To ask what you think of weighing children in school

[cadburyegg]

Discussion on our school groups about the possibility of weighing children restarting as it was halted in March 2020. Lots of parents think it’s shameful and unnecessary, some are of the opinion that it’s “just for statistics” and can also be useful to see what centile your child is at.

I’m on the fence tbh. What are your thoughts?

It’s important on a population level. I have no issues with it at all.

I was on the fence too as I see it can be helpful Ona large scale to see what’s what. But I declined for my son. I know he is a healthy weight and that’s what matters. I remember being mortified being weighed as a kid (I was chubby, my kids are certainly not) and now have ishoos.

I think as long as the children aren't told their weight then it's fine. It could mean help is offered for very overweight and very underweight DC.

Can't see how it's any different from the other health checks kids have in school (do they still do those? That's how I found out it's not normal for everything past your nose to be blurry 😂). I assume they don't display their weight on a large screen for everyone to see and chant "fat! Fat! Fat!" when there's an overweight kid?

I think it's fine as it gives population level statistics and also means support and education on healthy choices can be offered to parents.

One of my friends was furious that her child was weighed in school. It will come as no surprise that her child wasn't told their weight, but she was furious at being told her overweight child was overweight.

How is it shameful?

It's not done in front of everyone else and the child probably won't know how much they weigh anyway.

The statistics are important and if parents stopped projecting, weight/height etc wouldn't be such a taboo subject.

No, I don't like it. I remember being very self conscious about my weight from the age of about 6 and inventing weird diets for myself. I was actually quite a skinny child, but my dad used to poke my "fat tummy". I think being weighed at school would have made me terribly anxious.

Realistically, the parents who are concerned about their child being healthy are already going to be aware if their child is significantly over/underweight, and the ones who don't aren't going to change just because they get a letter from school.

I think it's really important that schools understand the health of their students. When I was a governor we looked at the school level data which showed a really shocking % of our Year 6s were overweight when they they left, so we took the decision to invest more in PE and sport, and asked for regular updates on menus and the healthiness of the food they were getting at school. Of course, a lot of it is about what they eat at home and do outside school, but schools can do their bit.

We are way too fat as a society and it is one reason we suffered so badly in the pandemic.

I remember weight and height checks, eye tests and on one occasion a hearing test when I was at school. Plus those bleep running tests etc.

I think these are important as a basic indicator of health and development to flag any issues early. Regarding weight specifically, we know that children who are overweight are highly likely to be overweight as adults.

It should be handled sensibly and it shouldn't be a spectator sport however.

Realistically, the parents who are concerned about their child being healthy are already going to be aware if their child is significantly over/underweight, and the ones who don't aren't going to change just because they get a letter from school.

Realistically, a lot of parents can't see that their kids are overweight.

And it's not about them being significantly so either. It's far better to be made aware before getting to that stage, so parents can make some gentle tweaks to diet and exercise.

It's important from a public health perspective and for, as bakingdemon says, providing information so that decision-making bodies have data to inform how they are distributing their resources.

In my London borough, the reception and Y6 data showed that a significant % of children moved from 'healthy weight' to 'overweight' during their primary school years, which was used to make the case for additional free-to-access sports provision for this age group.

The programme has been running since just after the Second World War and has provided a dataset of immense importance - it was the evidence behind eg the provision of milk in schools when the data showed underweight (proxy for malnutrition) was a concern.

It is important for health planners, to help predict and arrange future NHS services.

You do not need to share the outcome with your DC if you do not want to, and it should be conducted in a way that individual results are not made known (even inadvertently) on the day

I agree that parents should be able to opt out for any reason, but if too many do, the results could skew and the value will be lost

1. you can opt out
2. I think it's highly important for public health. Some people don't realise their kid is overweight/underweight. Eating right and being a healthy weight in childhood effects health in later life.

As the parent of two children who are/were overweight, I think it's important. Most importantly, I think we need the statistics and it's really important to understand at a societal level where we are at.

In terms of the shame etc, that absolutely is an issue but one for which the solution is not to avoid weighing children, but to be more sensitive to the approach. A health assessment, done privately, where weight (without commentary) is just one of the checks, is perfectly reasonable.

