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???

Hi,
If the child is on the 95th centile it means that in the national population of children her age only 5% are heavier. If she's in the 95th centile for height well and good. The BMI should give an indication of her weight/height ratio. While it may not be entirely accurate for young children, it gives an indication.

I would say that the OP has certainly something to be concerned about.

We had a letter too, ds is 5 and on the 94th centile. I think when I weighed him he was 3.3 stone.

He is very broad and solid, plus Ive always been heavier than I look (big bones my mum always said). I'm a healthy size 8.

I completely don't think he's carrying any extra weight, and Im someone that is conscious of the issue as I hate seeing overweight children (and I do judge the parents for it)

Having said that the letter is always in the back of my mind and I'm increasing efforts to make sure he is active as much as possible. (His diet isn't an issue)

You need to accept that unless your child is 91st percentile for height then she is overweight. Please don’t bury your head in the sand. Make changes now. My dd’s are both 50th centile for weight and 75th for height and are slim. They are not skinny, they do have a bit of fat but not much. The kids parents that received that letter last year in reception pretty much all binned it. They feed their kids jam sandwiches, crisps, a ‘treat’ of a small chocolate bar and juice for lunch and wonder why. As if a jam sandwich on white bread and crisps isn’t a treat in itself. A friend’s son is 4 and obese but she thinks he’s fine even though he wears age 6-7 clothes. He doesn’t look that massive dressed compared to other kids nowadays but in his swimming shorts he has rolls of fat. These kids may be facing a lifetime of health and mental problems. I think you need to calculate the bmi yourself and if it shows she is overweight deal with it before she knows she has a problem herself. And believe me, kids know by the time they get to year 3.

They are still using BMI as it gives them something to work on. My son was a skinny bean as a child in infant school. We finally had him eating meat and very healthy portion and i think because he loves fruit, his size goes sideways instead of taller. Anyway, his friends in junior school had toddler portion and eat sweets and chocolates at our house tons of it and the nurse letter claimed they are healthy. who cares. They are following rules to have a job. Our children are their commodity. dont let them upset you. life is too short. I had to tell the school that these kids with letter stating they are healthy are in fact very unhealthy and not eating enough portions. Well, the school was good about it and explain in assembly all those details so kids dont start calling him fat. I had prove as i do take pictures for these kids to remember happy times together and a couple of pictures show them at dinner table with their food.

The thing i still don't understand is that by 13 I was basically my adult height and weight. My clothes size never changed. I was still wearing the same damn PE kit at university (it wasn't logoed, thank the Lord).The rest of my class had to catch up to me, but they did in the end.

So, if you grow early, as some children do, why is that horrific?

Why is it OK to be a height and weight at 18 that is not OK at 13?

My son was a chubby baby - I was told I overfed him until they realised with some shock that he was breastfed. He was chubby at primary school and then became positively skinny at secondary - really skinny, exactly like DH. I changed nothing in his diet (apart from the obvious)
Sometimes you need to monitor but not necessarily change if you feel you're offering a good balanced diet!

I totally agree with all fellow posters asking OP to be fair and have a think why the results might me as they are.
The figures are pretty blunt. If she is in the 94tge percentile that means that she is very close to the heaviest kids in her age group.
If she's doing exercise and eats healthy that's great but maybe is not enough?
Please OP do not ignore these warnings now as I can tell you from experience it does get much worse later on. By the time parents start to pay attention and admit they should have done something earlier, the now overweight becomes obese and more.
Fighting obesity is a neverending struggle. Isn't it better to not get there in the first place?
Also please do not feel guilty for this statement about your child, just try to fit in more activities, less snacks, change a few habits, and things could get better.
Apparently kids up to 18 need one hour of exercise a day and it get even trickier for them to achieve that in today's realities.
Help your child and they will be forever grateful to you later.
Good luck!

Why is it OK to be a height and weight at 18 that is not OK at 13?

Because you don't actually not grow - just because your height hasn't changed, it does not mean that your body hasn't changed. Particularly in boys of course where there's still huge testosterone bursts coming through to build muscle, but also in girls, you may have reached your adult height, but you have not reached your adult development - so you should be lighter.

I wish they measured functional fitness - rather than BMI - it would be a lot harder to show up the "but DD does loads of exercise" if the child couldn't do basic functional fitness minimums.

But you can be obese and functionally fit... it doesn't make you healthy.

Thinking back, we did an hour a day at school plus half an hour of PE which wasn't quite so physical, and two afternoons a week for something like hockey/tennis/rounders/aerobics/crosscountry.

So, yeah, it is still possible to do a lot of exercise and be overweight/obese. It's got bollocks all to do with anything.

@sirfredfredgeorge Ok, I'm intrigued. Once your hips and your boobs are there, which are what determine your clothing size, what else is there to develop? Serious question.

Chunky usually means obese. Uk children’s clothes are cut to suit overweight kids - any child outgrowing them in width before height is highly likely obese. on a healthy weight child, most should look baggy

I opted out. Not because I am blinded by my son being overweight. He fluctuates between the 50th and 75th centile. He has some bowel problems so is monitored closely at several paediatricians and I know how much he can fluctuate. I know what his weight is like as I am mindful I don't want him to be overweight like me and his dad who have battled all out lives.

