To be horrified the NHS classes 5yo DD as overweight?

[mommathatwearspink]

DD (5) had her school night and weight check at school earlier in the week. Received a letter today saying that she is on the 94th percentile and classes as overweight for her age and height.

Im horrified! She doesn’t look overweight, does gymnastics and swimming each week, doesn’t over eat, treats are limited and I cook healthy meals from scratch most days. What the hell am I doing wrong???

No 5 year old is going to be so muscly it sends them into the overweight category. The healthy weight range for a child is massive so if a child falls into either extreme then it’s not something to just ignore

@Chouetted you're another one who's burying your head in the sand. 13 stone at age 13 is not ok at any height. And you can't comfortably sit on ANY office chair, not a single one? You're deluding yourself by saying things like you've just got a broad frame but aren't overweight.

Well some go on to get more overweight and some don't. Often in line with parents or similar to. It doesn't look like much extra weight at a young age and she probably looks lovely. It's all in your hands luckily. My daughter was told she had a lovely figure but after this lost a stone at age 9 of her own accord, so people will tell you she isn't overweight even when she is. I helped when she asked by stocking healthy food only at home and cutting out most sugar. She wasn't skinny afterwards but was slim.

Don't worry about it, probably due a growth spurt ;)

My DD was 16kg at 4. A slum built child who late well but had treats occasionally. I remember her weight as she had her appendix out and they weighed her.

So that’s 2.5 stones.

She was always on the 25th to 50th centile .

20kg for my 5, nearly 6 year old.

Swims and does gym too.
Walks a mile to school and back 4 times a week.

More sport on Saturday. They were on the top end of the scale.

Eats like a horse. But only gets away with it due to the amount of exercise they do. I would be worried if they said my child was overweight on the 94th.

Think mine was 67th or 76th. Maybe make some diet changes?

I was just as appalled last year, I didnt just get a letter I got a phonecall while we were on holiday during half term, by a school nurse who began to lecture us about what we were feeding us, what was mor eimportant is she refused to even acknowledge that our doctor was trearing my son as been underweight due to sensory issues and intolerances. In the end I wrote and withdrew the right for them to measure him or use any of the data they had already taken. They werent too happy as they had to retract it from the powers that be and resort it or something. Quite a few parents in our school followed suit at the time. Id suggets you do, the tables they use are nothing short of dangerous and if my son was "thier ideal weight" I wouldnt be just able to see his bones as I am now, I'd probably see every fine detail of them. Our doctors surgery were mortified and had strong words, I also withdrew the nurses right to contact me during school holidays. Our doctor comfirmed that had he lost any weight due to use enforcibg a diet she would have had to refer to SS. I detest this testing and I wont jave my child be part of it. They are so inaccurate its unreal. My friends 11 year old was anorexic and recieveing hospizal treatment when they told her she was overweight. That sadly escilated her condition afterward because that was a time that the kids got the letters to take home in thier bag.
Dont be part of it, tell them you dont feel your child is overweight and you would like to ask that they remove the data you used and dont measure her in future.
I believe its just a reason for the goverment to add taxs to sugar etc by collecting inacurate statistics that a large percentage of kids are fat.

I just weighed and measured DS as a result of the thread. He's 14kg at 3, and on the 39th percentile. You can see his ribs but he doesn't look too skinny. He looks healthy to me.

Unfortunately our society has taken to normalising being overweight. Adverts on Tv basically say two things - eat pizza, takeaway all the time and be plus size body confident.
Nothing wrong with being body confident - however being overweight is now being normalised in society as normal - that's a very dangerous mindset.

Brocks a large percentage of children are fat. Do you object to the sugar tax ? If so why ? I don't know about you but I want my DCs to have a decent life expectancy.

If you have no worries about your child then ignore it!.

My 4 year old is technically overweight, I can see his ribs and his spine, I checked his bmi because I was worried about how clear I can see his ribs. His big bun makes up for it I think, I have no worries about him being over weight so not going to do anything about it.

