Many children in America eat too much. Because they are growing, children do need to
consume more calories pound for pound than adults do. That said, obesity is a problem for
many children. Every child’s pediatrician should calculate and plot the BMI yearly, and
children who are overweight or at risk for becoming overweight should change their
diet.246
In adults a BMI greater than 30 indicates being obese. In children, it’s a little different.
The BMIs corresponding to being overweight and to being at risk for becoming overweight
in children change with age. Pediatricians use tables called BMI-for-age to determine
if a child is overweight or at risk for becoming overweight.247,248,249
Children and adolescents are at risk for becoming overweight if their BMI-for-age is<
greater than the 85th percentile on the tables. Children and adolescents are overweight<
if their BMI-for-age is greater than the 95th percentile on the tables.
For example, a 5 year old girl with a BMI of 22 would be above the curve, so she would
be considered overweight.
Young children have much less muscle than adults do, so it is not surprising that the
95th percentile for a 5 year old girl would be a BMI of 18, while 95th percentile for a 20
year old woman would be a BMI of 32.
The tables were developed from national surveys conducted by the CDC between
1963 and 1994. Since then children in America have gotten much heavier. However,
pediatricians consider a child today overweight if the child is greater than 95th percentile
on the following tables.
So between 1963 and 1994 5% of children were overweight. But, sadly, the percentage
of children who are overweight has tripled since then to about 15%.250
 
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