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??

It seems that many parents do come under the 'I know best' category, MrsMook- when they often don't!

"It's not taking offence, it's taking responsibilty for your own child's health and not relying on outdated height and weight charts that aren't revised according to new data."

Well, there never will be any new data if people refuse to have their children weighed.

All the people who are worrying about their child "being a statistic"- did you refuse to have them weighed at birth?

The purpose isn't to identify causes. But it can trigger intervention based n need, such as the provision of orange juice (and cod liver oil?) in schools to counter the malnutrition associated with the levels of underweight found by survey.

This has been running for so long, that I think people forget what a valuable data set it is, and how rare it is for a country to have an unbroken record of this length. Especially now the baby boomers, when it started, are heading for retirement. I don't know if anyone is using the data life long (or if they look instead to things like the Bristol Study), but I hope that for the benefit of the population's health this work might happen.

We can't really afford to get health planning wrong.

The scheme is working- it gives an accurate picture of the health of our children.

Or it would give an accurate picture if parents were not so selfish and thought of the common good.

This is the paediatric survey, not the referrals service.

If you want better interventions, then this data is sorely needed though. For it is on the basis of the population weight evidence that need for a referrals service is decided.

The scheme hasn't been running a long time. 2006. It's still quite new.
And I'm never sure what the issue is with the charts - do people want them revised to show the new (ie more overweight) 'normal'?

I fail to see why that it a secret Pastor or why it can't be used for future planning purposes.
One of the plans to be 'how many parents refuse referral and what can be done about it?'

Pastor can you explain to me how the data aren't secure?

I think that part of the whole problem is that weight is such a thorny subject now. It just used to be mundane when I was a child- you were often weighed and no one gave it a thought. Parents would have been thought highly odd if they got all precious about it.
Since height and weight are hardly a secret- anyone can make a fairly accurate guess -perhaps the survey should just put in estimates of everyone and save the angst that parents appear to go through.

"The scheme hasn't been running a long time. 2006."

Common misperception. The scheme has been running, unbroken since the immediate post-war years.

New Labour did a bit of rebranding, and the letter to parents was included for the first time. But they didn't begin the programme. And I hope their changes aren't ruining it.

I don't know how health service planners would get evidence if participation in this survey became unrepresentative. Anyone suggest something better?

I can't see anyone wanting to steal the data John Smith weighs X!

I got a letter home for one of mine saying how I should consider taking him to the GP as he was very underweight.

Well yes, he is teeny tiny. His dad only ever weighed 9 stone at his heaviest and I am not very big either. I spent years going to hospital with him as a baby due to his weight and he was given the all clear years ago.

Of course they have to tell me he is underweight but I will refuse my others to be weighed because it is my job to keep an eye on their weight and I don't need anyone else telling me what they weigh.

I know it is useful for the government to know but I don't want mine included in it anymore.

Exactly meditrina- and precious parents didn't derail it in those days.

Oh and I have all very thin children, so it has nothing to do with them being overweight. Well, except for one child my youngest who is average.

I am just sick of being told they are too thin like it is something I can control.

Maybe that is why children were far healthier when I was at primary school. Weighing them was not an issue-and this sort of thread wouldn't have existed.

"Data not secure"

Can you say more about this?

And I repeat. Did the "my child will not be a statistic" people refuse to have them weighed at birth?

I guess that people don't take it personally at birth- after that they think that weight is making judgements about their parenting.

If people are intent on stealing medical records I doubt they have any interest in the weight of children!

This thread wouldn't have existed when mine were at primary school - it would be interesting to know which year this angst about children's weight began.

"I do not use the charts as a rule, I use my eyes on my child."

The using your eyes method is flawed, more flawed than the charts, which have their own set of problems too.

Data has shown that most parents are unable to recognise when their child is overweight or obese.