"He's always been on the 99th centile"

[StickerPlace]

I'm in a bad mood this morning. So I may we'll BU.

But I've seen this twice today. (Granted was on the same thread about child size)

But I feel like I've read/heard that comment so many times. But it can't be true?

Or are the 1% of parents with 99% children very keen to talk about that?

(FWIW just weighed/measured mine for new dance uniform as had a growth spurt and nothing fits and 11th centile.)

*only breastfeeding

My ds has been 50th for height and 90th for weight since they started measuring him. I've not checked since last year though so maybe that's changed. He's 8 now.

He looks like an average 8 year old so I'm not sure where he's carrying that weight. Even as a baby people would assume he's just a tiny lightweight baby and pick him up only to be surprised how heavy he was.

My ds1 was born on 99th centile for height and 75th for weight and has always followed his line iyswim. He's now 10 & in age 12 clothes for length but they are baggy on him. People do assume he's older, which is hard for him sometimes.

The thing is, when people talk about their kids it covers the entire range of babies to now adult dc, so it's not that surprising that there's a few on 90+ centiles. People also reply to posts they can relate to, so if someone is talking about a tall child people with similar experiences will reply.

I think I'd rather a 99 centile child than a 25 centil child which I have.

I'm fed up of people pointing out how small he is, that he is younger than he is, am I not feeding him enough, surely at 7 he should be bigger 🤦🏻‍♀️

His father is 6ft4 I'm 5ft3 he's probably going to end up somewhere in the middle.

Pedalpushers

I thought it was a MN trope that everyone's DS is 6 foot tall at 12yo and eats 7 dinners a day?

This made my day ,😂😂😂

@shouldistop

What I don't get about centiles as a measure of healthy weight is that as more children become overweight then surely 50th centile for instance will actually become a bit chubby? Or am I misunderstanding?

Perhaps this is why they don't change it to reflect trends, to prevent this from happening? The WHO graphs and BMI for example have been that way for years as far as I know.

The 99th centile parents are desperate to tell you about it in my experience

My 14 yr old ds is plotted because he sees the consultant and his condition can do funny things to growth. I have no idea where my dd's are because they are not measured the same.

I do know that ds has a massive head, I mention that, usually with a sigh of relief he was born at 36 weeks.

@IDontLikeMondays88

The 99th centile parents are desperate to tell you about it in my experience

Yeah, I’m often keen to point out that my DS is tall for his age. That’s partly because at 3 he’s the size of a 5 year old so he’s judged negatively anyway, but also he is being assessed for ASD and is developmentally behind for a 3 year old anyway, so I often get filthy looks and vile comments when he’s behaving like an 18 month old at the size of a 5 year old.

I know what you mean OP - it feels like people either say their kid is huge or tiny, where are all the people on the 38th or 72nd centile or whatever!

I think the outliers draw our attention because it causes comment to be outside the norm for ones age or stage. I have one kid who is between the 50th and 75th centile for height and weight, and one who is 99.6th. It never occurs to me to think about DS1's size or centile as he always fits the average sizes of clothes and shoes for what he needs, when rugby boots went into the sizes that only had laces it was fine as he was old enough by then to be able to tie his shoes.

Whereas DS2, with a size 6 shoe at the age of 7 has been really hard, men's sizes don't go that small and are laced, ladies' sizes are too narrow (and laced as well). School uniform doesn't fit either, he had to wear the prep uniform in pre-prep as he was too big for even the largest sizes. So naturally, any thread I see on here to do with size/weight/height I think of DS2 immediately as I spend a lot of time thinking about it!

My son was on the 99th as a baby but during his primary school years he has stayed on the 75th for both height and weight now.

My daughter was always on the 50th for height but for the last few years she has jumped up and stayed on the 99.6th as she is incredibly tall now, her weight used to be on the 25th percentile but as she grew it’s stayed on the 75th.

I know that one of my friends children has always been on the 99.6th percentile for height and weight but he is ridiculously tall and went into adult size clothing well before his peers.

