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0518 MAY APS
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baby
bmi
understanding baby's weight
by malia jacobson m ichelle reich had no concerns about her firstborn daughter?s weight. her seven-and-a-half-pound newborn, hannah
, had quickly blossomed into a healthy, precocious toddler with rosy cheeks, sparkling hazel eyes, and dark-blonde curls. true, hannah was larger than some of her peers, but that seemed like a positive sign, says reich. ?she elicited coos of ?what a yummy baby with all those rolls!?? she says. ?i had no reason to believe her weight was anything but an asset.? but at hannah?s two-year checkup, her doctor seemed to disagree. she got right down to business, replaying hannah?s height and weight stats with a critical pause between the two: 75th percentile for height, but 99th percentile for weight. not off the charts, but almost. then, a pointed question: ?is she active?? ?it felt like a thinly veiled accusation,? reich says. ?it was the first time i felt like i had to justify her weight.? reich le? the visit with a chart listing hannah?s bmi as overweight and a looming worry: did hannah?s adorably so? arms and rounded belly signal future weight worries? should michelle be watching her calorie intake? it seemed crazy, she recalls. ?i kept thinking, she?s two!? nobody wants to be hassled about their child?s weight. and judging sweetly squishy thighs and chubby cheeks by a grown-up metric like bmi (or body mass index, a measure of weight divided by height squared) just seems wrong. some say it is. because bmi is a two-dimensional measurement of body mass that doesn?t take into account the fact that humans are three-dimensional, or account for differences in age and build, critics say the equation doesn?t add up, and that bmi needs to be reworked in order to have validity as a health measurement. and even if bmi is a valid tool, having one on the higher side isn?t necessarily bad; doctors see plenty of patients with a high bmi and otherwise stellar health, and the bmi of athletes with fit, strong bodies can label them as obese. but hannah?s doctor?s concern wasn?t completely unfounded. over the last decade, a number of studies have shown a link between bmi in early childhood and obesity later in life. a new study shows that a child?s bmi at age one and age five might be predictive of future weight. bodies are beautiful in any shape and size and having one that?s particularly big or small isn?t 6 2 b r p a r e n t s . c o m | m a y 2 0 1 8
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