To think it’s possible for child to be overweight BMI but not unhealthy?

[NameChangedOct24]

My DS is age 8 and falls into 95th centile overweight BMI on child growth charts. To me he doesn’t look overweight, is it possible that he is still healthy despite the chart and I’m not deluded….ill try to upload a pic.

@Whoyergonnacall By the same token, the OP should treat the advice of those saying he doesn't 'look unhealthy' with similar caution. Weight is an emotive issue, and for every person who's views are skewed by an unhealthy relationship with food and a desire to be 'teeny tiny' you're going to get several who are above a healthy wright with children who are heavier, who are coming at it from their equally skewed perspective. You are correct, the only advice OP should take is from experts. They may not be perfect, there may not be full consensus of opinion, but the guidance is at least impartial, official and not emotionally driven. The OP already knows that according to official guidance her son's weight is not in the healthy range, so the opinions of lay people judging from a photo shouldn't really influence her either way.

BMI is quoted as a percentile for children in the NHS. Based on the measurements given, OP's DS is on the 95th percentile if he turns 8 today and the 92nd if he turns 9 today. The overweight range is the 91st percentile up, so he is overweight, and given he's 8 and not likely to be a professional athlete and OP hasn't mentioned any underlying health conditions, it's like that it's just plain old overweight.

Likewise, BMI is actually a pretty decent tool for most adults. I know for me the healthy range is a distant memory very broad and goes from very very slim to a weight where I'm just starting to feel ever so slightly pudgey but would kill to be again.

However, weight is just one measure of health, and OP has an active kid with a healthy diet as 8yos go. Worth keeping an eye on and slowly correcting, as we all know how tough it can be to get weight under control in adulthood, but not at crisis point yet either.

I don’t think you’re reading the chart right- 91st height and 91st weight comes out at about the 75th for bmi on the one I’ve got.

To hit the 50th centile on the 91st for height you need to be around the 75th for weight.

Its not meant to say anything about general lifestyle or health. Its a rough guide indicator for the majority of the population about their weight vs height. Thats what its provides. Used in conjunction with other measures like waist size, bloods etc its very useful.

But of course read any thread on here and everyone is an outlier.

Its also adjusted for different ethnicities as the risk factor for some BAME communities are higher at lower levels of being overweight than some Caucasians

Possibly depends on just 9 or nearly 10 and u may well be right, I was in a rush! I think I mainly.looked where it was in the middle ISH of the green zone! (i.e. healthy weight range!) I think we can agree that if height and weight plod along the SAME percentile, then the child is in the healthy weight range according to all the NHS BMI measures.

To be overweight the weight needs to be in a range above the height.

BMI is about weight and whether it is proportional to height given age and gender.

I have two boys - one was 50th centile height, 50th centile weight and unsurprisingly therefore 50th centile BMI.

The other is tallllllllll... I can't remember the exact figures but something like 98th centile height, 75th centile weight and BMI was in normal range but low end (because his weight was lower than his height curve).

Personally, I'm around 50th centile height, but my weight is above that! So my BMI skirts around the top of the healthy BMI (sometimes creeps into overweight if I let rip on the custard creams!)

I think knowing BMI is helpful.

There is so much talk on this thread about rugby players! Let's face it, very few kids who have a high BMI are professional level athletes or even club level athletes. Most kids with a high BMI are just average kids. In which case the BMI is a helpful guide to let parents know the weight of their kid has crept up and they'd b wise to do.aomething about it.

There are far too many woman on mumsnet with disordered eating. I suggest you treat their advice with some caution

Considering that in the western world, the concern is childhood obesity rather than children being too slim, I think you should also take the opposite advice, talking about sturdy and plum as desireable, with caution.

That's not true. The 100th percentile is where the 100th person would fall in a typical sample of the population, but there will be plenty of outliers. For example, we don't set the 100th centile at 8'11" which is the record height for a man, and nor do we set the 0th to allow for people with forms of dwarfism.

My son is 11 and has got same bmi- he is not fat at all. He is well built and actually quite muscular for a child (typical rugby build) - so it depends on the build. My partner is the same - muscular, 32inch waist, but only 5ft 7 so according to his bmi he is a stone overweight! It’s one way of measuring but certainly not the only factor - waist to height ratio I feel is a better indicator.

You should be able to see the ribs on a 9 year old. Unfortunately people's idea of healthy weight has been skewed by a largely over weight population.

This is an article talking about how parents don't recognise obesity in their children.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12226744

I agree. As adults we have the autonomy to cherry pick from health advice those aspects that make us feel better, more reassured, and support the choices we want to make. Don't want to diet but enjoy excercise? Feel free to decide excercise is the important part and ignore BMI. Eat clean, perfect BMI and drink a bottle of wine 4 nights a week? By all means decide that overall you're healthy enough. But when it comes to our children, I don't think we do have the right to come at it from our subjective viewpoint. If the guidance says there's an issue, I think our responsibility is to act in accordance with it, because I don't think we've the right to override official advice with our own opinion when it comes to someone else's health.

This is even the case with pets, there are posters at the vet setting out how you should be able to feel your cat or dogs ribs. Fat nation, fat children, fat pets

If OP had come on with the same level of underweight as overweight for her son, people would be pulling her apart as a neglectful parent and poor child

But because he is overweight its tolerated and advised to ignore.

