to not want my child weighed

[moogster1a]

My ds has received a leaflet about the weighing of reception age kids in order to ascertain just how many Greggs sausage rolls are eaten in the neighbourhood. ( healthy child programme)
I didn't object too much to this although I think it's a huge waste of money and time as fat kids' parents will get a letter telling them their kid is fat and I fail to see where they will go from there. but, thats by the by.
the consent form states " If you do not return a completed consent form your child's vision and hearing will not be checked but we will still weigh and measure your child".
Does this mean there is no opt out?
Do all schools do this? It's getting me more and more annoyed that we are living in such a nany state. I would rather schools cocentrated on teaching my child how to read ad write rather than attempting to do the full pareting job icludig deciding how fat he can be. ( by the way, he's a skiny runt so I'm ot objecting because I think we'll be haued in frot of the lard police and told to empty our cupboards of everything but rye bread).
in fact, I lied earlier, I do object in principle to the whole scheme. What a waste of money.

Sidge, when my daughter was in Year 6 we got the letter about weighing and measuring them. I gave her the choice since I had no concerns about her height or weight and she opted not to be weighed, I returned the letter stating that my daughter and I discussed the letter and that she had decided that she did not want to be weighed.
When the day came she told the nurse that she didn't want to be weighed and that I'd written a letter to that effect but the nurse told her that she had to be weighed anyway! I was livid.

me too, laptop. I am going wtf? too

bloody bloody hell, truly jawdropping

anyhoo

fwiw, my twopennoth is that the weighing for stats and planning etc is fair enough, but don't feed back to parents in any more detail than the child's weight is X, their height is Y, their hearing/eyesight is satisfactory/needs further investigation; the Your Child Is Fat letter is a waste of money

vividgingerchilli so you should have been!

It's a shame that some health staff do the whole service a disservice by ignoring professional recommendations and codes of conduct.

And if a 5 year old reception child is talking about being fat and talking about diets I'd wonder where that was coming from - they'd have only been in school a term or two and the school health team wouldn't have had any input before then. So they're picking it up at school or home.

Whosgotmyeyebrows

I never said it was a big deal. I was questioning the need and whether the cost was sensible.
I think you may be confusing me with someone else or missed my post where I thanked two posters for explaining the need for statistics which I agreed made perfect sense.

So no big deal at all.

The weighing and measuring programme cannot possibly have caused the "obesity epidemic" as it began in the 1940s! It was revamped in about 2007, but has been running for 6 decades and in its early days was providing valuable information about underweight children and malnutrition.

This long-term, whole-population data is really, really important for public health professionals in planning future NHS priorities and services based on evidence.

my dd was one of the first to be wieghed in her class and i completed the form and added a comment that she never eats and that made me worried. However when i went in there they said that she was overweight (despite bing the smallest and tiniest in her class) and that i should leave her alone because otherwise she was going to end up ... just like me. they never said short and fat, but they only just missed saying it.
whole project total waste of money... i didnt learn anything that i didnt already know and came out feeling totally insulted and hysterical!

It's amazing that there is an obesity epidemic in this country yet all the kids who are overweight are actually 'just chunky and play loads of sport'

I think that the reason for the presumed consent unless you write in is that, the parents who they most need to reach are also least likely to be the ones who will respond with explicit consent if its needed.

I really dont see what all the fuss is with this - but then dds take part in a sport which splits into weight categories so they are fully aware of what their actual weight is and how it compares to their peers in the sport too (and some are heavier and some are lighter and they are accepting of that).

The other reason for the checks apart from the public health information and planning etc is again as above - the parents who are in most need of support are the ones who are least likely to engage voluntaily with services, such as dentists, opticians etc. and I know we like to imagine that doesnt happen nowadays but it does, I know children who have never been to dentists etc. But its a legal responsiblity to send them to schools and therefore they can be reached there.

It can be infuriating for those in the vast majority who take care of their children - but if it helps make one child in that school better cared for, and you are looking after your children well enough to make sure there is no negative effect on them (though knowing what they weight shouldnt be negative!!), how can you really have a problem with it happening?

