BMI for Children

Today I stumbled across a BMI calculator for children and teens. I read that once children reach the age of 3, you should start watching what they eat. I agree. We have started this from a young age though so it's not like ours have been getting junk up until 3 when we changed to a healthy diet lol. I think our diet in this house is pretty well-rounded. I'm not a stickler for my kids not having 'junk' or sweets but they get it in moderation. I know growing up that I wasn't allowed to have junk/sweets and only on special occasions. I can't even remember have cake, ice cream or cookies in the house. But my step mother was a bitch lol and not just because of that lol. So once I was of age and able to buy what I wanted, I did. And I can remember telling myself that once I had money I would buy a whole lot of it and eat it all because no one could tell me not to. That isn't where my weight issues came from. That came from depression at 15 and eating whatever I wanted because I was depressed. However, having children, Hugh and I both said we wanted them to have an array of things in their diet so they weren't necessarily 'craving' anything. Hugh's parents did this with him and there is no obsession with food for him. My girls love fruit just as much as they love candy. And sometimes if given the choice of a fruit or a lollipop they pick the fruit. Yes, my girls have M& Ms, ice cream, cookies, lollipops, jelly beans, etc. But they don't have them every day. And even if they did, it wouldn't bother me. You know why? Because they get a regulated amount. They don't get a whole bag of M&Ms they share it. They have ice cream cones. They have a few jelly beans, not half a bag! And ice cream is the one thing I don't care that they have every day. We always have ice cream. It's pretty healthy considering some of the stuff people give their children! So it has fat, whoopee! Kid's need fat, everyone needs fat, just in moderation. When you start telling your children they can't have something because it's bad for you, then they want it. And when they get old enough to have it, they overcompensate for never having it. I think we are on the right path with our girls. And how many kid's ask for raisins, broccoli, olives, oats, corned beef, cabbage, and mustard lol. Mine do! Not only that, our girls don't drink juice or soda. Kamryn's has 1/4 juice with 3/4 water and Lauryn only drinks water. She won't have a bar of anything else, I've tried since it would come in handy when she's sick lol. Ok, so why all the speel???? Because I weighed and measured Kamryn to see what her BMI is. Here's Kamryn's info as of today:

Height: 3ft 7in (109cm)
Weight: 44lb (20kg)

Kamryn's BMI is 16.7 placing her in a healthy weight for her age. I'm happy with that. I myself never worry about fitting into the BMI chart but for our kid's it's probably pretty important just to monitor we are doing the right thing. Obviously the older she gets she will have to be comfortable in her body and not worry about fitting the index as well as long as she is healthy. But as long as I have some control over what comes into this house, I'm happy with that result.

I did Lauryn's just to see since I think she is very tiny (weight wise) for her age. Here's her info for today:

Height: 2ft 10 3/4in (88.3cm)
Wieght: 26lbs (11.8kg)

Lauryn's BMI is 15.1 placing her in a healthy weight for her age as well. I never thought she was underweight but was kinda hoping for a 'make her gain a bit more weight, will ya!' response lol. But funnily enough, she is the same height as Kamryn was at her age now. My mom reckons Lauryn will be of average height (5'6"/5'7") and Kamryn will be 6ft lol. I'm hoping both are about 5'9" and the right weight for height but with meat lol. So even if you don't believe in the BMI index, I feel pretty happy with where my girls rank and it helps me to know that we seem to be going about things the right way ;)