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.

You will have the ability to opt out.

@hellofromcornwall

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!

Well I doubt they were estimating. They can only read from the scales they have.

It would be more acceptable to weigh if it was part of a wider health check. It’s important children who are overweight are picked up early and parents are supported to address this in primary school, but then things like vision and squint, posture, gait, continence, and skin conditions are also important and need identifying early.

There are too many fat children. There is too much junk food. We have lost our perspective. Being dishonest and pretending it’s ok isn’t the answer but treating fat children and adults like pariahs isn’t the answer either. Good preventative child health services are the answer.
If the government backed weighing with vouchers for foods to offer a healthy diet and a parent/child fat club - obviously not called fat club but New Leaf or similar with exercise, cooking, meal planning, health education etc it might be more effective.
A parent gets ‘your child is fat’ letter is likely to either be cross and ignore it or stick the poor child on some sort of diet without medical supervision or advice.

I don't know what we do but we have GOT to do something. We went to a theme park a couple of weeks ago and I was genuinely shocked by the amount of overweight and obese people I saw especially children. I don't know why it was so noticeable to me for the first time, whether it was because it was the first crowds id seen in a while, post lockdown weight, I don't know but it was appalling and we have to get a grip of it some how, as a country.

This might also pick up any children who have lost weight/not gained/grown as expected during lockdown because the family doesn't have enough to eat, and then they can be signposted to help, foodbanks, benefit checks, social services if necessary.

Lack of money is rarely the primary reason why children are overweight. After all it costs a lot more to buy fast food, sweets, sugary drinks, crisps etc.

If you were short of money you wouldn't buy these things and concentrate on cheap nutritious foods like eggs or beans on toast, baked potatoes, bananas etc. And if you can't/won't do that, then it's not a money issue is it?

We lost loads of weight in lockdown. More time to exercise, less food.

Money helps but it isn’t essential. I had a very cheap and basic peasant diet as a child - porridge/cereal for breakfast and sausages/fish fingers with potatoes and carrots for tea. Whatever they have, just give them less of it. They may not like it now, but will be thankful for it later

@WentworthPrison there were huge mistakes. They probably rushed it. DS has a pre op the day after and the scales were vastly different and similar to what we weighed at home.

So yes - whoever weighed the children that day did a shit job.

Accuracy is key

I find it pretty cheap to feed my family healthily. The bill tends to go up when I'm buying a few "treats". Cheap oven meals like pizza, chicken nuggets and chips etc aren't that bad if the portions are small and bulked up with veg (frozen is cheap and quick to cook).

IMHO the childhood obesity problem is caused by portion sizes that are far too big, too many "treats" and lack of exercise (too much time on screens rather than playing actively). All of which is inexpensive to rectify.

The kids will burn a lot of it off once they start school. I really think schools have way too much to do without adding this to their lists.

I've managed to stop mine gaining weight but it's been a hard juggling act.

‘Lockdown weight gain’ seems like a red herring to me and an excuse for the government to get more hands on with childhood obesity. They should just be honest and say this is what they are doing. There is a problem. We can all see it. Lockdown isn’t the reason.

Interestingly I think mine are fitter and healthier as a result of lockdown. Not sitting in chairs all day. No sweets at the corner shop on the way home from school. No meals out. No take aways... Daily walk and hours on the trampoline or doing workouts together indoors...

Who says “better food” when you have more money has to be high fat or calorie? Some fruit can be expensive, if you want to buy nice things for your children buy that.

It’s utter crap to say people know their kids at fat. You see it on here often, “school letter say my kids are overweight, they’re not it’s impossible I’m overweight but I know my children aren’t”. Complete denial because as a society we’ve lost sight of what a healthy weight child looks like. They’re not meant to wobble. My friend is a classic example. Went off on a huge rant about having an “angry mummy moment” when the letter said her daughter was obese. Friend has always been very overweight and swings between feast and famine and literally said she’d love to have a belly like her daughter’s as it was smaller than hers and school could fuck off. So her daughter still eats several packets of crisps a day, pudding with every meal, sweet fizzy drinks instead of water or milk. She’s fat. She’s also very young and it’s not her fault at all. But why my friend who’s always struggled with her weight doesn’t want better for her daughter baffles me. They’re not saying you’re a shit parent. They’re saying your child is objectively heavier than they should be, that it matters, that it’ll have long term consequences and that this is awake up call to do something about it.

Both my dc have been weighed in school over the last year or so. To be honest I think its a good idea if they can reduce childhood obesity, or even pick up if a child is under weight. It's not like it would be announced to the school, a letter home in their bag to tell the parents I would imagine. My dc school are very into their fitness and they make sure the children have an hour of exercise a day. They've changed their timetables to allow this. I think these are positive moves for long term future health.

Both my DC were quite chubby as toddlers and DS was considered obese when he was weighed in reception. He has always eaten really healthily and doesnt like sweet things and will rarely eat cakes or desserts.
I didnt take any action over it as I saw from DD that she grew out of being chubby when she grew taller. Now he is 10, in normal times he does organised sports 5- 6 days a week and is quite active. Hes now on the 50th centile and has a 6 pack.

My daughter has put on weight during lockdown (we all have!) As we have no outside space and when it was 1 period of exercise a day outside it was so hard to make it fun and keep on walking etc...... when the rules changed that you could in fact sit in the park etc..... we got out for 3-4 hours a day and we did notice a huge difference in weight loss.

For those on here that may judge, we eat a relatively healthy diet, but lockdown with no garden was really fucking tough. Especially when our child was used to running around in nursery all day.

