Childhood obesity is an ongoing problem in the United States, with a steady increase in obesity cases in the beginning of the 21st century, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As a parent, you may want to determine an ideal healthy weight for your child to combat any potential problems. However, weight ranges for children vary considerably, and determining a healthy weight may require the combined use of several testing procedures.
Healthy Weight Factors
Healthy weight ranges cannot be definitively determined for children or teenagers, according to the CDC. Reasons for this lack of definition include month-by-month changes in healthy weight for both male and female children, as well as the difficulty in tracking weight changes in relation to changing height. To help you pinpoint any weight-related problems in a child between the ages of two and 19, both the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics suggest using a measuring tool called body mass index, or BMI.
Child BMI
BMI is calculated by analyzing your child's height-to-weight ratio, the CDC reports. Unlike adult measurements of BMI, which treat everyone age 20 or over equally, BMI measurements for children and teens include calculations for both gender and specific age. Reasons for adding these criteria include natural age-related changes in your child's body fat levels and differences in natural amounts of body fat between male and female children. Because of these variations in normal values, doctors measure child BMI in percentiles rather than specific numbers.
BMI Percentiles
In a given age and gender grouping, your child will receive a classification of underweight if her weight puts her below the fifth percentile, according to the CDC. With a weight that falls between the fifth and 84th percentiles, your child will receive a classification of healthy weight. With a weight that falls between the 85th and 94th percentiles, your child will receive a classification of overweight. With a weight that falls in the 95th percentile or higher, your child will receive an obese classification.
Additional Assessements
A BMI classification serves as a screening process for healthy weight and obesity, not a strict diagnosis, the CDC notes. Your child may have a relatively high age-indexed BMI without actually having an unhealthy amount of body fat. To further clarify your child's healthy weight, the CDC recommends using additional testing methods, including measurements of skin fold thickness. Your child's doctor may also make assessments of additional factors such as general health, diet and level of physical activity to obtain a fuller overall perspective and plot any necessary treatment plans.
Predicting Weight Problems
A BMI test can help you identify risks for overweight or obesity in your child's future, according to the Nemours Foundation. Specifically, in teens and older children, levels of body fat and BMI results follow closely together, and a high BMI reading can help predict high amounts of body fat. If you have concerns about your child's weight based on a BMI result, contact your doctor for further advice.
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