BMI charts and percentiles - helP

[Bakedpies]

Bloody confused.
Just weighed DD, she wanted to jump onthe scales as i just did.
Potted her BMI and shes in the 99th centile and ' overweight'

Shes a tall child for her age, i had been advised by the doctor to opt out of the school programme as it would come up bad for her, but she would be being peanilised for being tall. Indeed when i alter her age on the nhs bmi calculator, to make her more in line with her height... then her BMI goes down to normal.

Plotted her on the NHS gov, red book thing ( found online and shes also just over the 99th centile for height

So her weight corresponds with her height.....

Doesnt much matter, i know shes fine and we eat well. Just knocking the xmas chocs onthe head, but, should i be worried, or is it just a thing, like the doctor says, because shes outside of adverage?

God I hope not Starball. Had an 18inch waist at 16. Don't think that's achievable now!

I didn't think the centiles were just uk babies. I thought we used the who ones now?

I just entered mine in weighing a one pound less. She came in as healthy weight. I the adjusted her height by .5 cm. she came in as healthy weight.

Can one pound or 1/2 cm really make that much difference

who thought centiles could be so interesting

Well, I just entered mine according to the College of Peadatricians Bmi calculation. My dd came in on the 72nd percentile.

So, so far she has been on the 93rd, percentile, the 91st percentile, the same percentile for height and weight (95th percentile). If i dick around with it by a 1lb or the odd cm here and there, she's in the 80's. If I enter it according to how old she looks based on appearance, then she is somewhere in low 80s .

So I give up. My dd has a Bmi somewhere between the 72nd and 93rd percentile

They're not interesting, they're annoying!

I'm also crap at Maths!

BMI does not give a correct reading unless you are an average frame IMO.

I am tall with a 'lanky' frame. I am 3 stone heavier than I was in my early 20s, yet still fit in the 'normal' weight category ( although I'm size 16). DH is slightly taller than me and a rugby prop build - stocky/large frame, big hands/shoulders/thighs/feet and very fit and sporty. He has very little fat on him but by BMI readings he is creeping into obese.

That being said, my DD is only 5cm shorter than OPs DD, is of very standard frame and weight ( not fat, but certainly not skinny), yet weighs more than 2.5 stone less.

She sounds to me like she has just followed her correct curve since birth?

Forget her age - if her BMI is fine by weight and height then it is surely fine?

Her diet sounds brilliant btw (yum!)

My ds was born on the 98th centile for height and weight, I asked his Dr if he should follow those curves or if at some point it would be a problem to be so big, she said that it would be a problem even if the height and weight correlated and he stayed on the same curve but it would be very unlikely, his weight dramatically slowed down when he started moving about and now he is on the 50th centile.

Why a problem though? The percentiles are supposed to be a range of normal. Some people are just bigger. My friend's daughter was born on 99th and at four looks at least six. She eats a lot but she is going to be extremely tall. Her dad is six foot seven. Neither are in any way fat!

Also girls grow at vastly different rates and are all different sizes. My eleven year old niece can't fit into fifteen year old clothes now. She is in no way overweight and will probably just stop growing before other girls.

Percentiles are a comparison to others the same height and sex (and age in the case of children). They are NOT a range of normal. Kids have got heavier over the last couple of generations, so centile ranges have increased. That does not mean the definition of what's healthy has changed, just that healthy now means your weight centile should be a bit below your height one.

If for instance you looked at the percentiles of children in Samoa, and your child was around 50% centile for weight but 75th for height, you might think great they're tall and skinny! In fact 75% of children in Samoa are obese and that will also include your child.

The country and percentages were made up by the way....

the doctor said there was nothing to worry about.

Just watch what she eats.

I do think that children are bigger than they used to be and that's what we're used to looking at though.

And titchy what you need to consider is that more people of 99.6 th percentile weight are overweight/obese than 0.4 th centile. Therefore 0.4 for both may be underweight and 99.6 th for both may be overweight.

Ah ok. I didn't realise that about centiles but see what you mean. I still think that in this case the op shouldn't be worrying too much atm, and glad the doctor confirmed that op.