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'm sure she is healthy activitywise but if her weight continues on this higher than normal trajectory she will become a seriously overweight child and an obese teenager.

Are you overweight OP? I have rarely seen an obese child of healthy weight parents, but often overweight parents have overweight children and they often seem oblivious.

If so it could be what you all eat and in particular portion sizes. See this as a wake up call and look at the whole families eating habits.

She does tap, swimming and multi sports weekly

Three one hour sessinos, two of them at least probably low intensity is not a lot a child being active, three hours a day of such low intensity stuff is active.

When BMI is rubbish, the functional measures work well - can she run a mile in under 15 minutes, can she do the monkey bars?

I hate this weight amnagemnt bmi crap espcecially at such young ages nowadays.
who cares.yes they are a scale of helpful but not for this age and not for all body types.they can tll you when your really too much or too small but....no!!hate that crap
at school there were always the ones that looked so skinny like really skinny but it was them,thre make up.then to be honest there we some quite "fat" ones.but they were tubby kids that I see now and are curvy,some skinny,some lean and some just tall bean poles.they change so much from this ages.
as long as the kids aren't waaaaaaay over or under I think we should leave it.
and instead encourage good health and wirhgt and food.
and fun and exercise and living freely and happily

We're about to face this and we're not going to like the result. Ds is the tallest in his class and has his dad's rugby player build: broad and muscular, but at the same time he's so tall and slender, long , slim endless legs. We can see his ribs clearly, front and back. No moobs etc. He comes up very overweight/obese.

The Body Mass Index is tosh.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21229387

Just to clarify dh is an EX body builder in that he does not compete professionally anymore, he does still train and is super fit, I'm a few stone over weight since having 2nd dd over a year ago
I'm not in denial, I just think stating she is very overweight is over exaggerated, I will try to upload a photo that won't show face. How do I do that?

Do you trust your dr? Could you see them and get an honest opinion?

Sailors surely if he is on the same percentile (99th) for height and weight he wouldn't be overweight? As they take into account the height? He may be heavier than most of his school but he will also be taller as you have said. I haven't had my sons back yet..

"I hate this weight amnagemnt bmi crap espcecially at such young ages nowadays." You do know that in some cases children are getting heart disease and type two diabetes because their parents think like you, right?

Ellieboolou27 - don't put up a photo, just measure her around the middle, it will tell you all you need to know one way or another.

If she is less than 1ft 9.5" (21.5" or 54.5cm) then she is healthy. Above that then maybe you need to think again.

Elephant in a room -- kids don't play outside anymore. Apparently "unsafe" or "only rough kids do that"
Parents imagine that a weekly splash in a swimming pool somehow compensates.

Unfortunately when I stick his height and weight in to a child bmi calcultor it states that, for children his age, he is.

Despite his height and weight being the same centile. It truly is bizzare.

In Scottish schools we don't get weighed, I'm just going by various online calculators.

That BBC article doesn't say BMI is a load of tosh

It says "It's a cheap and cheerful way of getting a handle on whether or not you might be overweight"

And that it is very useful at the population level.

Taken just now
Thanks oddboots will do that
Wow some posters are nasty on here!
I don't "imagine" a weekly splash in a pool is enough!

If you can spot that a child is overweight early you can make adjustments to diet and lifestyle more easily. We are becoming fatter as a nation and have lost sight of what overweight looks like. BMI works for the majority as an indicator, the BBC article is right that it doesn't distinguish between muscle and fat but most of us aren't built like rugby players!

OP. She is overweight. I was probably like your DD. I wish more than anything that someone had intervened when I was a child. I was extremely active and fit right up to being 13/14, but I was also overweight. I swam competitively, did horse riding, gymnastics and dance weekly (so that was 5/6 swimming sessions a week where I would swim 100+ lengths in a 60 minute session, pretty high intensity). I came in the top 15 kids (class of 60) every time we did cross country running at school (despite hating cross country running with a passion).

But I was still eating too much. So I was fat. You can be fat and active and weight has far more to do with what goes in your mouth than how much you move. Now I am an adult I am obese. Someone needed to intervene when I was a child to help me with the terrible emotional eating habits I had (and still have). Clearly now I am an adult I am responsible for myself, but while I have had the self control and dedication to give up smoking, put myself through multiple degrees and professional quals and progress in my career, I can not get a grip on my eating.

I am determined my DC will be different. So far, DD is fine. She is almost 4, 108cm and 15kg. Her BMI is around 25th centile so at the lower end of the normal range.

If someone told me she was overweight I would listen and try to do something about it.

This all probably sounds very over the top and I am obviously projecting my own situation but seriously, you can help her get on the path to being a healthy weight now and make her life so much easier as an adult.

No one can tell from a photo whether someone is overweight.

And the shot you've chosen uses photographers standard techniques to narrow the outline.

Have you actually checked her height and weight yourself?

If that works out at 112cm and 24ish kilos then she is overweight.My DD is 4.2, 113cm and 19kilos. She is slim build but not skinny to look at and comes in at a healthy weight - I could imagine if she was almost 5kilos heavier she would be starting to look overweight. It is hard to tell from your photo as your dd is wearing baggy clothing but I agree she doesn't look 'very overweight'.
It is better to accept these things though, and make subtle adjustments to her diet now so she grows into her weight, and it doesn't become a case of having to lose weight later in her teens/adulthood. Sorry to hear that you feel people are being nasty,I think most people are just trying to be realistic.

When I talk about ds being muscular at 5, I mean that I can see that he will be as he gets older. His weight hasn't changed in 18months, he just keeps growing taller. If he grows one more centimetre he will be in the healthy weight, so he has 'grown into his weight'; isnt this what kids do? Hes lost his chubby toddler self. Jesus, the level of obsession that this has the potential to create.

Your daughter is overweight.

The problem is, children have gotten heavier and heavier over the past 20-30 years, so many people (parents) think what their oversized children look like is 'normal' now, so not fat.

I know a lot of children who are quite overweight (I work in a primary school), and their parents are completely oblivious. Then again, a lot of their parents are quite overweight, too.

My son is about the same height and 10lb less and smack back in healthy weight.
I refused to let my son be weighed as I found it intrusive. Ironically he was a little upset he didn't get it done.

She does look overweight. Her waist looks too big for her build.

The "chubby" fingers there say a lot!

auntie I took it on my iPhone and yes weighed and measured this morning.

Children should not have a noticeable tummy on them, our opinions have been skewed.

OP, can you post a photo in which she isn't standing on her tip toes (something that will make people look slimmer.). She needs to be relaxed and I'm sure when she is her real silhouette will show. As AuntieStella said, you're using standard slimming techniques in your photo.