Wii Fit BMI Argh

[ailbhe]

We set the kids up on the shiny new Wii Fit today and I was really NOT HAPPY with them measuring the kids' BMI and labelling them "at risk of overweight" and asking them to set weight-loss goals.

I cannot articulate how annoyed I was, in fact.

But the good news is that I didn't articulate how annoyed I was, particularly in front of the children. I ignored it.

I sincerely hope that the children and I gain enough weight in the next 6 months to mess with that blasted calorie-counting pig's head but good.

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On the other hand, both children find the balance board easier to operate than the remote controls.

Comments

[allyphoe.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, I hate that. I don't update Alex's height, because otherwise it labels her underweight and complains, and berates her to gain weight. (Alex borders on being <5th percentile, so technically underweight. But she's 10th percentile for kids with her ethnic background, and has been on the same growth curve forever.)

[ailbhe]

I may be being stupid here, but isn't it absolutely necessary that about 5% of children will be at or below about the 5th centile?

Linnea was 99.8th or off the top of the charts, though I dunno where she is now. Nor Emer, who was 25th. But, um, have I totally misunderstood how centiles work?

[allyphoe.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and that seems like a stupid way to define underweightness to me, too. FWIW, her pediatrician has never batted an eye about her weight, although she's normally about 50th percentile for height and 10th percentile for weight, so it's only the BMI chart (which her ped doesn't calculate) that makes her fall off the bottom.