This is why I refuse to have my children weighed at school

[coldtits]

www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7464888/Boy-of-five-labelled-obese-and-given-heart-disease-war ning.html

My very helpful letter for DD2 said she was 'very overweight' but did not give me the guideline weights for her height.

My letter for DD1 (received the same day, both at same school) said she was healthy weight and gave me the guideline weights for her height.

WTF.

The letter says he is overweight not obese, slight difference.

Poor boy splashed all over the papers like that.

And yes looking at his picture he probably is a little overweight.

I really don't understand why everyone gets so upset about the child measurement programme.

The child gets weighed, the parent gets a letter. It's up to the parent if they want to tell the child what the letter says.

I personally would want to know if my child was overweight / obese so I could try to do something about it. And I DO think it's hard to tell just by looking as this thread demonstrates.

People have lost the ability tell between normal weight / overweight as we are (apparently) all getting larger so are notion of 'normal weight' is being skewed.

I'm always about just how many people on here say their DCs are skinny and need feeding up / lots of full fat milk. Of course some children are, but statistics only a v small percentage of school age children are underweight.

I didn't sign the consent form. Ds is slightly over the 50th centile for height and slightly under the 50th centile for weight so he isn't overweight. I didn't sign the consent form because I couldn't see the point. What is the point? We have a tape measure and weighing scales at home. Ds eats well and is very sporty why do I need someone else to do my job for me?

Because thedollshouse many many parents don't.

It's also because the government (or NHS) are collecting figures for their targets (to reduce childhood obesity). And to help them place services / schemes that tackle childhood obesity.

Of course you have the right not to take part though.

its getting quite ridiculous these days with all the weighing
my ds2 when i took him for 6 weeks check, the doctor started mentioning "be careful with him about childhood obesity", he was born @ 9.5lb so he was over 90th percentile already and continues on that, his height/length is also on about 98th percentile though - he is just big overall. mentioned that to dr and he was all like "well the lengths arent accurate, i dont prefer to use them." that may be the case, but how can u expect a very tall and long baby to stay on the 50th percentile, in that case he would be underweight.. it seems logic flies out the window with these people at times!
the boy in the article looked fine and if he does run round and eat healthy i dont see why the mother should worry at all. i would also be quite annoyed in her shoes.
it is true some are bigger built and heavier bones too, you can see if they are fat or not just by looking at them and also looking @ their diet and exercise to see if theres a problem not just labelling so many children as obese so recklessly. if thats what they are classing as an "obese child" then no wonder they are having all these outcry about so many children are obeses these days, because they are just labelling everyone as obese!!
good to know if there is an opt out for it at schools, i may out my boys out because i dont want them labelled as fat both are over 90th percentile but both tall and well built/heavy bones

The letter says he is overweight not obese.

It's hard to tell with his clothes on (not that I want the papers to publish pix of him in swimmers!).

But 4st 2 is a lot for a 5yo. My nearly 9yo weighs about 3st 9. She is slim but not extraordinarily so.

My nearly 7yo is more solidly built than DD but he weighs a stone less than this 5yo.

I think as I have said on threads like this before, the perception of normal weight for children has changed dramatically.

Just look at the kids next time you are at a swimming lesson. @ man boobs and chunky thighs on 8 and 9 yos.

So she's so worried about his self esteem that she's arranged for his picture to be plastered across the national press. Yeah, right.

"Heavier bones" that one's got whiskers on it.

Yeah I don't eat chocolate all the time, I've just got heavy bones....

so many children are over weight we have forgotten what an average weight child should look like.
DD1 looks skinny but has an average BMI. It is normal for a child to be skinny. The child in the photo does look slighlty chunky.

"Heavier bones". Its not a myth I have come across plenty of adults who look very slim but are actually quite hefty.

My niece is way slimmer than me but she weighs more. I also worked with a girl who was the same height as me (5.2) and looked fantastic at 10stone whereas at 10stone I look like a heffalump.

I do agree that some children /people just weigh more than others - looking at my own children, ds1 who is nearly 9 is very slight, has very narrow shoulders/pelvis/hips, and at 3stone12 is thin, but fit. Dd is 6.7, and probably weighs the same as ds1, but she has much broader shoulders and hips. She is very slim, and if she were to lose weight would look 'thin'. Ds2 at age 3 is very light, but smaller overall than ds1, so looks less 'thin' but weighs less age for age.