@KneadingKitty ah ok I didn't realise they didn't change. The explanation of centile is wrong then isn't it as I'm sure the wording is comparing the weight with children of the same age. So my ds is 50th centile for weight and that should mean he's bang in the middle but if they haven't changed it for years it probably in reality means he's slightly skinnier than average which makes sense from what I can see in the playground.

It's a false impression - people are more likely to tell you if their child is on an extreme percentile. No-one is going to make a big deal of their kid being on the 42nd percentile. Also a fair amount of Bader-Meinhoff probably, it annoys you so you notice it more.

[quote shouldistop]@KneadingKitty ah ok I didn't realise they didn't change. The explanation of centile is wrong then isn't it as I'm sure the wording is comparing the weight with children of the same age. So my ds is 50th centile for weight and that should mean he's bang in the middle but if they haven't changed it for years it probably in reality means he's slightly skinnier than average which makes sense from what I can see in the playground. [/quote]
Yeah if you read the small print on the charts you will see for example that the height for girls was taken from British children in 1990.

My son used to be on the 91st centile and people always used to comment on his size/expect he was older than he was. It wasn’t helped by (1) alllll my friends and NCT group having girls, who were a bit smaller and emphasised the size difference when we were together and (2) ds being an early talker which meant people thought he was older. I did find myself having to refer to it because convos would go like “what age is he, 5?”, “no, he’s 3”, “3? Really??”, “yes, he’s tall for his age”, “wow he’s really big for 3”, “well, he’s 91st centile so quite tall yes”.

Anyway I actually measured him recently and he’s gone down to between 75th and 91st centile at 4 (I’d guess 85th) so perhaps we won’t get as many comments. DH is average height (5’11) and I’m tall for a woman (5’8) so apparently DS should end up around 6 foot/6’1.

I'm fed up of people pointing out how small he is, that he is younger than he is, am I not feeding him enough, surely at 7 he should be bigger 🤦🏻‍♀️

Believe me that doesn't change if your child is tall. People say they are too tall, older than they are, fed too much etc etc

Yeah if you read the small print on the charts you will see for example that the height for girls was taken from British children in 1990.

That makes sense, I hadn't noticed that.

Sorry, birth measurements* my eyes got jumbled up haha!

Both of my boys were consistently at the 99th percentile as they were growing up, and are now both adults over 6' tall. My daughter is consistently at the 50th percentile for both height and weight. She's only 11, I'm hoping she gets taller.

YANBU. My daughter was always between the 3 and 10th centile. I say was because I no longer look at that garbage.

Our society values tall people. Tall women become models. Tall men are desirable, women often don’t want to date men who are less than 6ft. So a tall child is seen as something to be proud of, the same as having a child that’s very clever or talented.

I’ve got one on the 21st centile and one on the 99th. It’s not that interesting to anyone else, nor it is a competition. 🤷🏽‍♀️

Mine was either -4 or 0.4 (whichever makes the most sense - genuinely can't remember! )

He was 3lb 12 but born at 35 weeks so should have been bigger.

He's still little - the smallest in his year hut in the right age clothes (which makes me think his peers must all be giants!)

I've not thought to chexk his centile once signed off by the HV

I think I'd rather a 99 centile child than a 25 centil child which I have.

I'm fed up of people pointing out how small he is

Trust me, you definitely wouldn't. 25th centile isn't even particularly small. You would not rather hear "Whoa! He/she is massive! Geez they're big! Yikes!" ten times a day.

@nokidshere

I'm fed up of people pointing out how small he is, that he is younger than he is, am I not feeding him enough, surely at 7 he should be bigger 🤦🏻‍♀️

Believe me that doesn't change if your child is tall. People say they are too tall, older than they are, fed too much etc etc

Indeed. I'm a 46yo women, 6'3, and still get asked if my parents stood me in a growbag (that you would use to grow tomatoes in) when I was little. It's fucking tiresome. As is the shock at how tall ds is. How is it a shock that our child is tall, when I'm 6'3 and dh is 6'4?