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???

If your child is classed as overweight then she is overweight and the sooner you tackle this, the better. Fat kids often grow into fat adults. And fat adults have a lot of mostly completely avoidable health problems to contend with.

It’s normal for non crawling babies to be fat SkydivingKittyCat, once they start crawling they soon slim down as they grow (providing you don’t shove their faces with food).

@SkydivingKittyCat it’s normal for babies’ weight gain to slow once they become mobile. DD1 was a similar size/weight and was late to walk. But once she did, she grew upwards and not outwards. She’s now 6 and tall for her age (about 125cm I think), yet she dug a pair of leggings out of the charity pile the other day and squeezed into them, they looked like Capri shorts but she got her bum in them- they were age 3-4! She still has aged 3-4 knickers that fit perfectly too.

Not really. Under 15th centile or over 85th is two standard deviations. Statistically anything beyond those is abnormal and the tail of 'abnormal' is very long.

My 12 yo is over 12st but he's also 6ft 1 so I'm not worried

I'm really shocked at 11 and 12 yos weighing 5st. I think my 7yo probably weighs more than that (but he does have a little tummy) but then he is as tall as some yr 11s

It's only abnormal if the centile for height is below that for weight though.

When my son was under a paediatrician when he was a toddler for low weight gain and was fluxing between 4th and 15th centile, he said it's normal for kids to be skinny and he is usually more concerned about kids who are above the 50th centile. He too said that people don't understand what a healthy weight looks like with a child anymore and worry their kids are too skinny when they are totally normal.

@titchy well in that case, I'm abnormally tall.

I actually hadn't realised (or had forgotten - my stats classes are long on the past) it was so low. I'm more used to thinking of six sigma as being statistically unlikely. My bad. Sorry folks.

If height and weight percentiles are in proportion then the weights is not so much of a problem. Ds is 13, 6’ and 60kg.

Cabbagesoupsucks I am guilty of that. I constantly stress over my 5 y/o who doesn't eat much. She looks tiny to me but is apparently 12th centile

in that case, I'm abnormally tall.

Well abnormal's a loaded word, how about outside a stastically significant range (As am I at less than 9th centile - hence my posting name!)

My 4 year old is 2st 5lbs. I’d be very concerned if he was 5st!!

I think he is pretty average tbh but we have to buy trousers with adjustable waists because otherwise they just fall down. Some of his 2-3 clothes just still fit with loads of room at the waist, they are just short on the leg now.

HaudYerWheest I am surprised you don’t need to turn age 15/16 trousers up for a child who’s 5’2 no matter what their age - my 15 (nearly 16) year old son fits a skinny fit age 15/16 trouser for school and he’s fully 6’3” tall... (and less than 9stone and a healthy BMI)

JinglingHellsBells

He’s had the Cali per test, he has 16% body fat, due to his allergies/asthma he has a dietician and also numerous consultants. NONE are worried about his weight.

No he isn’t starting puberty he is very much a 9 year old child.

My father was 6ft 4 and my husbands bio dad is 6ft 2, my husbands mum is 5ft 11

He’s just a big but absolutely beautiful kid.

See, this interests me.

I was a very overweight child and turned into a very overweight young adult.

My mum always insisted there was nothing of me, I was a growing girl, big boned, good eater etc etc.

I've seen photos. I was a fat child, she was a fat adult. Once I left home I had issues for years having no idea why I was bigger than other girls, why I couldn't lose weight etc. She was in denial, I was an overweight kid. She denied it because she was overweight too.

I weighed about 9st age 12 and she was still insisting I was a normal growing girl. God I wish she'd paid attention back then, it would have saved both of us a shit load of physical and mental issues as I got older.

I'm 5ft 3 btw.

ClaphamOmniwuss

They are about a inch too big, but not worth taking up, age 13/14 are skin tight on his thighs, but too big everywhere else.

I have a ds1 13, who is in age 11/12 clothes who is going through puberty.

My son had this letter when he was that age. It said he was obese. He is my youngest at nearly 8 and heavier than his nearly 9 and 10 year old brothers. He weighs 5 stone.
I took the letter to my GP and he told me to rip it up throw it away and never think of it again. My youngest has a very different build to the others and is broader with bigger legs, bum. He is not fat at all though and eats healthily and does loads of exercise.
My husband told me straight away to ignore the letter but I was concerned. My GP however out my mind to rest!

You must be buying long trousers or not in the UK

15/16 trouser for school and he’s fully 6’3” tall

Tbf, it doesn’t really say much, as it solely depends on body proportion, DS fits into a 30R which is a standard regular length.

To be honest I don’t think GPs are the best placed to comment. Ours said ds was wasn’t underweight - he is now tube fed because he was so underweight. They aren’t the best trained for such things in my experience and will say what is needed to get you out quickly

@titchy

I did mean statistically abnormal but I can see how people might read that the wrong way!

I think we should wear our abnormality with pride. At least I might finally be able to wear something that fits...

Our 5 years olds have all just been weighed and measured at school too .
Lots of parents up in arms after receiving letters saying their kids are overweight.
All the parents saying it's a load of rubbish etc ext but ......
The kids who received the letters are overweight and the parents just don't see it.

13 stone is awful for anyone except a very tall over 6 foot 13 year old.

^this

My 6ft DH is just over 12 stone! My 21 year old, 5ft 2 DD is just over 7 stone, 5ft 10 DS (age 16) is just about 9 stone.

Too many children these days ARE overweight but it is seen as normal.

Ignore it. I had the same letter about DC3, I threw it in the dustbin. She’s the youngest in the class and also was my largest baby so was always 99th centile. When the weigh in was done in reception she was still four and according to them, obese. She’s now almost seven and a normal weight. She was a bit chubby in reception, not in an overweight way, more she still had baby fat iykwim. That soon disappeared and she’s fine and normal now. Plays for the girls football team.

@Gilbert1A my trouble is I have 2 DC who are well below the 50th percentile (both 2-9th for height and weight) and one who is a couple of pounds overweight and that has only happened in the last few month, she was always bigger than her DSis but in the healthy range, I am not one of those parents who looks at her child and says she's healthy, she's clearly put on a lot of weight recently. But DD1 has history of not maintaining her weight (always loses weight when poorly, under a consultant for digestive issues) so is encouraged to eat full fat snacks or seconds but then I have to refuse DD2 the same thing. She is the only family member who is overweight so she's surrounded by a family culture of healthy eating and lots of exercise. I don't want her to develop issues around food if she's the only child whose intake we have to restrict. So yes, it does have to be softly softly, so e.g. birthday present was a trampoline, refuse snacks and seconds when the comparison to her siblings isn't obvious. It's not as easy as if she was an only child, or there was a big age gap or the entire family were overweight and we could change everyone's diet.