Does my 7 year old look too thin? Pic attached.

[Sunbeamsandshadows]

I have severe health anxiety and find it very hard to be objective so please be gentle with me.
My dd7 is very prone to picking up viruses - always has been. Various tests over
the years have shown nothing apart from viruses
and no underlying conditions. She is petite
for age but always has been, but I can’t help but feel she looks so slim now it’s now thin not slim and not healthy looking
☹️I’m aware I do all I can to get her to eat higher fat foods but she naturally is more
of a grazer and loves vegetables and fruit and would always choose them over higher fat snacks.
this picture was taken at a pool party last
week and while I obviously can’t include the other kids there they all look so much bigger than her - not in Height but much much thicker legs and rounder bellies and just look so healthy! literally both her legs = the width of one of the other girl’s
leg.
I just wanted an objective opinion on whether I’m over obsessing and she’s fine if slim, or if you’d be querying why she’s so thin given I try and feed
her up constantly.
thank you ☺️

@Sunbeamsandshadows you've posted a picture of a child in swim wear on a public form that literally anyone can see. This picture is now in the public domain forever. Your child cannot consent to this. I understand you are anxious, but this isn't the way to seek help.

Thank goodness...someone else who actually speaks sense

It’s really not OK to post a picture of a 7 year old in swimwear and ask people to comment on her body, whatever the reasons. I’ve reported this.

@Sunbeamsandshadows

No she appears healthy normal slim

No need to worry ...

Absolutely no way she is underweight. She looks healthy to me.

I know it was a party day, so not representative, but id try and add some more fruit and veg into her diet. And maybe a vitamin tablet is she really is low on fresh food.

She looks healthy but I would be concerned about her lack of fruit and vegetables- for example why did she only have 5 raspberries? Surely she could have had more? It seem odd to count them out when it’s her only fruit and vegetables in a day

Assuming you’re genuine, why on earth would you be trying to feed her up and give her high fat foods over fruit and veg? Children are supposed to lol like this.

If I look at photos from my primary school (half a century ago) , almost everyone looked like this or slimmer. My DH claims to have been the fat kid, but looking at pictures of him he would have been completely average by today’s standards.

Don’t set your poor DD up for a lifetime of problems.

She looks normal. I suspect she is the same or higher on the who centile charts.

Are you seeking support for your anxiety?

There isn’t much fruit and veg in that day’s menu but then you said yourself that isn’t typical.

She looks perfectly healthy right now however the trying to feed her up sets off alarm bells !! I know they look tiny ( my 8 yo does) but I also remember this with her big sister and when puberty hit all of a sudden how her body absorbed food changed.

She looks fine to me. I say this kindly but I think you should stop obsessing. I'm worried she might develop an eating dosirder if you're always stressing over her body and what she eats.

Viruses also has this just been recent ?? Its actually very hard to be immune compromised due to malnourishment/ underweight

Someone else who thinks it's really strange to post this picture on here.

She looks like a normal healthy child. Around this age their bmi is naturally at its lowest point since newborn age. You can check her weight against height if you are concerned, but no, she does not look underweight.

https://www.nhs.uk/health-assessment-tools/calculate-your-body-mass-index/calculate-bmi-for-children-teenagers/

As a mother of a 14yo with life long food issues, based on what you posted as her daily food, I'm not worried.

At that age my dd would have eaten 1 small pancake, 1/2 sandwich, 2 chicken nuggets, bit of ice cream as a rough comparison.

She's fine, IMO.

I’ve reported this to ask MN to take the photo down.

OP, it’s a really bad idea to post a picture like this on a site with millions of users. I appreciate you are anxious but this isn’t the way to address it. Maybe see your GP.

Sorry op but I agree with this. I understand you're concerned and think it's ok because you blacked out her face but turn the tables and imagine somebody doing this to you??
Also, there's some awful people using the internet.
Sorry!

She looks exactly how she should. I suspect it's that the other children are a little overweight if anything. I personally wouldn't be changing to high fat or high sugar. I'd just make sure she has nice healthy balanced meals but for example if serving a yoghurt I'd go for normal yoghurt (don't give fat free) and perhaps whole milk if she drinks milk.

Yes, the other children sound overweight if they have round bellies between the age of 4 and puberty. It's not a sign of health.

A 7 year old SHOULD be lean and slim, the other children are most likely overweight, unfortunately that has become the norm and it’s skewed our perception

I think you would have been better off checking her height and weight on the NHS bmi page rather than posting a picture of her tbh. I’m not having a go btw just I wouldn’t post a picture of DD on-line than ask people what they think of her weight when I can use a free on-line calculator to check.

She looks absolutely fine.
I know it’s your health anxiety talking but please try not to fixate on it.
I was very thin growing up (due to fast metabolism- no health problems) and ended up lacking confidence as I was constantly asked why I didn’t eat more, told I looked gross and unhealthy, etc etc. People felt they could comment (and bully), including members of my own family. And even if they didn’t comment directly, I felt the judging from indirect comments/ actions (eg being ‘fattened up’). It stuck with me for life and actually caused me health anxiety as I wanted to avoid health problems at all costs, in case it validated the bullies.

Please try to get help for your health anxiety.

7 year olds are suppose to be skinny. Looking back at photos she's bigger than one of mine was at 7 and smaller than the other. Both were a healthy weight then and both are a healthy weight as teenagers.

Thank you so much everyone, hugely appreciated
and reassuring.
To those of you who have kindly suggested I get help for my
anxiety I already am, I have counselling and am on antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds. They all help but anxiety is a horrid condition that rears it ugly head and I find it hard to be objective at time which is why I turn to mumsnets as no friends IRL.

I didn’t know it wouldn’t be ok to post a Blacked out photo in swim gear, I’ve seen similar on mumsnet so just assumed it was ok as nothing explicit shown. Apologies if I have offended anyone it wasn’t my intention.

Thank you to those who suggested cutting the sugar and offering more protein. I’ll do this. I also think I do really need to be careful about not passing my concerns about her weight onto her so I’ll definitely be mindful of this, and I’ll also add in a vitamin pill. On a normal (not party) day she will eat at least 5
portions of fruit and veg so I think she’s probably getting
enough fibre but it’s really helpful to hear that just because she’s slim doesn’t mean she needs more sugar. I also agree that her friends are likely overweight so it skews my image of how she looks.
Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply and help me when I badly needed it x

This is exactly what I was thinking. In those days, the overweight child really stood out. I am probably a similar age to you and I think the main reason we were slimmer then was that we had much more exercise on a daily basis without even thinking about it - we walked to school and played out with our friends. Seventies children were generally shorter and lighter than today’s children. I was always conscious of being plumper than some of the others but when I look back at photos of myself at that age, I was not overweight at all; simply a short, slightly chubby child with a round face.

just because she’s slim doesn’t mean she needs more sugar.

Nobody needs more sugar (apart from people with diabetes having a hypo).