My BMI is really low, but I think that's partly as I have really hollow bones/osteoporosis. I used to weigh more when I was 20 but looked way skinnier? I think with children if they're pretty active then they can still be healthy if a bit heavy. But if their eating habits are causing weight gain then eventually it probably will catch up with them when they stop growing.

Nope. There can be no such thing as the 100th percentile, because the maximum data point considered is still part of the sample space.

Anyway, it's a side-track. If a child's parent has been told their child is at the 100th percentile (which basically means the 99.something percentile) then they are obese and that's a massive concern.

Focus more on his lifestyle than his weight to determine if he is healthy

• what is his diet like?
• does he get enough sleep
• does he get an hour at least per day of exercise

Children can look chubby at times, then have a growth spurt and stretch out. Or they can look incredibly skinny but have a great appetite, eat good nourishing food but just burn it all off. I have one of each of these - oldest looked chubby but then grew and stretched out, and our youngest - the GP asked us 'does she eat' as she is all sticky out ribs. Both eat same food, with good quality nourishing meals and occasional treats, but look completely different.

I stand corrected. I just plugged weight and height given by Op into the BMI calculator and got a BMI of 94. I think I may have been thinking of where both height and weight are on the 99th centile (basically alll the outliers) where the BMI would not necessarily be 50%.

If you are feeding him a sensible diet and he gets exercise then it is likely that he will grow upwards and things will balance out over time. This often happens.

But .... being overweight can brew up problems for later in life, especially if he gets a bad diet.

The OP already knows that according to official guidance her son's weight is not in the healthy range, so the opinions of lay people judging from a photo shouldn't really influence her either way.

What the OP asked is AIBU to think it’s possible for child to be overweight BMI but not unhealthy?

The answer to which is a resounding ‘yes’ of course because he is an eight year old child. The worry is that he will continue to bear the excess weight into adulthood and middle age when weight related illnesses can become a problem. The variables are that not every overweight child becomes an overweight adult, not every slim child remains slim and not every overweight adult gets weight related illnesses.

The reality op is that bmi is a broad guide but not an exact science.

Truthfully, you will know in your heart of hearts if your DS is overweight. Does he come from a family of men who are six foot plus and tend to be broad shouldered? Or are the men five foot seven and wiry?

People are vastly different builds and, yes, bmi has a range but bodies are unique to each one of us.

To me the photo looked like a boy on track to a six foot broad shouldered, deep chested adult build. But if that isn’t either side in his genetics, a high bmi likely means he is overly heavy for his actual build. If his dad, or your dad, is that type, I wouldn’t worry.

The tummy thing people commented on is often tummy muscle tone more than chub. Plenty of little girls in ballet class can be very thin but lots of little tummies lacking tone get pulled in ( for 30 seconds!) when the teacher says “heads up, tummies in!” You don’t see that in adult ballerinas.

Truthfully, you will know in your heart of hearts if your DS is overweight.

But that's the thing, a very large number of parents don't recognise when their child is obese, never mind overweight.

People on MN are weird about BMI. Nobody I know IRL is obsessive about keeping to it, or dismissive. They know it’s a rough guide and try and keep within the range. Some are overweight and some aren’t. No eating disorders. But they don’t cite bodybuilders and say BMI is a load of nonsense either.

Weight is only one indicator of health of course. But it’s a hell of an important one.

They know full well what the family build is.

It’s a case of being honest with oneself about that.

There’s no point saying to oneself “ oh he’s going to be a big lad!” if his Dad is five foot 6 and his mum five foot 2. But some children come from statuesque families and it’s equally silly for the parents to expect them to jog along on the 50th centile.

For years I was right at the bottom end of “ healthy” on a bmi chart, but had a number of health issues, particularly circulatory etc. In the end a gp ( bless her) ssid look I know your bmi says you are healthy but my instinct is you are a “ bit light” because s lot of your issues can be symptoms of low body fat.” I put on a little and she was absolutely right: I felt so much better, my cycles were regular as clockwork all of a sudden etc etc. I’d add to that that im quite a small boned build, so make of all that what you will.

It’s something to keep one eye on but it needs a bit of intuition and context.

Same. I am 5 2 and have never weighed under 7 and a half stone other than when pregnant. I have a tiny Asian frame and I would definitely look overweight at nine stone. Someone with bigger frame would not. That’s why there is a range! I have a huge appetite and am the correct weight for me.

How can you tell their age? This is me as a child and you would be hard pushed to tell if I was 11 or 16!

Definitely look older than 11 due to the shape.

But now you'll say you were 11!

BMI isn't a great tool. BUT a lot of children are overweight these days and parents often mistakenly think their child is fine because they don't look much fatter than their peers. An 8 year old boy at a healthy weight should really look quite thin. If he looks chubby then he probably is overweight.
Also being an average height but needing an age group up in clothes size would point towards him being overweight.
And no it's not ok and not healthy, you really need to be looking at his diet and whether he's active enough. He could seem healthy now but being an overweight child really has negative health outcomes for when he's an adult. Best to get it sorted now.