picture of 4 yr old of what the school calls "Obese"

According to the CDC childhood obesity has tripled in the last 30 years. Type 2 diabetes has skyrocketed amongst children.

So maybe if parents were more inclined to parent their children's nutrition and physical habits then this type of protocol wouldn't have to exist in school.

Instead of addressing that basic underlying fact, we have a bunch of people throwing a hissy over a letter SENT HOME TO THE PARENTS, and offer of a home visit (WHICH CAN BE DECLINED), and talk of burning down schools, physically assaulting people, temper tantrums at the school, and lawsuits.

My DD went through this in public school also and it's no big deal. They're weighed and measured and every child is sent home with a letter. There's no personal interpretation involved, just canned comments. My daughter was listed as being thin, her pediatrician was fine with her height and weight so there was no need to go any further. I agree with the posters that said many people don't have pediatricians and the schools try to fill that void. I live in a heavily migrant area and probably the only health feedback many of them get are from the school nurses. I really think some of you need to cut the public schools some slack. I know a couple of the nurses and they work their butts off trying to take care of all their tasks.

This could be the situation. They might have just written down all the stats and sent out automated letters to any child that fell under a certain number range. I'm sure it's a bit unnerving for you, but I wouldn't take it personally and would just realize the schools are trying to help and that numbers don't tell the full picture.

As a preschool teacher, I'm horrified that the school would tell you that. That's not how we engage families and build trusting relationships with parents. If the child is growing (taller), has energy and stamina to participate in indoor and outdoor activites, has agility and balance to do things like monkey bars, tumbling, balance beam, has flexibility and strength to do floor activites as well as sitting and standing activities...well then, that child is most likely developing just perfectly normally. When there's a real concern, we don't just jump right to labling and child and implying that the parents are doing something wrong. That's not the way to build a relationship or to help a child.

i dont even need to look at the pics to comment because i still strongly feel it is not the schools place to get involved, caring for kids is for the parents, not the school. Weighing kids can cause so much worry and upset and never does any good really. it should be banned.

Absolutely ridiculous. She's a beautiful, healthy child!

The same thing was said about my son at his 3yr check up. I am waiting til his 4 yr check up to see what they say. He will be 4 in jan and weighs 41 lbs but he has always been in the 95% on everything he was a big baby lol 9 lbs 15 oz. By no means is your grand daughter obese its sad that a such a young age they already start kids worry about their weight.

I'm sort of confused. Your granddaughter looks perfectly fine to me. However, I looked up her percentile for "weight-for-stature" according to the CDC and she's way off the charts. Then I checked her BMI - an early poster is correct that it is 20.3, but for children her age, that is way at the top of the charts and falls into the "obese" range.

If these measurements are correct, I personally would be happy that the school mentioned it and would talk to her doctor about it. As laypersons, we aren't trained to spot all the many health issues a child may have. We outsource a lot of that to schools - schools screen for vision and hearing problems, check our children for lice, and so on. This is just another health issue that may or may not need to be addressed. They aren't insulting you, they aren't attacking your granddaughter, they just want to make sure any potential health issues are known and addressed. We are so sensitive to weight, but it's really no different than needing glasses or having a learning disability or any of the other fifty things the schools are trained to check and refer us to doctors for.

I didn't read the first thread so I'm not sure how the school addressed this, but unless they commented on it in front of your granddaughter (which would be unnecessary and uncalled for), I don't see why there is any problem with them informing you of these facts, and any method of communication should be fine. Parents/grandparents shouldn't need to be treated with kid gloves.

The basic problem here is that a great many people have lost the ability to actually think for themselves. And, schools are monitoring things like this because a great many parents are not. If it were me, I'd send a letter back to the school telling them to mind their own business. I might also make a personal visit to the person who sent the letter, the Superintendent of the district and possibly the School Board to tell them the same thing.

Because a great many parents have abdicated the raising of their children to the schools, we get this. A teacher, probably a health teacher, or the school nurse takes each kids weight and height and plugs it into the computer and it spits out "obese", based on a table created by some government drone who is looking at averages of millions of kids. Same said person enters it into the child's record and sends off a letter to the parents, if the computer doesn't do it for them. This person probably couldn't think for themselves if they were allowed to, so it never occurs to them to actually LOOK at the child and see that she appears healthy and active and is not even overweight, much less obese.

Be very aware. As this sort of thing becomes more commonplace, and as we give more and more control of our children to the schools/government, the next letter that goes out will be to child protective services, or some such agency, and the home visit, the prescribed diet, etc will not be a suggestion.

Parents need to actually start getting involved in the lives of their kids.

Edited to add: Your granddaughter is indeed adorable. But mine is cuter, of course. And, sue the school? Are you serious? That's just what we need, another stupid lawsuit.

BINGO.

I'm really surprised by all of the defensiveness in these posts.

Fact: You can not determine whether someone is obese, overweight, underweight etc just by "looking at them". People over and under estimate the weight of people all the time. And if you are using the barometer of other kids you've seen to determine this, good luck with that. Kids don't have to look like mini-sumo wrestlers to actually be overweight or obese.

I think that people have issues with the term "obese" as it applies to kids, but this child's BMI is > 99% for age and by definition that is "obese". The word itself is so emotionally charged but the definition as used by the school is the correct definition.

