To withdraw DD from being weighed at school?

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DH thinks I am making a big fuss about nothing.

I refused consent for DD to be weighed at school as I don't think its neccesary. I didn't make a fuss, just ticked the box saying that I did not give consent.

wonder if Daniel Pelka etc was regularly checked over by a school nurse?

I suspect his parents would have refused.

Really? Would you not feel that it was a bit at odds with your liberty, your privacy and your sense of personal responsibility for your weight?

No . I fill out my census form without issue too.

Well I am thankful for it- it was the way that I found out that DS needed to go to the optician- I can't see what is 'Orwellian' about that. The nit nurse kept them in check far more than they are today and I think the government needs the weight statistics for future planning.

I think it is great that we have health checks and school is the place to do it.

Satin, what if you were a child who, like my DD, would prefer not to be weighed and, if you were weighed, you'd want to know the results (which you might be told depending on where you live) and then you would feel compelled to start investigating whether your weight was what it should be?

Do people think the parents who opt out are too thick to realise that their child will be aware of what is happening to their peers?

Do people really believe that the only way to be a good parent is to act like a sheep and follow the herd?

Parents are given the option to choose because withdrawing some children is the right thing to do.

It's dreadfully patronising to say that a parent who is trying to reduce the stress their child experiences is choosing to make it a huge issue for their child and wants to single them out.

That's you filling it in voluntarily though NG. And it doesn't include your weight or height I imagine.

And it isn't someone ELSE weighing you to make sure you don't get it wrong or mislead them.

I just don't see how the state routinely checking children's weight, eyes, hearing etc is some sort of Orwellian nightmare others are making it out to be.

I agree.

I don't believe it is in any way sinister.

It may not be sinister but it has sinister overtones and is reminiscent of some unpleasant parts of history, imo.

The fact that we are able to opt out is very important. If we could not I would be extremely concerned.

Rooners, in your example, I'd be weighed voluntarily too. And of course you'd want the weighing to be done on properly calibrated scales by someone else because of the potential for misreporting.

40 years of US nutrition research has just been found to be fatally flawed because of participant misreporting of their calorie intake. What a waste of effort!
www.webpronews.com/cdc-nutrition-research-flawed-shows-study-2013-10

The fact that we are able to opt out is very important.

Absolutely.

I find it concerning that the system is such that to withdraw your child is seen as harmful but I put that down to lack of imagination on behalf of MNers and lack of thought and funds meaning that the system is inadequate.

For my DD and some others, being withdrawn from the screen is the slightly better of two not particularly good options.

There are good reasons to have the scheme in place and there are good reasons why some children should not participate.

It's a shame that so many people feel that responsible parents, who have made the best decision they can for their child, should be immediately accused of being attention seeking loons who want to single their children out or are projecting their own weight issues onto their DCs. MNers are usually better than that.

I agree with your 9.33 post Gold. Just because an issue is unimportant to one parent doesn't mean it is for everyone. There is a choice available re the mass weigh in at school, and some of us have merely said no thanks (for whatever reason). Some disparaging comments on here of other people's views purely because they differ to their own. And an interesting post from MrsDavidcaruso too. I sometimes wonder what the obsession is for everyone having to fit into the parameters of some chart. Not everyone does. People come in all shapes and sizes and sometimes the reasons for that are nothing to do with age/weight. There are other considerations ie an inherited family build. The weigh ins alone are too blunt an instrument to deduce the overall picture. If this information is necessary, then it should be gathered via the doctor not the school and done privately in more detail. Then and only then once in full possession of a more detailed picture are they in a position to send out leters of 'concern' or otherwise.

Good for you! We do not weigh anyone in our family.....and I would not want my children to be weighed at school either! x

I would really, really hate to be weighed by someone else in a line of my colleagues. I would find it utterly degrading.

(sorry, Rooners here under a namechange for Dr Who)

But I understand if other people wouldn't object. Well I don't understand as such but I accept it.

The obsession is stopping disability and death from an unnecessary condition. Collecting data on height and weight in schools is the most efficient way of doing this.

I understand people like Goldmandra refusing in Y6 because her daughter has issues around her body already (who gave her the book?). I have to say I don't understand people refusing in reception because they think it will give their 4 year old issues.
Nor the people who think statistical data collection is a sinister government conspiracy! Is it just weight you object to? What about height? Shoe size? Would those be a similar invasion of privacy?

'The obsession is stopping disability and death from an unnecessary condition. Collecting data on height and weight in schools is the most efficient way of doing this.'

I disagree - I don't think the government can do an awful lot about it.

The NHS website says that 1 in 3 children between the age of 2 and 10 are overweight.

If they weren't being weighed, then no one would be aware of that particularly shocking piece of information, let alone be in a position to tackle it.

Of course the government needs to know if it is sitting on a ticking timebomb of obesity, and if measures currently in place are having any effect on the trend.

Her godmother gave her the book after checking with me. It seemed fine. She had no history of worrying about her health, fitness, growing, etc, so I didn't give it much thought beyond it being age appropriate.

I wonder if the actually are all overweight though. There have been many cases of letters being fired off saying a child is 'overweight' when they clearly aren't. They don't take enough factors into consideration.

Even if they're not all actually overweight, banana, what does that take it down to? 1 in 4? It's still a statistic that needs to be known.

If the statistics show that a child registered as overweight in reception is more likely to register as obese in Y6, then clearly it's not a completely useless measure.

I think weighing of all children should be compulsory. I also think it should be private ie kids taken into cubicle alone and weight not called out just noted down. Atmosphere should be friendly and casual. Any concerns should go to the parents, not the child, along with advice to the parent on how to handle it appropriately e.g. not start putting child on a crash diet, not depriving them of all treats.

If statistics show that a child who is found to be overweight at reception age is more likely to be obese in year 6, how has being weighed in reception helped them?

Doesn't that indicate that the scheme isn't working particularly well?

Have numbers of overweight children in Y6 decreased since the scheme started?

and doesn't nearly evetyone have bathroom scales at home anyway

Sort of OT here but I always find it odd when people do have bathroom scales. I've never owned any, in fact it's never occurred to me to actually want to own any. When I was growing up, my parents never bought any neither so I've never actually owned a set of scales. Like I said, it's never occurred to me to go and buy any.

I only know how much I weigh through getting weighed at my pill check at the family planning clinic and when I was weighed at my booking in appointment. I barely ever visit my GP, I only go on average about once every 3 or 4 years so I've never really been weighed there neither.

It's very strange and sometimes I wonder if we're in some sort of parallel universe, but there are about 2 noticeably overweight children at ds's school. That's in 210 children.

I can't imagine we are all that unusual in our demographic.

Goldmandra, it doesn't show that the weight collection scheme isn't working well, it certainly shows that it is needed.

What it does show, is that whatever intervention is offered to parents of children in the overweight category needs rethinking.