School says Jesse is over weight !

I posted this on Facebook as well .. but figured it would make a good topic here.
I got a couple of letters from the twins school today. I guess they took it upon themselves to measure and weigh each child and determine if they are over weight or not.
Jaydens came back saying he was normal weight. But it also said he was 42" and 38 lbs, which is more like last years stats since he is now 40 lbs and 44 " tall.
Jesses, however, came back that he was 44" and 49 lbs which put him in the OVERWEIGHT category ! Umm .. no, I don't think so. First of all I weighted him as soon as he came home and he was 45 lbs .. maybe he had 4lbs worth of clothes on that day ?? Here is a pic I took last month .. Jesse
Second of all ... all you have to do is LOOK at the child to know he is NOT overweight ! So, now I am supposed to take him to the Dr and discuss his weight "problem" !! We have an appt in a few weeks anyway and I'm sure she's going to LOVE the paper she has to fill out. There's a number she can call too .. and I bet she DOES !

Now as upset as i was when I first read the letter .. I think I took it pretty good .. seeing how the school just told me that my THIN son has a weight problem. But I know other mothers are NOT going to take it so well. There was even an OBESE option. I bet the school is about to get a few ear fulls about this. Especially if they aren't even accurate !

So .. do you think the school are over stepping their boundaries by taking it upon themselves to weigh our children and calculate if they are underweight, normal, overweight or obese ? How would you react to a letter like this ?

 

Our last well check was not with the regular doctor. This doctor took it upon himself to let me know that my dd was borderline overweight. Umm.. really? <dripping sarcasm> Seriously.. I know that there is a huge problem with overweight kids, but on a playground, she is one of the smallest 5 year olds there!!!!

:hug: I'm sorry you got that sent home. I don't think that is an accurate measurement/diagnosis. Don't all kids have yearly doctor visits? Why does the school insist on doing one as well? (I am new to the school thing, so that is really an open question.)

 

Same thing here. Jesse is one of the smallest in his classroom. He's also one of the youngest .. his birthday was in late July (6 yrs) and many of his classmates are 7. I still have to buy him the pants with the elastic waistband and have to pull it out 3-4 hole so they fit him. I know they are just trying to "help" but they need to come up with a better system.
I thought ALL kids had yearly check-ups. I assumed you had to if you go to school.

 

Michelle, I'm sorry this was upsetting. It sounds like there was a mistake somewhere along the line, that is probably the weight of the kid behind him in line! I don't think the school took it upon themselvs to do this, I think they were probably required to do so: Public Health Council votes for BMI testing in schools, probably with little input from anyone it would impact at the school level and probably with no additional funding. Why not just call then and them them know the #'s on Jesse's paper are not correct?

 

Last year their Pedi showed us a chart that said "technically" Vince fell into overweight according to the BMI. However, she was not concerned but needed to show me. That she had a number of kids that were on the tall side (he is off the chart in height) come up this way . The only "fat" on this child is in his cheeks and even that is going way :cry: :cry:

 

Well, we have an appt coming up. I plan on showing the paper to the Dr and having her fill out her own information. I know the school is going to get slammed with angry parents. If we got the wrong stats, I bet other kids will too. So I'm just going to sit back and see how the school handles it. Plus I can only imagine how the parents with kids that really ARE over weight are going to react. Nobody likes to be told their child is "fat" ... kwim ? So these parents are going to be on the defensive. I have a parent/teacher conference coming up soon too and will mention it to the teacher .. but I think if I call complaining .. I'll just end up on a long list of other complaining parents.
I figured it had something to do with the state and the whole obese children issue .. but I think they're going about it the wrong way. They just proved its inaccuracy ! So I think they need a better plan.

 

Jesse is a little on the short side .. so I can see how his weight could throw off his BMI .. but if you look at him you can clearly tell he isn't overweight ! Plus I'm not sure where they got the extra 4 lbs from.

 

Absolutely not. that has become part of their responsibility. There are many families who never take their children to the doctor and the schools (for many years) have addressed medical conerns. Didn't you get checked for scoliosis as a child by the school nurse? My kids have had their hearing tested, vision tested, and attended an after school seminar on asthma in school.

That said, they do need to get their information correct. I am sure one person just weighed and measured the kids and wrote it down then later (not in eye shot of the kids) someone went through and wrote out notes to those in the over weight or obese categories. Your school clearly needs a better system to get their information correct. For me, the issue is not being told my child is over weight when he is clearly not but that are using a faulty system to help those kids who need this problem addressed.

It is clear by looking at your child he is not overweight but I would rather have that mistake made then to have millions of overweight and obese children not acknowledged by the schools and the problem over looked.

 

We get notified these tests will be performed. I always opt out of the BMI test. My are short & stocky & will test over. However, their dr is very blunt on this matter, so I know that if there is an issue he will tell me privately. My children do get regular exams, so I don't like to involve the school. I am fine with extra hearing and vision tests.

