Underweight, Overweight, What’s Normal?

Kids grow and develop at different rates, so often it can be difficult to determine if your child is at a normal weight. A baby who is born premature and is underweight can be an obese fourth grader if they are not living a healthy lifestyle. So, instead of comparing your child to the other kids in their class, determine if your child is a normal weight based on your child’s history.

The best way to find out if your child’s weight is normal is to talk to your pediatrician. If you have been seeing a pediatrician for their whole life, and getting regular check ups, then your doctor will be able to tell you if your child is on track or not. They can also help you come up with lifestyle plans if your child is over weight or underweight.

Start eating healthy at a young age.

Usually to determine if your child is a normal weight you would need to know their age and height. You can go on line and find a site that calculates their BMI, and tells you if they are at a good weight. A good example of such a site is Kids Health.

This allows you to input their gender, birth date, current height, and current weight, and will generate a number for you of what their BMI is, and what percentile they fall into, thus determining if they are underweight, normal, overweight, or obese. Your measurements need to be accurate in order to get an accurate reading. For example, a child who is born in January of 2005, is 3 feet, 3 inches, and weighs 37 pounds in May of 2009 would have a BMI of 17.1, putting them in the 88% and classifying them as overweight. The healthy, or normal weight for this age and height is between 30-36 pounds.

If you are worried your child is not at a normal weight, there are things you can do. Try the following:

1. Get your child more active.

One of the best things you can do for your child to keep them at a normal weight is limit the amount of time they can spend in front of the television, computer, and video games each day. Numerous studies have linked the time sitting in front of these media to the amount of weight gain in children. So, instead, enroll your child in something active to fill their time. This could be a sport, karate, bowling league, or such like. The idea is to get them out and about. Then, on weekends, have fun with your family by going swimming, hiking, biking and so on. Make the weekends active and show your child that fitness can be fun.

2. Get your child eating right.

If you want your kid to be at a normal weight, then avoid things like processed foods, packaged foods, and artificial foods, and focus on getting closer to nature. Also, make it a habit to eat as a family so you can monitor what your kid is eating, and what they are not. The unhealthy foods lead to weight gain.

3. Make it a family effort.

If you single your child out and make them feel fat, or that you are picking on them, it will add to the problem, so help your child reach a normal weight by making it a family effort. Have the whole family be more active and eat better.