Your kid is fat!

[Quoth The Raven]

There's a limit to how much the parents will do, no matter how much you tell them. A perfect example of this was when Jamie Oliver tried to change the school lunch program in the UK to healthy food instead of junk. He was offering these kids great food, and they didn't want to eat it. What did their parents do? Bring them junk food at lunch time.
If the schools don't do anything to help these kids, a lot of them wont get any help.If you leave it up to the parents to keep an outside appointment, a lot of them will go,'You don't need that, you're fine, you're just big boned...and as an aside, I look like a small lorry, so I'm not going anywhere near a place that might tell me I eat too much crap.'
Don't do it in front of everyone, but do it, because otherwise it may not get done at all.

 

[evearael]

How much does a school contribute to weight issues? Thinking back on my years in a public high school, I can remember the Pizza Hut served daily in the cafeteria, the soda machines in the hall... and now I'm hearing about recess and PE being cut down in many areas so the teachers have more time to teach to the tests. I remember my BMI being checked in high school. I was ten or fifteen pounds lighter than what is healthy for me and no one said a thing about it.

 

[equus somnium]

I don't see a problem with informing the parents about a child's BMI. However, I have a problem with BMI. BMI is a measure of the weight of your whole body, including muscle mass. If you are more muscle than fat, your BMI might still be higher than you'd like. A better way to check would be body fat percentage. There is a handy tool for calculating it.

On a similar note, instead of publicly humilating kids because of their weight, why not do something about it? Change the lunch menu for example? Hellooo?

 

[Mercy Not Sacrifice]

How much does a school contribute to weight issues? Thinking back on my years in a public high school, I can remember the Pizza Hut served daily in the cafeteria, the soda machines in the hall... and now I'm hearing about recess and PE being cut down in many areas so the teachers have more time to teach to the tests. I remember my BMI being checked in high school. I was ten or fifteen pounds lighter than what is healthy for me and no one said a thing about it.

Score. Frubals on the way.

 

[MaddLlama]

Why not take it a step further and not disclose the information to the child, and just send a report annually to each parent? I know it sounds cruel, but how many 5th graders know what BMI even stands for, let alone what it means?

Personally I think informing the parents is a good idea. Not all parents have the time and/or sense to monitor such things, and a report (even if the information is not made public on school property at all) can help a potential problem.

I also agree with the other posters who said that the schools should be changing thier meal plans to somehing more nutritional.

 

[Booko]

Do you think public schools have any business telling you that your child is fat or skinny?

I send my kids to school to learn reading, writing, and arithmetic.

If I want to know about their health, I take them to the doctor.

And as long as they keep feeding the kids absolute CRAP in the lunch room, they have no moral standing to say anything about any kids weight.

 

[Booko]

They should break it up. Say you have three grades, and four classes in each grade. One class from each grade goes to the nursing station, one student at a time, one month.

Are you sitting down, Djamila?

Good.

Only one of my kids' schools even had a nurse present, and then not all the time. Their HS has a nurse's office, but no nurse. They expect the Attendance Office secretary to deal with whatever comes up.

 

[Booko]

... and now I'm hearing about recess and PE being cut down in many areas so the teachers have more time to teach to the tests.

Yup, my kids had recess in 1st grade. After that, nothing.

For P.E. there was no gym, so on days with bad weather P.E. consisted of watching a movie about sports.

In middle school they had P.E., but most of that hour was spent standing around talking to friends.

In H.S. they are required to have P.E. for 2 years, and again, they do precious little activity during the hour.

My daughter is so freakin' bored doing nothing in P.E. that she got permission from the teacher to teach a friend of her Irish dance. At least *they're* getting some exercise.

P.E. here is either non-existent or a joke.

And please don't get me started on the Health curriculum and nutrition...

 

[Mercy Not Sacrifice]

Yup, my kids had recess in 1st grade. After that, nothing.

Don't. Get. Me. Started.

 

[Mike182]

Two weeks ago I was listening to the radio on how people felt about public schools telling you that your kid is either too fat or too skiny. I remember in middle school they checked my BMI in front of everybody and the results were there for all to see.

Now I was in shape back then and had no issues with BMI but I can imagine kids that were overweight/underweight must have been dreading it that day.

Do you think public schools have any business telling you that your child is fat or skinny?

to some extent yes - i think public schools have an obligation to include health, food and diets in the curriculum, and i think information and leaflets should be available in schools for parents to pick up.

i don't think public schools should actually weigh kids and contact parents with concerns that a child is over weight though, i just don't think that should be part of a schools administrative duties. if there is a lot of concern, i am quite happy for a school to phone social services and let them talk to the parents about their child's health (if indeed it is the parent's fault the kid is over weight, it might not be) but schools should not be performing this.

 

[Booko]

Don't. Get. Me. Started.

Et tu, Mercy?

 

[Quiddity]

I send my kids to school to learn reading, writing, and arithmetic.

If I want to know about their health, I take them to the doctor.

And as long as they keep feeding the kids absolute CRAP in the lunch room, they have no moral standing to say anything about any kids weight.

In our district they have taken away all soda machines and replaced them with water. No more pizza, candy, or anything of that sort. That change your mind?

 

[Booko]

In our district they have taken away all soda machines and replaced them with water. No more pizza, candy, or anything of that sort. That change your mind?

No.

The "good" food they serve in the cafeteria is still a recipe for future Type II diabetes.

I don't look to the schools to do social engineering. Especially when they're not doing very well in their actual raison d'etre.

 

[Quiddity]

No.

The "good" food they serve in the cafeteria is still a recipe for future Type II diabetes.

I don't look to the schools to do social engineering. Especially when they're not doing very well in their actual raison d'etre.

I was playing devil's advocate to see if you'd budge if school's became immaculate in their foods. Unfortunately not everybody is as good a mother as you Sharon and although I agree with you, I'm willing to support some sort of program for those parents that aren't that educated.

 

[Ozzie]

The school is doing a service if this info is kept confidential. Kids will bag eachother about weight problems on appearance alone with or with out this information. Maybe it is good the school is concerned with the well-being of the child beyond what it fills their heads with. Parents have responsibility for kids diet. Educating parents to faulty practice cannot be a bad thing especially given the social consequences of weight problems in children especially girls in our society. Kids can be merciless little critics of eachother. Better to have the information on the table so the problem can be addressed./

 

[UnTheist]

The food in my school is absolutely atrocious. Not because it is fatty-but that is one of the reasons-but because the food tastes like utter crap. They really need to do something to make better tasting and healthier foods.

But, they can bring their own food from home, so that is an option.

 

[nutshell]

Don't tell parents so fat kids can die earlier than fit kids, limiting the fat genes the fat kids can pass on through intercourse. Ultimatey, we'll become a skinnier society.

 

[UnTheist]

Don't tell parents so fat kids can die earlier than fit kids, limiting the fat genes the fat kids can pass on through intercourse. Ultimatey, we'll become a skinnier society.

Survival of the fittest? I could agree with that.

 

[Booko]

I was playing devil's advocate to see if you'd budge if school's became immaculate in their foods. Unfortunately not everybody is as good a mother as you Sharon and although I agree with you, I'm willing to support some sort of program for those parents that aren't that educated.

What will they be teaching those parents, Victor? That ice cream is a good source of calcium?

That's the sort of BS my kids were taught in "health" class.

 

[Booko]

But, they can bring their own food from home, so that is an option.

My kids always brought their own lunch. They wouldn't eat the cafeteria food, because it's nothing but worthless carbs and dead canned salty "vegetables."

I'm sorry, but fruit cocktail in heavy syrup is not a serving of "fruit." It's a serving of "candy."