WAG Weight v height - is this normal?

[LucysMom]

DD trains 9 hrs per week and is 20th percentile in height and 50th in weight. She has 6 pack abs and also does running and softball. Her pediatrician says this is OK considering DD's activity level and obviously low body fat. We live in the US and we opt out of every medical screening at school for our children. We started that when DS got a fat letter a couple of years ago .... this made us and our pediatrician laugh because DS is scrawny!

 

[juststartingout]

We get those letters too here in PA. I'm glad to hear we can opt out, I'm going to make sure to do that this year. I always get one saying my gymnast is at risk of being obese, she is short and solid. I have a feeling I'm going to be getting the too skinny letter for my 5yo this year.

 

[Uglybetty]

Margo please share the yogurt brand as I need to up daughters calcium in a healthier way (she loves those corner yogurts a bit too much). She stopped drinking milk years ago (inherits dislike from me), wont even drink the milk shakes. I currently give her a supplement just in case.

I think all the good food/bad food lessons they have had at school have increased unhealthy body awareness amongst young girls. She was only 6 the first time she pointed to her thighs and said they were too fat (she was on 23rd percentile at time and wearing a size below her age). She is conscious that gymnastics is changing her body but I showed her a clip of the young hannah wheelan (her body at that age is very similar) and pointed out that she needs her six pack and tight legs to perform the skills she's learning.

In our town - which is know for being image conscious - young girls tend to either be (a) stick thin -uk size 4-6 is common (b) heavily overweight. I spend a lot of my time re-educating her that neither is necessarily healthy and that being "thin" (which her friends consider ideal) does not always equate to being "fit" or "strong"!

 

[Jenny]

I think all the good food/bad food lessons they have had at school have increased unhealthy body awareness amongst young girls. She was only 6 the first time she pointed to her thighs and said they were too fat (she was on 23rd percentile at time and wearing a size below her age). She is conscious that gymnastics is changing her body but I showed her a clip of the young hannah wheelan (her body at that age is very similar) and pointed out that she needs her six pack and tight legs to perform the skills she's learning.

In our town - which is know for being image conscious - young girls tend to either be (a) stick thin -uk size 4-6 is common (b) heavily overweight. I spend a lot of my time re-educating her that neither is necessarily healthy and that being "thin" (which her friends consider ideal) does not always equate to being "fit" or "strong"!

I don't think the lessons at school have increased unhealthy body awareness. At school we tend to find early body awareness comes into the class from a child with a high school sister who has become very body/ fashion aware. It can spread between friends within the class then. As far as I know schools would never say any food was a bad food. They would focus more on healthy (eat lots) and less healthy (have as a treat) foods.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

@Uglybetty I like Yeo Valley, but this time I bought Activia Greek Style, full fat

 

[MaryA]

My girls are twins (fraternal) and my gymnast is a good bit heavier than her sister... some from muscle and some from the fact that she is further along in the "growing up" process than her sister (so much for gymnastics delaying puberty). Last year my gymnast's BMI letter arrived in the mail several days before her sister's did. Her weight was down about 8 pounds from when she had been to the doctor only a couple of months before. I was seriously concerned because a growing, active pre-teen should not have lost 10% of her body weight in a few months. I sent an email to her HC asking if she had noticed that she was looking thinner (figuring that she saw her in a leo a lot more than I did), was worrying about eating disorders, etc. I called the school and asked them if they would re-check her and it turned out that they had mixed up the names on the reports. The information on that report was her sister's info. So there's yet another downfall in the system... the reports can be just plain wrong and can cause unnecessary worry.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

i just don't know how past generations, and including mine, made it in to adulthood.

 

[cbifoja]

i just don't know how past generations, and including mine, made it in to adulthood.

It was all of that walking to school uphill both ways in three feet of snow that you all did.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

It was all of that walking to school uphill both ways in three feet of snow that you all did.

lol, you're right. except the uphill was 3 miles both sides and 4 feet of snow.

 

[profmom]

I usually take mine all to the pediatrician on the same day, but a few years ago I had to split them up. The oldest is a very different build than his sibs and always has been, and I brought him in alone. The pediatric nurse chided me about his diet because he's up there on the BMI chart (soccer player who can play both halves of a 90 minute game as a striker). Two weeks later, she praised me about the diet she presumed for the other two string beans based on their BMIs. I said, completely deadpan, "Huh. Odd since I am feeding them all THE EXACT SAME MEALS!"

I told the soccer player that next time, he can ask her to come outside and do some wind sprints with him.

 

[emorymom]

My husband was a defensive linesman in American football (just D2 in college). His BMI is obese. He's far from it. Yes he's prone to gain a little fat, but he also eats mostly paleo and goes to CrossFit where he regularly tops the leaderboard. He switched to CrossFit after spending several years cycling about 200 miles a week at breakneck speeds. He regularly cracked the frames of $2000 bikes because he used too much torque. His doctor sees him about once a year and regularly tells him to exercise more. I remind her that if he exercises more, he will probably keel over.