KIDS' GROWTH AND BMI CHART

Today a website introduced in "Parents" magazine issue of March 2009 attracted my attention. It is www.mypyramid.gov/preschoolers, USDA's site for parents of 2-to-5-year-olds (Of course you can also browse the master site for more age segments including yours).

The site offers a customized MyPyramid Plan for your preschooler and I then immediately made one for Mew:


I am also curious to know about her healthy growth such as her BMI, her height as compared with those of other kids at her age. So I digged out more links at this page.

I used BMI Percentile Calculator for Child and Teen (Metric version). This calculator provides BMI and the corresponding BMI-for-age percentile on a CDC BMI-for-age growth chart for children and teens aged 2 through 19 years old (For more individual charts on boys' and girls' standard measurement, visit CDC Growth Charts). They also guide you how to measure accurately your kid's height and weight at home. The result showed that Mew is perfectly healthy: "Based on the height and weight entered, the BMI is 16.3 , placing the BMI-for-age at the 75th percentile for girls aged 5 years 10 months. This child has a healthy weight."


The page also offers you the results on a Growth Chart (H120, W23.5):

Phew, so even I am not good at cooking (and honestly I hate cooking), Mew still achieves and maintains a healthy weight. I hope that she will continue this positive trend until she can take care of her own cooking needs. It remains a long way though...

P.S. I think it may be also a good idea to include here a link to a standard BMI calculator for adults so that we parents can check our healthy weight too