Children being weighed in school

[Pixxie7]

I have just seen that a school in Leicestershire is intending to weigh primary school children as part of the governments healthy eating drive.

Does anyone else feel that this could cause all sorts of problems going forward?

Of course they should weigh them. I was weighed in the 90s, we didn’t all grow up traumatised as a result.

The number of obese children at my child’s primary is nothing short of appalling. And I don’t mean chubby, I mean obese. It upsets me every day walking up the drive at pickup time, those poor kids set up for a lifetime of ill-health.

Yup I got all defensive because I can see the bigger picture. My kids are fitter than most adults I know. They put a bit of weight on before growth spurts and when sports reduce a bit over winter.

Yesterday ds (7) did a 1.5k race in a marathon boat, kept up all way around with teenagers and adults and actually beat a few adults and teenagers. To even keep one those boats upright in the water requires quite a lot of practice (hours) and fitness. On Thursday he does 2 hours slalom training, again with adults and teenagers and is first in and last out. He is slightly heavier than the BMI charts would want (top 80%) but that doesn't automatically mean he is unfit or unhealthy. BMI is a blunt tool and the bigger picture is more important.

It works both ways.
Age 11 dd got told to see the nurse who questioned her on what she was eating at home and did we her parents give her proper meals as dd was considered to be underweight.
My dd told the nurse that her parents and sibling were also slim and she had plenty to eat.
We knew nothing of this until dd told us and found it highly amusing.

I do think many parents give dc far too large portions though. My dc were always given age appropriate portions and I never made them clear their plate.

Threads like this always attract one or two posters who claim their overweight children do more sports than a triathlete on steroids.

But the fact of the matter is that in England alone, 1 in 5 children are leaving primary school obese and that is more than double the amount of obese children in Reception.

So the much awaited 'growth spurt' isn't happening for those kids.

Meanwhile the parents who claim they're not allowing their overweight kids to get weighed along with the rest of the school year, because it can cause eating disorders, stick their heads firmly in the sand when it comes to the fact being an overweight kid can also cause eating disorders - as can having overweight parents.

64% of adults are overweight/obese right now, wouldn't you think the parents amongst them might want better for their own children?

Should the government just totally ignore it?
It’s strange how it’s acceptable to weigh/measure babies to ensure they are growing correctly but not children..

DD gets weighted at hospitals and doctors appointments- as have I. Maybe we should be normalising it more.
This information can be used to target resources to schools where there is particular problems. It’s not just about your child. In fact refusing could be doing them a disservice.

My experience is parents have 2 reactions to being told their child is overweight- total disbelief or they frankly don’t care, already knew.

@HighlandCowbag

Yup I got all defensive because I can see the bigger picture. My kids are fitter than most adults I know. They put a bit of weight on before growth spurts and when sports reduce a bit over winter.

Yesterday ds (7) did a 1.5k race in a marathon boat, kept up all way around with teenagers and adults and actually beat a few adults and teenagers. To even keep one those boats upright in the water requires quite a lot of practice (hours) and fitness. On Thursday he does 2 hours slalom training, again with adults and teenagers and is first in and last out. He is slightly heavier than the BMI charts would want (top 80%) but that doesn't automatically mean he is unfit or unhealthy. BMI is a blunt tool and the bigger picture is more important.

So you think no child in a country with a ticking timebomb of obesity which for many begins in childhood (of which we don't know the long term effects of because a lot of older people who are now overweight would have likely been a healthy weight when younger as childhood obesity was nowhere near where it is now) should not be weighed because you're in denial about the fact that your children were/are overweight? Makes sense.

My area apparently has one of the worst dates of child obesity in the whole country. It’s really bloody obvious.

In most cases I’ve observed in passing, the entire family is overweight/obese. Both parents, more than one child. Being obese is so wrongly becoming normalised, I think the parents are just blind to it because they also have a weight issue and just can’t see how dangerous it is for their children. Without being overly dramatic, it really is deeply terrifying.

19 Sirzy

If a child goes from severely overweight to healthy weight in the space of a few weeks I would be seeking medical attention to what was going on

Dd went from slim to severely underweight in 6 weeks. Purely because she shot up 6 inches in 6 weeks.

I used to notice this in dc. They would progress at a normal rate then would start piling on the weight and then shoot up.

