settle a argument please,i think im right

[tor8181]

hi settle a disagreement please that my sister and me are having, i think im right

an incident happened to my nieces friends mother last week(shes 6),she took her (small)5 y old to the supermarket(5mins away) without a seat and a passing police car stopped her and gave a fine

my sister thinks we are now going to get stopped as my 8 yold isnt in a seat my argument is hes way to big and its not needed

hes not 9 till end of july hes very very big for just 8 hes 125-130 pounds and 5ft 1 or 2 already(medium bottoms, large tops size 6 shoe)hes not fat just pure solid everywhere he even needs adult gloves

hes never been in a car seat ever as one was never needed as we used to bus every where(he was either in my arms or walked on) or walk and we got a taxi on the odd occasion,then he used to be in a seat belt,we even left the hospital as a newborn in a taxi and he came home in my arms(i know laws have changed in nearly 9 years)

hes been massive since birth(8lb 10 26 inches)and was always in clothes years bigger than his age,6-9 m at birth and it went up and up from there

we got a full time car(his dad passed) just over 2 years ago(son was a few months off 7) and when i googled it he was taller and weighed more than the limit so i never bought one,we have been everywhere in it since then,holidays 2-3 hours away every 6-8 weeks(we love our caravan holidays),day trips out, daily outings shoppingswimming cinema etc and hes never had a problem as he sits in the back with me with the best on properly and his feet touch the floor and the belt rests on his collar bone

my nephew is 6 months older than him, hes small for his age(well way smaller than mine anyway) 4ft 2 or 3 and 60-65 pounds hes been in a car seat from birth and still in a full seat(booster with a back)with plenty of room either side of the seat,his feet still dont touch the floor

my sister thinks that as mine is under 12 he should be in a seat anyway as thats the law but my argument is hes not 8y old sized and we are unusual circumstances as hes classed as a small adult due to size and has been for years,he looks 12 or 13 and if a police man spotted him he would think that as his head comes up way past the window and on the head rest

when we tried my nephew seat without the back his bum and lower body was wider than the seat and it pinched into his skin

i showed her the info on google and shes adamant he still need it as it says under 12 but im right aint i? as hes so big and it pointless as on a seat his head wasnt far off the ceiling

settle a argument please

Alsohuman - where did you check his bmi? NHS says an 8 year old boy who is 5'1 and 9 stone is very overweight and 99th centile.

Lol my 8 year old daughter is 5 foot 4. She hasn't had a car seat since she was about 5 years old (weighed and measured). The height is the more important factor when it comes to the older children's car seats.

You defo needed a car seat even to walk out of the door of the hospital when she was born and I'm almost certain they also insisted when my 15 year old was born.

My child was heavier and longer than yours at birth, and wore 0-3months.

He is now as tall as your child with as big feet but weighs about half as much.

This is your real issue.

Address that.

The NHS chart I checked doesn’t specify age, it’s simply a calculation of height and weight. He’s in the middle of the normal range.

It’s probably an adult one alsohuman - the child’s one puts him at very overweight although not obese

Alsohuman it's different for children compared to adults

What difference does age make? Genuine question. A child of that height at half the weight would look skeletal.

Alsohuman - that's a BMI chart for adults, you need to take into account age. 9 stone and 5'1 is healthy for a fully grown adult woman, not a child - he would need to lose 2 stone to get to the top end (90th centile) of the healthy weight range for an 8 year old boy.

Oops sorry I realise I did not read the OP properly.

Yes you're right, he's tall enough not to legally need a car seat. But I can see why your sister is feeling a bit anxious about it. It's strange to have assumptions that you held quite strongly challenged. If most people around you don't bother to use car seats or take them very seriously it can seem a bit overkill to look at the laws, but they do exist for very good reason, and they are very basic - many car seat experts believe that requirements should be increased.

IME if you have a lot of second hand clothes things shrink over time, my 9 month old isn't that giant yet I have a lot of second hand clothes for him, some of the things he fits into are 18-24 months. Whereas new clothes he's in 9-12 (and some 12-18 depending on shop) so just slightly over average for his age. I think it's plausible that if OP was including second hand clothing sizes in her estimations a big newborn could be in some 6-9 month clothing.

Well alsohuman, it should specify age when you’re talking about children before puberty. As it’s been pointed out, obese children will grow taller as a result of their obesity and this will skew the bmi result. They are still overweight though.

Pass - 'very overweight' means 'obese'. NHS no longer uses obese for children as parents found it offensive, so now it is overweight/very overweight (obese)/very very overweight (morbidly obese).

Eh? Of course age makes a difference for BMI. A toddler has a vastly different body shape than an adult. So does a pre teen child. (Not quite as much as a toddler).

In very basic terms a child won't have finished developing compared to an adult therefore their "basics" (skeleton, muscle mass etc) weigh less than that of a grown adult

Ah ok, I did wonder about thay

26 inches long at birth? Wow. (like all the pp talking about obesity)

Also - a healthy 9 stone adult woman has curves, breasts, fat around the hips. An 8 year old has a completely different body shape.

I have a vastly different body shape to a teenager - the joys of post menopause - our BMI is still measured the same. The skeleton of someone of 5ft 2in will be the same irrespective of age. Common sense, people.

What difference does age make? Genuine question. A child of that height at half the weight would look skeletal.

Children's proportions are totally different to adult proportions which is why the BMI range is so different for children. A BMI of 14 is healthy for a child for instance.

A child half that weight would, and should, look slim. This kid's hugely overweight, which will ironically restrict his height growth and set him up for a lifetime of obesity and diabetes.

My DS was tall enough not to need a car seat from age 8.
He’s now 10 and almost as tall as me so certainly doesn’t need one despite being under 12

pourquoiPas I am intrigued as to the length of your baby if it was longer than the op's ds, according to the Guinness book of records the longest baby in the world was 28 inches and was born to a giantess who is 7'11".

Your DS is taller than me! I don't need a car seat .

If an eight year old is a healthy weight you should be able to see their ribs.

Overweight children do grow tall early on. But they stop and don’t end up taller than they would have been if they were slim.

My ds was 11lbs 10ozs and 29 inches long, he went straight into 3-6 month clothes, and size 2 or 3 nappies (it was 9 years ago too so I can't remember the nappies!) My son is probably big enough not to require a seat anymore but I prefer it for safety, he's in a high backed booster or sometimes just a booster with no back.

ZigZag - unless you hold the world record for longest baby, I don't think he was 29"!

@abbyhammond height is much more relevant than age. If he lost 2 stone he’d be really slim in appearance. It’s not his fault he’s so tall and shouldn’t be placed on a diet because of it. In addition to that BMI is a very loose and inaccurate guide to health. There are many many more reliable indicators of poor health relating to weight- vo2 measures & body fat percentage spring to mind. Honestly the comments on here are ridiculous, unbelievably inaccurate & rude af.