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???

Firstly, check the measurements were accurate. Children are fidgety! A small error in height/weight measurement makes a big difference with a 5yo.

Secondly, is there any reason why they might be unusually heavy for their age group? I was always a very heavy child, my entire family have lovely dense bones (which is great, very little osteoporosis!), but does mean people have always been very surprised by my weight (BMI of 25 when I was a teenager even though I was very slim with a 15 inch waist). Are they unusually well muscled? I’ve always had fabulously chunky thigh muscles and could walk for miles and miles by the time I was 4. Again, that meant I measured heavy.

BUT if their measurements are accurate and you don’t think there’s any particular reason for special circumstances, are you sure they aren’t a bit overweight? Many children are I’m afraid, you might not have realised if it crept up slowly. Activities are all very well and good, but what you’ve described doesn’t really give an idea of if she is very active outside of that 2 hours, or what portion size is like. Also, some “healthy” food has a lot of calories! Children love fruit juice and it’s full of vitamins, but really quite sugary.

(none of this is meant with judgement. My DD is not a good eater and I find it incredibly hard to encourage healthy eating as she hates all vegetables!)

Back to basics. Did they weigh and measure her correctly.
It’s hard enough to get this on cooperative adults harder on excited wiggly kids.

Very muscular, broadly built children will weigh more than finely built children

Except no KS1 age child should be muscular or broadly built

It is hard to get an accurate height as they are wiggly! It's very unlikely the weight is wrong though as they do stand still on them, they won't stop flashing until the weight is stable and they're calibrated annually.

DD had this in year 6. Slip of paper that said overweight, seen by another child and hence the giggling began.

DD was the tallest, most developed girl in the class. She started her periods at 10.5. Put in the same weight and height and age 12.5 (in line with development) and she did not come out as overweight.

She is now 21. She is 5'4" and weighs 8st 2lb. She has also recovered from anorexia along side anxiety, depression and adhd. Another extension of self harm and imo an avoidable one. I'm also going to add that my dc are teutonic in build - broad shouldered and well built without being fat at all.

Go figure!

My very active 11 yr olds are a whisker over 5 stone. I have scales that measure body fat and my boy is 9%, girl 21% so pretty typical of a healthy person. 5 stone aged 5 would be rather large

@titchy of course one 5 year old could be broader than another. My son is spot on 99th centile for height and weight. However, he is 6 years old, and because he is broad, wears age 9 clothes. Everyone is built differently. The problem is when their weight is too high for their height.

titchy that's absolutely ridiculous. Both my dc had H fitting shoes and if you stood them side by side with a finely boned child their shoulders were much wider. It was size of frame not fat.

If both height and weight are on the same percentile she's not overweight (or overtall)

85% of children who come up as overweight in their reception screening will be obese by the time they're in year 6.

Judging by this thread, that magic 15% must all be the children of Mumsnetters!

OP I personally wouldn't ignore the letter, I very much doubt that would be in your child's best interests.

I would:

• make a food diary
• consider her portion sizes
• think about who else is feeding her (treats at Granny's every weekend, etc?)
• up her exercise

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

Well in exception they can. But no, not the norm.

You might find an 11 year old gymnast who trains 25 -hours a week (yes gymnastics is insane) who is strongly buillt to start has enough muscle to tip the bmi scale. Especially as gymnasts tend to be small height wise.

A 5 st 5 year old has to be overweight? Unless exceptionally tall?

A five stone 5 year old is overweight . There are a lot of overweight children about but their parents generally don’t see it and refuse the help when it’s offered . Don’t be that parent . Your child won’t thank you for it when they are older .
The healthy food doesn’t matter if they eat too much of it .
My daughter was very skinny at primary school and I often had parents of heavy children commenting on her weight . Not once did I mention that she looked normal and it was their child who was fat . People really don’t want to see what’s staring them in the face .

OP: She’s on the 94th percentile.

Poster: What percentile is she on for height?

🙄

You're not doing anything wrong. If everyone was 50th percentile we'd all look the fecking same.

Bin it. Carry on as normal.

They're scrapping BMI for kids soon anyway apparently and will be focusing on bf%.

@ToffeePennie Is that right? Your 5 year old is 5 stone? If that's correct he is definitely overweight. My 5 year old is taller than average - 116cm - and weighs 3 stone. Shes not underweight, and is mid range on the BMI chart for her height.

5 stone at 5 is pretty shocking. I was that at 11.

Can you measure her height and weight and work out her bmi yourself ? If she’s only 5 it’s not too late to make some small changes .

Tallgreen where did you hear that? This is my job and I've not been told they're changing it...

BTW my 8 year old is under 4stone

I would put the letter to one side, but remeasure yourself if you think the actual measurement is wrong. No need to panic, but just keep it in mind.

When my eldest was in reception, and again in Year 6, I had assumed that I was going to get a similar letter, and preparing to justify it to myself. DS1 has always been solid muscle, between 95% and 100% centile for weight since he was around 4 months old (between 75 and 95% for height depending on growth spurts). He was ridiculously heavy. Every person who picked him up commented.

But his official measurements have always actually been at the top of the normal range. I have no idea how.

OP: She’s on the 94th percentile.

*Poster: What percentile is she on for height?

🙄

Oh put your rolling eyes away.

The Op actually said “she is on the 94th percentile and classes as overweight for her age and height” so the 94th is clearly her weight.

Her height percentile is important as you can’t possibly advise how much of an issue her weight is without knowing it.

Children’s bmi is given as a percentile worked out based on weight, height and dob. So 94th percentile bmi will be overweight

When I say muscle, he was like a cannon ball at 6 months, and at 15 years he's like a tennis player.

Bin the letter

FFS this 'advice' makes me so angry.

No wonder the obesity rate is higher in year 6 children than it is in Reception.

So many parents relying on a 'growth spurt' to sort it out, when so often it does nothing and the child continues to gain weight.

OP, you probably need to reduce portion sizes and up the exercise. A few structured activities a week, probably isn't enough so I'd look at how much overall exercise she's getting.

I genuinely believe that we have forgotten what normal weight looks like and thus is coming from a fat person. Children should really be quite slim.