to not let DS be weighed at school?

[QueenofKelsingra]

DS is in reception. just had the letter home saying the whole year will be weighed and measured for the NHS.

I don't really know why but I don't want him to have this done. DS is a healthy height and weight (75 and 50 centiles respectively) so I'm not 'scared' I will get some snotty letter stating that he is over/under weight. I just don't like the idea of someone else taking his measurements and making comments/statements about him when I haven't asked for it.

DH thinks I'm making a mountain out of a molehill and that it's no big deal. For some reason I just don't like the idea.

So WIBU to refuse to have him weighed and measured? Anyone else do this and why??

I didn't refuse, but almost wished I had when I got that Change4Life leaflet advising me how my now officially underweight child could ingest fewer calories. Utterly bloody pointless.

As a tax payer I'm interested in the health of other people . I'm interested in promoting healthy living in all its guises. Smoking, drinking exercise and diet etc.

I'm also interested in doing things to help children who are overweight. I think it's really terrible when I see very overweight children. I don't 'judge' as I don't know what the circumstances are (disabilities/steroids etc) but I know children shouldn't be chubby let alone fat.

If I was in charge I would extend the school day and have a

Btw I struggled with my first two toddlers being 'stocky' so I'm not saying it's easy. (They are now well over six foot and wear 28 inch jeans ....one of them still needs a belt ; so it all came out in the wash... .)

I've refused consent partly because I don't want information about my dd going on file. And partly because I think she is a little bit overweight and am already taking care to minimise snacks and increase activity. It may be that she is due a growth spurt, it may be that she isn't active enough. I'm not sure but I don't want her to feel bad about herself. She's discussed her body since at least Y2 and one of her friends already has some sort of eating disorder. She was horrified at the thought of a weigh-in, and happy that I told her I wasn't going to allow it.

I don't remember being asked for consent in reception but probably wouldn't have cared. Y6 girls... No way!

thoughtsescapeme. Ok, I can understand why you would opt out if your DD has told you that she doesn't want to be weighed. It's so sad that they feel embarrassed about weight issues at such a young age. It's good she has spoken to you about it and that you are addressing her weight.

I found with my, 'stocky' toddlers that a small changes in their diet made a huge difference. It wasn't a biggie at all. I noticed they were a bit chubby and fed them a bit less (they were already very, very active ) Problem solved.

Good luck.

There's plenty of evidence that many parents just don't realise their child is overweight.

There are simultaneously lots of people saying they feel these screenings are not necessary because they can keep an eye on their own child's weight thank you very much.

But clearly, if lots of people don't realise, that means lots of people actually can't monitor effectively themselves can they?

There's an awful lot of denial and defensiveness around this issue, and that doesn't benefit anyone's child.

If I had my way, compulsory use of wholemeal bread, pasta and wholegrain rice, and compulsory restriction on the use of processed meat in school, hospital and care home catering would be top of my agenda. Not to mention compulsory upper limits on the use of artificial sweeteners, salt and sugar in food and drinks manufacturing.

Maybe compulsion does have its place, after all.

What flowery said. YABU. I think it's not only okay to weigh children at school but in fact necessary as many parents are not willing to admit that their child is overweight and take steps accordingly. This is a massive public health issue looming on the horizon for the NHS; overweight children have a drastically increased risk of becoming obese as adults (and dealing with all of the health problems that obesity entails), and ignoring the issue, even if it's not your own child that is overweight, doesn't do anyone any favours.

My dd won't be getting weighed at school. She is already under a dietician for her weight that took me 18 months at least to get an appointment.

I understand that the information is used for stats but is there any practical help for the people who are flagged up? I was told that the dietician only met with my dd because she has co-morbidity physical disability, sleep apnoea basically a 5 year old with a 97% bmi is not heavy enough to access the service

i know when i was 5 i'd have been gutted if my mum had pulled me out of the height and weight checks or dental or nit checks. it was exciting to do something different with the whole class.
to be singled out as 'different and 'x mum won't let them' could open your child up to a continued singling out by other children.

if you're happy with your child's weight then you can choose to ignore the figures but having them done helps with giving the nhs a clearer picture of where funding and support needs to be.

as a side note tho the amount of my friend's children who were kicking off when they were told their obviously overweight child was overweight - many people dismiss extra pounds as 'baby fat' and if this scheme encorages 1 parent to get their child moving more etc then that also helps long term

YABU. They are not doing anything invasive or frightening. Neither are they gathering particularly private information. Most people can roughly tell by looking at someone what height and weight they are.
There are so many overweight children nowadays who are heading for huge health problems (and possibly emotional ones as well) if something isn't done about their diet and lifestyle. Anything working to redress that is positive, in my view.

I think that any education authority wanting to weigh and measure children should stop serving cake/ice cream/large quantities of pasta, bread etc to the children in question. If they are borderline overweight surely giving them the option to make unhealthy choices every lunchtime won't help. e.g. dc had bread and cheesy pasta for lunch followed by a pastry based pudding last week.

