to think that this 'epidemic' of overweight children is bullshit

[EssenceOfJack]

For example, article here about a child who is 'overweight'
According to this children's BMI calculator my DD1 is on the 93rd percentile and is overweight when if you look on my profile you can clearly see that she is nothing of the sort.

Are they just measuring these small children when BMI means feck all (the calculator reckons it can tell you results for children from 2 to 20) and declaring them overweight based on arbitrary measurements and then the NHS using these figures to tell us all our children are fat?

I ask in all seriousness as at DD1's primary school I can genuinely say I haven't noticed one overweight child, and we live in a mildly deprived area so are supposed to be rife with 'fat kids'. yes, some have baby fat still, but they aren't fat

So AIBU?

There is a real air of judgement to a lot of these posts.

I get very upset about all this. I have always struggled with my weight although I have a big frame, but I don't deny that I need to lose weight. Ex-H is like a beanpole, and eldest ds is like him, whilst younger ds is like me. We have a very healthy diet, all home cooking, full of fruit veg and wholegrains and they boys eat the same amounts, and they do loads of sport, and I mean loads, and are very active. No doubt I will get one of those letters about ds2 at some stage but it really raises my hackles when I read phrases like 'dietary and exercise advice' because I know all that stuff already and I honestly don't know what I should do differently with ds2.

I heard this on Terry Wogan years ago, if you jump up and down and anything other than the naughty bits wobble then you are carrying fat, can't think of a better test. Obsessing about weight is a nonsense. Muscle weighs more than fat and a crude analysis of height to weight is only going to be a rough guide.
As an earlier post said the England men's rugby team would be considered obese. Remember they were children once and no doubt were doing lots of sport, athletic as anything even as children, thank goodness the illiterate government health stasi weren't around then to tell their parents they were getting it wrong.
I made sure I opted my daughter out of being weighed with her friends at year 6, how demeaning and pointless. She was about half a foot taller than her friends and would only have got worried comparing the weights.
We are all different shapes and sizes and children grow at different rates, the last thing that is needed is a mass comparison, fine for a school nurse to check and give advice on a child's health or for a school to test and improve children's fitness but idiotic to pick a test that is far too broad brush to fit all and leads to absurdities. Clearly the child in the newspapers is not obese as the letter to her mother suggested, she looks in the best of health.
I heard a very interesting documentary on Radio 4 a year or so back in which the journalist explained that the percentile charts were based on information from child clinics in Maryland, USA in the fifties and at some point a decision had been made on what made a child obese and that this was skewed. He had started from his own observation that going into a school classroom he didn't see the percentages of obese children that the statistics sugggested. I would be very interested to know the basis of percentile charts that are used. Does anyone know which cohort of babies, children were weighed and when?

YABU children have got bigger and we have lost sight of what a normal weight looks like. I know some of my ds' friends look as if they could do with making sure they don't put more weight on (I wouldn't dream of putting children on a diet), yet their parents think they're normal.

I agree BMI can a blunt tool, body fat % would be a better measurement, but generally it does give a pretty good indication of whether there is an issue that needs to be addressed. The methods used for children and adults are different.

All this talk of how the England rugby team/athletes etc would come up obese as muscle weighs more, I'm pretty sure they know it doesn't apply to them, but to Joe Bloggs on the street, it is a useful tool. I have high muscle mass, yet my BMI is 20; the majority of normal people who have a high BMI are deluding themselves if they think they or their children are more muscular and this is why they weigh more, and those of us with lower BMIs are all skinny and unfit. I think it gives a nice wide window of healthy weight that takes most builds into account, so some people will look better towards the higher end of normal and vice versa.

Children must have got bigger, this is probably why I can only buy trousers that can be taken in with the elastic for my ds. He is a perfectly normal size not skinny or bony at all, fit from swimming and rugby, yet normal trousers in the right size for his height won't stay up. Vanity sizing being another one of my personal bug bears.

mattelle - your ds will also be growing and that uses a lot of calories so added to the sport will have made a big difference

YANBU I worry about how skinny most of today's kids look! Some of my grown-up nieces & nephews are absolutely tiny (we're a tall family, and so are my in-laws). I'm convinced it's due to under-nourishment when young.

The other thing is "puppy fat", which children aren't supposed to have any more. Simple observation will tell you that lots of kids put on fat before a major growth spurt. It seems quite logical to me; a body needs to lay in resources before splurging on energy.

Course some people are naturally skinny - but not as many as I see coming out of school! I don't think you need to worry unless your child's flesh is actually wobbly.