 

All of my kids test overweight in the BMI testing at thier yearly appointments. They are HUGE, but not fat. They are tall, broad and always get football player references everywhere we go. I think we all carry weight well in our family. I am technically overweight accoring to BMI, but no one looking at me thinks I am anywhere near overweight. BMI, especially in children is a really inaccurate measure by itself. Our schools don't do physicals. I think it's a great idea, but it does need to be personalized. I am happy you are taking this to his Doctor.

Kelly

 

Michele, I flipped through your whole album and they are some adorable boys!

This is what happens when people do not take care of their own and the schools are expected to fulfill a role beyond academic education. Teachers are already underpaid and overworked, the districts are struggling with budget cuts and higher expectations. Do you think these people who completed the evaluations were trained properly or gave it 100% of their attention? Even if a single RN was brought in for this purpose, do you think they paid full attention to 400 students? It's too heavy a burden for the school systems to bear.

 

I totally agree (just added some periods so show that I only quoted part of the whole post.) Here's what I thought when I read that:
1. Your poor kids -- if the schools got the # wrong, they MIGHT have slipped again and some results leaked. Now some kids might think they're overweight or obese. I'm willing to bet that no-one would wants to put a kid through that!
2. The school districts now have to do so much -- feed kids healthy meals, dress them warmly enough, look out for their well-being -- so much more than just teach them and guide them into adulthood. Some of that is the parent's job, and some parents don't do it (for various reasons, please don't think I'm accusing anyone), but now they have to weigh them and measure them? That's asking too much of them, I think. It's not a matter of their competence to do it, it's a matter of how much they have to do with their time!

My kid's doctor told me that one twin was normal weight, and the other was on the edge of overweight. This is normally a discreet and thoughtful doctor. Now, I know health problems due to overweight are on the rise, and doctors need to nip it in the bud if they can. So I am keeping on top of it with my son and making sure he makes healthy choices, etc....
Unfortunately, the doctor told me IN FRONT OF HIM that he was "chunky". He allowed that given my son's age, he might be ready for puberty. (He's 11) My son told me later he was hurt by that and he doesn't say much, so that means he was REALLY hurt. I'm still upset for him, and this was in July!

So, if the schools (even by accident) made the kids feel fat or overweight or even "not like everyone else", I'd say that stinks!! And yes, they probably have to do it, and don't have enough money/time to do it well but it still stinks.
Maybe tell the school you got the wrong info, and then give reasons why you don't like this practice. Maybe you could opt out of it, if you were told ahead of time when the next weigh-in would be?

 

I don't see the big deal with schools doing this really.

They base it off of a bmi chart. So you mention it to your dr and your dr says don't worry about it, a simple height/weight bmi chart is really not accurate and especially at that age. Ours have always done this. My daughter says they dont' even tell her her own weight. They send a letter home saying that they are in whatever % and what that is considered. I have a couple of friends that got told their dd's are "at risk for being obese". They are skinny gymnasts with a ton of muscle so of course its gonna say they weigh a lot.

When they do these height/weight/hearing/vision tests, I really think its great. I mean I take my kids for every check up every year and we still missed a hearing loss that the school picked up on. My neighbor had a vision problem missed that the school picked up on. I think its great. If you know your child is not obese/or at risk than don't worry about it, talk to your dr about. Just think maybe it helped one child?

 

Well at 45lbs it puts him at healthy weight. I ran my jessy out of curiosity and she is underweight not a big suprize though. The school missed my little sisters scoliosis for at least 2 years before we discovered it at home

 

It isn't new for schools to do height/weight measures along with vision tests. They have been doing it since I was a kid. It is called a screening for a reason, it is a quick check to possible identify a problem. It is expected that you follow up with a professional. Also, they may have made a mistake, in that the person recording the data flipped a number, or wrote something unclear, then when they put it on the chart, it was a wrong answer. I see no problem with calling the school to clarify, especially since you know he is taller than it said. Maybe the person wrote 45", but when it came time to re write and translate it via the chart, the "5" was read as a "2".

 

This describes how we always handled this too. My kids have never ever been anywhere remotely near overweight, however, I think the guidelines are quite misleading. Jesse does not appear overweight to me at all. Personally, while I think it is important for kids to be screened as some parents either won't or can't get their children regular medical attention, I also think we tend to lose all common sense when we start mandating things like this. But whatever. I honestly would not worry too much about it and would just talk to the pedi. BTW, your kiddos are a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e!!!!

