AIBU to not think DD is overweight?

[Strugglingonagain]

So DD in reception was seen by school nurse today. I put her details into nhs bmi thing and it said she's overweight.

Now I see lots of posts on here by parents saying their child isn't overweight when sometimes they are.. But! I know my DD is not skinny in the slightest, however she is also very tall. So my question is.. if you are 91st % for weight but also 91st for height is that ok or should you still be less?

And AIBU for worrying about this so much?

height and weight centiles should be in proportion. Therefore 95th percentile for height and weight would not be a concern

That would make it technically impossible for my child to ever be over weight as his height is on the 99.9th centile

OP what bmi centile is she?

By not skinny I meant I wouldn't say she's thin, but I would put her as average..Not fat. Not sure if that makes sense though.

I suppose it depends on what you mean by 'average' (I understand it's hard to explain).

It can be area dependent but in my area, the average child is overweight.

The centes mean pretty much nothing. They just show what size other children are. If most children are overweight then matched weight to hieght centipede would mean you are overweight. Bmi isn’t faultless either but at least it has meaning. If she shows up as overweight in bmi it’s something you need to keep an eye on and possibly deal with if it doesn’t resolve itself. Being fat in childhood can have life long implications. I have been thin since puberty but a day childjood has left me with knocked knees.

Maybe worth a chat with your GP if it's bugging you? We have similar as DS who is on 91 centile for height and 95 centile for weight. We expected and got the follow up letter after they did the measuring at school in r3ception - I decided to follow it up in the basis he eats well and does loads of exercise but remains huge (his older sister who eats same diet and does less exercise is on 50th for both so was wondering why he is so much bigger).

GP took one look at him laughed and said he's fine and to take him down to the rugby club. We did and it's actually been great for him to go somewhere he can charge around without knocking everyone else over like he does at school

These things are meant to be guides, not the be all and end all. My DS at 5 is on the 95th for weight and the 55th for height. My health visitor said it was fine as he'd always been on them from birth so it was clearly his natural weight. He's very fit, does all sorts of sports classes, is very fast on his feet and is exceptionally strong (can grab a bar over his head and pull himself up onto). I try not to worry about it, although confess to a little wobble every now and again.

Centiles are an utterly useless way of measuring weight - they assume that the individual on the 50th centile is of a normal weight, when there is no guarantee that this is true.

Now that we have a situation where, amongst the adult population, the average (median) weight is well into the overweight category, the 50th centile is actually very overweight.

I think you'd need to be on the 20-30th centile to be of a healthy weight these days.

We took dd who is 12 to the doctors after receiving the letter she was morbidly obese. She is, and has been since birth on the 99th centile for height and weight.
The nurse weighed her and measured her and said at 5ft 8 with a woman's boobs and curves they would never measure her on a child's chart. She is also within the just right limit by 4lb.
If in any doubt ask a healthcare professional. They know best.

Treat the centiles with care - a child who is overfed will grow taller faster than usual, so the matching gentiles thing isn't always right. It's also true that being overweight can cause early puberty.

PP is correct that you need to be able to clearly see a child's ribs aged 5-10, a lot of people consider that skinny but it's actually normal for a pre-pubescent child.

*centiles

My toddler has been on the 98th centile for weight and height since birth. She is now 16kg and about 94cm ish tall. She isn't what I would call overweight. I can see her ribs but she does still have the toddler pot belly. Now looking at the charts she would be classed as very obese. Hhmmmmm

My youngest (5) has always been overweight. She does dancing, swimming, gymnastics. I monitor food and portion sizes. I don't know what else to do. GP dismissed me.

Eldest (8) has always been solid. But now starting to change body shape, and can't see hee ribs.

They're both very tall. I'm 6', their dad is 6'5.

Both kids are on a diet without knowing it.

But I do struggle myself, I don't want the same for them.

DD was on the 95th for height.

And the 5th for weight.

She wasn't malnourished, clothes to fit her height fitted her size perfectly until people got fed up of saying their children were tall because their 5 year olds had to wear 9 year olds' trousers that puddled round their feet and shops started offering the wider fits to accommodate tummies and nobody was worried about it.

@GreenHouseKeeping the height weight and BMI centiles the NHS uses are all based on 1990 data so it's not the case that what's healthy keeps changing.

until people got fed up of saying their children were tall because their 5 year olds had to wear 9 year olds' trousers that puddled round their feet and shops started offering the wider fits to accommodate tummies
I've been wondering about this just today in fact. my 6 year old wears her age clothes for length but they hang off her. she's slim/normal for a child her age.

I've been wondering about this just today in fact. my 6 year old wears her age clothes for length but they hang off her. she's slim/normal for a child her age.

I bought my 7 year old 8/9 skirts for school. She is pretty tall and her 7-8 pinafores are getting too short.
They fall off her and it’s going to be quite a few years before they fit her. I guess i’ll stick with the 4 - 5 skirts for a while!!

I like H&M for jeans. They are a slim fit so she can get the proper length and they look good. Still need to draw then on at waist.

For shorts we only got rid of the 2-3 last year.

Generally weight centiles should be a fair bit height centiles in children - so 75th for height, 50th for weight, that sort of thing. Most indiciduals who have matching centiles are overweight although there are a few for whom this is a healthy weight.

I work with growth charts every day and this is true. To firmly have a BMI in the healthy range children need to be a centile higher for height than weight, ie 75th height and 50th weight. The children that are in the same for both - if not in the overweight range- often look visibly solid or have a bit extra. Which may be normal for them and their family but it’s worth keeping an eye on.

Children are naturally skinny. If her own mum is saying "she's not skinny", she is likely to be overweight.

Generally weight centiles should be a fair bit height centiles in children - so 75th for height, 50th for weight, that sort of thing. Most indiciduals who have matching centiles are overweight although there are a few for whom this is a healthy weight.

Sorry, this isn't true. Most children on matching weight and height centiles are not overweight - have a look at this chart.

The NHS BMI centile calculator is a good guide for the vast majority of children, so if it says a child is overweight, chance are it's correct.

My ds was always tracking 75 percentile for weight and between 50 and 75 for height. He is three now and all of his 3 - 4 trousers can be pulled down even on tightest fitting and he can still fit into shorts from two summers ago. He's solid but i wouldn't say fat. In terms of his red book he's overweight but my dr just laughed last time and said he was normal in terms of proportion. Tbf i think all kids are different and as long as they have a healthy diet and are active it should be fine

Most children on matching weight and height centiles are not overweight - have a look at this chart.

I agree that most aren’t from that chart. If I’m reading it correctly it does suggest that a child over the 75th centile in height whose weight centile matches their height one is overweight.

The NHS calculator adjusts for age and possibly height so if it says she’s overweight and the OP says she’s not skinny but average, then she’s likely overweight.

I worry about the bmi charts for children. Both mine are very tall like their father but also very slim. Do they not take into account above average height?

Your children would then have a low BMI though?

@amberee my DD is tall (between 75th & 91st) and I think below 50th weight for her age.

Her BMI falls on 11th percentile. It’s actually dropping the taller she gets so I will need to track it a bit more.