Reply to People treating my “big” 8-year-old as much older than she is

Forum Index » Elementary School-Aged Kids

Reply to "People treating my “big” 8-year-old as much older than she is "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]PS: I'm the pediatrician who posted the calculations above for PP's kid and OP's kid (just so you I can identify myself for multiple posts).

These categories are clearly and neatly defined. That helps for making predictions and identifying risk -- to talk about risks, you first have to talk about groups of people, and to do that, you have to identify them.

"Overweight" and "obese" are clinically defined categories. They have sharp lines. As a clinical assessment, they don't come with "buts" and "not reallys" -- the edges are precise, unlike life. That's because they are clinical constructs. They are very useful as flags to clinicians (and parents) to take a closer look at a situation, but they don't directly correlate to judgements about good and bad behavior.

We know -- and get reminded in these threads all the time -- that BMI isn't a great predictor or assessment at the granular level ("severe" obesity is different, but we are talking about the standard overweight and obese categories). But these are broad categories, and someone who is doing well can exist at those edges.

Body phenotype is so varied. You can have a child in the "obese" category who looks physically fit, who can be doing just fine even if not an Olympic athlete, and who does not need to make changes. The "obese" category is the flag to look closer at the details and think about actual risk.

- Do we have an increasing rate of overweight, obese, and severely obese children in the US? Yes.
- If a child falls into the overweight or obese category, should that prompt further assessment and discussion? Yes.
- Is the mental picture you form of a child *just* based on the fact that they fall into the "overweight" or "obese" category going to be accurate? Probably not, because the phenotype varies so broadly. (Again, I am excepting "severe obesity" from these comments, because that is a different range of the chart and not as subject tot his sort of variability.)

I do think it's fair gently to suggest that a parent check in with their child's pediatrician if they are posting numbers that calculate out to underweight (also risky), overweight, or obese. The granularity of focus with more details of a particular child in a particular context is warranted. But if that's already happening -- look, we all are harsh enough on each other, and the world has enough bullies already. Don't be a dick.

If you are worried, suggest once that there be a conversation with a pediatrician and then drop that. Past that, it's diminishing returns, and it's also pretty mean.

Regardless, please also make the effort to be correct in your calculations and in your reference to the categories. People are doing damage by being wrong, and it's so easy to get it correct. The definitions are precise and clear. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics