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Weighing kids in school
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janejellyroll wrote: »Theoldguy1 wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »Fidgetbrain wrote: »What do you guys think about it, helpful in combatting obesity or just breeding insecurity in children?
IMO, that's what annual checkups with the children's Dr. is for.
How many children (or adults for that matter) get annual check ups with a doctor?
I thought all of them do. Guess it depends what country you are in. I'm in Canada and my kids always went for annual checkups. Height and weight checks, vaccine updates, general health concerns.
Once they were old enough (like maybe 12-ish?) we did their usual consult, and then I left the room so that they could discuss/ask questions about anything privately with their doctor.
In theory, the US system of private health insurance and programs like CHIP (children's health insurance program) should result in children being able to see a doctor annually. Based on self-reported household data, it does seem like the US is doing pretty well at meeting that goal: https://wwwn.cdc.gov/NHISDataQueryTool/SHS_child/index.html
They don't let you NOT. My kids are on Children's Health Insurance Program - we didn't do well childs in 2020 due to covid, wanted to cut down on chances of running into someone sick. No real reason to go, just because the insurance wants us to.
We got phone calls every 3 months and threatening letters that our pediatricians office would drop us if we didn't make our appointments. They don't get funding if you don't go, and there are so many kids waiting to see a ped that will take the state insurance that they can't really keep you on if you don't "comply".
We have happily made our 2021 appointments.2 -
@Middlehaitch Thank you so much for sharing. In those kinds of times, I can see where it would've been extremely beneficial. Especially with no shaming involved.
When I gave my opinion I was looking at it through the type of child *I* was and how uncomfortable it made me. But then I was always a very shy introverted easily embarrassed child. Any sort of attention put upon me made me a nervous wreck. (I'm a little better now
). And bullying did happen even back 60 yrs. ago in our community. 
Not to the extreme it is now though. There are always targets for bullies and overweight kids are certainly ripe for the picking.
I remember kids getting vaccinations, dental treatments, eye exams, (don't remember lice checks to maybe that was more private?) and weight checks in school. It always made me cringe. Another thought going through my simple brain is maybe kids of today are more adaptable, braver, put on a stronger front....than when I was younger, and can handle those types of things better. My upbringing was very sheltered. Nowadays children seem exposed to way more than then. Sometimes that can be a good thing, lots of times not.
JMO Even though, when it's done in schools, it should still be discreetly done. Respect children's privacy.3 -
"But a blanket condemnation of screening being carried out in schools is a very myopic opinion if you can't comprehend that different countries have different needs and different systems in place. Across the world not all children have regular Doctors and of those that do many more will only see them when unwell with no screening taking place.""Form a line in a corridor and go in singly should be a blindingly obvious solution". To be weighed? You are suggesting that we line kids up in the hallway and take them into a private room individually to be weighed?
Wow - really didn't think the concept of forming an orderly queue needed to be explained.
I understand the concept - I just think it is silly (in this context).
I mean lets shift it to employers then - are those same parents who are apparently too dense to monitor their children's health able to monitor their own? Should they be weighed at their workplace and educated about the results?
Because that is how ridiculous it sounds to me.
(ETA: You know it sucks when you try to have a conversation with someone and just because you don't agree with them they have to throw passive aggressive comments your way. The implication that I need the concept of a queue explained to me was uneccessary. Based on my experiences having three kids going through the school system I have a pretty strong opinion about this - I think weighing kids in school is a ridiculous waste of time - which you clearly disagree with. Doesn't mean you can't be nice.)
Reading to respond rather than reading to understand isn't "nice" behaviour in a debate.
Not much of a conversation when you make zero effort to understand any other person's points.
If you have to ask
"To be weighed? You are suggesting that we line kids up in the hallway and take them into a private room individually to be weighed?"
when my response to your alarmist suggestion that weighing had to be done in front of their peers was crystal clear.
Canada is not the only country in the world, your healthcare systems are not universal.
Believing Canadian schools shouldn't get involved in children's health screening because you think you a have it covered by other means is a reasonable viewpoint.
But a blanket condemnation of screening being carried out in schools is a very myopic opinion if you can't comprehend that different countries have different needs and different systems in place. Across the world not all children have regular Doctors and of those that do many more will only see them when unwell with no screening taking place.
Given the question in the OP and the context of the discussion I made the assumption that we are discussing a *blanket* policy of weighing children in school. Given the demographic of the posters I also made the assumption that this was applying to first world countries with reasonable access to health care services.