I seriously doubt that the school or nurse told this child she was obese or fat and I don't see the harm in informing the parents about where she falls for her height and weight for her age. Her weight may not be a major issue right now but it could become an issue later if noone is paying attention. So all involved should take this as an FYI and make sure the kid is getting appropriate nutrition and exercise. That's all.

Perhaps I'm in the minority here, but I really don't get all the outrage.

You might be in the minority but I'm right there with you.

She's not obese, people are just judgmental.

I think they will have measured her height, but I think there is some confusion. Obesity for children is measured differently than for adults. Adults count as obese if their BMI is 30 or over. That doesn't work well for children because they go through different growth stages, tending to be plumper and skinnier at different ages. So instead, they're compared to other children, and count as obese if their BMI is higher than the BMI of 95% of other children their age and sex (on the charts. I think people have become bigger since the charts were made).

The (adorable!) little girl has been measured at an age when children tend to be skinny, and that's partly why she can be obese without looking chubby. If she continued growing along that centile, then you'd expect her to have a BMI over 30 as an adult.

I'm just saying that to explain why she counts as obese, and not making any value judgement here. I think it's a thorny issue. I'm not sure yet how helpful it is to point out to parents when children are obese.

Very good explanation. And I agree with other posters that there is no reason to be all outraged and telling the OP to sue the school, etc. The school nurse is simply doing her job. The measurements are plugged in and the results are printed out and given to the parents as a guideline.
The little girl is adorable, and looks quite normal for a 3 year old, however by 4, most of the children have outgrown their 'babyfat' stage and no longer have the little dimpled elbows and chubbiness on their arms and legs and bellies that toddlers have. Perhaps she is due for a growth spurt soon and she will stretch her weight out.
All the school is doing is notifying the parents of a potential problem and suggesting they consult her pediatrician. If her height was in the 99% as well as her weight, there would be no problem. What sends up a red flag is when there is a large discrepancy between those percentiles. With the epidemic of child obesity in this country today, I applaud schools that are trying to help prevent this. Unfortunately, the sue-happy mentality of many people will probably end up tying the hands of the schools where they can no longer advise parents of potential problems, and the obesity problem will continue to grow.

My school did an eye test on my son a few years ago and that's when we found out he was legally blind in one eye. He showed no signs of having vision problems, as his other eye was 20/20, and he didn't have a 'lazy eye' or anything to indicate there was a problem. I am grateful that they caught it and notified us. We could have gotten all outraged at them testing him without our permission, and insisted that there was no problem as he could see just fine, but that sounds kind of ridiculous doesn't it? We are just more sensitive when it comes to weight.

Surely weather she obese it not is irrelevant, the school should stick to the 3 rs and other great education, not health. Will the dr be testin her times tables next??

Either they should do a home visit for every child or leave it up to the doctor to discuss with the parents.

BMI is BS, and it is even worse to try to get children fit into the BMI Chart.

My aunt and uncle had the opposite problem with their daughter. My cousin was born 4 months premature and is tiny. My cousin at 7 was 4ft tall and 26 lbs. She cannot put on weight she still has a feeding tube, she goes into the doctor's office for regular monitoring every few months. The school actually called social services on my aunt and uncle saying they were starving their child... even though they had the information on record. Sometimes it is a good thing schools are watching out for children but it seem far too often they are over stepping boundaries lately.

That's so sad. She is a pretty little girl. Guess my lil man is obese than too. He's 2 1/2 and weighs around 32lbs. He was 10lbs at birth so he's always been a little fluffy. He eats some what healthy and is very active.

I'm really surprised by all of the defensiveness in these posts.

Fact: You can not determine whether someone is obese, overweight, underweight etc just by "looking at them". People over and under estimate the weight of people all the time. And if you are using the barometer of other kids you've seen to determine this, good luck with that. Kids don't have to look like mini-sumo wrestlers to actually be overweight or obese.

I think that people have issues with the term "obese" as it applies to kids, but this child's BMI is > 99% for age and by definition that is "obese". The word itself is so emotionally charged but the definition as used by the school is the correct definition.

I seriously doubt that the school or nurse told this child she was obese or fat and I don't see the harm in informing the parents about where she falls for her height and weight for her age. Her weight may not be a major issue right now but it could become an issue later if noone is paying attention. So all involved should take this as an FYI and make sure the kid is getting appropriate nutrition and exercise. That's all.

Perhaps I'm in the minority here, but I really don't get all the outrage.

^This. I think there is a huge misunderstanding here with the use of the term "obese" for children. The point of the note is not to call your GD fat, but to let you know that there is a large difference between her weight and height for her age. Personally, I would be thankful that the school brought it to my attention. It might be nothing to worry about, but it may also be something that you need to keep an eye on. I'd discuss this with the pediatrician and measure her again in 6 months. And I'd thank the school! I can't believe some of the comments in this thread!

yeah that!!

some of the comments are just ridiculous. You would think that the nurse sat the girl down and said 'guess what, you're obese' when I think we all know that didn't happen. It sounds like the parents and grandmother would prefer to be in denial and get everyone all worked up over the big bad school rather than just take the child to the pediatrician and see if there's really a problem. If there isn't, just send a note back to the school saying you followed up with the pediatrician, thank you for your concern. End of story.