to throw this letter in the bin about DS being called overweight and bake a cake instead

[iknowmychildbest]

I cannot believe I've been sent a letter calling my 7 y/o Ds overweight and a patronising letter on health advice. Our families have always been quite big, and his dad plays rugby every week and is large but as fit as a butchers dog

If a child's BMI works out to 27 it means that they are very overweight. You need to open your eyes and sort it out.

10 stone for someone about 5'2" is about right

I don't think so. I am 5'7" and weigh about 9 st 7. I could get away with 10 stone but would feel rather unhealthy and my jeans would be very uncomfortable

I'm 5'5'' and over the past ten years have weighed between 9.5 and 11.5 stone (up and down with pregnancies).

10 stone is my ideal weight. It's the weight that I look and feel healthiest at, and puts me at a comfortable size 10.

OTOH, my sister is 5'4'', so barely any shorter - but at 10stone she's a size 14 and most definitely overweight.

Two people with the same weight and height can be completely different sizes IME, dependant on body shape, muscle mass etc.

The thing is, if I had a letter telling me my child was overweight, I wouldn't rely on a growth spurt to make him slimmer because it doesn't always happen.

This is probably why the NWM statistics for overweight/obese reception aged kids, rise when they're measured again in year 6 instead of falling...because parents assume a growth spurt will resolve any issues.

I would be more concerned about why he was overweight at any age.

At the moment i'm 11stone, and a size 12 (and a fitting size 12, not a busting-out-of-my-clothes 12).

If weight ever comes up in conversation and I say i'm 11 stone, people look at me like i'm nuts/lying.

10 stone at 5'2" is very overweight

Wrong. It's overweight by about 2/3 pound.

Size 14 doesnt sound too huge but its what i would call middle aged spread size- acceptable in 40-50s onwards and the size females in the family are at that sort of age when metabolism slows down.
What is strange is people reaching this size so much quicker and what happens when their metabolism slows down?
But comparitively when i was a child there was no chocolate/crisps in house/biscuits or sweets. It was more feast and famine on that front after supermarket shops. Clearly if this generation is growing up being able to snack every day that is going to be a problem thinking you are entitled to snacks and as has been said it doesnt take many a day. We also rarely ate out or had takeaways. 6times a year maybe. But cakes at the weekends.
Diets have changed so much. We did eat a fair bit of processed food.

It does depend a huge amount on build, I am much, much broader across the shoulders than my sister and my 'healthy' weight (if we're talking fat % rather than straight BMI) is about a stone heavier than hers. Teracotta I get the same reaction you do if I say my weight, that kind of speculative, are you hiding 2 stone under your hair type appraisal...

DS1 is often referred to as skinny or underweight, despite his YR check putting him right in the middle of the healthy range, he has a very normal build. DS2 has inherited my very broad shoulders and is far more likely to come out slightly overweight, despite not carrying more fat.

Hugely patronising to say all parents have no idea what healthy looks like, or are blind to the size of their DC.

I think it must have a lot to do with body shape and fit preferences. Some people here say they wear a 14 when they are obese, and I've no reason to doubt them but I've found differently. I find sizes 8-16 all sometimes fall in the healthy weight range for my height I was an 8 once, for about a week. I often wear a 14 while well within the normal weight range, not even overweight let alone very overweight or obese. But, then again, I cannot stand tight clothes. I do sometimes wear the same size as others much larger than me.

Actually I think I may be a freak.

Of course. Throw it in the bin and go celebrate at McDonald's.

Apparently bmi is too generous on shorter people.
10st 5'2
9'11 would make bmi 25.
But then consider the 'healthy' range do you think someone with 18.5 bmi might look quite thin at 7st 3 if you think that would be like a rake then 2st 8 diff) then maybe the edges are a little generous. I think it would look ok having been 5'4 7 st7 at one point.
But 10 st is bmi 20 for 5'10 so very healthy. But of course that weight will look much different on 8 inches less of height.
Maybe a waist measurement (not dress sizing) would help.
At a bmi 23 i was starting to look overweight.

