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Clinical Reference Systems: Pediatric Advisor 10.0
Overweight: Is My Child Too Fat?
Fatness may be normal for your child. Your child may have
inherited a somewhat fat, or just stocky, body type. Or your
child may be getting ready for a growth spurt by plumping up.
Also, you may not realize that babies and toddlers naturally
have pot bellies and chubby little bottoms.
It is important not to overreact to fatness by trying to
change the way your child is growing. Children naturally
slim down as they get older. If you try to get a child to
eat less or exercise more, you could disrupt the normal
slimming and make matters worse.
Is your child abnormally fat?
Your child may be fat, but is that fatness abnormal and
unnecessary for your child? The only way to tell if your
child is too fat is by checking her growth chart. Your
child's fatness is likely to be normal if she is consistently
following a particular growth curve. Some professionals say
children are too fat if the growth curve of their weight for
height is at or above the 90th to 95th percentile. That
guideline doesn't make sense if your child's growth has
always been at that level. Some children are just heavier
than others. They have bigger bones or heavier muscles and
more fat.
Your child may be growing normally even if her weight
climbs to a higher growth curve as long as the change is
gradual. For example, if she shifts from the 50th to the
75th percentile over a period of a half or whole year, or
even 2 years, she is probably growing in a way that is right
for her.
See Normal Growth
What is abnormal weight gain?
Sometimes children rapidly gain weight. You might see their
weight climb from the 25th to the 75th or even the 90th
percentile in one 6-month period. Their weight might, over
the next 6 months, level off, or it may continue to climb.
Rapid shifts in growth mean that something is disrupting your
child's normal growth pattern. Since it takes a lot to
change the way a child normally grows, you should find out
what the problem is.
See Why Is My Child Gaining Too Much Weight?
Call your child's physician during office hours if:
- You have questions about whether your child's fatness is
normal.
- Your child seems to be gaining a lot of weight.
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