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.

moogster if you read the facts on obesity and the medical complications of it, including teenagers suffering from heart disease, high BP, strokes, diabetes etc it is not a waste of money. Evidence suggests, contrary to the puppy fat myth, that school age children who are overweight or obese are more likely to become obese adults, as generally they become more interested in sedentary activities such as TV, gaming etc as they head towards the teenage years. They also do less sport generally and outdoor play. It costs the NHS billions of pounds, employers billions of pound due to paid time of work, days missed in education due to complications. Therefore, the sensible approach is to establish early on which children are at risk and which parents require support to change diet and lifestyle. The school do not do the weight, the school health nurse does it and will most certainly discuss the issue with the parents, explain the long term health risks and hopefully help the child to be active. We don't generally put children on diets, it is predominantly about getting active with something they enjoy, getting out and about, walking to school rather than driving or parking further away from school.

So in answer to the OP YABU. They are weighed in clothes so it is completely uninvasive. It takes the child minutes to be weighed and if the teacher is supervising this then she won't be taught even if you refuse. Likewise it will highlight those who are underweight and support can be offered accordingly. Underweight can mean lack of nutrients or poor eating habits which also need attention for them to be healthy.

Forgot to add that usually it isn't the school nurse or HV who does the weighing, it is the nursery nurse or paediatric nurse band 5 (school nurse and HV are band 6)

addressbook in our area healthcare support workers do the screening and feed results back to the qualified staff. Results are followed up and usually include actually eyeballing the child before any further action is taken.

The children aren't told their weights/measurements.

Many parents do act on their results - and we don't just "throw numbers at them". They get a call, letter or visit to discuss further options. And given that no, most parents can't "tell by looking" then sometimes they do need it spelling out to them.

sidge - I reviewed the evidence of effectiveness in the research literature years ago. The time and cost is not justified by the few cases that will actually benefit from such a programme

Would the money not be better spent on say fruit and veg vans going around deprived areas. Where a single mum on the top floor of high rise flats can't get to Sainsbury with her three kids and no car?

On free cooking classes for young parents?

On improving free school meals?

So the mum who is living in poverty is going to open that letter and be able to change her dire circumstances so that she can feed her children more healthily?

What about the emotional and complex cultural influences behind weight gain or loss? Does the programme address body image? Girl's magazine's promoting unrealistic body shape? Depression that may lead to over or under eating?

No didn't think so. Bullshit.

If I got a phonecall out the blue from these people I would have a go for them for harrassing me, and then have a go at the school for giving them my emergency contact number for other purposes! Any correspondance should be by letter, unless specific consent has been given for other methods.

Some areas use the information to contact parents and offer them some of those things address - and theres an "in" there to make the contact.

i dont know if its true of everywhere but I know some definitely do run programmes like this:

www.wdcweb.info/council-and-democracy/news/features/archive/november-2009/nhs-active-children-eating-smart-programme/

and target it although it is open to anyone who is concerned and interested.

Im not sure about the cost implications - did your research look at the lifetime costs of NHS care for obese adults as opposed to the costs of weighing them and sending a letter?

Parents were only informed of their individual child's weight after the 2007 rebranding. Before that, the information was used solely by HCP and public health planners.

Here is an abstract of a survey of the utility of the survey published in the BMJ in 2006 it found a lack of evidence either way for obesity screening (ie the post-rebranding system, where the parents are informed of outcome) as opposed to the known utility of population monitoring (what has been going on since the 1940s under which parents were not informed) - the value of which is beyond question in public health context.

Pseudonym99: it won't have been the school that gave out your details. This is run by PCT, so I would make sense to make your enquiries of them.

This is useful data and it should continue. We could do even more - free milk for all kids at school up to 18, free school meals, free breakfasts for the needy, cookery and home economics lessons from age 7, sport timetabled every day and taught by proper PE specialists ...

Well if weighing them and sending a letter is all it took that would be fantastic and cost effective. But I think you know that is not the case.

Addressbook: how did you evaluate the effectiveness of a programme about 10 years ago, when the addition of informing parents of the outcome was only started 4 years ago?

Im more concerned that home economics lessons for 12 year olds today are "how to make an open cheese sandwich" tbh.

what about children's mental health? Safe play areas to reduce accidents and injury? Protection from abuse? Positive body image? Sexual health (obviously for older children and teens)? Relationships?

Health is wholistic

Of course a letter isnt all it takes - but once you start making calls and getting people to classes etc, isnt that what you think we should be doing anyway ? (And I wholeheartedly agree with all of that btw).

Many of the things you list can now be addressed through SureStart and other targeted programmes that I, as a school nurse, could link into or refer on to.

MEND programmes, school family support workers, dietitian referrals, CAMHS, paediatrician referrals.

You can't expect just a single aspect of a team to tick all the boxes on your list. The screening programme is just that, a screening tool. It in itself is not designed to solve the obesity problem in society - it is a way of identifying potential health problems and allowing a health professional to introduce interventions that may help improve the health of a child.

EdithWeston - I wrote an essay about the changing role of the school nurse and the use of their time doing traditional health screening - weight, height etc. This was to assist medical staff but now they are trained to be public health practitioners with a role in their own right I believe.

It wasn't related to the current screening programme no. But it is relevant still I believe

Edith - how does the PCT get the details if the school doesn't give them to them? Does the nurse guess who the children are that s/he is weighing?

Well the PCT includes the doctors, midwives and health visitors, so holds records for each child I believe? I would expect HPCs to be able to contact me about any concerns about my childrens health, however big or small, I wouldnt personally be regarding it as an inconvenience or an intrusion?

My PFB was on the 2nd centile for weight and 9th for height in August (started at birth on the 25th for both and, after a slow start, and has been weighed for my reassurance regularly). Has anyone got any evidence that she will be referred to SS?

They get them from the NHS spine (is that the right name, these days?)

Addressbook: thanks - it was a topic of debate in the 00s, even though it had not at that stage moved from public health monitoring to screening.

I did work experience with a public health practitioner who was quite revolutionary in her approach. She most certainly felt some screening tools were dubious. She got involved with outreach for ethnic minorities who weren't accessing health interventions. For example she introduced leaflets in the local GP surgery, translating information into languages used in the area.

I am a nurse (not working currently though, although not too long out of the game) I have used screening tools and documentation on the wards. I thought a lot of it was ineffective.

Well, if they ring you out of the blue using a phone number that is for emergency contact, then it is intrusion - and illegal. And although various hcp's might well hold records, they are not going to know which child goes to which school, and indeed they are not even going to know who the child is that they are weighing unless the school tells them!

Edith - the Spine does not contain details of the school they go to, nor does it include a picture of the child so they can tell who they are weighing! Also, the spine is not that accurate - and not everyone has their details accessible on it.

If exercise is the answer then perhaps money would be better spent providing more afterschool clubs that offer sport or more PE in the school curriculum. There is a woeful amount of exercise and sport in the curriculum. So if obesity is the dire financial drain on this country and primary school kids need to be targeted this is a better solution ime and far less detrimental to issues of body image that are also a growing concern.