Mother driven to anorexia as a teen is told her son of four is overweight
A MOTHER who battled anorexia after being weighed as a pupil hit out yesterday after her ‘healthy’ four-year-old son was branded overweight by his school.
Emily McKenzie said 3ft 5in Jack was 3st 1lb when his body mass index was tested.
Mrs McKenzie, 37, was told that his BMI was in the 96th centile, meaning he is heavier than 96 per cent of children of his age, putting him in the ‘overweight’ category.
The mother-of-four says BMI is outdated and should be abolished by the Government’s National Child Measurement Programme, which commissioned the tests.
She said: ‘I fight every day because of what I have been through to make my children realise they are perfect the way they are.
‘I thought I might need to protect my girls from this sort of negativity. I had no idea my son would have any kind of problem. Who knows what impact this could have on him?’
It’s an emotive subject for Mrs McKenzie, who starved herself as a 13-year- old girl until at 16 she weighed just 3st 10lb.
Now, after fighting back to full health, she
‘Who knows what impact this could have’
is furious that her four-year-old son is said to have a problem with his weight.
BMI results are used to indicate a person’s body-fat content. But they have been criticised for giving misleading measurements because they do not take muscle mass or other physical characteristics into account.
An individual’s BMI figure is found by dividing their weight in kilograms by the square of their height in metres.
Mrs McKenzie, who lives in Bath with husband Ed, a financial director, said Jack is ‘clearly not overweight or obese’, doesn’t have a sweet tooth, eats plenty of fruit and is full of energy. He swims regularly and goes to school every day on his scooter.
She said: ‘If you look at him he is completely normal. I don’t understand why a four-year-old needs a label.’
Sue Anderson, from Sirona, which carries out the check-ups, said: ‘Each individual circumstance is different and the letter therefore tries to be factual in terms of the results and their potential implications, but does indicate that children should not be encouraged to lose weight.’