Check her height and weight on the WHO percentile charts. If she is in the midrange, ignore the letter. If she’s at the top end, look at portion size. As some other posters have said, our perception of normal size has been distorted by the trend towards many people being larger than they might have been 20 or 30 years We have probably all noticed the vanity sizing-clothes sizes now being much larger now than they were previously.
This also has other side effects. I received a letter from my daughter’s school telling me that she was seriously underweight (when she was 13 or 14). Having initially panicked, I checked the WHO charts and she was bang in the middle. It turned out the school doctor had decided it was less controversial to class 2 girls out of 30 as underweight than tell the parents of the other 28 that, based on these charts, their daughters were overweight.

Visible ribs aren't the be all and end all though.

Plenty of kids have visible ribs and a fat belly.

File it under "B1-N".... I had the same for my son 2 years ago and perhaps it has made me slightly more mindful of what he eats and ensuring he's active, but I didn't worry about it at all. He was 95th centile as a baby too. He's a sturdy build but very slim with it. No podge Kids come in all shapes and sizes. You know yourself whether your child is a healthy size, so trust your own judgement and take that letter with a huge pinch of salt (not literally, diet police) xxxxx

As someone who is trained in fitness, health & exercise including nutrition it is a tricky subject. There is definitely an issue with a lot of children being obese. I am horrified by the shape/size of many kids at my son’s school. The problem with BMI is that it doesn’t take into consideration muscle mass, which is a lot heavier than fat. I know people have said that a 5 year old cannot be that muscly, but actually they can. My own son is in this category. If your child does so much gymnastics and swimming and at a decent level not just rolling around then it could just be muscle mass. I would make an appointment with your GP to access your child properly as they will not just simply go by the BMI as they will in school due to dealing with so many kids, they will look at muscle mass and body shape etc.

The only thing in this whole situation worse than the proportion of children that are fat or overweight is the number of people burying their heads in the sand about their child's weight. I only know one parent who accepts their child is overweight and something needs to be done. All the others say the usual things about how active they are, how well they eat, how it's because they're tall, that their breasts are early puberty and not fat etc etc.

I had this last year, my then 5 year old is very tall for her age and her result came back as obese for her age, I spoke to the teacher who said ignore it, that DD was clearly not overweight and when looking at the weight expectations for children two years above her (her height) she was a perfectly normal weight for her height!
Unfortunately their formula for calculating if the child is over weight just doesn't work for a-lot of kids. They really should just go on height/weight rather than taking age into account!

You know yourself whether your child is a healthy size, so trust your own judgement and take that letter with a huge pinch of salt

That's bollocks advice considering how many parents of clearly chubby kids, just can't see that their kids are overweight.

Mostly because they're comparing them to other chubbier kids around them.

If they are considered overweight according to NHS weight and height measurement then they will not be skin and bones if they lose any more weight.

I’m sorry but they won’t.

My DD is not skin and bones. She is at the lower end but nowhere near underweight (prob around 15th centile)

She could increase her weight by over 25% and still be classed as a healthy weight.

I got this letter, my daughter is chunky but not fat. Always busy and is same weight as a year ago, shes 6. Its utter bullshit. Eat healthy and active theres no reason for them.

The only kid who didnt get a overweight letter was the smallest kid in the class. He is utterly tiny and about 1ft shorter than most kids in her class and weights about 2 and half stone.

Pay no mind to it

The problem is parents always have cute ways to describe it “puppy fat” “chunky” “podgy” rather than sit up and look at it objectively.

mommathatwearspink
If it upsets you, you could ask your Doctor for a second opinion.

If your DD runs around every day and is generally active like a child of 5 is expected to be, you need to see if she is eating too much.

You said your family eat sensibly and she doesn't have too many treats.

She is in a high percentile. It might mean you are giving her adult sized portions or just large portions.
That's the only thing I can think of.
I think I would ask your Doctor just in case she needs some help. There are conditions that can cause weight gain. You sound like a really good mum and she sounds like a very happy and busy child. I can't think why she's in the highest percentile so just think you need a bit of moral support.
Don't get upset. You're a good mum! I'm sure you will find she is fine!