To be upset with NHS over DDs weight?

[Fudgefudgefudge]

DD is 4 and is in reception. Recently she had her vision, hearing, weight etc measured at school and yesterday I received a letter from the NHS saying that they are referring her to Morelife. Having googled it I'm mortified, I had no idea my child was that overweight! I checked the NHS site which measures their BMI and using the measurements they provided it shows DD being obese and on the 99th percentile

Now I breastfed DD up until her 1st birthday and she was a big baby back then but over the years she's slimmed up if you know what I mean and to me she just doesn't look overweight. She has a healthy appetite and I am well aware of how to eat a healthy balanced diet etc but I do allow a treat for good behaviour. And DD is a very active, she would rather run than walk and I don't drive so she's used to walking places.

AIBU to be upset about this? What do I do? Ask the GP their opinion? It's made me doubt my abilities as a mother as I never even considered she could be obese.

"Today 18:50 BarbarianMum

Could we please stop with all the "can yiu see his/her ribs" comments. Speaking as an obese person I can tell you that the ribs are pretty much the last thing to go - by the time they're covered in fat you are already in deep trouble.

Look at upper arms, bottom, belly and thighs to see if your child is putting on too much weight. And remember most parents of obese children don't see the problem."

I don't really think this is right- we're talking ribcage, not a hint of rib. It's very unusual to be able to see ribs in adults unless they are very slim. It should be standard to do so in children because they haven't developed adult fat which is hormonal. But you aren't going to see bone in the upper arms. Being able to see the rib cage is standard advice given by pediatricans IME

Rather than putting emphasis on weight, it should be about health.

Have you seen the shit they serve up as school dinners? And how they're encouraged to eat up? It's not about health, it's about what's easiest to measure without any context applied. (Just like primary testing.)

Links to all the resources you could want on childhood obesity

If the NHS has flagged a four year old as obese or overweight then unless the measurements are wrong, they are obese or overweight. Muscle mass in children this age cannot be significant enough to cause the 'Johnny Wilkinson' effect. Four year olds can't put in enough muscle to skew the results the same way adult athletes can. For goodness sake, the intervention is designed to identify overweight and obese children so action can be taken! It is accurate. It is also well known parents cannot see it.

Take the referral and follow the advice.

verbena I didn't realise they didn't send them everywhere, they definitely send them here, my neighbours child got one.
She was saying to me when it arrived how it was because her (very overweight) Dd was so tall that she had got a letter as her height must have skewed the results and I was stood with my much taller ds trying not to do this face .

Agree with school dinners

We have a lunchbox rule, all healthy and no chocolate/juice etc. all fine but the school dinners have doughnuts and chocolate desserts.

Navyandwhite

Accusing me of 'drip feeding', and if misleading people by saying my children became overweight while at secondary?

I've not done anything wrong. I have no obligation to set out all the details of my children's weight issues in one post. I'm not the OP, I'm not asking for help or advice or other people's opinions on my situation so it doesn't matter that I didn't put it all in one post. Except to you, who seem to want to attack me for something for some reason.

Hang on. There's a blatant misunderstanding about centiles here. As long as a child is on the centile chart they're within expected tolerances. In a group of 100 children you would always have a child that was the heaviest but one.

Not quite how it works. There's separate centiles for height and weight. If, for example, your child is on the 2nd centile for height and the 99th centile for weight, then they are overweight. Children over the 75th centile for weight are considered overweight, irrespective of their height.

Yabu. Your kid is far. My eldest is fat. It's shit hearing it, but it's true, if she's on 92 for bmi. You need to sort it out, for her sake. She'll end up with weight problems forever, or worse, like me with an eating disorder.
Take the support.

Charts you can plot the actual measurements on, with instructions. Of course it is possible for a small child (low height centile) to be overweight.

Children over the 75th centile for weight are considered overweight, irrespective of their height.

That makes no sense (and the link a few posts earlier suggests otherwise).

Height obviously does matter in the equation. If I was 6' 6" I'd be a size 6. Unfortunately I'm somewhat shorter 😔

If kids aren't being overfed at home and they're taking enough exercise, 5 school lunches per week will not lead to obesity.

School dinners are often blamed on threads like this, when in reality the responsibility lies with the parents, not the schools.

I accept it's difficult though as so many parents have trouble keeping their own weight under control.

But passing the buck doesn't help anyone.

Sorry, a BMI centile over 91 is overweight, over 98 is obese. All children over a 99.6th weight centile. Children over 75th centile for weight need to have BMI centile used as this is the only way to determine accurately at the top end of the charts.

Glad to see most posters on this thread know about the parental blindness when it comes to their children's weight and the importance of being able to see a child's ribs (whenever I've posted about that on other forums I've been met with incredulity)

It must be upsetting to find out like this OP but think about the bright side, you've found out while she's still very young and its much easier to change eating habits this young. You say she's very active, that's great, but how active is 'very active'? Children that age need to be exercising enough to sweat and raise their heartbeat for at least 3 hours a day, every day. That's a lot to fit in considering time spent sat down in a classroom at school.

Sorry HeCantBeSerious, long day and I'm talking bollocks. It is explained better on the chart

Too many pink and grey numbers for my brain on a Friday night.

mini I'm quite shocked at how blasé you are about type 2 diabetes. Sorry, I haven't read all of the comments but a high number of overweight adults are in the pre diabetic category. This is often reversible but many still go on to develop type two diabetes. They may not die from it but it certainly makes you more at risk from other chronic diseases and complications. Not to mention the strain it puts on the NHS.

Sitting here, as an overweight adult, I think it's great it has been bought to your attention so you can do something about it! It's easier to change the habits of a child than it is an adult

Not 75th = overweight.

The majority of overweight children don't get diabetes. Or adults. And those who do often manage it well and don't end up dying from it.

And many don't manage it well and end up with renal failure, or losing their eyesight, or having a leg amputated.

I do agree (to an extent) with your earlier comment that being overweight is not the end of the world, but diabetes is a horrible disease that shouldn't be underestimated. It often is, by people who don't really understand what it can do.

And completely agree with schools weighing and measuring children. How else will parents, who are likely to be blinded to the fact, know that their children are overweight in time to combat it? Where I live children are weighed and measured every year (first 7 years at child clinic, after that in school health care services) and you'd be hardpressed to find a parent refuse it (and probably that would raise red flags with social services).

It should be clear from looking if a child has a weight problem. Good thing about picking it up is that growth will often take care of it.

It's also pointless worrying too much about forbidden foods - the real culprits for children are often reward eating, portion sizes and a family snacking habit.

In mini's world, nothing matters except breastfeeding, Wrecked.

Breastfeeding stops all these health issues developing, you see.

What about sporty/muscly kids then?