About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Tests and diagnosis
By Mayo Clinic staffAs part of regular well-child care, the doctor calculates your child's body mass index (BMI) and determines where it falls on the national BMI-for-age growth chart. The BMI helps indicate if your child is overweight for his or her age and height.
Using the growth chart, your doctor determines your child's percentile, meaning how your child compares with other children of the same sex and age. So, for example, you might be told that your child is in the 80th percentile. This means that compared with other children of the same sex and age, 80 percent have a lower BMI.
Cutoff points on these growth charts, established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), help identify overweight and obese children:
- BMI-for-age between 85th and 94th percentiles — overweight
- BMI-for-age 95th percentile or above — obesity
Because BMI doesn't consider things like being muscular or having a larger than average body frame and because growth patterns vary greatly among children, your doctor also factors your child's growth and development into consideration. This helps determine whether your child's weight is a health concern.
In addition to BMI and charting weight on the growth charts, the doctor also evaluates:
- Your family's history of obesity and weight-related health problems, such as diabetes
- Your child's eating habits
- Your child's activity level
- Other health conditions your child may have
Blood tests
Your child's doctor may order blood tests if he or she finds that your child is obese. These tests include:
- A cholesterol test
- A blood sugar test (fasting blood glucose)
- Other blood tests to check for hormone imbalances that could affect your child's weight
Some of these tests require that your child not eat or drink anything for up to eight hours before the test. Your child's doctor should tell you whether your child should fast before a blood test.
- About BMI for children and teens. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/bmi/childrens_BMI/about_childrens_BMI.html. Accessed Feb. 2, 2010.
- Flegal KM, et al. Characterizing extreme values of body mass index-for-age by using the 2000 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention growth charts. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2009;90:1314.
- Ford ES, et al. Concentrations of low density lipoprotein cholesterol and total cholesterol among children and adolescents in the United States. Circulation. 2009;119:1108.
- The fourth report on the diagnosis, evaluation and treatment of high blood pressure in children and adolescents. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/prof/heart/hbp/hbp_ped.pdf. Accessed Feb. 2, 2010.
- Barlow SE, et al. Expert committee recommendations regarding the prevention, assessment and treatment of child and adolescent overweight and obesity: Summary report. Pediatics 2007;120:S164.
- Spear BA, et al. Recommendations for treatment of child and adolescent overweight and obesity. Pediatrics. 2007;120:S254.
- Expert committee recommendations on the assessment, prevention, and treatment of child and adolescent overweight and obesity. American Medical Association. http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/433/ped_obesity_recs.pdf. Accessed Feb. 2, 2010.
- Schilling PL, et al. National trends in adolescent bariatric surgical procedures and implications for surgical centers of excellence. Journal of the American College of Surgeons. 2008;206:1.
- Dunican KC, et al. Pharmacotherapeutic options for overweight adolescents. Annals of Pharmacotherapy. 2007;41:1445.
- Woo T. Pharmacotherapy and surgery treatment for the severely obese adolescent. Journal of Pediatric Health Care. 2009;23:206.
- Xenical (prescribing information). Nutley, NJ.: Roche Pharmaceuticals; 2008. http://www.gene.com/gene/products/information/xenical/pdf/pi.pdf. Accessed Feb. 5, 2010.
- Meridia (sibutramine): Market withdrawal due to risk of serious cardiovascular events. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/SafetyInformation/SafetyAlertsforHumanMedicalProducts/ucm228830.htm. Accessed Oct. 8, 2010.
Find Mayo Clinic on