S/o size of 8yo... Yikes

[LAmom]

I kind of feel sick to my stomach seeing the sizes of boys on there! My dd is 8 and her size is comparable, but I have been stressing a bit since taking my ds 6 to the doctor the other day. (not his regular doctor and for eyes so didn't discuss weight).

 

Ready. ......

 

He is 6-1/2 and shoe size: 3, height: 51 inches, weight 77.2 pounds! :001_huh:

 

All my boys were huge at birth. Height predictor says he will be 6'4 at 18. He seems short to me but I guess all my kids are actually really tall for their ages.

 

Does obesity run in the family? Yes, indeed. We eat normal, not too strict but not like other kids (all the ones I know) eat-- juices, animal crackers, goldfish, carbs and more carbs. :glare:

 

Had to get that off my chest. We try to teach healthy options. He looks a little chubby to me but others say no. We encourage seconds at the table be the non-carb items. Guess I should encourage more exercise.

[greenvneck]

That seems perfectly fine to me, but my kids are all tall. My girls were taller than I (I'm 5'7") by 11 years old; they are now 5'9" and 5'10". My 6yo (7 next week) is 53", wears a size 3 shoe, but weighs 62. My 10yo is over 5' and wears a size 8 in men's shoes, weighs 80ish, I think. It's all about the genes.

[....]

It's all about the genes.

 

:iagree: My kids are Korean and they are very petite. Their grandparents are in the 4'10 to 5'0 range, so my kids aren't going to be giants. :tongue_smilie:

 

It's all genetics.

 

Mentioning the doctor's appointment...the emphasis that the pediatrician puts on the kids' height/weight stats really bothers me. If your kid scores too low - one of my daughters scores in the 10th percentile for weight - then, they give you the "are you feeding your kid" lecture. They don't take in consideration ethnicity of the child. We had an Asian doctor tell us once how the percentages didn't work well for Asian or Hispanic kids. She said that even the femur lengths for those two groups were different, compared to the majority of Americans.

 

I don't know what ethnicity your son is. I'm just saying that it annoys me, too. Also, they need to watch the kid's weight/height progress...not comparing it to other kids (I think).

 

All you can do is eat healthy - and it sounds like you guys already do that.

 

If you're looking for exercise, we started cycling last year and it is awesome!!! (expensive :glare:, but awesome)

[*********]

Well yeah, that's rather big for a 6 1/2 year old, according to the CDC growth charts. That puts him above the 95th percentile for height, and well above the 95th percentile for weight.

 

He'd need to gain NO weight while growing 4 inches in the next year and a half to be AT the 95th percentile for an 8 year old.

 

But none of that is to say there's something WRONG with your boy. If one of my boys had those measurements, I would try to keep his weight as steady as possible for the near future. That way, as he grows up in inches, he'll 'grow into' his weight a bit more. We'd talk a lot about healthy eating, and what things his body needs for good growth, and all that. I would NOT talk about him being overweight, needing to lose weight, worrying about his weight, etc.

 

At his age, he's still very teachable as far as eating habits. I know for ME, sometimes what I struggle with the MOST is being a good example myself. Not saying you do, too; but do take a look at what you're eating, and how maybe you can set a better example. He's a kid; he eats what you serve him, what you buy, what you keep around. You don't have to make any drastic huge change. Small changes here and there over a bit of time can make a big difference. Perhaps instead of offering goldfish crackers for a snack, offer him his favorite fruit or veggie. If he doesn't like fruits or veggies (and I know some kids struggle with that), make it a fun 'mission' to discover what ones he DOES like. Try them steamed, raw, etc.

 

Good luck mama. If he's always been big, chances are he's just big. But rememeber that the eating habits we teach them as children will be either what they struggle to change as adults, or what sets them on a good path.

[jennsmile]

Sounds like my guy! :grouphug: He is six and wears size 3 shoes and is 76 lbs.

 

We just started red light, green light, eat right, more to teach him healthy eating habits now than to lose weight. He is big boned and has huge uncles but obesity runs on my dh's side of the family.

[georgialee]

I wouldn't worry about it!

 

My 6 yo is around 50" and 60ish lbs. He's a little bit pudgy. I'm 5'6" and DH is 6'3".

 

My nephew was very overweight as a child and into his early teen years ... to the point where we thought he had a problem. Now he's 16 or 17, 6' 4" and skinny as a bean pole. It all ended up evening out.