Ds had a letter home to say he was obese.
Again by the time I had got the letter his height had gone up, his weight was the same and he was in the normal weight category again.

Friend was threatened with the removal of her baby as she was supposedly enormously overweight.
The Health visitor weighed the baby and said she should only be a certain weight and gave her a lecture on over feeding and how they would remove the baby for its own good.
Baby was more than that when they were born. Friends partner is 6ft 8” The child at age 4 is taller than most 7 or 8 year olds and gets mistaken for a much older child.

Should add Dd when she grew it was so sudden she had stretch marks.

It doesn’t bother me at all because my dc are healthy weights. As their parent I work hard to ensure this is the case for them, keep an eye on their bmi (without them being aware) and make sure they are eating healthily etc etc. It’s part of my job as a parent.

The only people who get upset are those whose dc are overweight, and then they don’t accept it and say the weighing (twice in 7 years, hardly worth registering) is harmful and inaccurate because of course their dc is the healthiest fittest child around. They’re in denial.

Nope, never said they shouldn't be weighed. Just said I'm not concerned about my children because of other factors. My ds isn't overweight because he does sports, he is overweight as per a blunt tool that has someone in the lower 20% and someone in the higher 20%. If he didn't do sports, he would probably be more overweight not less.

Health is a lot more than where on a scale you fit. He is fitter and probably stronger if you did the same sort of scale measuring aerobic fitness and strength and stamina.

My point was you can refuse it if you chose to. I didn't because it doesn't really make a difference to him, one way or another. I got the letter, phoned to discuss as it said to, asked for advice as it said to. Advice was more exercise as a family. Explained what we did, as a family and individually. Advice was then 'oh, wow that's really good, keep an eye on it, try hidden veg if he won't eat it'. His diet isn't perfect, mine isn't either, O don't know many people who do have a perfect diet,except of course on mn.

My point is that BMI is a blunt tool that measures 1 thing and compares against the rest of 7 year old boys. On weight ds is in the top 20%. It doesn't mean anything on its own.

The obesity crisis in children is a real societal issue. One that is probably best tackled via food manufacturers first by the government but also out of the 21 meals a child eats in a week, 5 of them are probably a shit way to eat for 38 weeks of the year so that would be a better place to start than telling families to go for a walk and showing them a healthy plate as per NHS guidelines.

I was weighed at primary in the 80s. Can’t see an issue if it’s done sensitively.

Its far easier to stop it going on than it is to lose it later in life.

Why wouldn't you want the chance to be able to do something while you still had the time to instill good habits and the control over what they eat in the mean time?

Ad a fat adult I don't want ny kids turning out like me. We do our best as parents but life gets in the way sometimes and we don't always notice what's under our notice. I'd rather have the kick up the arse in yr 6 than watch them struggle to find uniform that fits properlu in yr 7 onwards.

@HighlandCowbag dc are only overweight in the 90th centile or above. So doesn’t sounds like your dc is overweight anyway.

We had a letter in reception and nearly every parent opted out at the time, us included.

He's on the 84th centile I think Floobydo, or was last night when he weighed himself anyway (only because the scales were out). He was probably on the 90th when weighed with school as it was March time and he does put a bit on during that period as we don't really do as much watersports due to the weather.

I'm not worried about him at all, he's fit and healthy.

@Floobydo

It doesn’t bother me at all because my dc are healthy weights. As their parent I work hard to ensure this is the case for them, keep an eye on their bmi (without them being aware) and make sure they are eating healthily etc etc. It’s part of my job as a parent.

The only people who get upset are those whose dc are overweight, and then they don’t accept it and say the weighing (twice in 7 years, hardly worth registering) is harmful and inaccurate because of course their dc is the healthiest fittest child around. They’re in denial.

My DD in year 5 is about the weight of an average 6 year old. She should not be being weighed at school.

@HighlandCowbag

Nope, never said they shouldn't be weighed. Just said I'm not concerned about my children because of other factors. My ds isn't overweight because he does sports, he is overweight as per a blunt tool that has someone in the lower 20% and someone in the higher 20%. If he didn't do sports, he would probably be more overweight not less.

Health is a lot more than where on a scale you fit. He is fitter and probably stronger if you did the same sort of scale measuring aerobic fitness and strength and stamina.

