Feature Articles Food, Fitness, and
Children
BMI for Children and Teens
By Candance Gabel, MS, RD, LD, Associate
State Nutrition Specialist,
University of Missouri-Columbia
Body Mass Index (BMI) for children and teens is not the same as
the BMI for adults. BMI for children and teens is determined by
using gender specific BMI-for-age growth charts. In children and
teens, body mass index is used to assess underweight,
overweight, and risk for overweight.
Children's body fatness changes over the years as they grow.
Also, girls and boys differ in their body fatness as they
mature. This is why BMI for children, also referred to as
BMI-for-age, is gender and age specific. BMI-for-age is plotted
on gender specific growth charts. These charts are used for
children and teens 2 – 20 years of age.
For the 2000 CDC Growth Charts and Additional Information
visit CDC's National
Center for Health Statistics.
Each of the CDC BMI-for-age gender specific charts contains a
series of curved lines indicating specific percentiles.
Healthcare professionals use the following established
percentile cutoff points to identify underweight and overweight
in children.
- Underweight BMI-for-age < 5th percentile
- At risk of overweight BMI-for-age 85th percentile to < 95th percentile
- Overweight BMI-for-age > 95th percentile
So what does it mean if my child is in the 75th percentile?
The 75th percentile means that compared to children of the same
gender and age, 75% have a lower BMI.
For children with a BMI between the 85% and 95% the
appropriate goal is to maintain their weight. This can be
accomplished by adopting healthy behaviors such as:
- Be more physically active.
- Spend less time watching TV.
- Spend less time playing computer and video games.
- Eat more family meals together.
- Eat a healthy breakfast.
- Eat more colorful vegetables and fruits.
- Drink less soda and sweetened fruit drinks.
- Eat less sweets and salty snacks.
If your child has a BMI greater than 95% he is considered
overweight. If there are secondary complications such as
mild hypertension, high blood lipid levels, and insulin
resistance from being overweight the first thing you do is to
maintain the weight. Once some of the healthy behaviors have
been adopted then the recommendation is to loose no more than
one pound a month. If your child experiences acute complications
from being overweight, such as, sleep apnea, obesity
hypoventilation syndrome, or orthopedic problems, they should be
referred to a pediatric physician that specializes in
complications of children that are overweight.
Healthy Behaviors
- Be more physically active.
- Spend less time watching TV.
- Spend less time playing computer and video games.
- Eat more family meals together.
- Eat a healthy breakfast.
- Eat more colorful vegetables and fruits.
- Drink less soda and sweetened fruit drinks.
- Eat less sweets and salty snacks.
Resource: CDC
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/growthcharts/set1/chart15.pdf
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/growthcharts/set1/chart16.pdf
Last update: Monday, August 07, 2006
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