Does This Mean My Child Could Be Overweight??

50th percentile means she weighs less than 50% of kids her age, and she weighs more than 50% of kids her age, shes exactly in the middle, exactly average. As far as the height only being 30th percentile, it just means she might be short, like you as you say you are only 5 feet tall.

Hi Amy - I think everyone offered great advice & explanations here! I thought I would just add one thing, the goal should be to keep your daughter healthy, so in addition to having her eat healthy, wholesome food, I would make sure she is getting exercise too... this doesn't mean a hardcore workout! It just means fun, 4 year old kid acitivity - playground, jungle gym, running around with friends, etc. It's a lot easier to promote healthy activity in kids when they are older, if it's all they've ever known, like a natural part of life. And the goal of the exercise isn't weight, it's a healthy heart & strong body :) Good luck!

Your daughter is FINE! Don't worry and please don't let your daughter know you worry about her weight. You don't want her to grow up with a complex. Your pediatrician will let you know if she does start getting overweight.

Hi Amy,

I wouldn't be concerned. At my 5 yo old daugthers check up she was 42" 42lbs. :) Nothing to worry about especially when they are not visably "overweight." As for the percentile thing, it's just a number...believe me, it's more confusing and worry some than it's worth. If your pedi is letting you know all is well and you as her mother know all is well, then just go with that... :) take care

Relax... The percentile thing is just a tool to make sure your child is growing appropriately. Keep your child actively involved in the things a 4 year old should be doing, limit television and junky foods and she'll be fine - exactly where mother nature wants her to be! I, too, used to get stressed over the whole percentile thing.... I have one child in the 97th percentile for height! Take care!

what the percentile means is that she is taller than 30% of children and weights more than 50% of children her age. My daughter has always been in the 30th percentile for height and weight, but I am only 4'10 so I know she is growing fine. If you look at your child's growth curve, you can see how she is growing. Since my daughter has always been growing, I am not worried that she is underweight or not thriving, she is just small. My daughter is about 30 pounds and 33 inches I think. and she is 2 1/2.

Amy, trust your pediatrician.
If he/she says the child is fine, then guess what? The child is fine. Ask your ped to explain the percentile thingy.
It is like any average, from one extreme to the other. That means 30 children out of one hundred are the same height as your little girl, and 50 out of 100 are the same weight.
If she tends to be a sturdy girl, then that is what she is.
Please dont let the Barbie syndrome mark her.
And what, you wont love her if she is a plumpkin? Some are you know.
I did not weigh forty pounds until I was six years old.
I had a little girl that weighed 24 pounds when she started kindergarten.
Everyone is different.
It sounds as if you are doing everything right dietarily. So relax. If you continue stressing about this she WILL pick up on it eventually and wonder what is wrong with her.

Best wishes and God bless,
Grandmother Lowell

She is fine...I am a mom of 3. My middle girl will be 5 in a couple of weeks and is 45 lbs. If your daughters weight percentile was near 100, then the dr might discuss her eating habits with you. But absolutely don't worry. She's not overweight at all.

Your daughter is right on track! 50th percentile means she is as "normal" as it gets! A lot of parents think, "50th percentile, that means my daughter is heavier than 50% of her peers!" Think of it this way, your daughter is lighter than 50% of her peers, too! And anyway, she's a growing girl, so these things will fluctuate,and her ultimate weight and happiness in life have little to do with these statistics. I had a friend who was something like 95th percentile for weight. She was heavier as a kid, and she didn't get all the positive attention the skinny girls got, but she outgrew her baby fat and now she's an undeniable knockout, and it's just where her body settled.

I think your doctor would have told you if there was anything you should be changing to make her healthier. Sounds to me like she is doing great!

Hi Amy,
She is fine. 50th percentile means if you looked at 100 little 5 year old girls she would be perfectly average for weight. And same thing for height out of 100 kids she is just below the average. I understand your concern, but you have nothing to worry about. Sounds like you are doing all the right things.

Hi Amy -

Believe me when I say, I can truly understand your concerns. I was not like you, I was always on the heavier side myself and have struggled with weight my entire life. Even been sent to Weight Watchers at age 10 because I wasn't skinny like the rest of the kids (I was probably what they would say is the 75%...but in that time... that was fat, even to doctors).

There is a great book out there that helped me understand my own daughters weight. It is called "Your Child's Weight: Helping without Harming" by Ellyn Satter. It basically has you look at your childs percentiles from birth. If she was in the 50% at birth and then continued on the same path...then for the most part that is where she should be. If you start to see real major spikes in the percentile from when she was an infant, then maybe watch the juices and high corn syrup snacks.

But 50% is fine. Also, one thing that my pediatritian said to me (because I asked about my daughter too!!) is that at the age of 5 sometimes the weight goes up a little bit and then all of a sudden they shoot up in height (the height catches the weight!)... but I'm still waiting for that one too!

Good Luck.
L.

Hi Amy, your daughter's growth and weight are fine, her percentile and all are good. A good way to understand this development is to see if she continues the same trend - that is, the same percentiles (more or less) for height and weight. If anything changes drastically, try to understand why and how to correct it if it's bad. Continue to expose your daughter to healthy foods, fruits, and vegetables and see that she has a healthy lifestyle. Which it seems like you do anyway, so that's good. That's the most important thing in assuring that she "stays a kid." Letting her run around and play, getting into sports, dance, martial arts, whatever she likes. Good weight and health are a lifestyle and an attitude as much as heredity.

Hi Amy,

I don't think you have anything to worry about at all. Basically, out of every 100 kids her age, she is taller than 30 of each 100 of them, and is exactly perfect at 50%, being exactly in the middle, not the smallest or the biggest. Honestly, I think the height and weight scale needs to be updated, becauase I think there are much bigger kids these days.

All 3 of my girls seem to be getting bigger as I have them. My oldest daughter turned 5 in July, and only weighed 34 lbs, and was 40" tall. She fell in at 10% in height, and 5% in weight. (I also worry about her weight, only I'm trying my darnedest to put some padding on her little body instead. No matter what I do, though, she will only eat unil she's full and I don't force her to eat more, except maybe "3 more bites". The doc has reccomended that I try to get her to gain weight, but I can only force so much upon her.) My 2.5 year old weighed about 32 lbs abd was about 36.5" tall at her 2 yr checkup. She was border line heavy, but because of her height, doc says she's fine (she's 95% in height and 90% in weight). Seven months later, she is almost as tall as her 5 yr old sister, and wears the same shoe size...9. My 13 month old weighed 20 lbs and was 31.5" tall at her 1 yr checkup. She's even taller than her 2 year old sister was at her age (97% in height) but is skinny like her oldest sister (50% in weight). Overall, all kids grow differently. I was and have always been "thick". I can lose weight, be in good shape and weigh as much as my shorter (older) sister, but I still look a lot bigger because of my frame. I imagine my 2 yr old will be like me, but much-much taller than me (I'm 5' 4"). Their dad is the skinny tall one (6' 3") and he's the "runt" of his family of brother, dad, and uncles. I imagine my oldest and youngest will be bean poles just like him.

As long as you feed your daughter healthy foods, and she's not just sitting around watching TV, I think she'll be fine. In fact, it sounds like she's perfect. :o)

Mari

As long as your daughter is eating healthy and is active. There is nothing to worry about. Keep her away from high fructose corn syrup and Tranz fats. Good luck your doing a good job
D.

Since she was a baby my daughter was in the 75th percentile for height and weight.....she was always healthy and just fine for herself. The percentile is just a comparison to average height and weight for all children. AS she continued to grow her percentile went up but the doctors were not concerned because she always feel above the 50th percentile (If she had jumped from say the 30th percentile to the 75th in a year they may have been more concerned). Anyway, she is 8 now and while not "overweight" she has a high BMI - a term you will hear when your child gets older and one you are probably familiar with.....this is concerning but we are working to fix it and it has already gone down in the last 6 months.....anyway the point is your daughter is fine....if her weight becomes a concern the pediatrician will let you know - right now you just have a daughter who is taller and consequently heavier than the "national average" for her age.

My 4 year old is 63 lbs. He's very tall too but definitely built like a little football player. I wouldn't worry too much about your daughter. Remember that sometimes kids bulk up right before they are going to have a growth spurt. Good luck and remember that if your doc thought there was a problem, he'd tell you for sure!

my pediatrician made it clear that the purpose of tracking height/weight in terms of percentiles is to track growth over time for each child as an individual, not to compare to other children. While they watch a bit more closely if your child is at the very bottom, or off the charts on the high end, the real importance is tracking your child's growth, so those numbers are only important to compare to your daughter's past and future numbers. For example, she may grow in height by her next visit, but say most kids grow faster in a certain interval than your child, and she drops into a different percentile over a visit or two- they might look into that a little more closely.

Hi Amy,

I don't think you need to worry about obesity in your daughter. As long as you continue to give her healthy food and are careful about when and how many junkie snacks she has, you and she will be just fine. Sound to me like you're being a good mom!

I think 30th percentile means that for a group of 100 children, 29% would be shorter than she is, and 70% would be taller. So for the weight, that would mean 49% would weigh less, and 50% would weigh more than she does.

H.

Hey amy I woulnt worry about it if shes in the 50% for wieght and the 30% for hieght it just means shes a lil short and shes the right wieght for her age. If your really concerned about it cut her down from whole milk to 1%. Thats what my doctor told me to do wth my oldest when he was around that age.

Hope this helps.
L.

50th percentile is exactly in the middle, or "average." In lamens terms, that means that your daughter weighs less than 1/2 the children her age, and more than 1/2 the children her age. This is certainly not a concern at all, if anything it should reassure you. And don't base everything on numbers - go by weather she's healthy or not, which she obviously appears to be. The doctor's need to use some type of baseline, which is why they use the percentile data.

No, she's not overweight! The percentages just mean where she fits compared to everyone else - and with kids, you never know whether they're going to get their height first, their weight first, and so on. Growth patterns vary from child to child. Don't worry about it so much, for your own sake. You're doing the right thing. "Everything in moderation" is a good philosophy when it comes to food, snacks, and so on. Kids who eat all high-fat junk foods obviously don't do well, but kids who are totally regulated don't learn how to make choices or function when temptation is in front of them, and they wind up lying and sneaking foods. If you are giving her a variety of foods, it's not really going to be a problem about being a "huge eater" - she's getting enough. Remember that there are healthy alternatives to less nutritious foods such as whole grain breads and pastas, brown rice, low fat meats, and so on.

Good luck!