Perhaps someone can help me out - theres a quote in my head about it being the duty of the stronger members of society to support the weak?

explanation of not combining fats/carbs

Carbs are not digested in the stomach but largly in the small intestine, principly by pancreatic secretions, these being alkaline and the most important constitient being amylase which splits the starch only in alkaline medium. On the way through the stomach to the small intestine carbs inhibit the secretion of hydrochloric acid and also combine with some of the free hydrochloric acid already present
Fats follow a different course - leaving the stomach virtually unchanged and enter the small intestine causing the gall bladder to emply bile into the small intestine. This bile emulsifies the fat and releases fatty acids. if these fatty acids are produced in the intestine whilst carbs are present for digestion the alkaline secretions that are part of the carb digestion will be neutralised.
Hence - do not combine pure fats with high starches

Molly, I know what you mean - it's the basis for the whole 'food combining' diet.

Sorry I still believe that society's obsession with image and weight is damaging. The weight and height thing at school would not be a problem taken into isolation but with everything else being thrown at us from every direction I am concerned that children too young are becoming weight concious. And it does not matter if you never discuss weight at home, kids are not deaf or blind. Its amazing the social cues they pick up on. I am trying to keep my kids innocent of body image as long as possible. Its impossible but I keep trying.

I see no reason why saying no to the programme would make it into a bigger issue. Since I dais no my kids have never brought it up. I just filled in the letter, ticked no and the kids knew nothing about it as I wanted.

It seems to me that the only ones who opt out are the overweight ones. I don't see why you need to make a big deal out of it.

Well you would be wrong then exoticfruits, my kids are all skinny. Its about not wanting weight to be a primary focus in their little lives

There are exceptions.

Actually mine are slim. so my queries were not related to the size of my children

My issue, according to this thread, is that I am a selfish, elitist person who understand nothing about poverty or life outside my bubble of self congratulatory indifference.
Possibly that is quite slimming

How can there be such a thing as 'presumed consent'? Consent by its very nature is given - not 'presumed'! Presumed consent is where healthcare professionals kid themselves into believing that because someone has not had the balls to make a fuss about something, they are in agreement with it. So those who are apathetic don't care, those who are submissive get shat on, and those who are autonomous have to be confrontational. A good way for hcp's to stick labels to everyone.

Presumed consent is just a fact of life, we give it all the time, possibly some of us dont realise we do it, we could have a whole huge debate about the rights and wrongs of it but please dont be naive enough to think any of us are autonomous!!!

And its perfectly possible to withdraw consent without being confrontationalor making a fuss - it doesnt always have to be a fight you know.

Exactly rhondajean I withdrew consent by ticking a box on the letter and giving it to the office, and that was that. I don't like the programme but I was pleased I had the option to opt out

Presumed consent is the norm-if you don't want it you opt out. If it isn't presumed you opt in. It happens in all walks of life.

Cracker - how can you withdraw consent if you never gave it in the first place? That's the problem with presumed consent - it doesn't really exist. It is a term the Government have invented and hcp's are believing them like unautonomous drones.

exotic - but when the NHS goes on about consent, patient choice, hcp's and trust and professional codes of conduct, then you expect them to adhere to all this propoganda. Or an I just being naive?

A load of bullshit

Firstly a health visitor or school nurse's time should not be taken up with time wasting routine checks, when they could be using their time much more appropiately. I wrote an essay on this as part of my degree ten years ago, not much has changed

The evidence base of effectiveness is dubious to say the least

Secondly, I would question plotting the wide range of human size and shape upon a chart. It encourages people to be preoccupied by numbers rather than actually looking at the child as a whole. Weight is one factor in a wide range of issues that encompass a healthy individual

Thirdly we are obsessed with weight and size as a culture and not just from a health point of view. I question the need for children to know their weight at all. Can you not tell by looking? By the child's fitness and activity levels?

Weight can be an emotional and deeply complex issue for adults and children. It is absolute bullshit to think by throwing some numbers at a parent, they will sort out their child's health.

The government just want some positive statistics to throw around. This will not get to the root of bad diet and health in youngsters. It is a complex socioeconomic problem and it will only get worse.

Yes it is good and right for children to be active and have a good diet, but so is it to have a positive body image. The two are connected

Addressbook you have said everything I have been trying to say so well, thank you.

Pseudonym I was agreeing about withdrawing consent without making a fuss, the bigger issues about the issue of presumed consent I hadn't tackled and you do make a good point about that