1)If you are talking about schoolchildren in developing countries with limited healthcare access my responses may have been different.
2)If you are talking about “at risk” children in first world countries, then yes implementing targeted health outreach programs to reach them (and their families) would be prudent. But the leap from “weighing children in school” to “reaching children with no health screening” is pretty big.
I don’t believe that weight screening of all children in schools is an effective or efficient way to identify or implement that, because I don’t believe that information is going to be all that valuable in identifying said children.
Targeted outreach programs in at risk neighbourhoods would in my view be a better approach - but they would have to include a bit more creativity than weighing kids in school. Maybe they could be funded with the money saved by not implementing blanket weight recording programs?
I disagree that implementing a program of weighing children in schools, given that it is at worst traumatic (as evidenced by some of the posts here) and best inefficient, would be an effective screening tool for identifying at risk children and families.
So then I come back to my original question - what is the point?
"Wow - really didn't think the concept of forming an orderly queue needed to be explained""if you can't comprehend that different countries have different needs and different systems in place.""Not much of a conversation when you make zero effort to understand any other person's points"
You can believe anything you want about my opinions and how I reached them. But in my defense I will say that I am (shockingly) considered somewhat intelligent in real life, and have excellent comprehension skills (as evidenced by being a published writer). Despite knowing this I have triggers around my intelligence being questioned - it causes me anxiety - which is what your comments did.
I have no issue having my opinions debated on their merits, I do have an issue with ad hominem statements given that they contribute nothing to the debate except to put their target on the defensive, and deflect from the question at hand.
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Don't get me started on Pro Ana blogs and sites. If anything wrecks a persons self esteem more about their body and weight, these are it.Fidgetbrain wrote: »Another thought going through my simple brain is maybe kids of today are more adaptable, braver, put on a stronger front....than when I was younger, and can handle those types of things better. My upbringing was very sheltered. Nowadays children seem exposed to way more than then. Sometimes that can be a good thing, lots of times not.
I think in a way it’s worse for kids now with so many of them having almost unlimited access to the internet. They get a letter home saying they’re at risk of becoming overweight and now instead of trying to do a little more sports and eat more fruit or something it’s very easy for them to look for answers online and accidentally stumble down into the proana rabbit hole. Tiktok is very bad for it and probably the main social media of choice for younger kids, I looked at a couple of fitness videos and the next day my feed for filled with “what I eat in a day [insert stupidly low number of calories]” and “glow-up” videos of teenagers going from average size to dangerously skinny.
I think kids nowadays are definitely more sheltered in terms of life experience but exposed to way too much information and media that they shouldn’t have to be thinking about so young
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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I worry about the relationship between puberty and tween/teen BMI being opaque to young people. My daughter at 11-12 was overweight on the kid BMI chart, but had had her period, was 5'7", 36C bra size, curvy hips, well muscled athletic build, 135lbs. Some of her 11-12yo peers were barely starting puberty and had no curves at all yet. I think that matters.3
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rosebarnalice wrote: »I distinctly remember being lined up in elementary school 2nd - 7th grades for the school nurse to check everyone in class for height and weight, picked with a comb to check for lice and made to bend over to check for scoliosis. The nurse would call out the information out loud and have the teacher record it.
So I annually suffered the humiliation of having my weight called out in front of all of my classmates AND being made to bend over and touch my toes--making my belly fat turn into numerous blobby rolls.
I'm all for public health checks, but PRIVATE SCREENINGS PLEASE!!!!
This was my experience in Massachusetts as well. I'm 54.
@lemurcat12: I think you are a little younger than me - what about you?0 -
This brought back a memory of doing some kind of fitness testing in gym class, probably 7th or 8th grade. I wasn't a sporty kid or an active kid (I was super clumsy... still am) so I failed miserably, and publicly.
Ah yes. The Presidential Physical Fitness Award.
I also never had a chance. 🤣
Seriously though. It was just a yearly week of scheduled humiliation as far as I was concerned. I was last place in absolutely everything. Except stretching. THAT I could beat them all at.
I remember when the certificates were all awarded in front of the whole school. And how puzzled I was when the kids who got the highest awards literally just tossed them aside because it meant nothing to them.
Because they were already fit. Everything they did for that award was easy and meaningless to them.
@cwolfman13 Unfortunately there are many US children who don’t have access to annual checkups. Or access to a regular doctor.cwolfman13 wrote: »IMO, that's what annual checkups with the children's Dr. is for.
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