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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that the "Lowest Healthy Weight" is rediculous

44 replies

IHateDailyFAIL · 04/08/2016 10:11

She is 15, 5'9 and about 130 pounds. The childs BMI calculator which goes up to 18 says the lowest healthy weight for her is 104 poundsShock and she is over 50th percentile. I'd just like someone to reassure me that she is a perfectly healthy weight. If she was 104 pounds she would be a skeleton!!

OP posts:
VestalVirgin · 04/08/2016 11:22

I am way below the lowest recommended BMI, and I look okay and still menstruate, so me being healthy is not just my imagination. Wink

Don't worry. If your daughter looks okay, then she's okay. There's a lot of things like muscle mass and bone structure that isn't taken into consideration in the BMI.

Statelychangers · 04/08/2016 11:29

Your dd sounds like she is a perfectly healthy size.

Dd 13 is very skinny - Year 6 weigh in and I had a letter home to inform us that she is underweight. However she had not been ill for years, eats good food, is moderately active and I can only assume from these observations that she is reasonably healthy - the only downside is that we struggle to get clothes to fit her.

kurlique · 04/08/2016 11:30

My friend is a GP and she moved to using the adult chart once her daughter had hit puberty properly even though she was 12... She started puberty earlier than that and hasn't really changed much at all since 12. She said it better reflected teen girls once they had "matured" but the child chart continued through teens to use for girls who mature later and of course boys tend to go through puberty much later anyway. My DS17 is very different from when he was 13 but I doubt my DD13 will change more at all now... Perhaps another inch in height so she passes me?! In fact I think she is determined to so she can wind me up about it Blush

TeamSteady · 04/08/2016 11:32

Meh... Ds1 is 5'7 and growing up like a weed, currently all leg... weighs 43kg, eats like a horse. His dad and paternal grandad are the same, over 6'3 and beanpole shaped, both eat enough for a small army...

Only issue is finding trousers for 33' leg and 24' waist....

iloveeverykindofcat · 04/08/2016 11:38

YABU because some fifteen year olds will be way more developed than others. Even for adults, there's a wide range for normal. I'm on the bottom of my healthy BMI range - I don't look skeletal, nor have I ever had an eating disorder!

Madhairday · 04/08/2016 11:38

I don't know, I think it's just different body types. My DD is also 15 (16 in few weeks) and 5ft8, weighs 8st3lb, she is slim but not super skinny by any means and some of her friends who are similar heights probably weigh about 7-7.5 st and are still fine - it's just different frames. Doesn't sound like there's anything to worry about at all with your DD, she sounds right for her height but some that age will be lighter. Under 7st at that height might be a problem but not in every case as above.

MissHooliesCardigan · 04/08/2016 11:39

BMI does strike me as a very blunt tool. And Is there some discretion about what age to start using the adult charts? Many 14 year old girls have adult bodies, would the children's chart still be used?

ladymarymoo · 04/08/2016 11:41

I 5ft9, as a teen I dieted (starved myself) and the lightest I ever was 8 stone, 7 pounds. I attracted medical attention for being so thin.

104 pounds sound dangerously thin to me.

FeckinCrutches · 04/08/2016 12:20

104 is not dangerously thin.
I spent most of my school life being bullied for being skinny. Absolutely nothing I could do about it, I ate perfectly normal meals, junk food, snacks etc.
When I got pregnant with my first child in my early 20's I was still only 7st.
I hate it when people bitch about people being skinny when sometimes they are just naturally like that, I tried to put on weight and it never worked.
It's only now I'm in my 40's with several children that I'm starting to put on weight.

Lurkedforever1 · 04/08/2016 12:35

Yabu. I'm with manic etc. Both 12yr old dd and I come below the healthy range of bmi, despite being incredibly healthy.

At 9stone and 5'9 my dd would be decidedly chubby, if not fat. My friends dd at 5'9 and 9 stone would have needed to have dangerously low body fat. So just because it is ideal for your dd it doesn't mean it is for everyone.

PeaceOfWildThings · 04/08/2016 20:14

Here we go. This is what we get if we feed the 5'9" and 104 lb data into this NCCD BMI Percentile Calculator for Child and Teen (Results on a Growth Chart).

As you can see, such a child would be 'underweight', but perhaps not excessively so. Not right off the bottom of the chart. It would very much depend on other factors to determine whether a child at this point on the graph were having a growth spurt, recovering from a tummy bug, had got into a new sport without eating extra to fuel herself, or one of the other possible factors listed by other posters on the thread. They could have a thyroid condition (as I have, my best friend at school had, my sisters and many others that I know have).

To think that the "Lowest Healthy Weight" is rediculous
AyeAmarok · 04/08/2016 20:25

Teenagers tend to be beanpole skinny and perfectly healthy.

It's not dangerous to be skinny as a teen, it's perfectly normal. They frequently shoot upwards before they fill out.

FeliciaJollygoodfellow · 04/08/2016 20:46

There's always someone on a BMI thread that talks about an 'obese rugby player' - we're talking about an average teenager here, not an athlete.

Also, Vestal, if you're really well under healthy BMI now and fine, it doesn't necessarily mean you always will be - being severely underweight can cause osteoporosis, it's not just about how much weight you carry.

OP your daughter is fine. She is within normal range, presumably she looks a healthy weight, stop stressing! Once I got to puberty I don't think I weighed less than 9 stone odd and I was (and am) 5ft 4.

MummyBex1985 · 04/08/2016 21:40

That can't be right. Does the BMI chart change with age?

I'm 5'8" and when I was 8 st 12 I was underweight. Never realised at the time, I just got into the habit of not eating because I was never hungry.

I'm 2 stone heavier now and a size 10, when I look back at old photos I look skeletal, it's no wonder my family were concerned! For me to be one stone plus lighter than that would have been terrifying!

987flowers · 04/08/2016 21:57

I think body shape has a lot to do with it. I'm an inch shorter than you Bex and weight 9 stone 7 and find a 10 a struggle at times so am trying to get back down to 9 stone, I've always been known as having a small body frame too. At 18 I was 6.5 stone which was ridiculous and underweight but no one did anything about it! I spent years at 8.5 stone after having my children too but recently middle age spread seems to be upon me.

BMI just doesn't seem to work for all and common sense needs to be applied!

Trills · 04/08/2016 22:10

manicinsomniac That was a very good post, thank you.

NeedAScarfForMyGiraffe · 04/08/2016 22:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Silvermockingbird · 04/08/2016 22:33

Yabu. I always get told I'm "way too skinny" but I have a perfectly healthy bmi. It really annoys me, just be happy she's a healthy weight

Lurkedforever1 · 04/08/2016 23:00

felicia I didn't read vestals post as her being unhealthily underweight. I read it as her bmi being in that range. Which is an entirely different thing. The health problems associated with being underweight are not dependent on where you fit in on a chart designed to measure population, not individuals. And even when you get on to low body fat, the health risks, present or future, are nearly all associated with those who maintain it only through insufficient nutrition. Rather than people who just don't carry excess fat reserves.

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