I am the same height as Kylie, but that is wear the similarity ends, even at my thinnest I am broad with large hips, shoulders and breasts. I could not get down to her size without surgery but I would be able to wear a size 14 better than her as she would need to gain more fat (a lot of fat for her build) to get to a 14.

ahem

worra

For an overweight child (as opposed to obese) the suggestions from a lot of the doctors/nurses/HV that I have spoken to, ether as friends or professionally, has been to make sure they don't get any heavier by amending their current diet rather than putting them on an actual diet

So when the growth spurt happens you can then review

Obviously this wouldn't work with a very heavy child or if you didn't amend their current diet but it should with a child a few pounds over their BMI (as mine is)

So it would only be effective if you didn't rely on the growth spurt alone

Unfortunately my children aren't spurters

That sounds wrong

terracota

Same here, I am nearly 11 and a half, not that tall and people are always telling me I'm slim and don't have to worry

I am trying to lose the last stone I want to (and I will still be over a stone heavier than my pre baby weight!!!!!)

BMI is only one indication of being overweight, though it's not as inaccurate as a lot of people claim. Wrist/height ratio is another important guide. Some people may find this helpful as well m.wikihow.com/Measure-Frame-Size
It helps to explain why some people look and feel better at different weights. I have a large frame, therefore I aim for the top end of my healthy bmi, whereas others may well feel overweight at that.
Regarding letters sent sent home from school, I would regard them as a helpful hint to examine my child's diet and lifestyle, rather than just chucking them in the bin and assuming I know best.

Hate bmi! My 15 yr old would be classed by bmi as obese he is 5ft 10 & 12 stone but he goes to the gym 3 times a week football training twice a week and then plays football every sunday plus pe (hes studying double gcse pe) at school we have trouble getting trousers to fit as his legs are pure muscle!

There are some very smug people on this thread.

Dub. At least for you if you got a letter it would be easy enough to show its invalid for your DC by using a fat analysis scale.

I dont think people are smug - how do we know how hard they work at staying slim, exercising, avoiding junk food. Actually if people said they thought it was genetic then they would be smug, ie i can eat whatever i want and dont gain.
I would be interested to see what sort of frame people have under fat etc. using scans as i presume few people would be 16-18. Also if previous generations were usually 8-12 have our frames suddenly got so much stockier. I have always had size 14 chest (maybe 12) as an adult even at 7.5st

you can eat as much as you like, it won't make your shoulders grow broader or your hands and feet and head get bigger.

This just isn't true at all! Overfed children will become taller and broader than their normally fed counterparts!

Hip size (as in, the size of clothes that can fit over/round your hips) is definitely influenced by the amount of fat you are carrying. Shoulders not so much, but still a bit. The distance between your hipbones won't change - but few people have no flesh on their bones, especially around their hips/arse.

I tried the wrist and elbow measurements and both come out as small (little surprising as i feel quite sturdy (though DM has a tiny wrist and shoes size for her height -5'7 size 5.5.

DH though is odd wrist came out medium and elbow large (i would have guessed large)
I think a small frame would get shoulders in size 8-10 jackets. Think my shoulders grew from doing regular swimming.
Bmis other failing is that apple shaped people are more at risk than pears

Your whole family is all big because you're all eating the same diet. If an entire family is eating portions that are too large, or empty calories, it's not shocking that they're all going to be big. Bad eating isn't genetic, but it is learned behavior.

That said, sometimes kids get a little chunky before a growth spurt. My brother got chubby for a bit then shot up almost a foot in a year and was pretty slender for a bit after that.

I think you'd be doing your child a disfavour by ignoring the letter. Perhaps get an appt with GP to get a second opinion, and see if there are adjustments you can do to diet and physical activity. So many children (and adults) are overweight these days, it's hard to know what's too big and just right.

I'm not talking about fat here per se, the point I am making is that build (i.e. size of skeleton) is directly affected by number of calories consumed in childhood.

IIRC, only about 60% of a human's height is genetic, the rest is due to nutrition...

Don't worry if your son has a good waist-to-height or waist-to-hip ratio- fat around the stomach area is the problem in most weight related conditions, and waist-to-height or hip is consistently shown to be a more reliable predictor for health than BMI.

I am 5'5'' and weigh as much as my husband who is 5'11''. DH's BMI is on the low side of normal, and mine is in the oevrweight category. I am a small size 10, have an excellent waist-to-hip ratio and a waist-to-height that's nearly in the underweight category. Don't take BMI as the be all and end all, but do take your son's health seriously and check his ratios.