To think nhs school height / weight check is useless

[Ellieboolou27]

Dd is 4.5 she's 3ft 7" and weighs 3st 9lb

The school did the height and weight check a few weeks ago and have sent a letter saying she is very overweight and they would like me to come in to discuss healthy eating.

I'm really shocked as dd is far from being very overweight
She does tap, swimming and multi sports weekly, as a family we eat normal family meals, she wears size 5-6 clothes, 6-7 in some shops like primark where they come up small.

She's certainly not skinny, but most certainly not very overweight!

I think this bmi checker is shit, according to the NHS online bmi checker my dh is obese, he is 6ft 2" and weighs 16st but is an ex body builder so is a big guy with not an ounce of fat on him.

Feeling awful

I think she probably is overweight. A friend of ours has a DD who is overweight but does huge amounts of exercise and they can't seem to figure out that all the full fat milk (pints of it), cheese and sweet snacks and crisps are keeping her weight up and setting her up for a lifetime of eating and weight issues.

That is centile!

Kids are supposed to be really skinny. Or this is what I have been told by medics.
My dd started getting stocky so we reduced portion size and she is back to being skinny.
I would certainly go with the NHS guidelines as they are evidence based and the best we have.
As a child it doesn't matter so much but as we get older extra fat leads to high blood presssure and some cancers and painful knees amongst other things. It is easier to address the problem while they are little.

My 5.5 year old is 111 cm and weighs 18kg, he's slender but not skinny. My 8.5 year old is 134 cm and is 25.5 kg of solid muscle due to his sports also slender but not skinny. They both come up somewhere around the 25 percentile, I've not checked for a long time so can't remember exactly.

Please listen to what they have to say, your dd may not look too overweight but that could very quickly change at her age.

She does sound a bit bigger, but we all carry weight differently? My just turned 4 year old is 106cm and 17.8kg. So, there's only 3cm between then, but your daughter is a full 7kg heavier.

My son is almost 7, is almost 4.5ft tall and 35kg putting him on the 99th percentile for both height and weight on the WHO growth charts.

When he was born his height and weight were also on the 99th percentile.

He needs to wear age 10 clothes for length, but they end up a tad baggy around the middle.

No professional has ever mentioned his weight to me as he has remained consistent with his growth charts, he has never once fallen from that centile.

The drs did say that he would be over 6ft3 when older and, as his adolescent growth spurts occur weight should drop off. Until then he gets regular exercise and healthy meals and we just monitor it as we go.

I remember reading that BMI shouldn't really be relied upon for under 21s because they haven't stopped growing- a child may be just about to have a growth spurt and so the result could be very different the following month. Best test for children is being able to see the ribs. Suppose it is just a guidance, my child is very skinny but I took no notice of the bmi school test thing as I know my child is healthy.

My dd is the same age, well, about two months younger. She weighs over half a stone less and is slightly taller. She wears age 4-5 clothes from all shops other than the odd place where I have to get 5-6 for the length but then take it in as it's to baggy.

We now have a warped view of what is 'normal' those we see as 'normal' weight are actually likely overweight, those we see as slim are actually as they should be.

It's very hard to take the 'overweight' message given, but honestly if you start making changes now to portion size and upping veg in place of carbs/sugar even you will be doing her a massive favour.

It's really not useless. There are a lot of parents who are in denial about their children's weight. People's perception of weight is really skewed at the moment.

The check is about measuring the population, and it gives a very valuable dataset for public health officials.

It's only in the Blair years that parents were even informed if the results. But it's been going on since just post-war, has led to things like the introduction of orange juice and cod liver oil in schools when malnutrition was the problem,.

The current issue is over weight and obesity. The planners cannot know what is going on with the population unless they measure them.

There is nothing to show AFAIK that there has been any particular deterioration in rates of accuracy.

Have you weighed/measured your DD yourself? Are the figures themselves wrong? If so, you need to write and point this out.

Body builders, just like weightlifters, and a few others whose activities lead to an unusual level of mussel mass, can indeed be BMI outliers. But they are comparatively rare in the population.

Edit, I do understand that he is overweight on the charts however this has been him his entire life. He never dropped birth weight and had put on about 4lb in the hospital.

My entire side of the family (bar myself and mum) are all pushing 6ft or over 6ft. As children we tended to hold our weight and then around the ages of 10 or 11 it all came off as we finally grew another head and shoulders above.
He doesn't get fizzy juice, excessive sweets or adult portions. He is taller than almost all of the children 3 years older than him in school.

I think they need to add in a waist to height ratio as a secondary check on their figures as that will help differentiate if a parent feels that their child only weighs so much because they have a lot of muscle.

