Government wanting to weigh children

[birthdaybelle]

Anyone see this on Jeremy Vine this morning? Loads of backlash (rightly so!) about children's mental health and eating disorders etc. But what stands out to me is another bloody bashing of every day people trying to feed their kids on meagre wages or benefits.

More shame piled on to us because on top of everything else, our kids are fat.

I am not that old but remember a school nurse and being weighed. It's a measure of health, and they're trying to improve it. Pretending being overweight isn't a problem isn't the solution to child poverty.

But children are weighed already (with parental consent)

The same old crap, this idea is designed to appeal to a group of core Tory voters (i.e. pensioners who would have had this kind of pointless shaming treatment themselves at school) rather than do anything to help tackle obesity.

The government don't give a shit about childhood obesity, they just want to blame individuals for everything they can, to prevent people asking for better funded services.

Not saying weighing is the right thing to do but so many parents have no concept of what an overweight child looks like or have their head in the sand. They’re not doing the child any favours for the future.

They already get weighed in school, in reception class.

It's not about hurting parents' feelings. It's about the health of the children. How an adult feels about being 'shamed' (not that I think that's the objective) is not more important than trying to improve the health of children. A lot of kids are fat. And will become fat adults. And risk a lifetime of health problems. So yes, anything that is intended to help prevent that is good and parents need to focus on the health issues and not on how it being pointed out their child is fat makes them feel

I am MASSIVE and it started in childhood with parents who made bad choices for me before I was at an age where I understood.

And yes, it is now my own problem and I should deal with it but a fat kid is starting from a bad position and anything that tackles that is good imo

@PickACoolUserName

They already get weighed in school, in reception class.

And in year 6.

@Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies this is specific weighing in September then again in the spring to check they've lost their lockdown weight

They've been weighing DC since the 1940s!

The scheme has had various names over the years, but is such a valuable data set simply because if its longevity. It's the evidence base for the introduction of milk and codliver oil into schools, to combat the malnutrition and underweight it found.

It's been ringing the obesity warning bells for some years now.

Unfortunately sometimes people seem to want to disconnect the bell (ie refuse to participate) rather than see how loudly it is ringing and work out how to stop it.

This has been around for years - it’s the National Child Measurement Programme in Reception and Year 6.

This is how we know there is a problem with childhood obesity, unfortunately.

They are weighed already- as babies and at primary school by the school nurse. In all honesty you don’t need to weigh a child to know if they’re overweight and as a parent you’d know. I don’t think shaming children is the way to go obviously but equally something needs to be done.
I think it’s been proven again and again by people like the women behind cooking on a shoe string that you can cook cheap and healthy meals.

Children are weighed already and I don’t see the issue.

I do have an issue with the weigher (what ever job title that may be) doing a shit job at it. If they’re bothering to weigh the kids they should at least weigh them accurately.

My DS was weighed at school last year and they over estimated it by about 5lb! We had a shitty letter from the council. Many other children in his class had the same. Some of them knew they were deemed “overweight” by the tutting of the person doing it. It was quite upsetting.

What’s the point in disrupting class to do a shit job at something? Waste of everyone’s time!

And how hard can it be to weigh a 6 year old (and do it nicely!)?🤣 the bar for that job must be set really low!

Sorry I should have said - this is specifically in relation to seeing if children have lost weight since gaining during lockdown.

What I'm saying is telling people their kid is fat, when they have no money to improve their diets or time to cook from scratch or time to take them out for activities or funds for clubs and sports etc. Is just pushing the blame on to parents and kids

My kids were most recently weighed in Y9. And aren't all kids weighed up to age 5 as part of their check ups - I remember the chart in the red book I got when they were born. But weighing kids without nutritional guidance is useless, but I recall them learning about that in school too. However knowing and doing are different things.

Ah, missed the update - yes, that is new.

You can withdraw your child from the weigh-in if you object.

Confusion between the governmental scheme and this morning's frothing is because it is being misreported as a government initiative

It originates with the National Obesity Forum

www.standard.co.uk/news/health/weigh-children-obesity-lockdown-a4494436.html

@Saucery yes I will do

I knew someone who as a child was obese to the point of permanent bone damage. Someone should have intervened.

How will they know if they’ve put weight on in lockdown though without a prockdown weigh in?

I think my son lost weight because he didn’t see his grandparents 🙈

It has happened for years. Reception and year 6 with parental consent.

It's not a shaming process. The letter about the weight goes to the parent/carer so all those "daily mail sad face stories" saying "my child was upset to find they were obese" is down to parents sharing.

It is a way to look at the group as a whole as a year group, as an area and try to target limited resources eg extra sports sessions, classes etc

@meditrina thanks I hadn't appreciated that.

I do agree that they need intervention but telling someone they're kid is fat when they struggle to do anything about it isn't helpful. From my own anecdotal experience, the first thing I do if I find myself with extra money is buy better food for my kids.

Reception and year 6 is not enough, and then parents put it down to 'puppy' fat then puberty. Yearly with growth trajectory would be better.

What is this lockdown weight!?!

Why has everyone got fat?!