Do you have an overweight child? Want to talk about it?

[lljkk]

I plugged DS height/weight into children's BMI calculators. He comes out somewhere between 80th-90th percentile; he looks a little tubby.

He's not yet 5yo. I was a pudgy child who grew into slender adult, so am not too worried. But I am going to try a few things to try to get DS weight to plateau if not actually fall a small amount.

Any other parents in similar situation? Care to share notes?

I can't tell whether DD is overweight or not. She is 4 in 2wks, but has the body size and shape of a 2yo (short with a pot belly). Can you link to the bmi calculator for me?

I do worry about dd as she is naturally quite inactive (sits down and plays with dolls rather than charging about like ds).

Does your ds run about much?

I would also be interested in finding a childrens BMI calculator. DD is 2.7 and very active but looks a bit round. Am conscious that this is probably remaining toddler tummy etc, and I know she only has sweets and fried food very occasionally.

What brought it home was taking her to her swimming lesson, and watching a load of yesr seven boys from the local school in before us. Quite a few couldn't get out of the water without the steps because they were so heavy. It was shocking.

Lots linked to from Google.
The NHS BMI calculator is more forgiving than the American ones (has a higher threshold before it says child is too heavy). It's hard to weigh LOs accurately because most domestic scales for adults have high error margins for the relatively low weights of little children.

DS is pretty energetic, he's also a fruit fiend. I am trying to cut his portion sizes and fat intake for now, and make sure he's active on weekends as well as in the week.

How would you go about things if you were concerned about a friend's child being overweight? I just used the BMI calculator and from the details I know, she's definitely obese (she's almost 3 and wearing age 9 clothes). I'm worried about her being so big (her mum is also very overweight) but I'm really not sure if I should bring up the subject and if I do, how to go about it.

Thanks for those links...apparently dd is healthy which is good; she loves her food, but is quite happy to eats lots of healthy stuff, so will just carry on giving her piles of good stuff!

Very hard to broach that kind of subject. Could you raise the subject in general at anytime? By that I mean 'oh, so and sos kids were all measured and weighed at school the other day...it's amazing that they're doing that now for them all isn't it?' and take it from there? See how she responds. In some ways it would be hard to be more direct....but in others I feel so sorry for the little girl. There are so many overweight kids out there...and its not their fault. When they are young then only the parents can be to blame. I read somewhere that some doctors think that kids born after 1990 may be the first generation ever to have shorter life expectancies than their parents....because of obesity.

Odds are, chickenmama, that they will pick up the girl's weight at school, and the mother will be forced to face up to it then. Age 9 clothes at nearly 3 ; I knew a tubby girl who was wearing Age 9 clothes at age nearly 5, and I thought that was bad.

I guess if it were a good friend I would just ask straight out "Are you worried about your daughter's weight?" and go from there.

Thanks for the links. Turns out dd is fine too (hard to tell as she is a funny shape lol). It seems DS is underweight!

Im too scared to look at the links but my girls are both pretty solid.

DD1 is nearly 5yrs old and wears age 6-7 clothes for length as she is quite tall, but still has that toddler pot belly.

DD2 is 3.5yrs and is in 4-5 clothes, again for length, but she deffo still has that pot belly and tubby thighs.

They both eat like there is no tomorrow, but mainly snack on fruit, with an odd biscuit. Sweets are a once or twice a week treat.

They maybe arent as active as I would hope they would be, but circumstances with DHs health mean we can get out as much either.

DS is 15mnths and very tall, but doesnt seem as tubby as either of the girls.

I have never been approached about the kids weight so Im assuming they are ok, I have never been slim - ever!

Im too scared to look at the links but my girls are both pretty solid.

DD1 is nearly 5yrs old and wears age 6-7 clothes for length as she is quite tall, but still has that toddler pot belly.

DD2 is 3.5yrs and is in 4-5 clothes, again for length, but she deffo still has that pot belly and tubby thighs.

They both eat like there is no tomorrow, but mainly snack on fruit, with an odd biscuit. Sweets are a once or twice a week treat.

They maybe arent as active as I would hope they would be, but circumstances with DHs health mean we can get out as much either.

DS is 15mnths and very tall, but doesnt seem as tubby as either of the girls.

I have never been approached about the kids weight so Im assuming they are ok, I have never been slim - ever!

Maybe you could tinker around the edges, DanJM. Adjust portion sizes down a bit, and see if you can reduce fat content (like, just putting less butter on their toast! .

It's tricky for me because my other 2 older DC are scrawny, and do well on medium fat content on their diet.