?

[ClaraCloggs]

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

What are your views on this situation?

Ooops! Well I did measure in the dark...she's still tall, but only 110cm! sorry about that!

1.1 centile and underweight...

DS is 98th for both height and weight, but according to my GP, there is nothing wrong (appears to take after DH's side of the family)

DD is not even on the centil chart for weight, but just under the 50th for height (takes after my side of family).

DS2 is bang on 50th for both weight and height.

Mealtimes are fun in my house, that's for sure..

I wouldn't hold any store by the charts.

My DD gets officially weighed and measured very regularly due to her disability. She's four and has grown as much as an inch in a month.

She grows up, looks too skinny and then eats more and looks normal..then same cycle a few months later. If she was weighed just having grown upwards she would fall into underwight.

If his weight is really out of proprtion with his height, requiring much larger clothing then i'd be concerned.

I'll be declining any offer via school to weigh and measure DD - around here they seem to do it reception and yr 6.

My DD has a missing limb so obviously any bmi calculation is and always will be flawed.

My ds was born 10lb6oz, had his 7/9 month check today and he now weights 23.9 lbs. He is in 12/18 month clothes and is on 7.5mth. Everyone always says "don't worry he'll soon lose it all" and it drives me nuts. He is on the 98th centile as he was when he was born. Yes he is a big boy but thats not a bad thing

Hello,

My DS2 was born weighing 10 pounds, big and chubby, he has always been in top percentile and is now 5. He is evening out gradually as he`s very active, and eats normal.

I refused to have him weighed at school when the NHS came in to weigh children, to asses obesity risks etc, as I KNOW he is just a strong big boned boy with not an ounce too much fat on him, and did not want to have stupid conversations with GP.

last time he got weighed, they were surprised at his weight being so heigh, despite him obviously NOT being fat. He is also very tall.

I reckon he`ll be a rugby player type of guy, physically. Nothing wrong with that.

I try to avoid having DD weighed too often, but because she is so small.

DS2 is small too and under the paediatrician for unrelated health problems. However as they weigh and measure at every appointment it was soon picked up on that he was small, and they started doing test after test after test... they couldn't find anything really wrong (he is borderline for GHD but not severe enough to need treatment) so they didn't actually do anything, and in the past 6 months or so he has started growing slowly.

DD is tiny too, and technically underweight. But she has always been tall and skinny, that is just her build. She is healthy, eats like a horse and runs around like a whippet. I don't want to start the merry go round of tests on her, so I try to avoid having her weighed.

Sometimes you just have to apply a bit of common sense to the matter!

Those of you who say that the parents refuse to admit there's a problem -- coudld I check if you're asking them in front of the child?

My daughter is overweight. I don't say this in front of her. I'd rather have the guilt myself for inadequate parenting than let her hear herself described as fat. I do know that her peers will be less tactful about this, but I don't think children recover easily from unkind comments on their appearance from their parents. I can still remember my mother's cutting 'Getting broad in the beam' comments -- and I was a skinny scrap with wide hips, just not her 60s Twiggy-shape.

I AM making plenty of effort to address this(to the point of dragging her out for an hour's walk EVERY evening, all dressed up as 'Let's see if we can find some flowers/watch the rabbits/deliver this letter...'

Mind you, maybe it would be less mentally taxing to say, 'Hey DD, you're fat. Get out 'ere for a jog, lardarse.'