Summary
- Annual assessment of BMI is recommended for all children aged 2 to 20 years.
- BMI is a screening measure. BMI-for-age screening provides an opportunity for health care providers to talk with patients and their families about growth.
- For children aged 2 to 20 years, BMI is age- and sex-specific, and BMI categories are defined based on percentiles:
- Underweight (BMI < 5th percentile).
- Healthy weight (BMI ≥ 5th and < 85th percentile).
- Overweight (BMI ≥ 85th and < 95th percentile).
- Obesity (BMI ≥ 95th percentile).
- Severe obesity (BMI ≥ 120% of the 95th percentile or BMI ≥ 35 kg/m2). Severe obesity is a subset of obesity.
- The 2022 CDC Extended BMI-for-Age Growth Charts should be used to plot BMI and track growth for children aged 2 to 20 with very high BMIs (above the 97th percentile for sex and age).
- The 2000 CDC BMI-for-Age Growth Charts should still be used for children and adolescents without obesity.
Connect with Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity