| overweight or at risk for overweight:
The body mass index
(BMI) and BMI-percentile-for-age do not directly
measure body fat. As a result, although the vast
majority of children with a BMI-percentile-for-age
over the 85th percentile have too much body fat, very
athletic kids, particularly very active althletic African-American
teenage boys, can have a high BMI-for-age due to extra
muscle mass, not excess body fat. Therefore it's important
that children with a BMI-percentile-for-age
over the 85th percentile be evaluated by a
health professional.
The CNRC has some excellent resources
for parents concerned about their child's body weight,
including Helping
Your Child with Successful Weight Management (also
in Spanish), Healthy
Eating articles, a Kids'
Energy Calculator, and links to Childhood
Obesity resources on the internet.
If you suspect
a medical condition is causing your child to be underweight
or if you suspect your child is developing or has an
eating disorder, consult your child's physician. |
underweight
or possibly at risk for underweight:
For very thin children who are growing and developing
normally, eating a healthy diet, and are active and
energetic, having a BMI-percentile-for-age below the
15th percentile should be considered normal -- some
children are just thin.
However,
if a child has stopped gaining weight or has recently
lost weight, has diarrhea or vomiting, poor appetite,
a severely restricted diet, and/or low energy
levels, a low BMI-percentile-for-age could signal
a medical problem or an eating disorder that deserves
attention. Children developing
eating disorders also tend to voice concerns
over age appropriate weight gains or feel a need
to lose weight, have a poor self-body image,
exercise excessively, and girls can lose their regular
menstrual cycle. Although more common among girls,
eating disorders can also affect boys.
If you suspect a medical condition is causing your
child to be underweight or if you suspect your child
is developing or has an eating disorder, consult your
child's physician. |
Tracking Your Child's Weight :
Plotting a child's
BMI-for-age on the appropriate CDC growth chart (see
charts on right) can alert parents to early signs that
their child is gaining weight too fast, enabling them
to help their child avoid developing weight problems
by making small changes in their family's diet and
physical activity habits. According to Roman Shypailo,
a CNRC body composition expert who developed the calculator,
parents who plot the calculator results should watch
for significant "drifting," either up or
down, in their child's BMI-for-age percentile over
time.
To track
of changes in your child's BMI-for-age:
- Click on the appropriate growth chart below to
open a full-size, full-color chart suitable for printing. Plot
the BMI Percentile number obtained from the Calculator
against your child's age on this chart.
- About every 6 months, return to this page to recalculate
your child's BMI Percentile and plot these new points
on the chart.
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