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.

Those specific reasons are fair enough, however in my experience there have been several children who had been excluded from this screening, and then later on in the school year been flagged up as struggling in the classroom. Hearing test was then done and showed they had some difficulties and needed referring to audiology. Obviously the earlier these issues are picked up the earlier support can be provided.

Those specific reasons are fair enough,

If there are good reasons and it's impossible to send excluded children out of the group until the class is taken to be weighed, perhaps the names of the children who are to be excluded could be emailed to the schools at the beginning of that morning to give the school the chance "to invent elaborate procedures for hiding a child away from the rest of the class".

There's definitely ways round things, for example when we've got y6 children who aren't being weighed they still queue up with the others, and still come behind screen/into the room so the other kids don't know they aren't being weighed. The reception children don't seem interested either way!

Before DD had hers, I checked her height and weight at home then looked at the BMI calculator and she was in the healthy weight range. I then got a letter from the NHS with the same height, weight and BMI but saying she was overweight. I phoned them and pointed out this was incorrect according to their calculator. They told me if a child falls between two centile lines (which are far apart in number) they move them to the nearest one, so my daughter was then recorded as overweight. They said that they knew she wasn't overweight and had put on her file that no action was needed. If what they told me is true, then a. they are telling about 10% of parents their child is overweight when they are not and b. have invented an obesity epidemic by using centile charts and statistics incorrectly. DD then had a growth spurt and went down to the 50th centile within six months, but it's still on her record, which I'm annoyed about.

I opted out. OP - you did the right thing.

I remember being weighed at school and the boys in my class making fun of me because I weighed half a stone more than some of the other girls. A year later I had an eating disorder. Obviously this wasn't the only trigger, but it was very humiliating.

The government has far too much informaton on us as it is. They are meddling far too much and I'm going to opt of all things unnecessary that aren't in my daughter's best interests.

This thread is quite depressing.

A colleague has researched how the data collected in reception and Year 6 correlates and found that children who were overweight in reception were obese in year 6. Meaning that when those children reach adolescece they are likely to be obese and when they reach adulthood they are likely to be obese. This puts them at a higher risk of developing serious long term, life-limiting illnesses such as diabetes, coronary heart disease etc.

The NHS cannot afford to keep fire fighting, early detection and intervention is required. If the evidence shows that children who are overweight in reception are likely to become obese in early adolescence (and therefore likely in adulthood) then it makes sense to pick it up then so interventions can be put into place then. Rather than waiting until adulthood.

I would agree with others in the thread who say in an ideal world the parents would recognise that their child is overweight or even obese, however this is clearly not happening. This link provides some useful information about the child measurement programme and the prevalence of childhood obesity:

www.noo.org.uk/NOO_about_obesity/child_obesity

My personal opinion is that it is part of a healthy lifestyle to have regular health checks and be aware of our own health and part of this is maintaining a healthy weight.

For the record you only have to look at my daughter to see that she is the picture of health, not fat not thin. No weighing necessary.

the Government and NHS still need these statistics.

erm;.. no! my children are not at school to be used as part of government statistics, they are there to get an education

aside from anything else their GP already HAS all these statistics, so the NHS/govt can get it all from there if necessary.

no-one else needs to know.

A colleague has researched how the data collected in reception and Year 6 correlates and found that children who were overweight in reception were obese in year 6.

soooo... the screeening and checks are not doing anything to help this then? informing parents is clearly NOT working.

I think they need a different tactic, don't you?

My GP doesn't have my DS's weight. He hasn't been weighed since he was a baby and no one has ever mentioned it.

So they couldn't get their info from the GP.

methinks the lady doth protest too much

I don't care if my kids get weighed : and DS has been in a cohort study all his life - as I know he's within the normal range

A lot of very defensive parents on here.

"soooo... the screeening and checks are not doing anything to help this then? informing parents is clearly NOT working.

I think they need a different tactic, don't you?"

It's a screening programme, not an intervention.

There are a number of interventions to support parents to educate children on healthy lifestyles (the aim is not to lose weight). I'm guessing the majority of parents are ignoring the letters and choosing not to access support.

I understand why people don't want their child to be obsessively worrying about their weight, however excluding them makes more of an issue of it in my opinion.

Yes I agree

Parents who turn something as normal as a height and weight check-up into a 'dirty little secret', are doing far more harm than good imo.

They need to be normalising something like this instead of making a song and dance about it.

Most kids take the check-up in their stride, until the parents start projecting.

It is also much more inaccurate if your child is from various minority ethnic groups.

And I wonder if the parents who are against this will be moaning in years to come, about the lack of provision in the NHS?

I don't understand why being weighed would be detrimental to a child's emotional well-being unless they already had issues around being weighed communicated to them in some way...by their parents?

No actually. That's a very goady accusation.

It was the result of reading the book I linked to earlier. She is an obsessive type anyway and she now knows every word on every page and expects us to allow her to follow the 'advice' in it to the letter.

We have never had a conversation about weight and weighing apart from me playing down the book content.

I am fed up of the body facism in this country. Everyone is so image obsessed and passing the craziness onto the children. Schools do not need to be weighing anyone. We are not herds of cattle.

Someone that I know online recently posted before and after diet photos of her 8 year old on facebook. Naked from the waist up. Complete with details about how much weight she'd lost in a very short apace of time. The child was fine to start off with. Underneath the photos were lots of comments from her friends saying how good she looked now she'd slimmed down and congratulating her. It made me feel sick. It is craziness.

For all of those kicking off about height and weight charts being innacurate because they do not reflect your kids

NO SHIT SHERLOCK
you stop your kids being included and then
complain that they are EXCLUDED

cut the paranoia, its done in a moment
and hopefully the data sets will get more accurate

I sometimes wonder what goes through the minds of people that never question doing what they are told to by the government - but it's probably not that much.

"Everyone is so image obsessed and passing the craziness onto the children."

But this isn't about image and looks. It is about health and providing adequate healthcare. A couple of nurses have already posted about this further upthread.

I tend to agree that some parents are projecting their issues on to their children.

Parents who turn something as normal as a height and weight check-up into a 'dirty little secret', are doing far more harm than good imo.

You will, I'm sure make the right decision for your own child and you know very little about mine. Luckily for her, I'm not doing more harm than good. The school SENCo and the GP agree with me.

I really don't understand the 'dirty little secret' comment. None of the children will be told their weights so that's far more secretive than not having the child weighed at all.

We have never had a conversation about weight and weighing apart from me playing down the book content

See I find that strange.

Weight (both gaining and losing) is such a natural part of life...something that will affect every single one of us at some point.

How or why have you never managed to have a conversation about it?