Weighing kids/BMI at school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's great. So many children just don't understand that weight is related to unhealthy food and overeating. They just like to eat. If we're teaching PE in school, why isn't nutrition and weight also in the curriculum?

Yes, it's important for kids to learn about nutrition The focus, however, should be on overall health, not weight. Even skinny kids can have terrible, unhealthy eating habits & some active kids with good eating habits weigh more due to genetics/bone structure.

Besides, between everything out there in the media (diet ads everywhere, magazine covers at the supermarket, etc) & what they overhear from adults, particularly their own &/or their friends' mothers, I'm sure the vast majority of kids, even those who don't watch tv, are well aware that what they eat affects what they weigh well before they even reach middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First of all, BMI was never intended as a measure of individual health. It was designed to work on populations, within which there will always be considerable variation.

Second, statistically, people in the "overweight" category on the BMI charts have a lower risk of mortality than those in the "normal" category.

Third, or maybe second', using BMI gets a lot of people tagged as unhealthy who aren't (they're just fat) and misses a lot of people who are unhealthy but are thin.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/306129.php

Finally, pushing weight loss on people is more likely to result in disordered eating than just leaving them alone or teaching them to eat and exercise for health independent of weight. So even if you reject the fact that you can be fat and healthy, focusing on weight loss is counterproductive.

+1 to all of this.

BMI is pretty useless as a measure of health. Like PP, I'd rather the schools spend time teaching good eating and exercise habits, which are important regardless of weight.

I have one skinny DS who has a low/normal BMI but would lie around playing videogames and eating as much sugar as he possibly could if we didn't stay on him all the time about enforcing rules around healthy eating and activity. I have one big/muscular DD who is constantly active, plays a sport with regular intense workouts, rarely eats sweets because her favorite thing to snack on is apples. Her BMI would flag her as "overweight" or "unhealthy" when her pediatrician has told us, and our own observations of her activity and eating habits show us, that she is perfectly healthy. At DD's last check up, DD made a comment about being heavier than her friends so the dr. spent a long time talking with her about all the factors that go into weight so that being heavier does not equal being "fat" and reviewed her growth charts with her to show that she's always grown consistently on the 95th percentile for both height and weight so that is normal for her. DD seemed reassured by all that but I'm sure it will be a regularly reviewed topic because the tween/teen years can be harsh on a girl whose natural body type is larger than the average.

And the obesity epidemic in children is not a real health problem, and they didn't change the name of adult-onset diabetes to Type 2 because of the numbers of children with it.

Of course, childhood obesity is a real health problem. That doesn't mean that every child with a higher-than-average BMI is obese or even overwight, however.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Of course, childhood obesity is a real health problem. That doesn't mean that every child with a higher-than-average BMI is obese or even overwight, however.

Unless you're all hung up on science:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=67-year+follow-up+of+participants+in+the+1947+Scottish

"In conclusion, a relationship between childhood body weight and later morbidity was largely lacking in the present study."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Of course, childhood obesity is a real health problem. That doesn't mean that every child with a higher-than-average BMI is obese or even overwight, however.

Unless you're all hung up on science:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=67-year+follow-up+of+participants+in+the+1947+Scottish

"In conclusion, a relationship between childhood body weight and later morbidity was largely lacking in the present study."

In contrast:

http://www.uptodate.com/contents/comorbidities-and-complications-of-obesity-in-children-and-adolescents

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I don't know if it is a thing everywhere, but I think it should be.

Let's have public weigh-ins at work, too.

Actually, let's not! Or at school, either.

They do eye exams and hearing tests at school. But weight/BMI is not a health issue?

They do eye tests and hearing tests at school to make sure that the students can see/hear the instruction. Similarly, they would do weight tests to...well, what? How would the results of the weight tests be related to a student's ability to access the instruction school?

Public health. http://www.nationalguidelines.org/guideline.cfm?guideNum=4-18

I'll repeat the question: How would the results of the weight tests be related to a student's ability to access the instruction in school?

Well let's see.

Underweight could signal malnourishment. Malnourished children do not develop was well mentally and physically as well lnourished children (especially at younger ages).
Overweight could signal high blood pressure or diabetes. This could lead to headaches, inappropriate dips or spikes in blood sugar. Just to name a few.
Generally if you are physically unwell it can impact your ability to learn.

But all of these are covered during your annual medical exam, the form for which you are required to turn into the school every year. Not sure why it has to also be done at school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is this a thing every where? I'm in NY (public schools) and this has been going on for awhile now. Wondering what other schools around the country do.

EWWWW!
No. Why on Earth would they do this?

[Anonymous]

I grew up in NY public schools and they weighed us and checked for scoliosis. My kid is in San Francisco public school and they do neither.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

+2

When we were kids, my sister & I would receive a "fitness report" every year inside our report cards, My sister, who was ( & still is) very strong & fit, far exceeded the standards for her age& gender in every category (how fast & long she could run, how many sit-ups & pull-ups she could do, etc) except for BMI. It always said that she was overweight even though nobody looking at her in a bathing suit would have ever thought that she was anywhere close to being overweight -- she had very little fat on her; she just took after our mom & had a larger bone structure. This really gave her an unhealthy complex about her strong, athletic body from a young age. Looking at pictures now, she wonders how she could have ever thought she was fat. Then she remembers that it was because of those damn fitness reports

This was me, too. I remember when I tried out for cheerleading, I had the highest score. I could tumble better than anyone on the team, I was awesome at jumps, and I had a lot of stamina. I was totally fit size 6, solid muscle. However, I will never forget the comment they put on my scorecard: "Could stand to lose a little weight." I was crushed.

[Anonymous]

Is it possible for a child simply to decline this test? I mean, I know kids aren't very assertive with authority figures and would have to be prepped to do this, but they can't force anyone to step on the scale, right? If Larla said "no thank you, my parents prefer I don't," they have no legal grounds to override this, correct?