 

After seeing that I have absolutely no worries about ds :)

[ByGrace3]

I also have been kind of stressing over this about my dd. She is about 48-49" and 63lbs. We are really working on good choices as a whole family, but obesity definitely runs in the family. However, dd is in team gymnastics and solid muscle. She works out 3 hours a week at the gym and will move to 9 hours in May. Our plan is to model and encourage good choices, we don't keep junk in the house, and encourage as much activity as possible. My parents had me on a "diet" by first or second grade, I will NOT do that to my child. There was such an emphasis on weight in my family that it became a control issue and so much more. Healthy choices, that is what we are going for.

[DawnM]

This is my soon to be 8 year old as well.

 

He is Chinese and we thought he would be small! Nope!

 

He currently wears size 8 husky jeans and size 3 shoes. He is not fat, but he is solid, just built that way.

 

In fact, when we got him, at 2.5 years old, he already weighed over 30 pounds and worse a size 4T.

 

Dawn

 

I kind of feel sick to my stomach seeing the sizes of boys on there! My dd is 8 and her size is comparable, but I have been stressing a bit since taking my ds 6 to the doctor the other day. (not his regular doctor and for eyes so didn't discuss weight).

 

Ready. ......

 

He is 6-1/2 and shoe size: 3, height: 51 inches, weight 77.2 pounds! :001_huh:

 

All my boys were huge at birth. Height predictor says he will be 6'4 at 18. He seems short to me but I guess all my kids are actually really tall for their ages.

 

Does obesity run in the family? Yes, indeed. We eat normal, not too strict but not like other kids (all the ones I know) eat-- juices, animal crackers, goldfish, carbs and more carbs. :glare:

 

Had to get that off my chest. We try to teach healthy options. He looks a little chubby to me but others say no. We encourage seconds at the table be the non-carb items. Guess I should encourage more exercise.

[jplain]

He is unusually tall, but he is even more unusually heavy. According to the medical definition of overweight kids, he qualifies. This is not a value judgment; it is just medical terminology. Try to get around the stigma of the word, so that you can communicate effectively with your child's doctors.

 

I'd be curious to see his height and weight at every birthday from age 2 on. Taking a look at where his BMI has been might give you an idea of whether he's following a shifted but typically-shaped growth curve, or whether there seems to be trouble brewing.

 

I'd also be curious to see height/weight/age data for any tall, non-obese men among his relatives. Some families really do have different "normal" growth patterns.

 

Ethnicity might be relevant as well. A friend of ours is Danish, and one of her 3 kids has had an extremely unusual growth pattern. Enormously tall, and yes, technically overweight from a very young age, even when she was exclusively breastfed (!). She does seem to be slowing down some now at age 6. Doctors in the US and another country they've lived in have been concerned, but the mom always countered that she didn't think her daughter was all that unusual by Danish standards. Someone eventually took a look at the mom's pediatric growth pattern, and it became pretty clear that the child is following the same growth curve her (now normal-sized) mom followed.

 

 

.

Edited January 21, 2012 by jplain

[Katrina J]

My ds is 6 years and 6 months old and weighs about 64lbs and is about 53 inches tall. I'm used to metric and had to convert but I think I got it right. He is not overweight or even pudgy but I was bit concerned about 4-6 months ago. During the winter (June, July, August) he was always hungry and eating and started to get a bit of a tummy and look kind of solid.

 

I did exactly as Bethanyneiz suggested above and made sure he ate healthy foods most of the time and made more of an effort to get him to be more active which was the most difficult part because he is not a sporty kid. Over the summer he has been swimming every day, the one activity he loves, and has had another growth spurt upwards this time. He really has grown into his weight - when I weighed him tonight he's the same weight as 4-6 months ago, yet he is much taller and just looks like a tall 6 yr old boy.

 

To the OP, I think it is quite possible that my ds might gain weight again and then height, rather than growing up and out at a constant steady pace. DH and I are both slightly overweight too. Genetics and build are important considerations but if you think your boy looks overweight, then now is a good time to look at food choices and activity levels because he can grow into his weight quite easily at this age, rather than waiting to see if he turns out to be an overweight adolescent.

 

Katrina

[abbeyej]

It may be that he's a kid that needs you to be a little extra conscious of the food options available to him *and* of the rigorous exercise opportunities he gets. Good thing: you live in a part of the country where outdoor play is possible year round. That's great. But he may also need some more specific encouragement -- either in the form of family activities, or organized sports (swimming, karate, gymnastics) -- in order to get enough for *his* body.

 

He may also need better food options available to him. That's not saying you don't feed your family well! But *some* kids have bodies that just aren't as forgiving to them as others. You may need to be more careful with him (and the whole family -- I wouldn't single out a particular kid for dietary changes, but make them family-wide).

 

It may seem overwhelming, but slowing his weight-gain now (you don't need to put him on a diet to *lose* weight!) while he grows and catches up will be *SO* much easier (on you and on him!) than dealing with obesity later on. ... He's *not* in a terrible place right now. But you do have warning signs. Take action now, while it's still a relatively minor issue.

