measuring children

[Elasticwoman]

Yesterday my Year 6 daughter brought home a letter from school asking my permission for the school nurse to weigh and measure her and use the statistics for things like healthy lifestyle education. I said NO! I don't think her time at school should be wasted in providing unnecessary information for the local authority! Healthy lifestyle education should not depend on the size of the children! Whatever next - sexual activity questionnaires for teenagers before giving them sex education?
Besides - body mass index is now an outdated method of judging whether a person's weight is healthy for them or not.

[notagrannyyet]

I know all my eldest 3 were weighed and measured by the school nurse (I was present when this was done). Parents were not asked for permission but it was for medical records not for the local authority. I would have no objection to my DC being measured in this way.

[Smithagain]

I think I am right in saying the NHS has targets for data gathering on children's weight and height. Maybe this is their latest way of "catching" them.

I took DD1 to see a Paediatrician a couple of years ago, solely to talk about allergies. It really took me aback when they took her off to check her weight and height first. The allergy in question has nothing to do with food. DH enlightened me afterwards that it was probably just to get her on their statistics.

If I'd known, I might have refused. Don't know why really - just don't like being bamboozled into doing something purely for the Government's benefit!

[Elasticwoman]

When she was 3 my DD had to see a paediatrician about speech development, and was routinely weighed and measured. I did not mind this, because it was a medical appointment - we had gone with a problem. But measuring all the children in school time, when none have complained about a problem, I think is completely different.

[Hallgerda]

Elasticwoman, the point of collecting the statistics is to have an evidence base for determining whether the Government's attempts to address the childhood obesity problem are working or not. As has been said on here many, many times, there are quite a few "obvious" things that could be done, such as not having chocolate/fizzy drink machines in schools, but in practice they don't always work - school dinner improvement has led to more children having unhealthy packed lunches instead. So the information is necessary in order to inform public policy - and that affects all of us, not just the Government.

I have some sympathy over the use of school time issue, but, let's face it, how many of us would be prepared to go down to the clinic in our own time to have our children weighed?

[Elasticwoman]

I see what you mean, Hallgerda, but I still think this is intrusive and Big Brother-like. There are other ways of measuring how much of a problem we have with obesity in children - such as counting how many seek help for obesity-related complaints. And as I said before, BMI is now discredited as a way of measuring obesity.
Actually my own child has no objection to this measuring, but there is a girl in her class who is a bit more rounded (not obese at all) and is distressed by the idea. I have every sympathy with her.

[Hallgerda]

Point taken on BMI, elasticmum, but there are problems with just going on numbers seeking help. Not everyone who needs help necessarily seeks it, and there may well be some who seek help without having problems. Do you know of any measure that is better than BMI but not too obtrusive?

On the "rounded" ten-year-old, it strikes me that she should be encouraged to take a healthier view of her own shape. It's wrong that anyone should feel very upset about just having their weight and height checked.

By the way, if you are concerned about the way the results are given out, my son was in Year 6 and I was sent his results (just height and weight and percentile for each - no comments) in a sealed envelope.

[iPodthereforiPoor]

As the largest in my class at school I dreaded doing maths projects on height and weight - allways me with the highest number of blocks on the bar chart on the way for everyone to see, wel not that it mattered I suppose because there I wasin the classroom for them all to see!!!

Stayed with me even to uni when I was doing physiology practicals that required me to share my weight with my fellow students

[Elasticwoman]

Maybe the 10 year old should be encouraged to take a healthier view of her own shape,- so should many grown women - but recording her weight and height in school is not, in my view, helpful towards that end. I think this is a privacy issue, and I also think children's feelings should be respected.

[clerkKent]

In the 1970's we were weighed and measured every term at secondary school. The PE teacher said that it was a way of checking if any boys were losing weight which could be the first sign of a medical problem. Height was just for interest.

[Hallgerda]

On your privacy point, Elasticwoman, I don't believe anyone should be forced to tell anyone else their weight or any other personal information without an extremely good reaon. But I can see no objection to being asked (nicely) to reveal that information for the common good, provided that the answer "no" is accepted with good grace. I presume you have had no comeback over not agreeing to your daughter being weighed?

[Elasticwoman]

No comeback about my refusal of permission to let dd be measured, but only sent the form back yesterday. If you don't hear from me again, I've probably been locked in the Tower .