One in ten children starting Primary school is obese

[CountessDracula]

so saith the shitty rag that is the Metro

Can this be true?

I can't think of one child in dd's class of 30 that would get anywhere near being obese.
In fact I can't think of any 5 yo I know that is obese.

What is obese for a 5yo anyway?

I would say my dd is one of the heavier in her class (she has normal arms and legs etc and quite a big tummy- exactly as I was as a child!) but she is within normal on her BMI.

Do you think this is true?
If so, why are so many 5 yos obese? They all seem to run around and expend so much energy that they would have to eat their own body weight in lard to put on weight I would imagine!

There isn't a single child in DS's primary school that could be classed as obese, I think the problem is probably worse in more deprived areas of the country, and that figure is just an average.

Well I did wonder...

Esp as the article says that lots opt out of being weighed at school. How do they know if they would bring the average up or down?

There's a map in the Times today and it shows a big variation between different areas. So you probably live in a low obesity area.

This is just talking about 5yos
your 3 are presumably through the whole school fio?

I have heard this stat too - but none of DD's friends are remotely chubby, let alone obese. DD and her friends never stop moving - I agree I can't imagine any of them being able to eat enough to lead to them putting in weight!

In DD's school I can think of 1 child who is overweight - not obese yet though, but bigger than she ought to be. Have to say that she doen't seem to be involved with the running about as much, and seemed t be more disengaged during sport's day for example. Wether she was like this when she started school or since being there (she is now about 7 or 8yo I think) I don't know.

There are maybe a couple in the older years who are a bit bigger than the rest, but no where near obese.

i dont think thats one in ten is obesse, my dd is due to start school in august and we had a fun afternoon with all the new kids due to start at the same time and my dd was taller and wider than all the girls due to start, they were all tiny same hieght as my 3 year old, my dd is still under weight and over height on the charts

Ds2 is in year 1 and I can think of at least 3 children in his year who would be classed as obese - and there are several more in the rest of the school. It's really sad. One little boy in his class can't run without getting out of breath - he looks so uncomfortable.

I think it might be about right. It's only 2-3 children in a class of 25-30. I think most classes I can think of would have say 2 fairly overweight children, and it's hard to judge the difference between overweight and obese.

At our playgroup (30-ish children), I can definitely think of 3 I would say must be teetering between very overweight and obese.

Fio - there are 750 pupils in your infant school?? There are 420 is my DCs' Primary (infants + juniors) & that is considered fairly large round here.

There are 2 boys who are v large in dd's yr 2. One's mum is large too and fits the sterotype demographic, the other I don't know.

What has struck me though (being a bit of a shortarse myself) is the number of really tall kids at this young age. There are several really tall boys in reception who could pass for yr3or 4. They seem to have a few behaviour issues, which I'm wondering is because people assume they are older/more mature than they really are.

Sorry Im digressing. Will digress somewhere else now.

Have only noticed a couple of children who appear obese in DS' school of 120 kids. Would be more interested as to whether 1 in 10 kids starting primary has a speech and language problem, and if so why the media don't focus on that with the same glee as body image issues.

i quoted this to a GP today and she said "is that all?"

I cannot think of one single obese child at DS's primary school. There are a couple of slightly chubby kids, but they are less tubby, and fewer of them, than at my primary school in the good old home-cooked, frsh air and excercise olden days of my childhood.

And it is a very demographically inclusive S London school...not a 'low-obesity area' like CD

There is one child in the whole of reception who is obese, out of 35, and he has Down's Syndrome and his mother struggles to keep his weight down. Where this myth of 'fat kids' comes from is beyond me.

I notice more and more overweight children everytime I visit England. It's also a problem in Belgium.

220 children in my children's school. 2 are fat. One is Turkish and the other is Welsh.

So we're alright in my neck of the woods. Phew!!!