My point was you can refuse it if you chose to. I didn't because it doesn't really make a difference to him, one way or another. I got the letter, phoned to discuss as it said to, asked for advice as it said to. Advice was more exercise as a family. Explained what we did, as a family and individually. Advice was then 'oh, wow that's really good, keep an eye on it, try hidden veg if he won't eat it'. His diet isn't perfect, mine isn't either, O don't know many people who do have a perfect diet,except of course on mn.

My point is that BMI is a blunt tool that measures 1 thing and compares against the rest of 7 year old boys. On weight ds is in the top 20%. It doesn't mean anything on its own.

The obesity crisis in children is a real societal issue. One that is probably best tackled via food manufacturers first by the government but also out of the 21 meals a child eats in a week, 5 of them are probably a shit way to eat for 38 weeks of the year so that would be a better place to start than telling families to go for a walk and showing them a healthy plate as per NHS guidelines.

You dont understand BMI centre @highlandcowbag It doesnt compare just 1 thing They are comparing the ratio and height and weight against boys born on the same day, not just weight or height

The obesity crisis in children is a real societal issue. One that is probably best tackled via food manufacturers first by the government but also out of the 21 meals a child eats in a week, 5 of them are probably a shit way to eat for 38 weeks of the year so that would be a better place to start than telling families to go for a walk and showing them a healthy plate as per NHS guidelines.

I disagree. It's best tackled first by the parents.

Food manufacturers and the government didn't give birth to those children. Parents shouldn't need to be told their children need to go for walks/do other exercise, it's just common sense and yet so many need telling.

It's time parents stopped blaming everyone else for their own kids being overweight but since so many parents can't/won't get their own weight under control, it's becoming an issue that's not going away.

My DS tends to fluctuate between the high end of the healthy weight range and being overweight. Once or twice he has slipped into the obese category. I've learnt that it only takes a small increase to do this with young children, less than a kilo for DS. A few weeks of stricter snack rules and he's back in the healthy zone.

He does do a lot of physical activities, taekwando, jujitsu, swimming, hip hop dance, football in the summer and icehockey in the winter. But when not in an activity he slobs out on the sofa with his Switch (hence me booking him in for everything going).

For the person saying only parents of overweight children opt out - luckily we don't have anything like this in Scotland but if they introduced it I'd be 100% telling them to poke it and DD is probably underweight for her height. She's already had to deal with kids in the playground talking about their mums being on diets so the last thing I want is for her to get fixated on being weighed and talking with other kids about her weight.

She knows what truly matters & that's being kind, decent & nice. Not how bloody much she weighs

No, you are right parents gave birth to them. But it's increasingly difficult to buy and provide a healthy diet. Lots of reasons why. Cash and time poor. Cash rich but time poor. Time rich but cash poor. Cheaper to feed a family processed food. Quicker after 10 hours out of the house to heat a pizza in the oven than make a pizza from scratch. Tired, hungry kids that need to be fed and in bed quickly. Probably 70% of the available food in supermarkets processed food, probably 30% of it high sugar. Takeaways up and down every road, advertising, peer pressure. Food manufacturers making and developing food that is comparable in addiction response to alcohol. Less sports clubs available, more inclination to sit online, ever developing video games, designed to be addictive.

Lots of different things contributing to the obesity crisis. It's not just a generation of parents that can't be arsed to understand why kids (and adults) are getting bigger. There is increasing amount of evidence coming available. Why We Eat (too much) by Andrew Jenkinson, Spoonfed by Tim Spector I think it is, Michael Moseley discusses it, a recent programme on ITV discussing the impact of the food industry on health.

It absolutely doesn't absolve parents from recognising and taking responsibility for their own children, but it's more complex than lazy arse parents playing the blame game.

Talking about healthy weight and supporting people/ children not to be obese doesn’t cause eating disorders.

Eating disorders are a mental illness. We should be able to talk about the importance of being a healthy weight without it leading to claims of eating disorders.

She knows what truly matters & that's being kind, decent & nice. Not how bloody much she weighs

Well that depends because if her weight were to affect her health, then that would definitely truly matter wouldn't it?

@Ijustknowitstimetogo

Talking about healthy weight and supporting people/ children not to be obese doesn’t cause eating disorders.

Eating disorders are a mental illness. We should be able to talk about the importance of being a healthy weight without it leading to claims of eating disorders.

You might be interested to read

www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/plans-regular-weigh-ins-primary-school-children-are-concerning-says-decp