Overweight toddler??

[Blueberrycheesecake1]

Son is 17 months, 78cm tall and 1 stone 12. Apparently he is very overweight per bmi calculator. He does have a big tummy but slim elsewhere. Doesn't eat junk food but he sometimes eats a lot. We do some times distract him to stop the eating if we think he's had a lot. Should we worry or just see what happens?

Toddlers often grow in spurts, so a single measurement won’t always be a cause for serious concern. Check again in another couple of months. If you’re still in doubt, seek medical confirmation. If your health visitor or doctor agrees that your child is overweight, chances are he’s simply taking in more calories than he’s using up. There are two things you could do: encourage more activity or change the eating.
If your first step is to change the eating, It might help to keep a food diary. Include all his drinks as well as meals and snacks.
I found that it’s more about how often they eat, rather than what they eat. He may be in the habit of eating even when he doesn’t need to. Try to cut down gradually on snacks between meals, until he’s having no more than two or three snacks a day.
When I had a rather too chunky DC, I was advised that establishing loose guidelines for how often he ate(and keeping those consistent) would bring about better results than controlling how much food he could have. If it was lunchtime, let’s say, and he was still hungry after finishing what was on his plate, he got more. If he was just randomly asking for a snack “just because,” he had to wait until it was really time to eat again. It helped establish routine and parameters without overruling the signals his body was sending.
That said, when he’s eating, try to remove all distractions such as the TV, so he can focus on what he’s doing. Eating on the go or while watching TV can lead to a habit of eating without thinking about it, which makes it easy to overeat.
Also, if he still enjoys the comfort of sucking on a bottle, he may drink more milk than he needs.

My one year old is one stone ten pounds and no one is concerned. I don't know how tall she is, but she's on the ninety-first centile across the board, has been since tiny. I think it's only an issue if the centiles don't match by a substantial margin.

According to the WHO, BMI should not be used clinically before age two.

Has your gp or health visitor brought this up as an issue? If not I wouldn't worry, just keep encouraging healthy eating and keeping him active.

Thanks a lot for the reassurance . He is very active and only drinks water. No milk apart from in weetabix. But I will try stop the morning snack as if we are at park he is too distracted to eat. I don't think I'm doing anything too wrong so hopefully it will work itself out....

My DD is 20 months and 28lb - ie 2 stone. She is very tall though. I forget exactly, but she was in the 98th percentile or similar for weight and height at her last check up and no one was concerned at all. My DH is very tall and my 4 year old DS is off the chart for height, although was always v skinny so a chubby toddler is new to me.

I honestly wouldn’t worry about it. Toddlers are meant to be chubby and they grow randomly. Their weight gain does significantly slow down too as they get older. My DS always grew taller first and was incredibly skinny and then would bulk up a bit. Looks like DD is the opposite and chubs up first and then grows taller. Don’t restrict his food or milk. Just keep an eye that he’s not eating a lot of crappy foods and that his portions are roughly correct for his age and make sure he gets plenty of exercise. It’s definitely good to be aware, but no need to restrict anything

Mines the same age and height but heavier! He's got the classic toddler tum but slim every where else and never stops moving so I'm not concerned at all. I read they are good at self regulating their food intake until about 2yo and it seems to me my DS only has what we needs rather than eating to excess. I think you just have to make sure they are having healthy balanced meals and snacks and plenty of exercise.

Thank you all! He has the usual phases with no veg but generally eats well no biscuits etc. Hes also barely eaten anything in this heat. So I'll park it until he's 2...