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??

Says nothing about health visitors bullying mothers into giving up breastfeeding...think that may be your own agenda!

All I've ever heard health visitors say is weight isn't everything and to look at how well baby is generally how is their urine output bowel movements, skin colour, tone etc etc not oooh he's on the 9th centile give him some cow and gate!
I think GPs are far more guilty of that actually...

I was told by my hv to always have formula available even though I told her I was ebf my dc. 2 different hv each told me that. How is that helpful? Other than use the formula as a 'quick fix' if you had some initial problems. I ignored them and never went near any baby clinics as a result.

(Haven't RTFT)

None of mine have been part of the scheme. Don't want to provide more fodder for the political statistic machine.

You won't be strong-armed and the school won't give two hoots either way. Chances are your children won't be the only ones not doing it.

Was this about 30 years ago?

S'up to you, innit. So you are neither BU or NBU.

But

People are getting worse at seeing a 'healthy' weight vs 'overweight'. As a population/society, we are worse at seeing it. So for every muscular, fit child there will be a borderline weight problem. It's easy when our kids are little to blame 'puppy fat'. Age 4-5 is a useful time to reassess. Privately. No one is broadcasting this, or judging you - it's just a letter home.

No child who is weighed ONCE at school will find it degrading/demeaning/upsetting at age 4 or 5. Don't project adult values on to kids. Unless you weigh them regularly and give 'em a complex about it, it will just be a mildly diverting part of their day, similar to seeing who is tallest and who is shortest. Except without the comparison, because they won't know their friends weights.

Your child may be OK, but it helps to see trends in statistics. If people self-select out all the time, it gets harder to see trends. Like it or not, government policy is based on statistics. And there's a really good case for tackling the weight of the population, especially when younger.

I had a letter saying my ds2 was 'very overweight' in Yr 6 and to be honest it upset me. I am not one of these parents who is in denial about their child's weight,I knew he was chubby. Fast forward 3 years, he has had a massive growth spurt and is slim. I knew the couple of chubby years were just pre-puberty chubbiness. When I received the letter for my ds 3 ( so skinny you can see his ribs!) I declined for him to be weighed at all and won't allow my dd to be either.

I'm 40 and I remember having this done at school and the snide remarks from nurse about me being under weight and my younger sister being fat.

Reason why I opted out of this when DD was at school and will do with DS

There are some really weird reasons here being given for refusing to help the government work out how much money the NHS might need to spend on obesity in the future.

My chubby child had a massive growth spurt and became slim...therefore I'm not going to help, is one of the strangest.

Sharon if your question was to me, the answer is no.

sharon if the question was to me, then no! I have a primary age child -- so not old enough to be dismissed with "things have changed".

I understand that of course everyone on MN is very aware of whether their child is overweight or not and is completely immune from the normalisation of extra weight in our society. However, studies have shown (someone quoted one up thread) that many parents of overweight children are unaware of the problem.

I cannot really understand this mistrust of the government and their evil nanny state statistics. You may not agree with all the policies the government attempts to instigate, but surely you agree their actions must be based on real data? How else to collect real data if not from your children (along with everyone else's)?

feelingalittlebitlost genuine question: I understood that you should be able to see ribs in a child and that that indicates a healthy weight. If seeing ribs is considered skinny is that part of us all being less aware of what is normal weight for a child now so many are overweight? (Not saying you do individually Babyroobs just meant us in general - my DS is similar and in my head I think he is 'skinny' and need to consciously think that actually that is how a child should be. So the letters may help some families become aware of a potential issue.

THIS. My DC1 is very skinny. Skinny for age/year group/generally a skinny kid, with ribs, collar bone etc visible. Always been small and low on the percentiles. (But that's what percentiles are for, to indicate averages and extremes.)

But DC1 is 'normal' on the NHS guidelines. So yes, we are becoming desensitised. I really think so. People are so defensive nowadays, because it's an uncomfortable thing to think or admit. But just because some other people's kids are fatter, it doesn't mean your 'stocky but healthy' kid isn't actually overweight.

You can be both overweight and active and 'healthy'. . .

For instance, for the sake of balance, my DC2 is a completely different build, and it is hard for me to assess reasonably whether or not they are OK (healthy! active! waiting for a growth spurt!) or actually in need of monitoring, in a non-control-freak, let's-not-freak-about-weight sort of way. . .

Please do this op. Obesity is fast becoming the biggest crisis and we need good surveillance to know what works.

I don't actually object at all to the data being collected for planning and provision of services, if it stopped there.

What I do object to is 'we may store the information on your child's health record and share it with your child's GP or other health professionals involved with your child's care'.

I have opted my son out.

I monitor his weight and he has autism so it saves a lot of other potential issues.

Plus I have an issue with monitoring without defined intervention strategies.

It does not allow us to identify causation factors on it's own; we know obesity rates increase during primary phase and boys are more likely to be overweight. We have to apply it to local deprivation indexes to say that deprivation and obesity are linked. Or are they? Do we really know that it is the deprived children in that area that are overweight and obese? Or are other factors relating to living in an area of deprivation a factor in the causation? Such as opportunity to lead an active lifestyle.

This data, as it is, needs a rethink at a strategic level. There is not even an adequate response when an underweight, overweight or obese child is identified... which has it's own ethical issues.

Doris what a load of codswallop. Without data there can be no answers. People should stop being so bloody precious, I really cannot see what harm measuring and weighing children at primary can do. Honestly, some people have too much time on their hands.
I also don't understand why the father doesn't get a say in this.

My mother was a registered nurse. However, my sister and I were both identified as myopic at school when neither if us could read the blackboard. We both just assumed the world looked like a Monet painting.
In school health checks are a great idea.

Yabu.

"What I do object to is 'we may store the information on your child's health record and share it with your child's GP or other health professionals involved with your child's care'."

Why, though? Why don't you want health professionals involved in your child's care to know how much he/she weighs?

In the summer we went to a water playground full of children charging around in swimwear. DS has a fine rack of ribs and vertebrae on display and looked skinny compared to the other children with their "puppy fat", (and for want of better words) moobs, and love handles wobbling around.

Except DS is not skinny. He's been regularly checked at the dieticians because of his allergies. His height and weight are on the same centiles. He is a normal, healthy slim build.

There are legitimate grounds to withdraw consent, and there are weak and precious grounds, but we need the data to plan for the health of our children as a population.

On DS's last check, I could see that he'd plumped up ready for a growth spurt, and then he returned to his usual state of being

Ds2 hasn't had additional checks, but the standard ones are useful as additional information to check that my opinions about his health are in the right league. I wouldn't reject them on the grounds that "I know best"

Day the people who work on this are well aware of that. Saying deprivation and obesity are linked (ie vary together) does not imply causation, why would it??

I can't see how the country can get to grips with the childhood obesity problem when parents get so precious about doing the survey.
It seems a very selfish attitude to me- the government needs to plan spending on services etc. I really can't understand why a child's health record can't be shared with health professionals.
Weight is hardly a secret- we can all make a pretty shrewd guess by merely looking at someone!

The NCmp has fantastic take up and there are always valid reasons why some children can't participate. I really hope that continues.