I was one of the children forced to eat everything on my plate. Who was told 'it's puppy fat...you'll grow out of it" by 12 I was 5"6. 12st and a size 14. I stopped growing upwards and just outwards till I reached 17st and a size 20. I have worked hard to get down to 11st and a size 12. Still 'overweight' but only by 2 BMI points and I am still going. I never want my kids to go through it.

I think we need to take responsibility for out childs health and weight is one of those things but doing it carefully so they don't become obsessed with it. Everything in moderation. Choosing healthy options. Lots of fun exercise and outdoor play. I didn't need a letter to tell me that.

So don't bin it. Take it on board. Look at everything when taking a step back looking objectively and in the long run it will pay off. I wish my grandmother who brought me up did that...but she was a size 34 and obviously had her own food issues. Instead she buried her head in the sand and left me with a lifetime of food/weight issues.

Place marking to find out if the 5 stone boy is 5 or 15.. 👀

Sports day is an interesting one too - on the functional fitness type stuff. DD is in nursery class at a school. 3 year old (August born) - 25th centile for weight but basically all leg, still fits in 18-24 swimming/sun suit separates. Weighs just over 15kg... About 1m tall. Visible ribs front and back...

Very fit - walks a couple of miles most days, rarely still. Despite her age she won her heat in the 40m (ish) running race and was second to a much bigger (height and weight) child in the final. Sack race she was a country mile ahead against the same opposition because stride length and height were irrelevant- it was all about power to weight ratio (and co-ordination).

To avoid bragging utterly hopeless at balancing a beanbag and similar...

This pattern seemed to apply in other years - height mattered for straight running but only slim children seemed to win the sack race!

Uk children’s clothes are cut to suit overweight kids - any child outgrowing them in width before height is highly likely obese.
This annoys me as a parent of a child who is a healthy weight for his age and height. I have bought him age 13-long school trousers as he is outgrowing the age 12-regular. He is not tall or skinny but the age 12 he is about to outgrow in length are still baggy on him, they are meant to be a slim leg style too. I buy them from M&S, the supermarket ones are worse!

Another 50% for height and weight here for 5yo ds. I would say he looks very slim compared to most children I see and like pps trousers in his age range are generally far too big for him (length and waist), tops not so much.

At birth he was 7lb (born by ecs at 38+5, 25th centile) and I was told he was a small baby. 20-30 years ago that would not have been the case I don’t think.

Only you can know the truth. But you have to be honest with yourself. Do u see any fat? We aren't meant to be chunky. Yes there are different shapes and sizes but be honest with yourself about activity level and portion sizes. Only you can know.

Oh well, I was the scrawniest child and despite an athletic build could not run, catch or throw. Always the last on the bench. (Now realise probably mildly dyspraxic - how I suffered, especially at the hands of the gym teacher).

All those mega fit and sporty times are now fat, ungainly matrons. When I visit my mother I sometimes see them working in the local shops. Those perfect sporty school girls who were square pegs in square holes. So square they never left and literally grew up into squares by their late 20s.

DD suffered too for similar reasons. I hope she'll have the last laugh too. She's on track to.

My DD is in the 68th centile for BMI, she is about 2.6 stone and just under 100cm in height. This puts her at a healthy weight. She is 3 and a half.

children’s clothes are cut to suit overweight kids - any child outgrowing them in width before height is highly likely obese. I really doubt that. DD can fit into some clothes labelled as being for 5/6 year olds -- they must be some small 5 year olds because DD is a healthy weight, that or the company in particular make tiny clothes.

I had the same letter, years back. My DH still remembers my 'over reaction'. Did it touch a raw nerve? Nope, it was all bollocks. I think being told to cut down on my daughter's coca cola habit did upset me as ... she was raised on healthy food, only drank water, did lots of sport, is now a yoga teacher, is not as skinny as her much taller brothers but is slim and beautiful, and is still interested in fitness and good health. So I never did understand why we got the letter. Get a second opinion, maybe from your GP, to satisfy your peace of mind, and then either make the changes you need to, or go on as you are.

dress sizes are a useless measure - they are not standardised and vary enormously between stores/brands/lines.

@WindsweptEgret i know.... my oldest is seriously skinny, finding trousers that actually go tight enough to stay up is a nightmare. my youngest is borderline chunky (80th percentile BMI), even for him
most trousers are wide and baggy...

@Storkbloom you didn‘t copy the „uk“ bit. most of uk highstreet is indeed oversized. (h&m for example is swedish, not british!)

Vis a vis sizes - mine were wide but not fat. UK clothes were not sized for them. German makes were.

When I was 8st 7lb (5'7") 30 years ago I needed a size 14 top to stop front buttons popping. It was because of the width of my shoulders not fat or an exceptionally large bosom. I was a 30DD bra size.

People including children are different builds and different shapes. My DC were broad and high bmi. Often skinny children had fat bellies. Mine never did. They also both have the family legs. Large and big boned but not covered in fat.

DS played prop - he looks slim at 24 but has very wide shoulders and sturdy legs and barely slips into a standard bmi.