Are You at Risk?
For kids, being overweight is more than a matter of looking “chubby.” It’s a serious medical condition. In a recent study, 70 percent of obese children already had at one risk factor for heart disease, such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
So how do you find out if your child is overweight or obese? The first step is to talk to your pediatrician, who is familiar with your child’s growth and development. He or she can calculate the Body Mass Index (BMI) of your child.
A child whose BMI is higher than the 95th percentile (higher than 95 percent of children of the same age and sex) is considered obese.
A child whose BMI is between the 85th and 94th percentile is considered overweight.