I do think this boy looks a bit on the pudgy side, and I think it's fair enough to say to the mum 'just keep an eye on him' - they haven't suggested putting him on a diet, just offered advice on healthy eating. He's not catastrophically obese, nor have they said he is, but he does look like he has the potential to be on the heavier side. And had she not splashed him all over the papers, he could have been blissfully unaware of it all. If he has a complex later on, it is entirely his mother's fault.

Weighing children in schools is nothing new or confined to the UK. It happens here in Belgium too.

I think it's necessary because as this article shows parents do not always recognise when their child's weight is a problem, despite all the evidence showing it is a problem.

It's a good idea for schools to increase the amount of physical activity children do but on the whole the parents need to take responsibility for their child's level of activity and diet.

Similarly, my brother and dh weigh about the same as each other. But dh has a narrow frame, and is probably over his 'ideal' weight in that he has a tummy. He is fit, but could do with losing maybe half a stone or so. My brother is incredibly lean, but a broader frame, he looks on the border of being too thin already, and couldn't spare half a stone (they are the same height incidentally) - but his weight is spread across a wider frame. He is possibly a bit underweight!

Both are fit - my db more so - and take lots of exercise.

"their BMI is compared with the measurements of other children across England and percentiles are used to assign whether a BMI is within the healthy range according to height, weight, age and sex."

Does this mean they just take say the top 10% as obese and bottom 10% as underweight? I dont understand how comparing to others makes a difference. Have they done any research into what being an unhealthy weight actually is? Or is it that you are just outside the average? I know being overweight or underweight isn't good but I dont really understand how comparing to others is useful in determining when it become unhealthy.

Someone come on and explain to me.

Btw I will let my children be weighed and then follow the advice given.

I think weighing children is a good idea but it seems evident that analysing the data needs to take account of more variables than just height and weight.

It's important to point out to parents if their child is significantly lighter or heavier than their peers. My cat at one stage became quite overweight and I honestly hadn't noticed - I see her every day and the weight had crept on, and it took my friends and family, and the vet, to point it out to me. I should imagine that the same thing could happen with a child. Just because they look a healthy weight to you, doesn't mean that their weight is actually healthy.

Is it really necessary to weigh dc at school though? You can see if a child has a weight problem surely without weighing them?

I think we need less weighing and measuring, writing to the dp and more sport at school. If they need to start school a half hour earlier to fit in a daily run, then why not do that?

ZZZen - it is very hard for a parent to objectively tell if their child is overweight or not. Research shows that parents really cannot see that their child is overweight.

Weighing and measuring is currently one of the best ways we have of objectively deciding is someone is overweight or not.

'Kids should be active' Yes yes yes .

BUT do you know that some of the hypocritical schools are not even giving the infants an afternoon playtime??.

The reason is to do with national Curriculum apparently; so that makes the government hypocritical too.

it's about time parents raised this question seriously with the schools.

maybe belgo. I find it hard to not notice if my dd is podgier than others around her or if she is sitting in the bathtub, I should think I would notice a flabby midriff etc.

I still think having them sit around 6 hous a day, 5 x week is asking for trouble really, no matter what they eat. We need more free sport after school too. Hard to change how they are fed at home, even a letter home is unlikely to really change ingrained eating habits.

I also recieved a letter saying my ds was 'above a healthy weight for his height'.

I did consider phoning the newspapers and plastering him all over them so that everyone could judge if he is fat, but decided to take him swimming twice a week instead of once and cut down treats would be a far more sensible way of dealing with the issue.

The letter home hopefully is the start of encouraging the parents to do something. What they do is their responsibilty.

I don't know how much exercise children in british schools do but I do know I send my children to school for an education, not as a keep fit exercise. I am responsible for their fitness outside of school.

yes I see what you mean but I think a great deal of families will not manage to change their eating habits (remember those school dinner tv programmes a while back with Jamie Oliver?) and in the same way, especially if it costs money, a lot of families won't sort out extra sport either.

I blame TV for fat children. When mine watch telly they sit motionless. When they play, even quite games they are moving constantly.

Another factor I think is out ever present fear of the bogey man ready to snatch them at the first opportunity. We just dont let them play outside independently the way children used to. I know that the traffic is now a factor though. When they are allowed to run around outside and be noisy we slap an ASBO on them.