The 'children are supposed to be skinny' thing.

[ihaveadirtydog]

I think I'm getting a bit paranoid about my dd's shape and size.

She is 5.5 and short for her age. She has a healthy bmi - slap bang in the middle of where it should be but to me she does not look 'skinny'.
Her legs are quite a lot more rounded than many of her peers and she still has a toddler tummy.

However I have always been fairly 'chunky' despite also being a healthy bmi so I am not really surprised that her build is similar but can't quite shake the feeling that she ought to be skinnier.

Obv I'm not discussing this in front of her - just wondered if I should be taking any action - I don't want to be one of those parents in denial but neither do I want to pass any insecurities I have over my own figure onto her.

If her BMI is fine then she's fine - maybe she wont ever be skinny - doesn't mean shes fat.

why on earth would you want a child to be underweight as surely that's what skinny means.

dd's bmi percentile is about 20 and I am If people call her skinny. It's such a horrible word and something girls should not be aspiring to.

children should be a healthy weight yours is, mine is end of.

Steps down off soap box

I think this is a MN thing - I have never heard anyone in RL say children are supposed to be skinny, as in very thin (rather than commenting how cruel it can be of some parents to allow young children to get properly fat, usually by restricting their outdoor time and feeding them junk, which is totally different).

There are some purse lipped puritan types on MN who like to jump on any thread and insist children should have stick like legs and very visible ribs (because their kids do, and they did as a child, and they come from genetically small built families probably, and anyone not like them is doing something wrong). The same people will tell you tall children with average BMIs and tall parents are "over tall" and that this is actually the same as fat and also a sign of over feeding

Just because people write in on MN doesn't make it true - if her BMI is slap bang in the middle of normal, she is fine - otherwise the BMI scale would be different!

the stomach thing can just be all those internal organs squished up. unscientifically i see it as a sign of future tallness
dd was like that til aged 6/7 when she became a beanpole
the skinny thing is for kids 5-11 ish imo. so maybe your dd will be like that soon

Thank you-I am projecting, I know and it's not good.
My worry is that a lot of the older girls at her school are overweight and I don't want her to go the same way.
I don't feed her junk and try to make sure as gets plenty of running around but she has at least one party/ play date/other 'event' every week where there's free flowing junk. Combined with breakfast club, school dinners, after school club a few times a week there's a lot of opportunities for a less than ideal diet.

Was just going to second that the tummy is probably just her internal organs. Yes you are projecting, if her bmi is good and she is fit and healthy then she should be fine. If you are worried, could you sign her up for something like Rainbows and take her swimming or cycling more often?

I have heard people say children should be skinny in RL but I think the word skinny is pretty subjective

I think skinny is layman for low body fat? Kids don't have much naturally until they hit puberty and hormones trigger adult fat storage patterns (breasts, hips, thighs for women, stomach for men).

My Dc are not skinny. One is packed solid muscle (competitive athlete), and the younger is a taller, and therefore more slender version. Neither have much body fat, but they're not knees and ribs sticking out either as they have good muscle coverage.

Interestingly though, as they progress through school they are becoming obviously "skinnier" than their classmates. DC in yr 3 wanted to know why she was the only one in her class who couldn't make a smiley face with the -fat- skin on her belly. So I think a higher body fat is becoming more usual these days, and people are just trying to point out that it isn't necessarily how it should be...

Jilted-yes she does rainbows-from which she often comes home with a cake or biscuit she's made!