[Mommyof4ks]

I kind of feel sick to my stomach seeing the sizes of boys on there! My dd is 8 and her size is comparable, but I have been stressing a bit since taking my ds 6 to the doctor the other day. (not his regular doctor and for eyes so didn't discuss weight).

 

Ready. ......

 

He is 6-1/2 and shoe size: 3, height: 51 inches, weight 77.2 pounds! :001_huh:

 

All my boys were huge at birth. Height predictor says he will be 6'4 at 18. He seems short to me but I guess all my kids are actually really tall for their ages.

 

Does obesity run in the family? Yes, indeed. We eat normal, not too strict but not like other kids (all the ones I know) eat-- juices, animal crackers, goldfish, carbs and more carbs. :glare:

 

Had to get that off my chest. We try to teach healthy options. He looks a little chubby to me but others say no. We encourage seconds at the table be the non-carb items. Guess I should encourage more exercise.

 

My 6.5 yr old is 51", wears a sz 3 shoe, and he weighs 49 lbs. He is stick thin, but so far the pedi is not worried. Your son seems normal to me, but then all of my kids are tall for their age.

[kiwi3129]

Mentioning the doctor's appointment...the emphasis that the pediatrician puts on the kids' height/weight stats really bothers me. If your kid scores too low - one of my daughters scores in the 10th percentile for weight - then, they give you the "are you feeding your kid" lecture. They don't take in consideration ethnicity of the child. We had an Asian doctor tell us once how the percentages didn't work well for Asian or Hispanic kids. She said that even the femur lengths for those two groups were different, compared to the majority of Americans.

 

Both of my children were adopted from China. DD8 (adopted at 10 1/2 months) has always been in the <5th percentile for height and weight. DS7 tends to stay around the 25th percentile for height and weight. Every year at dd's well-child visit there is a big discussion about her being so low on the growth chart. Our pediatrician is Chinese-American, so you would think she would understand that my kids are probably not going to plot well on an American growth chart.

[Truscifi]

Ds8 is going through a growth spurt and has filled out a bit weight wise (which usually means he will shoot up in height again soon). Normally he is in the 90th percentile for height, but only the 50th for weight. He looks thin as well. Several people over the years have commented that we should do more about that, that he is underweight. :glare: Our ped says not to worry about it because it has remained consistent for many years, indicating it is just his body type. He is just tall and skinny.

[eternalknot]

My six year old is 4'3" and weighs ~60lbs.

 

I'm petite, and was into double-digits before I hit either of those marks. I'm Asian, she's ... like her dad!

 

She's solid and strong, built like a tank! Her feet are smaller, though, size 1s.

 

She shares clothes with her similarly sized ten year old cousin.

 

She's like the Khloe Kardashian of the family LOL.

 

Signed,

She Who Stayed Up Late Last Night Watching Bad Reality TV

[JustGin]

I'd have to go back and look at the record for my almost 14 ds, but he's always been in the 98+ for height and around the 95th + for weight.

 

Here's the thing that really makes me mad - warning, vent. I think the whole BMI thing as a measuring tool is bogus!!! It can not be a good indicator all by itself, of healthy weight because it does not tell you what the mass consist of! In my dc's case, they are all very, very large framed. They have really big bones and that is not just a mom trying to excuse fat either. Both the long term pediatrician they had (who retired) and the ped that followed (who also retired) would always look at their growth charts and evaluate them based on the pattern over time. Both told me that a fairly consistent difference between weight and height for the individual child is better indication of healthy growth. So, when my big boned girls went on ADHD meds and hit puberty and subsequently got very thin, for them, the ped, rightly was concerned about the weight loss because it wasn't healthy FOR THEM. If she had gone by the BMI, they would have always been "at risk" for obesity. See what I mean.

 

Fast forward to the first visit with a new ped this summer. Young, brand spanky new doctor, looks at the BMI thing and expresses concern that all three of my kids are "at risk". We left the office with my thin, for them, kids, thinking they were fat! At the next visit when the subject came up, I politely pointed out the fallacy with the whole BMI as an absolute measure thing and how risky it is to give a teenage girl the idea that she's fat in this day and age, unless that's really an issue, which it OBVIOUSLY is not, ect.. Happily, the doctor listened respectfully, acknowledged my points and even admitted that she, being Asian has always fallen on the opposite side of things, being told she's too thin by the BMI.

 

All that to say, there are a whole lot more factors to take into consideration when deciding a growing child is obese, or at risk for obesity. So take a deep breath and relax. Chances are your boy is fine. :)