The other day I took my youngest for his 3.5 year old Maternal Health Visit, where they checked whether he’s meeting milestones for his age. Thankfully all is normal and he’s meeting his milestones – the only “problem” was that The BMI Charts say that he’s technically obese. This gets me angry for a number of reasons and in this post I’ll share them with you.
I’ve always had a problem with the BMI Charts – I’m 5 foot 4 and my Husband is 5 foot 3 – we both have broad shoulders and are genuinely big boned – and since bone is dense and contributes to your weight we have ALWAYS been in the overweight/obese category. In fact if either of us were in the healthy weight category we would likely be gaunt and worryingly sick.
So, genetically our kids didn’t have much of a chance of being tall – so at their 3.5 year old checks when we found out they were in the 3rd and 25th percentile we weren’t surprised. Both their weight is average or a tiny bit above average for their age BUT because of their shorter stature they are both considered to be OBESE on those ridiculous BMI Charts. And, on both instances I was lectured about watching my kids weight – and told to limit their sugar, milk and increase the exercise they do.
It just makes me so incredibly angry – that it’s likely for life the kids will be told they are obese/overweight in medical examinations because of what the charts say. But, when you actually LOOK at them, look at their diet and look at the amount of activity they do, you’ll realise that the OBESE label just does not fit with them. I’ve put together a collage of recent photos of them above and you can clearly tell they are both happy, healthy children and don’t look “obese” in any way shape or form.
What makes me even more livid is that other parents in similar situations, with healthy children in every other way, end up being pressured to put their young children on diet just because the charts say they are obese.
I will not be changing my children’s diet one tiny bit. They both eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, they eat healthy lunch boxes, love their protein, dairy and my 3 year old has NEVER eaten McDonalds or other similar fast food. (His older brother did a few times when he was younger, before I knew better!) We don’t keep junk food in the house, we rarely eat out at restaurants, I cook virtually EVERYTHING from scratch. So, as I said – there’s no need to make our diet any healthier.
As for activity – we enjoy many hours a day outdoors (weather permitting) and the boys love riding their bikes, playing tennis, playing at local parks and even running around the tracks at parks. I limit their screen time and they have very little “static” time each day.
As I mentioned above – what I’m most concerned about is how other parents react to being told their children are obese, according to the charts, when they clearly aren’t, and they subsequently take action to try and make their children unnecessarily lose weight. So, please if you know of a friend or relative who is in a similar situation – forward them this post to re-assure them that THEY are the parent and ultimately THEY know what their child eats on a day to day basis and how genuinely healthy they are.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject – BMI Charts Say: These Kids Are Obese! Do you Agree? Please share your thoughts in the comments – and I ask that you please be respectful – any nasty comments will be instantly deleted.
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