Almost 5yo DS1 only weighs 17kg, should I be worried?

[Kayzr]

DS1 will be 5 in March. He had a letter and form home from school today saying that the school nurse will be checking all the children. They are doing height, weight and hearing. So I decided to weigh DS1 as I had no idea how much he weighs.

The scales said 2 stone and 7lb which converts to 17kg. According to the red book that is the 25th centile.

He is quite tall(need to measure him) and he eats like a horse but he is really only still when he is asleep. He is always on the move and playing.

I am just a bit worried that they will say he is quite underweight. Or is he ok and just going to be a tall lanky boy like his Dad and Uncle?

Thanks

My ds was 5 in November, he was weighed at school just before Christmas and was 15.4kg, I think he's about 105cm. This puts hm on 25th centile for height and below the 9th for weight. He's a lanky boy just like his dad too!

After the nurse checked him we just had a letter home giving the weight and which centile he was on. No follow up or any action needed apparently.

I think they are only worried if there's a massive difference betweeen the centile they are on for height and the one they are on for weight.

I'm sure you don't need to worry

Co-incidentally, my DS, despite being average height, only weighed 35lb when he was 5, which is indeed at the 25th centile. I think the average weight for a 5 year-old boy is 42lb.

DS was definitely skinny compared to other children but I have no idea if he would have been described as underweight. It is worth bearing in mind that 25% of children are still lighter than him. With the current obsession with obesity, I doubt they will say anything. DS is grown up now, but still very slim - though also very fit and sporty.

My DS was 5 in August and he's 2st10lbs, which is 17.2kgs. He's a shrimp though.

Just weighed DD today, 5 next month. She is 14.6kg, dressed. She is about 100cm, dainty all round. She eats well, doesn't look bony just slim.

dd2 (5 next week) weighs well under 17kg. she is a dot, though.

how tall (centile wise) is he, roughly? dd2 has (post redjustment after birth) always been small - has your ds suddenly dropped down thorugh the centiles? or has he always been on the smaller side for weight?

My DS was 5 in August and he weighs about 17kg's. He is healthy, just skinny like his Dad.
25th centile is fine. Someone has to be there. It wouldn't make sense otherwise.

My son is exactly the same. He never stops eating but is underweight, he is also tall and quite petite. My nurse had no concerns apparently boys are often like this but bulk up later on

ds2 will be 4 in may. We dream of reaching the heady heights of the 25th centile, as he bumps along the 0.4th - he weighs just 12 kg. Therefore I'd say over 17kg for a nearly 5 year old is fine! Not everyone can be average.

My dd is 5 in March and she weighs 27 lbs and is 95 cm tall. She eats well, but just doesn't gain much weight. Its actually quite nice to know that there are other children that are on the smaller side. She is under the 0.4th centile.

I think he is about 110cm tall which is the 50th centile. He was on the 50th centile for weight when he was a baby. But he hasn't been weighed and had it put in the red book since he was 2 and he was just under the 50th then.

If your ds's weight is more than 2 centile lines below his height then you will be informed of this fact and given the offer of advice from the school nurse, which you can ignore if you want to. If it is less than 2 centile lines different on the charts, then they won't say anything. Or that's usually the case, I think. If your child is off the charts altogether, then they might make more of a song and dance about it!

I think they only start getting bothered if there are 2 centile lines between the two measurements, or if a child drops 2 centile lines suddenly (but happy to be corrected - I gave up taking much notice when I was ebing slated for breastfeeding dd2 at 16 months, as she was off the bottom of the charts - apparently, cow's milk would have been better for her, and more calorific )

Nothing to worry about at all. DD2 is fit as a fiddle but is of very small build. I've just checked and her weight at 5.2 was 15.2 kg and 104 cm tall. She's been on about the 5th centile since birth, but is so obviously healthy that the doctors have never been alarmed. My mother and grandmother are/were extremely small too, so it's clearly genetic. In fact, the only problem that exists is in other people's minds - we've had a fair amount of stupid comments from other mothers (and children) over the years, but I think it's made DD a more resilient person.

So long as their height and weight are not more than 2 centiles apart they are not worried. My Ds was off the bottom of the chart for a long time as a baby and he's still only just above the 0.4th centile now he's 7 but as he's only on the 2nd centile for his height and all the health professionals have said its fine he's in proportion he's just little.

So don't worry so long as you're happy with his diet and you know he's healthy that's all that matters

Expect a letter when they've weighed him. Read it and chuck it. That's what we did anyway. School nurse did suggest weighing him again in 6 months. What, after we'd fed him solidly on Big Macs and lard to make his weight match his height?

Ds1 sounds very like your ds. He was also the very image of his father at the same age, and is perfectly healthy just a skinny lanky bugger! We weren't/aren't worried about him at all, and a letter home wasn't about to change that.

My brother is 6ft 4 and weighs about 10 stone. He's 23 and has always been very tall and skinny. Also XH is tall, about 6ft 2 and I'm 5ft 8 and my mum is 6ft.

So being tall runs in both sides of his family.

I don't see why they have to weigh them really. Hearing I can understand but why weight.

I can understand

My DS was 5 in December. He is 2 stone 7lb too. His brother is two and is only 1lb lighter. My DD is tiny too- she is nearly 10 and is 4 stone.

I used to be am slim and their dad is a skinny malink.

I'm not arsed TBH. He's fine.

I assumed that thye weigh and measure so that they can create/alter the centile charts. Presumably they need to data? otherwise, where do they get their statistics from?
I declined the measuring in reception - I'd had enough 'advice' when they were little!

Unnamed DS2 is 3 and weighs the same and is about 10cm shorter. But he was over 10lb when he was born and about 7cm longer than DS1 was at birth.

I imagine he'll be overweight when he gets to reception.

my 5yo dc weighs about the same and is quite tall.
don't worry if he is alert and thriving.

That sounds fine to me, my DS was 5 in December, he's 105cm and weighs 14.5kg - I think that makes him fairly low on the centiles but I don't actually know. He's always been small-ish and slim, as long as he's eating I don't tend to worry.

Mine were all big born. Ds1 was 8.6 and 2 weeks early. He went skinny soon after that. I'm not sure on his height, he's about 106/108cm maybe?