In news - recommended weight range of a 4 yr old is 2st1lbs-2st9lbs

[ahhhhhpushit]

Sorry it's a DM link

www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2093631/How-boy-labelled-clinically-obese.html

They've been told he is clinically obese!!

My 15 month old is 2st 2lbs!!!!

Oh my god!! This cannot be right, surely.

I imagine he is going to put on rather more than 7lbs in the next 3 years.....

hear hear GwendolineMary. What a stupid-arsed comment. BMI is actually a very blunt instrument because it takes no account of body shape or underlying build. My daughter has an enormous head and always comes out high on the BMI scale despite being actually skinny. I am fully expecting to get one of these letters about her in due course despite her shoulder blades like razors and her knobbly knees!

Gwendoline it's not a stupid comment. If mum is overweight herself she won't necessarily see that her child might be.

As a society we have a skewed perception of what a normal healthy weight is and how that should look - at both ends of the spectrum.

Sorry but it really is. Overweight doesn't mean can't see or can't understand basic facts. If anything, being overweight yourself is just as likely to mean that you worry overly about your children's weight because you don't want them to have the same problem you have as it is to mean you just don't see it.

This little boy is quite small, height-wise and iirc those celebrities who counted as obese (Brad Pitt I think was one) are not tall, relatively. That's what I mean about BMI being a blunt instrument.

margo of course BMI shouldn't be used in isolation - it's just numbers on a page and should be used as a tool, as a starting point.

But in my professional experience most (not all, most) overweight parents did not accept or see that their overweight or obese child was overweight or obese. They thought it was normal for children to have double chins, podgy tummies, thighs that touched all the way up, to need clothes for children twice their actual age that needed taking up but not in.

I'm not saying that the boy and his mum fall into this category at all but if you received a letter like that about your child, would you run to the national papers or make an appointment to discuss it further? If you had concerns about their weight I imagine it would be the latter.

He looks chubby and his mother is overweight.

My dd has also been high on the BMI scale - though she is SOLID rather than fat and always was - even as a baby. She is tall and her legs have never been skinny - I always say she has a tennis player build ifyswim. I am fat and certainly would not be in denial about it - in fact I go out of my way to ensure she eats properly and gets lots of exercise. Now she is 7 we are trying our various sports to see if she can find one she loves.