If you feel strongly, then opt out. But they are just gathering information and it won't be shared with other pupils/parents.

FWIW, DD got measured in Y6, but when the results came, I thought it was just junk mail and threw it out without reading it.
DS never got measured in Y6. I think he was out at a sports event or something at the time.
I don't remember either of them getting measured at school in Reception

mrsmcruff wholemeal bread, pasta and rice isn't recommended for children. Too much fibre for them, or something.
In any case ,there's nothing wrong with the white versions of these foods, as long as they are eaten in the correct portions. One only has to go back 30/,40 years (when obesity was rare) ,or look at other countries, eg Italy, to realise that white bread, pasta and rice do not 'cause' obesity.

I think the wholemeal rice/pasta thing only applies to children under 18 months.

Obesity isn't the only marker of a poor diet, fat. My comments were concerning the overall health of the nation.

I have no doubt that if my proposals were to be implemented, the UK would be a much healthier place.

I'm mixed on this. On the one hand I take on board previous posters' points about the value of nationally collected data and the value of flagging up points of concern for children who for one reason or another might otherwise slip through the net.

On the other hand, I feel that I am responsible for my child's health and I object, on point of principle, to this kind of mass pseudo-screening exercise which seems to have a kind of dubious end point. I have a daughter and I REALLY do not want her to become weight obsessed. I remember the agony of the termly weighing and measuring in senior school. I was always extremely light for my height, although I ate more than adequately. Feeling under scrutiny like this and having to endure the accusation of anorexia from my peers and the 'surprised' looks from the teacher doing the measuring was just hell. I dreaded it. Probably other girls who were are the other end of the spectrum also dreaded it. I remember conversations from the age of 12 or so 'justifying' a heavier weight because someone had needed a wee and so obviously their 'real' weight was lower than what had been recorded.

I think that protecting against this paranoia and obsession with the dimensions of ones body should be paramount and the regular, pseudo-compulsory regular weigh-in runs counter to achieving this.

I also recall a thread maybe 18 months ago or so posted by the mother of a girl in her early teens who had been flagged as obese as the result of one of these school weigh-ins and was under pressure to examine her diet and lose weight. The conclusion had been based on calculation of her BMI, which as we all know does not distinguish been weight from muscle and weight from fat. The girl in question was an athlete and her high BMI was due muscle mass not weight. She ate healthily and was very active. But as far as the school was concerned that didn't matter - all that mattered was the numbers.

I understand why posters are saying YABU. But on balance and taking the longer view I'd say YANBU. It's not JUST about weight and where yo are on the sodding percentile chart. It's about diet, building a healthy relationship with food, and learning to achieve a pattern of healthy eating, building up a healthy relationship with exercise and physical activity, and achieving a healthy relationship with your body. It's not about numbers and where you score in relation to other people. Yet that kind of attitude and concern is what these exercises encourage and promote.

I couldn't agree more, cardamomginger. Your post has articulated my vague feeling of being uncomfortable about the whole process.

We were not weight obsessed when I was young- no one would have though anything of being weighed. It is now that we have a massive child obesity problem that parents want to make a huge issue out of a simple few seconds of measurement. No wonder our children have an unhealthy attitude when such a fuss is made and so much attention is drawn to it by parents singling them out. If I was 5 yrs old I wouldn't understand it!

Children get their attitudes to weight and diet from parents. I would want mine to be laid back and take in their stride, not have me anxiously writing letters and having to explain to them why I didn't want something done as simple as 2 seconds on scales! How on earth do you explain it to them?
I really wouldn't make it an issue.

As a nation we're getting fatter with all the health problems that bringa. The first step is to understand the scale of the problem. The best time to intervene is as soon as possible

Let's assume all our children are optimal weights. One or two might have a high BMI due to being muscular, a few underweight because of conditions we already know about. In those circumstances we already know that their weight is out of the ordinary, so we can ignore any leaflets we get sent when their weight is flagged up.

On the other hand there are parents who, through ignorance and/or neglect have sturdy or underfed 10 yos. For the sake of those children, allowing your own to be weighed isn't even remotely a big deal.

I seriously cannot understand the problem people have with this

In reception I agree, there is no real issue. But as an 11 year old girl, who can see she is bigger than some of the other girls, to get weighed at school is not fun. I gave DD the choice and she said she didn't want to. Before you all slate me and my attitude to her weight, can I let you know she plays football, cricket at county level, and does ballet and tap! I can't make her do any more exercise! We know it is an issue, but I had a sister with anorexia for 20 years, and would never want to make food an issue

Surely leaving them out draws more attention that just going along. Everyone else will now know she is conscious of her weight, they will have sussed that she isn't being weighed because she already knows she is fat? You do know that the children are weighed in private? I could understand it if was a public weigh in, but it's not, they don't even tell the children their weight.

Cheese, I suspect some parents don't realise that the weigh-ins are in private, and that the children themselves aren't told anything.