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Me Saying Obese is Not Body Shaming
Your doctor is NOT body shaming you. A good BMI calculator. Treating heat rash. How to save $88 bucks on labs. A counting conundrum. And, pitch this helmet in the trash.
This week: Your doctor is NOT body shaming you. A good BMI calculator. Treating heat rash. How to save $88 bucks on labs. A counting conundrum. And, pitch this helmet in the trash.
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Me Saying Obese is Not Body Shaming
One of my responsibilities as a pediatrician is to ensure a child is developing and growing at a healthy rate. Part of that is, obviously, measuring height and weight. And in the world of medicine, we have specific terms that are used when categorizing a child’s body mass index (BMI).
Here’s the chart, from HealthyChildren.org:
BMI percentile range | Category |
|---|---|
Less than 5th percentile | Underweight |
5th to 84th percentile | Healthy weight |
85th to 94th percentile | Overweight |
At or above 95% percentile | Obese |
So, when I tell a parent that their child is “obese,” I’m not trying to use an “offensive” term. I’m not body shaming. I’m simply using the actual clinical language the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has defined.
Use this BMI Calculator
All medical professionals use a calculation to determine a child’s BMI. BMI is a simple mathematical calculation using only height and weight. It isn’t the end all. It’s another point of data, along with a whole host of other factors, that a pediatrician will use to help determine overall health. Here’s an easy calculator from the CDC so you can calculate your own child’s BMI.
(I can’t embed this in an email, so you’ll have to click on the image/link below to access the CDC link.)
