year 6 were weighed and measured this week. two of the children had parents who refused to allow this. AIBU this draws morea ttention to it

[slartybartfast]

one of them is definately over weight.
i assume her mum didnt want a lecture or advice.
one looks big built, not necessarily over weight,

but only these 2 in the whole class of 30 were singled out as not being weighed.

my dd nor her friends know their weight and height, it will be sent to parents in a letter.

but why on earth wouldnt you want your child to be weighed in this case?????

They do take height as well. They couldnt do the BMI centile without it

is that not what I did?

I wouldn't allow it for dd1, she has issues with food and weight already and she is only 7. I don't want her thinking numbers on a scale are important. They are not, eating a balanced diet and remaining active is what is important.

I'm annoyed enough by the healthy eating police asking if she wants to swap bits of her 'unhealthy' lunch for fruit ffs. If anyone tried to weigh her I'd be livid.

Neither of my DDs wanted to be weighed in year 6 and I saw no value in it so I sent the form in saying no- quite a few of their friends opted out too.

My DDs were (and still are)both lean and fit. I do not posess scales at home and they had never weighed themselves before and I didn't want them to start being obsessed about it.

Regardless of not being told, all their friends who were weighed knew what the results were and discussed it in the playground.

Young girls have no idea about how height and weight are related and one girl who was very tall (like DD2 was in year 6)was taunted for having a higher weight that the others.

I was dithering stealth and cross posted

sorry

I would not give my permission for either of my dcs to be weighed and have one overweight and one underweight child - go figure!!

For various reasons - I was a yo yo dieter since age 16 till about four years ago. An obsession eith the scales and weight imo leads to eating disorders and issues with food. And I thought I looked fat when I clearly was not. I wonder how much time I wasted worrying about such fripperies instead of doing something more positive - hence I don't want my dcs worrying about same things.

exh insisted that I take ds2 to gp as we had to do something about his weight. GP (who I didn't know well) said when I said exh was very concerned 'ah does he use this a stick to beat you with' Bingo

Refered to dietitian who weighed ane measured him - this was counterproductive and followed by ds2 asking about calorific value in foods and saying - im not allowed to eat anything much now am i?

So I refused to go anymore. He seemed to eat more.
Ive taken the focus off it now and ita easier to manage.

If the govt was serious about childhood obesity they would look at the food industry which pushes crap food like drugs, regulate the fast food industry, have more pe in schools, look at why people feel the need to overeat - I think some of it is our pressured life (I think that there was a survey in which kids in UK not very happy compared to kids in other countries.

I think esp in winter people medicate themselves with food.

Also our local council is planning to turn a lovely park/playing field into a cemetery because they don't have enough space to bury the dead!!!

of course people also have responsibility to try to eat healthily etc but action above could helpe with this. Demonising food does not help either.

but for all of you who dont want your dc weighed, or to get issues with dieting. there are plenty who feed the wrong foods and take little exercise.

there are more obese people than anorexics, imo

I've been doing some more digging doing on the history of this. Community Paediatrics has been around for a century or so (with its Royal Society being founded in 1928). There have been many surveillance programmes for children since then; and they have given important information on the typical growth trajectory of the population.

The exact form of this surveillance has changed over the decades (eg post War, underweight and malnutrition was a major concern).

The current surveillance, which is height and weight, has been going in its current form since 2005, measuring in reception and yr 6, and using the same sort of reference charts as used for baby growth centiles.

They use the information to group the population roughly into four categories: underweight, normal weight, overweight and very overweight. In a healthy population, only about 1 in 10 should be overweight or very overweight, but In UK it's about 1 in 3. The health planners need this information to make the best predictions on future health needs.

One of the recommended courses of action if your DC come into the overweight/very overweight category is to monitor and remeasure - vagaries of growth do make a difference and some children do naturally resolve back to a normal weight.

Vagaries of growth do not however account for such a wide difference as 1:10 v 1:3. On a population wide basis UK faces a problem. But this would not been known if there were no measurements carried out.

I think it draws attention-it is always the parents who think that their DC will be deemed overweight.

To all those who object to having their children help gather statistics, I hope you won't be moaning in the future if there is not enough provision for weight related illness/conditions.

Nope - I won't moan.

worraliberty, are the dc being measured going to gain from this provision for weight related illness/conditions?

You try booking an appointment for diatetic support and see how quick you get the appointment. But don't foget that any research is limited as drug companies don't fund the research and if you really think the government will fund any research into obesity, sorry but you are sadly mistaken.

Obesity will kill in the same way that smoking has, there was research done in Netherlands as to whether it actually cost more for smoking, it didn't as the earlier death age meant less money was spent overall even with the fact of the patient costing it was still less than if they where healthy and had lived longer, so there is no need for a government to spend on the future - not that they are ever long sighted. Obesity will not be that different.

it is all skirting round the issue, children are being feed to much of the wrong foods by parents. Post war children had one of the best diets ever and that generation has had some of the best ever health through there diet, rationing was ideal for it limited sweets and sugar and used the food pyramid to the full advantage. meaning that children born in the late 1930's and 1940's had the best chance of reaching their full potential height.

The government knows this, how they would get back there is not soemthing they look at

What has a dietetic appointment got to do with drug companies?

worraliberty, are the dc being measured going to gain from this provision for weight related illness/conditions?

Yes. They'll gain if their parents take note and do something about it and they'll gain if they don't and they end up with hardened arteries, joint problems, diabetes, breathing problems etc...because the Government will at least have an idea of how much the obesity epidemic is likely to cost and how much medical assistance is likely to be required.

Now, whether or not the Government or any future Governments actually provide the necessary is anyone's guess, but at least they won't be caught by surprise when it comes to knowing roughly how many obese people they are likely to have to deal with in the future.

Statistic are compiled all the time about adults and children for the purposes of future provision and this is simply one of them.

You are sadly mistaken if you think this government or the next is weighing and measuring dc for the purpose of future provision. Even without all the cuts, even if we were still in the good times the government is not going to put money away to pay for the obese of this nation in the future, its not going to happen.

So no one will be surprised that in 20 years we will have an obesity problem.

Most research that is conducted is by drug companies and government doesn't fund research for diatetic research or support, hope that explains

What do you mean the government doesnt fund dietetic research or support? Im not sure where you got that impression from.

I opted out for both my daughters and both are slim. I objected on moral grounds as did about 2 other parents neither of whose child is obese/fat. No regrets either so YABVU!

I don't understand what people want. Health care services based on guesswork? Or equality for all? (In which case if someone else has had expensive open heart surgery then I want one too!!!)
Or services that are based on an assessment of need, targetted, planned and monitored?

Please tell me if there's a better way?

(sigh) the Government has already set up Change4Life, set guidelines for healthy eating schools, produced tons of literature for parents and children and opened Obesity Learning Centers.

Now without statistics telling them it needs doing, that would have been pretty difficult don't you think?

There are current obesity research grants available from quite a few government sources

free school meal pilots (as mentioned below), fluoridated milk (dental health rather than obesity I know), smoking cessation, smoking in pregnancy, condom distribution schemes, chlamydia screening

YABU. It's personal choice, surely?

but hey sod evidence based practice, let's just treat people with small moles on their right shoulders - they can be priority this year. Next year we will stand in M&S and slap nicotine patches on everyone who walks past

It's like someone of an Ethnic minority objecting to ticking a box stating their Ethnicity...and then complaining there is no provision for them in the area in which they live. Of course their wouldn't be, if there were no statistics how could their be?

Equally, the Government need to know which areas have the most obese children in them..and then they can start to work out why and try to make a difference.

Really it's not rocket science.