In terms of parents - I have mixed feelings about this. I was (am) fully aware that my children were/are overweight. A letter would just stress me out. But... I see other children who I do wonder if their parents are even aware of it because every morning they're eating coffee shop flapjacks and hot chocolates, so maybe they'd benefit. But again, most importantly, it's the tone: Telling me my child was overweight and then listing all the health issues, doesn't really help me when I'm already doing everything I can about it while getting the balance between food/exercise/mental health right and spending sleepless nights worrying as it is.

@christinarossetti19

It's important from a public health perspective and for, as bakingdemon says, providing information so that decision-making bodies have data to inform how they are distributing their resources.

In my London borough, the reception and Y6 data showed that a significant % of children moved from 'healthy weight' to 'overweight' during their primary school years, which was used to make the case for additional free-to-access sports provision for this age group.

This is excellent. DC's school is terrible about sports provision generally and I think it's a real problem. Perhaps if they saw data of this sort, they'd make more effort.

Absolutely! Having health check at school, weight included should be the priority for parents!

In a country where it takes 3 weeks to get an appointment with a GP and there is no medical help unless you have a bad emergency, how can anyone refuse?

Anyone thinking it's "shameful" is aware of their poor choice and the impact on their kids, but refuse to be told! They should be ashamed not to put kids first.

I dont feel I need it, I can weigh my children and find out if their weight is healthy and take steps to address it. But it seems as though a lot of people can't do this. There are threads on here regularly saying the HV or doctor or school said their child was overweight. Some people are oblivious. And if you dont weigh all children then what's the answer? Just weigh the ones that look like they might be overweight? Do nothing and hope for the best? Some parents genuinely dont realise their children are overweight and if they dont have any contact with any other services or need to go to the doctors, how do you identify these children and try and intervene before its too late? Yes it's not a perfect system but leaving it up to the parents and setting these children up for a lifetime of health issues is not the answer in my opinion

I'm more than happy for my DC to be wieghed and measured at school - population level statistics are important, as is having good local data to ensure provision of services. My DC were not bothered at all, don't know the results and we've all moved on. We don't have scales at home and don't dicuss weight or size but focus on keeping ourselves healthy with our diet and activity.

The number of very overweight young children I see out and about has definitely increased and the number of very overweight adults has long been known to be on the increase. We have to have to try to assess the numbers, and understand the reasons and the impact on health and wellbeing before we can properly look at what services are required.

I don't have the data so can't say whether my anecdotal observations are borne out, but if children are becoming (at a population level) overweight by greater amounts at earlier ages then we need to know that so we can know whether that has long term impacts, and whether any interventions can chnage trajectories. If data shows that children who are overweight in reception are often overweight by year 6, or if it tells us that children who are overweight in reception are no longer overweight in year 6, or it tells us that yr R kids are (population wise) not overweight in large numbers but kids in year 6 are - then all of that is very interesting and potentially useful for public health, no?

This is excellent. DC's school is terrible about sports provision generally and I think it's a real problem. Perhaps if they saw data of this sort, they'd make more effort.

It's not always about effort but about funding too.

When obesity 'hot-spots' are identified, funding often becomes more accessible for that area.

*Realistically, a lot of parents can't see that their kids are overweight.

And it's not about them being significantly so either. It's far better to be made aware before getting to that stage, so parents can make some gentle tweaks to diet and exercise.*

Yes, but the ones who can't see it are the ones who are likely to reject the info anyway.

Am not sure yet whether I will opt DD out- I don't really want to do so if it's noticeable and therefore will make her the odd one out.

It is very important to obtain these statistics at a population level. It is not necessary to share the info with the children.

Yes, but the ones who can't see it are the ones who are likely to reject the info anyway.

Possibly, but there are always a few parents for whom it's a genuine wake-up call and they do actually do something about it.

It's easy to take ones eye off the ball when we're all leading such busy lives.

And it's just as important for the population to have our kids weighed and measured when they're at a healthy weight too.

It all adds to the statistics.

I think it's important for public health team to have this information, and school is a convenient place to organise health checks.

Parents of overweight children are often (but not always) overweight themselves. Being told that their child is overweight probably won't do very much. Some already know and are trying to do something about it, some know but don't care, some know but don't know what to do about it, and only a small proportion will be surprised and act on the information.