What's your opinion of my child's weight?

[poachedeggs]

Following my rant in AIBU the other day, I've been discussing DS's weight with a couple of friends. Their opinion surprised me.

Pic on profile, what do you think?

Looks perfect to me :)

So I suspect he registers as overweight on the NHS guidelines.

I can see his ribs fairly well in that shot. No double chin. He's obviously not undernourished otherwise. So in the healthy range.

looks normal to me too.

Looks fine to me.

There's a little bit of padding, but they use that up when they have a growth spurt. I wouldn't say he looks overweight or anything.

My eldest porked right up and then shot up and now he's a long thin streak

He has way more fat on him than my DC, so maybe that's influencing my opinion, but he does look, to me, like he has more fat on him than he needs. Not enough to be concerning, though.

Sorry, I didn't really explain my thinking. I think your DS looks perfect, but apparently we have all become used to children looking good/normal when they are in fact overweight and children should look pretty much skin and bone if they are a healthy weight. Apparently.

That's true, chipping.

apparently if we can't play their ribs like a xylophone, they're overweight.

honestly? On the chubby side of normal,

Well I reckon he's definitely on the chubby side. That pic is as honest a representation as I could get without him realising what I was doing.

The school measuring has him in the obese category.

My friends think he's fine, not even chubby

I would say he is chubby side of normal as you say, not obese tho. He will prob have a griwth spurt soon. As long as he eats healthily and gets plenty of exercise i wouldnt worry but i would keep an eye out iykwim.

He does look slightly chubby - you can see the excess under his arms. Having said that, I have one DD who is so skinny it's alarming, one DD who is probably just right, and another who has rolls!

What lynette said and the othets ate right we see that size as normal but actually yoi should be able to see ribs etc, kids are meant to be skinny/scrawny.

Compared to mine I'd say he's well padded but certainly not overweight.

But then mine tend towards xylophone ribs so my perceptions might be skewed!

No where near obese, just a wee bit chunky.

By comparison to my ds (who is skin and bones) he does look a bit chubby. But I always think that ds is a big skinny - you can see the nobbly bits on his back and easily count his ribs

I guess they are all different. When Reception DS was weighed they came up as 85th percentile which they called healthy. But it was obvious to me that he was pudgy, you could not see his ribs easily. I still see him as the child (of my lot) most likely to put on excess weight.

I think we have forgotten what is "normal".

can he run a good distance before becoming out of puff and that kind of thing? I thinklthats a better marker for health rather than weight alone

Glad I'm not going mad. They were insistent that he's a perfect weight. I've been concerned for a while that the cycling, swimming and constant bloody fidgeting don't quite negate his preferred habit of staring at a screen. We're getting quite tough about it but it's harder in winter (he's permanently in the garden during summer), and obviously the news that he's actually significantly more overweight than we'd expected is worrying.

I initially thought he was toddler age and was going to say perfectly normal. However, for a school age I would say he's a bit chunky- as others have said, you should be able to see ribs etc. we have forgotten what 'normal' looks like.

Certainly not 'obese', and I would guess he will stretch out with the next growth spurt if he's anything like my 5 yr old.

rotavirus (great name!) he cycles daily to and from school, just over half a mile up and down hill with no gears, and manages no bother. I think his fitness is ok but he's too heavy iyswim.

Honestly, he looks a bit like my DS, who I would describe as 'could do with being a bit thinner'. DH and I agree on this, but most other people say he looks fine/skinny/normal.

I would say on the chubby side. My ds measured on the slightly heavier side for his height and never had any fat in his chest shoulders or arms.

Lljkk he is 94th centile so pretty concerning.

He looks just like my ds at times. He goes like this then spurts up in height then a bit over padded then shoots up again.
I do think we are very used to larger children whereas children used to be normally beanpolesqe so we see chubby as normal.
My sons weight is a worry but I try an curb his intake now and again accordingly.
It is a concern, your ds is lovely an will be fine, you are conscious of it and aware, that's half way there.