Reception class height and weight check

[skylightening]

I’ve just received a letter from my daughter’s school to advise that as part of the National Child Measurement Programme, her weight and height is going to be checked, and if she’s under or overweight I’ll receive a letter. I can opt out.

I’m just not sure how I feel about this. My daughter is healthy, fit and active. She’s definitely a “solid” child and she’s strong and well built. I wouldn’t be surprised if she might be considered “overweight” by some binary metric which doesn’t take into account her body composition.

I’ve struggled with my own body image over the years and I’m worried about her receiving a “label” and it impacting on her emotionally.

Does anyone have any experiences of this programme? Is it worthwhile participating? I’m tempted to opt her out. Thanks.

She's in Reception. There is no need for her to know the result and it impacting on her emotionally.

The results go to you, she wouldn't know unless you share them.

Okay, perhaps I am projecting and worrying too much.

You don’t need to discuss the result with her. You use it to inform your parenting choices and you can take into account your own views on whether what she eats is healthy.

My DD is in reception too. There was an attachment that said they no longer track the BMI, you just recieve a letter giving your child's height and weight.

Edited to add, I've just checked the letter and it is council dependent. This is the wording on mine
'As part of our commitment to a compassionate approach to weight, the results letter sent to you will include your child’s height and weight, but not their Body Mass Index (BMI) as you might have seen before. We recognise that children’s bodies change and grow at different stages, and our focus is on supporting their overall wellbeing by encouraging lifelong healthy habits rather than focusing on body image.'

She shouldn't be in the overweight category whether she is a bit solid or not. I was a solid child, taller and heavier than my friends but also always in the healthy BMI range.

There is a big range of healthy weight in the middle. I'd want to know as a parent and to adjust our lifestyle accordingly if they were not in the healthy range, not to give DD a complex.

Agree with others. She won't know, she may also be in the average category and put your underlying worry of her being solid aside.

I’m a teacher and take my reception class for this. They stand on a box which transmits the weight back to a laptop (no sign of a number on the box) and are measured with a height measure. It often prompts some discussion about who is the tallest/shortest in the class but that’s it. Parents are then sent a letter with the results which they can do as they wish with. Some parents have had letters in the past about obese children, some ignore this as they disagree (and I would too with lots of these children), some use it as a prompt about activity and anyone who is concerned can see a doctor. I think opting out would probably be more of an issue for your child in terms of not being able to be measured, the children are all very keen and the whole class go but obviously you can make your own decision for your own child.

Nobody is going to shout “one at a time please” when a YR kid gets on the scales and the number, if she’s told it, will be meaningless to her. The results will be sent to you - just don’t tell her. By Y6 when it’s repeated she will be more aware of the numbers but equally, will know if she’s overweight just by looking at herself. One of mine was sent home in y6 with a “too skinny” note - he obviously could tell he was half the width of his same height friends - it’s not new information.

Thanks all. This is really reassuring. I think it’s really just highlighted my own issues here. I won’t be opting out and I’m glad I posted. Thanks again.

In my experience people who describe their children as ‘solid’ or ‘well built’ usually have an overweight child

I would also add that whilst there are different body types, many dc are overweight and we have stopped recognising what healthy weight looks like because so many are overweight. If it comes back as overweight do not tell your dc but it’s a indicator that perhaps types of food could be altered or rather frequency, perhaps portion sizes could be altered subtly with more veg and less fatty foods (still same amount on plate) and most of all more exercise- healthy lifestyle changes good for the whole family rather than weight loss focused, no primary aged kid needs to actually diet, instead you maintain as they grow. I’ve known several parents who took exception to the results saying that their dc was just solidly built when to everyone else we could see they were overweight and eating bad diets (just reducing take aways to fortnightly instead of weekly was one recommendation, hardly depriving them)

We opted out.

I think it's a great idea that some gvnmt body is tracking our kids health. On holiday just now and it's bloody depressing/frightening the amount of overweight kids there are. The amount of utter shit and fizzy juice they are allowed to consume is v worrying.

Yeah, just let them crack on with it.

She won't know unless you tell her. It won't impact her or you. National information 🤷🏻‍♀️

the kids generally enjoy doing something a bit different.

I do wonder how useful this data is though. The only kids I've ever seen opted out are the fat ones so I don't think the national data on childhood obesity is accurate, it's probably worse.

I work in statistics, so I think very unemotionally about these things and prior to this I was a year 6 teacher for many years (when they do the second height and weight measurement). Very kindly, this isn't about your child or you. This is about gathering huge amounts of data that help policy makers, health professionals, the government make decisions to improve children's health. It's very important that as a society we are aware of what's happening. I'm massively oversimplify here but for example:
data on levels of obesity at reception age might help inform new guidance on school meals, for example. Or policy on sugar levels allowed in processed food.
Or maybe, much higher numbers of children in a certain area are underweight by year 6 - What's causing this and what can be done to help?
Are children getting taller younger? Why is this, is the same over the UK or just specific areas?
Of course, there a duty of care here as well. If a child is overweight, it's their responsibility to ler the parents know and give guidance. The child never needs to know this and parents can of course choose to ignore it (especially in particular circumstances).
The number of parents who would complain to the school, withdraw their child, tell their child who would then be devastated would rise every year. By the end of my career, around 25% of children (in my school where we had 80 children in year 6) were opted out and almost all of those were overweight/obese. Therefore the levels of obesity reported are likely underestimated and that matters.
The nurses that do it are great. It's not a big deal, no other children or school staff see the results.
I tried to explain this to many parents but sadly many saw the whole thing as a personal attack/invasion of privacy.

Better if there are weight issues you deal with them whilst she is young enough not to notice as far too many overweight children with parents excuse it as solid built when they are much heavier than they should be as parents have no clue on portion sizes and healthy meals.

My ds and dd both were weighed and measured in reception. Ds was recorded as overweight, dd as normal weight range. Ds gets plenty of exercise and eats a fairly varied diet, (although he could always eat more veg) and dd gets the same. Ds was always on 97th centile, dd always on 50th, so their results both tracked with that. I didn't tell either of them the results, and I binned both letters. The best indication of their health is that they run around like crazy things, keep up well with their peers, and are bright and happy. Their specific weight at one single point in their life is much less of a concern for me.

I didn’t opt out my Yr R because I thought that would make her stand out, but I do weigh and measure my kids fairly regularly in an unemotional way - they always want to know how tall they are and to them weight is the same sort of metric. I just made sure I weighed and measured a couple of days before so I know what the letter will say as I don’t like surprises!

I have a sturdy 5 year old. From 2-4 she was borderline overweight BMI on the 85th percentile (normal is up to 85th percentile). At the most extreme she was on the 50th percentile for weight and 1st for height. She was under paeds and dietician due to allergies so I knew they didn't have any concerns about her weight. Up to 3 percentiles different between height and weight can be normal.

I was concerned about her preschool and reception class checks and being pulled up about her weight but I wasn't. At her reception check we just got her weight and height and no comment on her being normal/overweight. By this point she was now on the 35th percentile for weight and 2nd for height giving her a BMI on the 80th percentile. She saw her paediatrician in July and she's now just under 25th percentile for weight and 4th for height BMI 60th percentile and you can notice the difference in her body.

Have you run her height and weight through the NHS BMI checker?