Governments talk bollox about lots of things! It keeps people in employment

this gives average weights of woman in UK being 66.7k = 146.7 pounds

compared to the french average woman weighing 137.6 pounds

there is very little in the height either

so I would disagree that we are getting taller and therefore weigh heavier - we just weigh heavier as a nation and will see the results in disease

no they are fat

LOADS of them are fat

I bet no-one will dare have pics of theit DCs in their profile after this thread

I dont care. I know how much they weigh and how thin they are. I know ds1 is the one prone to being heavier as hes stocky. Doesnt bother me

Now recent pics of me is a whole other ball game

As variations on this thread appear regularly I doubt it will make any difference. In any case unless someone specifically asks, then why on earth would you comment on anything about their profile? That would be incredibly rude.

UK BMI measurements are based on a reference study on UK children in 1990, and have been tested in clinical trials, as showing a consistent relationship with other measurements of fat, persistent obesity into adulthood and a variety of health problems associated with obesity. It's also been shown that informing parents that their child is overweight is a useful approach as many parents don't register that their child is over weight (again studies have shown this) but there is some debate as to whether doing this via school is a good idea or not.

If you struggle with your weight then you eat too much...it's simple, put less in and use more up...

Of course a school should be able to tell a parent if they are causing long term health problems, it's the only place some children are regularly seen. If any of my dcs came home with a letter I would consider it and then file it wherever best, either in the bin or next to the weekly food menu. I can't understand the moral/personal outrage that some people have to this.

Posie, my point is that I have 2 dc, one is overweight and one isn't and they eat the same and do the same exercise. I suppose my personal outrage is that someone will brand me a terrible mother who needs a lesson in diet, exercise and lifestyle advice when I know that my overweight ds has a far better diet and does loads more exercise than many kids who have a terrible diet and no exercise, but because they are 'normal' weight their parents won't receive the same lecture.

Manic - is one of your DC a fidget? Apparently people who can never sit still eg when watching TV burn up a heck of a lot of calories

MM7777, I just don't think it's rocket science.
I guess I'm saying that if you have nothing to feel guilty about, don't feel guilty.

I think it would be better if school wasn't envolved - but I have no suggestion as to which organisation should be doing this.

Though why a gp surgery couldn't send out letters at the apropriate age and the child be taken by the parent, in the same way that injections are givien. You would still have the option to say no as you do know at school.

I think the school doing it when a paretn isn't present seems to me much more of a behind the back way of doing it.

If it was done with an adult present that actually feeds the child a chat about weight and what is happening could take place there and then rather than a letter....

But in most cases these things need saying, why sugar coat it? We don't have the resources to have a chat with everyone. You get the letter and an invitation to seek further advice.

this has been really interesting, from the other end of the spectrum - which is just as valid. I hadn't realised that sticky out ribs are normal. We have always worried about dd1 who has a poor appetite.

She has open access to the fridge, the sweet bowl, a tin of biscuits, a fruit bowl. They are all on her play storage and she rarely goes near any of it. She still has her Easter eggs! She's 5.

I have no poroblem with the school doing this. I think it is about her needs, not my need to feel like I'm doing the right thing. If the school have an opinion on her lifestyle I'm happy to hear it, look at the facts and review if needed. I don't know enough about parenting to be defensive about being given information or advice. Plus our school gave us a leter to allow/refuse their health check, so I feel that we had overall say at anyrate.

What I have learnt here is that I need to stop trying to encourage dd1 to eat more. She is only just underweight, and thats not so bad. I need to consider if I am laying down unhealthy patterns in her eating, even though she does not have a problem with being overweight.

I honestly think if it wasn't for Happy Meals she would be a lot lighter - as they are the one high calorie high carb thing she is likely to eat when all else fails. Not proud if it but when she's pale and lathargic we go for it.

tree, my nephew was a bit like this (he ate zero) and my sister saw a child psychologist. The basic advice was to relax and let the appetite build by letting him eat what he wanted, when the appetite returned they could start introducing other foods.

oo thanks for the reply. I think we have sort of found our way to the same methos posieparker.

wewere having conversations about how is she didn't eat unhealthy food she would be eating nearly zero food!

Hence free access to all food, baskets of school bars/mini milkyways/choc rolls/fruit/yogurtwhatever.

I'm hopeing that being in school will generate more appetite, and then we can start refining it. So we are working in reverse - starting bad and getting better - rater than starting good and getting worse School meals have helped in a huge way. We now eat custard. major.

Shame they cost blooming £10!!!!! Crazy.

Custard with bananas?! Ours are £11.00 a week too....Catholic school though so I think the food has been blessed!

The problem with measurements such as BMI is that they are only approximations. They do not take into account individual variation in bone density or amount of muscle (Which is denser than fat). By BMI standards, most real athletes come out as obese due to their musculature. The best way (to my mind) of seeing whether a child is fat is by just looking at them.

In our area (SW london) we don't see a lot of fat children. However, when I see certain schools on TV, the children mostly look obese. Maybe they pick them specially! I would think that the diet some children eat and the lack of exercise would lead to obesity though.