CDC Expands BMI Charts for Kids as More Live With Severe Obesity

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expanding charts that doctors use to track kids’ growth and development to include Body Mass Index as high as 60.

The agency said it was making the change “to enable consistent, meaningful tracking” as severe obesity among children increases, to 6.1% of children in 2018 from about 1% in the early 1970s.

“Prior to today’s release, the growth charts did not extend high enough to plot very high BMIs for the increasing number of children with severe obesity,” the agency said in a press release. The update “provides a printable visual ...