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???

@ToffeePenny 5 stone at nearly 5 doesn't sound right to me to be that skinny? My son is 6.5 stone and he is 10 and a half and is one of the tallest in his year group. He's very slim and tall.

Toffee - please make sure you're looking at your 4 yo with objective eyes. My dd is 11, average height for her age, also very muscly, and is not yet 5 stone.

Is she really tall for her age as well? weekly gymastics and swimming isn’t a lot, kids need daily activity.
Parents are the worst judge of children’s weight, as we love them.
if she is tall as well, its all good. if she is average height and 94% weight, she is overweight. Don’t ignore the letter, critically evaluate it (and remember that so many kids are overweight that it seems to be normal).
the nhs has a healthy weight calculator that takes height into account - measure her height and see.

5 stone age 5? My DD is half that weight

This is meant with kindness, but please take a moment to consider whether they may be right. Our perception of weight nowadays is skewed. My friend was so angry when she got the letter for her DS but he was overweight then and now aged 7 he's clearly obese.

It maybe hard to hear but if she is overweight it's easier to nip it in the bud now than when it's a bigger issue down the line

Also the muscle weighs more than fat thing is complete bullshit for women and children.

Do women and children have a lot of muscle mass? The answer is no.

and he weighs about 5stone at nearly 5
My 5 year old weighs just over 2 stone. My 12 year old weighs 5 stone. Both are a healthy weight.

A lot of children are overweight and so our perception of what is normal is skewed. Childhood obesity is a problem. At 94 centile, surely you can see chub, my ds is 34 th and I can still see a bit of fat. Everyday exercise is very important, play, parks etc and portion size

Forget about seeing their ribs. A child can be pretty overweight before their ribs disappear. And forget about "they look fine". So many children are overweight these days that we have lost our ability to judge a healthy weight by looking.

Forget about "he does x and y" every week if x and y add up to a couple of hours exercise. That's not very much.

OP the first thing I would do is check their measurements - small errors in height and weight can lead to significant mismeasurements of bmi.

If they are correct then your child is eating more calories than they need.

Toffee your 5 year old weighs 5 stone?? My 10 year old (who runs at county level) is 140 cms and weighs 4st 10. 5 stone for a 5 year old sounds an awful lot.

I think parents can sometimes pop their child in to a swimming lesson or a gymnastics lesson once a week and think that ticks the activity box. But they drive to school and live generally sedate lives, so it doesn't go anywhere near to being enough to exercise.
I think children need to be active every day, most of the day, be it at the park or soft play or garden, walk to school where possible, just generally be active. Structured activities are then on top of this.

I don’t think saying ignore the letter helps anyone. All that does it contributing to the burying heads in sand approach many have to issues.

Use it as a chance to look properly at diet, portion sizes and activity levels. Making small changes now can help her avoid a life time of issues.

BMI should be used as a guide and taken into consideration. Different people have different interpretations of skinny and parents can at times be in denial. It is a useful tool but shouldn't be taken too seriously imo

This has nothing to do with BMI . The OP states in the post that the child is 94th centile. That means at the same age, allowing for the exceptions, 94% of children weigh less. 91% and above is the cut off for concern regarding weight. However, height comes into it as well as a 98th centile in height and 91st centile for weight is not an issue.

If a five year old weighs five stone then he is very overweight.

Very muscular, broadly built children will weigh more than finely built children regardless of height. Rugby player v model, say.

It's not an insult! They're giving you information. If you want to know more, you can surely ask your GP for a bit of advice. If you feel secure that it's not a problem, you can ignore it.

They're trying to help. There's no NHS worker sitting in a corner fiendishly plotting to offend you, personally, but calling your DD fatso.

Ok. First thing. Can you weigh and measure her height without causing any concerns?
A friends son, who was similar height and build to my son came up as seriously underweight. On looking at the figures, they had added 10cm to his height. Correcting that brought him back into healthy! Normal weight children really are rather skinny!

If she really us overweight, the only things it sounds like could change are smaller portions or moving more.

That charts interesting I have a 5year old who’s 15kg and an 8yr old who 21kg

No need to be horrified or outraged. The facts are that she weighs more than 93% of children her age, so it is fair to consider why. If she is on the 94% height too, then fair enough, if she's in the 50% height, something is not right. Maybe her portions are the size of an adult, or you are forgetting about unhealthy food she has regularly.

The healthy range for children’s bmi is something like 3rd - 91st centile so it does allow for a pretty big range of “normal”

BMI has been widely discredited

only by obese people...

My 5 yo weighs about 2.5 stone. He's not skinny but doesn't have any fat on him either. Just a healthy little boy (who eats his fair share of sweets, crisps etc as well as healthy foods). I guess I'm lucky, I have to encourage him to eat so never had to limit anything.

@ToffeePennie is your son exceptionally tall? my slim 6 year old is just over 3 stone. if 5 stone is correct and he is slim, hd must be exceptionally tall (as in as tall as a 8-10 year old)

I'm surprised a 5 year old is just over 2 stone. My 1 year old is about 2 stone! My 3 year old is maybe 2.5 stone. They're just extremely solid, everyone is surprised as they don't look that heavy.

Op, if you're actually worried then perhaps take her to the gp, then have someone wait with her outside while you discuss?

The percentile isn’t a problem as long as the weight percentile is similar.

My DS is on the 92nd percentile for weight, but 96th for height. Being on the high percentiles isn’t a problem as long as they match.

My DD4 is on the 14th percentile for height so obviously a 94th weight would be a big issue.

Proportion is everything.