Worried my 2.5 year old is overweight?

[Snaggysnoo]

He’s 2 stone 11 pounds. He’s quite tall for his age too and most people think he’s 3. He wears size 3-4 clothes.

How tall is he? How tall are you and his father?

He’s 94cm.

I’m 5’7 and his dad is 5’9. But my dad is 6’4 and one of my cousins is 6’7.

His weight on its own isn't enough information, you need to look at the centiles, weight in proportion to height and if he's jumping centiles.

He’s always been ‘big’. He was born at 9lbs.

But to me he doesn’t look fat.

DS is two and a half 93cm and 2 stone 1, he's pretty solidly built (noticeably heavier than his similar age cousin when you pick them up and taller) and very strong but you can still see his ribs/spine etc and he doesn't have a tummy to speak of.
Is your DS tracking his usual centiles or has he jumped up?

That puts his weight above 99th centile so yes likely be is overweight.

What's his diet like?

@KingdomScrolls yes my DS is very strong too, he can pick very heavy things up with one hand (things that are heavyish for me even!) I can see his ribs too.

But to me he doesn’t look fat.

Our perception of the size of children is very skewed. They should be really quote slight. Euphemisms like stocky tend to mean a child is actually fat.

Often what we think of as a normal size is a bit chubby.

@Countrygirl2021 currently he’s refusing most foods, hardly eats anything. But normally it’s cereal for breakfast or sometimes fruit and yogurt instead, but he hardly eats breakfast.
He’ll have an oatie bar mid morning (the ones you get especially for toddlers)
He’s very fussy at lunch, doesn’t like sandwiches or any traditional lunch foods, so often it’s a couple of dry crackers, some cucumber, tomatoes, a handful of raisins and some of those toddler crisps. Sometimes spaghetti hoops, but he doesn’t like bread so no toast and he doesn’t like cheese either!
Fruit or crackers again in the afternoon! Sometimes breadsticks, just dry, sometimes with hummus.
Dinner we make everything from scratch normally, but again he’s very fussy. He’ll eat peas and broccoli. He’ll eat pasta, fish fingers and pizza. But very rarely any of the nice home cooked stuff we make. I was worried he wasn’t eating enough to be honest!

He also drinks water, not much else, occasionally watered down apple juice.

My DS has just turned 2 and is 2 stone 6 and 91cm, which I think makes him the very top of the centiles or thereabouts, so he sounds very similar to your DS! Only difference is my son eats loads and I have a constant struggle with keeping his portions under control. He was an extremely chubby baby but has basically stayed much the same weight between 1 and 2 and just got taller, so I'm hoping he'll get skinnier in time!

He weighs only a tiny bit less than my 5 year old (who is 15cm taller) so he does sound on the large side. What are his portion sizes like? My DS was still quite chubby at 2.5 but then slimmed out naturally by about 3 as he started moving more. I did watch his portion sizes though as I realised we were giving him too much. Nursery were also allowing him unlimited seconds and even thirds of meals so I asked them not to give him seconds.

@Robostripes he hardly eats anything ! He’s so fussy, he just picks. I think he eats everything at nursery and sometimes seconds though. Which I unheard of at home!

@pinkywinks

NHS BMI calculator says "very overweight".
Yeah I know BMI can be inaccurate yadda yadda but it gives you an idea.

My nearly 5 year old is only a little bit heavier than your toddler. Maybe make a food diary for a week and see what they are eating written down. You might be surprised.

Maybe he needs to do more exercise rather than diet, would you say he is active?

How many days per week is he at nursery ?

My just under 5 year old is a few pounds lightee and 113cm so I would say yes he must be quite large

Gosh that seems very heavy for his height and age, have you seen a HV recently?

OP, my 2.4 year old is 98cm and 36lbs. He's around the 99th percentile for both weight and height and in 4-5year old clothes.

I'm not remotely worried. He isn't fat...he's just "sturdy", for lack of a better term. He eat's healthily, i don't give him crap, he get's the very occasional snack, portions are normal, he stops when he's full and he never sits still for a minute. It's just his build and no medical professional has ever voiced concern.

You need to plot his height against his weight on here and see if they are roughly on the same centile.
www.rcpch.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Boys_2-18_years_growth_chart.pdf

Op what percentile is he for height and for weight in his red book?

So that's about 17kg? DS was about that at 5, at about 110cm. I Def think it's worth getting another perspective on his weight from someone who can see him rather than look at numbers.

How active is he?