State law mandating BMI check for children? What??

RubyRed8067

Here is part of the law

"In 2002, the Arkansas state legislature passed a law requiring the state board of education to "promulgate appropriate rules and regulations" making it obligatory for all schools in the state to include as part of a health report to parents an annual body mass index percentile by age for each student. Arkansas schools were to be given part of the funds from a national tobacco settlement to carry out the new mandate."

I don't have kids, so I was unaware of this. Just now heard of it b/c a friend of mine was talking about it. Honestly, I don't think they should go this far. I don't know if people can opt out of it or not but sheesh!

What are your thoughts on mandates such as this?

hen1946

On the one hand it seems that it would be unpleasant to be notied that your kid is perhaps headed for obesity. However, since the state in many instances picks up the bill for obesity related illnesses, perhaps it makes sense that parents be made aware? I dont like government involvement but.........?

That_Girl

I'm a mom and I think it's good to teach nutrition and make kids aware of their bodies. My daughter had her BMI read in gym (8th grade) and it was healthy. But we talk about nutrition and being healthy.

We appreciate our bodies, whatever the size, but we strive to be healthy and active.

I don't know why weight is such a taboo issue.

morticiamom

Um, we check kids vision for school, right? Now if it came with any penalties if your kid was overweight, that'd be different, but really it's just giving parents important health information they might not have if they don't have insurance and regular doctor visits for their kids.

ChristineMarie89

its terribly messed up. they are children and constantly changing. my child was considered "obese" for her age by the bmi testing at the WIC place and within the year grew at least 4 inches and now is still prob in the overweight category cuz of the messed up standards but she is skinny. The DOCTORS said she was healthy and 100% normal. all its gonna accomplish is embarrassment and people worrying. i mean i get where they are coming from but sheesh can't they leave the healthy not healthy weight to the doctors

RubyRed8067

For me it's not so much about the bmi report as it is they think it's ok to 'monitor' kids. If I had a kid, I think I'd know if they were overweight or obese.

78Octane

Keep the gov't out of our personal lives.

Besides, the BMI scale is a complete joke. The BMI scale wants a bunch of weak, skinny, stick people walking around. I'll keep packing on the muscle and be considered "obese" by the gov't.

Umeboshi

Nope. Young kids have enough body image issues as it is.

Pandorian

If they'll be using the data to realize the slop they make available for kids to eat and make some changes it could be beneficial, but just pure numbers without context don't make sense, BMI is meant for "populations" not for individuals, world was quite different when it was developed.

RunMyOregonBunsOff

Honestly, I would be fine with schools doing a complete health screening and I don't mind that they are doing the BMI reports to parents. My only issue with it is that if you have a kid (particularly a girl) that has a higher BMI because she is athletic and muscular, then I think that may lead to problems if her parents share the info with her. I know that at lot of parents are pretty realistic and are present in their kids lives so they already know pretty much where their kids are with that but their are a whole lot of parents that really don't understand health a nutrition and maybe see their kids as totally normal or a little chubby that need the wake up call that their kids are headed towards obesity. Maybe the parents of kids that fall into that category should be invited to a special class to help them learn how they can better help their kids at home?

To me the bigger issue is that schools nation wide should be getting healthier foods on the menus and teaching kids more about healthy foods and how much they should be eating.

78Octane

But who determines what is healthy and what is not. Being obese has nothing to do with what you are eating, but HOW MUCH you are eating. If I eat 3,500 calories above maintenance of fruit and vegetables and you eat 3,500 calories above maintenance of hamburgers and pizza, we both will put on 1 lb of fat regardless of where the calories come from.

I just do not think it is the gov't job to tell us what is healthy and what is not healthy. Many could argue that carbs are related to cancer and heart disease and others would say that saturated fat is related to heart disease.