OP, if you want to do a check for yourself there are various online calculators that can make it simple for example this one - there are various studies but the general result is that a ratio of less than 0.5 is healthy for children over 1 as well as adults, if it is greater than that then they have found children start having an increased risk of cardiovascular and related diseases. To do it even more simply, if they measure less than half their height around their middle then they are a healthy weight.

My 3.5yo is 105cm and 16kg. If she was carrying an extra 8kg I hope it would be obvious to me that she was overweight!! If she isn't skinny then she is probably overweight, it won't necessarily look like your idea of 'fat' just yet but if you don't change things now by the time she's a teen it may well do so you're wise to pay attention to it!

It can be useful but it's not foolproof IMO and doesn't always account for the 'outliers' in terms of build (of which there are some, without being either fat or undernourished).

My two dc are completely different body shapes and builds. Ds1 is 8 and very, very tall. He's very largely built - in terms of huge feet (size 5), very big head (adult baseball caps), large hands, wide shoulders etc.

Ds2 (6) is also tall (but 'averagely tall' not hugely tall like ds1 iyswim). But he has a very slim build, narrow hips and shoulders, fairly small feet etc.

They both have the same amount of fat on them, to look at - you can see both of their ribs and backbones when standing with arms down, both have slim faces, are very toned etc - as far as I can tell, have the same, healthy covering of fat. They're both equally active and fit, both have healthy appetites.

Yet on the NHS BMI calculator, ds1 is into the overweight range and ds2 is just, only just, within the normal range, skirting the 'underweight' category constantly.

The only difference is build - when you compare their wrists, or their calfs, there's a really massive difference, much more than a typical 2 year gap would see - ds1's legs look like body builder's compared to ds2's completely flat stick legs.

Just want to add. My children where born on the 98th and 95tg centiles. Now at 4 and 2 they have evened out. Eldest is higher centile for height but around 50th for weight, dd2 is very 'average' at around 50th centile for both.

I've said this before but I think this fixation with babies being chubby is very damaging and skews people's perceptions as to what's normal for children

My daughter is 8.5 and 6lbs heavier than your DD. She is at the 43rd centile...time to look at her diet and lifestyle

I find that most children clothes are far too big. I can find either trousers with an ok waist when adjusted, but way too short, or trousers with the right length but where you could fit 2 kids inside. I am not boasting here, it's a common problems for most of the mums I speak with at school.

Let's be honest, how often did you eat sweets or crisps as a child? We only had them as a treat on special occasions. Most kids have that every day now.

She's obese according to Australian growth charts - BMI of 20.7.

My same age daughter is the same height and 5kg lighter and she's looking a bit chubby in her swimmers, we're working on cutting out the crap food that's crept in over the summer holidays.

A few sessions of activity a week won't turn an overweight child into a healthy one.

I think the BMI charts for children take into account they are children, so are slightly different to the adult ones. BMI is a good measure for the majority - most people don't do enough exercise for it to be flawed. If your DH is an ex body builder he will have lost muscle mass, it goes within months if you stop exercising. I'd use this as an opportunity to really look at what your DD is eating, "normal family meals" can mean too bigger portions and regardless of what exercise she does it will impact her weight.

Please don't bury your head in the sand about this - you have a chance to get back on track. The nurses aren't lying nor are they out to have a go at your parenting. Its a fact - your child is overweight - they're supposed to be skinny. I sympathise, I've 3 kids - one of them eats too much & doesnt't exercise enough. The other two are at the low end of their range. We've worked at reducing portion size, snacks and upping exercise (proper sweating exercise) and its working.

Don't rely on clothing sizes - does she wear a lot of leggings/tunics - those type of clothes? They stretch.

• I meant 'healthy weight', not healthy. Of course it's possible for children to be overweight and healthy.

"I remember reading that BMI shouldn't really be relied upon for under 21s"

Adult charts should never be used for children.

The children's chart doesn't classify you as overweight until over the 90th BMI centile, and obese only at 98th. That's plenty of scope for normal irregularity about growth spurts.

I do wish people would stop saying that it could be muscle. Children cannot build enough muscle mass to skew BMI like adults can. As I say, my 8 year old is very athletic, does swimming club, running, athletics clubs etc and walks/cycles for several miles daily (loves hiking and can easily do 10km). He obviously has muscle but weighs 3lbs less than your daughter and is 130cm tall, so a good 21cm taller but over 1kg lighter. It really does no good to children to dismiss excess weight as 'muscle' or 'preparing for a growth spurt'.