To not understand where I am going wrong?

[PeppaAteMySoul]

My 3 year old DS has always been tall and chunky. Has been on the 90th percentile pretty much since birth. He weighs 18kg and is 106cm tall. NHS children bmi calculator tells me that's bad. Visited my GP for advice who told me not to worry about his weight as I'm doing all the right things. I am worried though.

He walks to and from his playgroup every day (that's 2.2 miles) and is reasonably active when he gets home.

I've been keeping a food diary for him and for example yesterday it went something like:
Breakfast:
Bowl of porridge with teaspoon of jam stirred in. Half a banana.
Snack: Fruit at nursery.
Lunch: Half a Pitta bread, half a raw carrot chopped into sticks, few sticks of cucumber, half an apple, teaspoon of hummus. Kids yoghurt.
Dinner: Small bowl of vegetarian sausage casserole. Few slices of garlic bread. Kiwi chopped up.

I know I could cut out the jam in the porridge and the yoghurt as both are full of sugar. What else though? I've been told my portion sizes are fine on here and by GP. I'm so worried I'm letting him down. He is noticeably bigger than his friends at nursery. Me and his father are both naturally slim- I'm a size 6/8- so it can't be a genetic thing. It must be something I'm doing wrong. I'm about tp have another baby and upset I will make the same mistakes with this child as well.

Stop weighing him! Put the red book out of sight, and ig ore other people, as soon as he has a growth spurt you will see his ribs again.

Op I'm sure he will even out over time, He is a toddler and has plenty growing to do.
If Dr's say he is fine and if he isn't eating unhealthily I would just carry on the way you are.

I seen most chunky babys/toddlers slim down around age 5/6 age as they get taller.

My dd is 5 and doesn't eat as much as your ds but she's always been skinny little but within range.
All kids are different.

I'm glad you're getting reassurance from this thread. As it happens my son was measured at 3 yrs 5 months. Height 102 cm, weight 20 kg. Chunky, yes, but healthy and happy. He has slimmed down steadily; age 11 I've just replaced his PE shorts from the ones I got him (admittedly large then) in reception age 4. Mainly because they were wearing out, he could still wear them! His older sister was a similar size and is a tall size 6-8 age 14.

The difference in width of children can mean the larger kids look enormous compared to some of the more petite ones, without being at all unhealthy. I'm semi-convinced that BMI-based checks at school entry age are not accurate for those who are near the taller (or, probably, the shorter) extremes. Probably get a better estimate of obesity risk if they waited to age 6 or 7.

If what you are feeding him is healthy and good for his growth you shouldn't worry. I would always be more concerned about malnutrition before weight especially when they are small.

His food is fine. He obviously isn't picky if he eats a good variety of vegetarian food. Be careful you don't take the stupid comments to heart and start cutting his food. He needs nourishment to grow and thrive.

As for centiles, if he has followed the 90th curve from birth, then that is perfectly fine. If he had deviated massively either way, then that may be a cause for concern. Centiles have very little to do with being over- or underweight. They are a way of plotting a child's growth from birth to say 5, as a quick way of flagging any possible medical issues related to growth.

If your son is on the 90th centile, all this means is that 80% of boys his age are smaller than him, 10% are the same and 10% are bigger.

I'm one of those mum's who's guilty of having made passing comments at bigger toddlers but I've only ever meant it as they are normally chunky (as many babies toddlers are meant to be), I've never ever meant it in a nasty way or as a dig at a child's weight. It just stems from me having the opposite problem to you in that one of my twins is so skinny you can see all of her ribs and spine when she bends over and I can get my hands around her entire waist! And she eats twice or 3 times as much as all the others in her nursery! I worry just as you do but at the opposite end of the scale so often my comments about another toddler are somewhat out of envy at having something lovely and squidgy to cuddle, rather than a bag of bones! It has made me realise though that they could be taken in the wrong context so I will be more sensitive in future

You son's diet sounds perfect to me and I've known of plenty of babies and toddlers who were bigger than their peers at a young age but evened out (most remained tall) when at school.

And I meant at their parents, never at the child itself

Does eat dairy, pulses and beans, nuts, tofu

I noticed it was a vegetarian diet, just in the sample day you gave no nuts were mentioned, only a teaspoon of hummus and a small bowl of veggie sausage casserole which I thought probably contained beans/pulses. It was just a thought.

Yes, casserole contained red kidney beans as well as the quorn sausages.
Today he's had half egg mayo sandwich at lunch time and for dinner will have lentil spaghetti. Snack was baked porridge fingers which contain sunflower seeds and chopped nuts. Does that sound proteiny enough? It something I worry about as I'm not vegetarian myself. (DP is though)

i wouldn't worry either - there's a picture of me when i'm probably about 2-3 years old, next to my sister, about 6-7 years old and i'm bigger than her... i turned out totally normal sized (it was literally just baby fat still). my nephews also started off rather big but dropped the weight once they started school. on the other hand, ds (3), eats like a horse and i can't get him above 50th percentile for weight (80-90 for height).