Completely agree " IMHO the childhood obesity problem is caused by portion sizes that are far too big, too many "treats" and lack of exercise (too much time on screens rather than playing actively). All of which is inexpensive to rectify."
I personally was shocked by the backlash when Cancer Research ran a campaign about obesity and cancer. There's a difference between fat shaming and stating facts to educate people. You can eat healthily on a budget with some planning and effort. A single banana is cheaper than crisps or sweets as a snack when kids are out.
I love food but I know I have to watch what I eat and no one else can do that for me. I don't blame anyone other than myself when I put weight on: I try and eat less and exercise more

Op, if you don’t make a big thing of it, your children won’t either.

Children have been weighed in school since the 40s, it’s normal. The whole class is weighed, don’t single yours out unless you have reason to be concerned, like an existing eating disorder.

And a medical check at any point, is useful. They aren’t going to tell your child he or she is too far or too thin.

There are problems across society as a whole: we don’t know what a healthy child looks like; lots of people gained weight recently (including me- I’m on a diet and exercise plan now) and the government is giving very conflicting messages “eat out” but “exercise and lose weight”.

I teach yr6 and have had at least 2 parents each year come in after the weighing program to say that their child was overweight and they were trying to do something about it. They often had no idea, writing it off as “big bones” or puppy fat. Yes, children do put on weight prior to puberty as they need the fuel to grow so fast, but often this is not what we are looking at.

We have seen a lot of our children gain weight- we can see this through those who returned to school and through our virtual lessons. In some cases it is terrifying. This is all though love, we all know that, but it is going to need to be looked into. Lots of food to cheer everyone up and a disinclination to go out and exercise (and in my catchment area, no space inside). We will be promoting healthy eating etc in school- but we only have the children for 6 hours a day. We are not going to solve the issues caused by lockdown alone. The rest needs to be done at home.

My views on the government generally would be a whole other thread so I won’t detail that (apart from furlough- full credit for following through on that, although I know it wasn’t perfect it was a good effort).

As a country we need money put into supporting good dietary choices, not fads or high profile ads. We all know we should reach for the apple rather than the cake- but often the cake or bread and butter is cheaper and easier to buy. A football is cheaper than video games, but in time-poor households the video game buys parents an hour of peace. It is easy to see how the problems build up.

[quote birthdaybelle]@Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies this is specific weighing in September then again in the spring to check they've lost their lockdown weight [/quote]
Yeah, this is just garbage. Total tokenism.

Proper targeted help is what is required. But that would involve a) giving a shit b) listening to experts in the field c) investment.

Height and weight should be done yearly imo. Not to shame or upset parents, but to keep an idea of the childs growth. Of course it needs to be paired with proper, helpful schemes to help parents who are struggling to manage their childs weight. No point telling a parent who is struggling to feed their child anything but cheap, sugary carbs due to budget that their child is overweight.

I don't know how healthy lifestyles are covered under the school curriculum these days either, but I'm sure teachers do.

Mine gained some weight during lockdown - like many children I expect they had to watch an awful lot of TV to keep them quiet and in one place while we worked, also ate more snacks than usual, and could only exercise once per day. Appreciate that it's totally different where both parents don't work! Luckily they were not at all overweight so we don't have a problem, just making sure we get lots of exercise now.

The majority of parents don't weigh their children and have no concept of what an overweight child looks like, particularly at age 5. I weigh mine every 6 months or so to check they are roughly on the same centile.

And its total bullshit about not having time and money to provide healthy food. Eating the right amount of any food doesn't make kids overweight (mine are fussy as hell), and many parents just don't give a toss.

Yeah, this is just garbage. Total tokenism

And it's the proposal of a pressure group, not the government!

I never understand this “but the children will get a complex about weight” side of things. The information goes to the parents and it’s the parents job to make the small changes to the family lifestyle to help the children.

My son is seriously underweight, his whole life he has been weighed very regularly by medical teams. He understands that it’s just numbers so the drs can help him, they mean nothing to him.

But if it happens all we will have is “but my child isn’t overweight” posts here and on fb with “ignore them he is perfect” “you know your child” “it’s just puppy fat” as responses anyway.

@megletthesecond

The kids will burn a lot of it off once they start school. I really think schools have way too much to do without adding this to their lists.

I've managed to stop mine gaining weight but it's been a hard juggling act.

That’s a theory that holds little basis in reality. Fat children become fat adults, statistically. Unless they’re at a decent pre prep with good food and a focus on activity then school exacerbate rather than addresses the problem. Schools role is not to prevent obesity. That is a parent’s job and going to school isn’t enough - grim packed lunches full of junk as ‘ thats all they’ll eat’, a pandering to children’s whims culture instead of telling them to eat what there is (or better, all children having good school meals). Couple that wit relatively inactive PE that is in a small school hall rather than getting them outside learning sports at a young age.

Set a car exclusion zone around schools, have walking buses as a park and walk, encourage independence and walking home, develop more after school sports clubs that mean children play tennis, swim or do gymnastics. If after school sports provision was better it would replace sitting having snacks, lengthen the day and be better for parents.

We’re doing children a massive disservice by not addressing obesity issues through fear of ‘fat shaming’. We’re setting them up for a life time of health issues and genuinely potentially shortening their lives.

It can be cheap to provide fresh food especially if you go to Aldi etc. You can buy a big bag of carrots for 40p ffs!

Exercise is free too as literally all you have to do is move your body. PlayStations and iPhones are never free.