 

I DO think screenings at school level are important. Vision and hearing especially. My older son's vision problem was caught by the school screenings and I was able to get him glasses that he needed. This is the first time any of my children have had their weight screened and I do think they need to come up with a better plan. It's obvious that what they are doing isn't accurate and many parents and children are going to get the same letter I did. Luckily Jesse has no idea what the letter was about so he wasn't hurt by being labeled as "overweight" .. but like a pp commented .. an older child would have understood and could have been hurt unnecessarily ! IF I had thought Jesse was overweight .. then the letter wouldn't have been a shock, it would have been a confirmation and a warning to get him into healthier eating habits and talk to the Dr to see how to help him.
I had no idea this screening was taking place. They had dental screenings earlier and I was given the opportunity to opt out of that, which I did. I have a fairly good relationship with the school nurse, so I will mention it to him, but I know he's just going to reconfirm what others stated .. that some children, even while actually NOT overweight, can get a high BMI result.
Looking back now on my own school screenings I cringe at the thought of all us kids standing in line, herded like cattle, going behind a curtain, bending over to touch our toes, getting stuck with a needle (TB test) and sent home with a paper !

 

I just got a letter from Dawson's school telling me that he needs to go see his primary care doctor because he is overweight WTH??? I ignored it. Dawson is a shorter, stocky very muscular child. If he is obese then so is every other child in that school. Last year he failed the hearing test at school. That freaked me out a bit. I took him to our ENT and had his hearing tested - his hearing is great. I do not get upset when they test my child at school but I wonder why they bother - they never seem to be all that accurate. I figure that if they find one kid who gets treatment for a serious issue because of a school test than it is all worth it. My kids get well checks from our dr so I take the school results with a grain of salt.

 

Right ?? Thats what I'm saying. It just makes the school look silly and not very credible. I DO hope they are able to help some child who is really having certain issues whether with weight or hearing .. but they just need to be more accurate. Maybe do a second test if they think they've found a problem, or like in Jesse's case ... LOOK at him before sending out a letter.

 

My oldest DS was weighed and had his height taken at a well-child pedi visit when he was 4 and his BMI came back in the 85th percentile. The pedi said that while according to the #'s on the BMI chart, he was borderline obese, he obviously was not at all. She also said those BMI charts should be taken with a grain of salt when using them to assess a child's weight. Lennon (the one who is borderline obese, LOL) is a skinny kid who at 4 years old could still wear 3T shorts, you could (and still can) see his ribs and he has 6 pack abs that I would love to have. I think the charts are misleading.

 

Your boys are adorable!!
And your Jesse is in no way shape or form overweight...but you already know that!!
I would have been annoyed too!

 

If the school sent me a letter telling me that my child had shrunk a couple of inches and gained 4 pounds while at school, I'd laugh at their obvious mistake. Really, it's not worth getting upset over. After you go to their regular appointment, I'd let the school know what the correct numbers are according to the doctor's office so they can correct their data.

And as my mother likes to remind me, at least they don't line up all of the kids and powder their heads with DDT anymore. That's how they used to treat lice outbreaks!

 

I can totally remember the "lice lady" ! lol She would come through and look through everyones hair with a popsicle stick (well thats what I thought it was. )

 

In general I don't think BMI is a great measure of how overweight someone is (child or adult) because it doesn't take into account the fact that muscle weighs more than fat. Just one look at Jesse makes it obvious that he's not overweight!

What scares me about this screening is that I've read that restricting food in children can lead to them becoming obese as adults: http://www.webmd.com/parenting/news/20041004/food-restriction-may-cause-child-obesity. I'm just afraid that some parents will panic hearing these kinds of results and start feeding their children less.

 

I am so freaking sick of the Govt./schools "stepping up" to take care of children because their parents do not or cannot. I have said this before. I even made a thread about it a long while back. Schools are to educate our children. Parents are to parent and care for their childrens personal needs. We will personally pay for our mistakes with our children. And YES I understand that schools have checked for sclerosis and "found" cases of it in "exams" in the Gym but taking it to this next level is just taking a parents job away from them. Soon in a generation or two new parents won't know how to care for their children because schools will be taking on those issues. Maybe that's an exaggeration. There is one school I recently heard about that is feeding it's students 3 meals a day because some children do not have parents that are responsible enough to feed their children or because they do not have the money to. They FEED ALL the students. Some of the parents are CEO's and highly paid professionals who DO feed their children healthy meals at home.
Schools need to focus on educating our children and leave the parenting to the parents.
okay I'm done venting for the moment

 

Actually, it is the kids who will pay for parents' mistakes.

I have no problem with screening tests. They are just that, screening tests. It doesn't sound like the information was discussed with the kids at all, the parents just got a report. What the parents want to do about it is still up to them. Personally, I like that the schools are taking the initiative to screen for many childhood problems & if they catch something that I might have missed, I would be glad to have the information. If they made a mistake & said my thin child was overweight, the report would just go in the garbage & I would chalk it up the fact that screening tests are not always perfect. I do think that the reports on BMI should be accompanied by information on how the numbers were calculated, what they mean, and a guide to proper nutrition, though, so that parents can have all the facts before making any drastic changes in their child's diet.

 

When Jayden first started having behavioral problems at school I immediately took him to the pedi and she told me to be sure the school starts an IEP on him ASAP. When I called the school and told the SPED teacher what the Dr said the SPED teacher said "This is why Dr's should be Dr's and let US be the teachers ! I know she was speaking on behalf of herself and NOT the entire school dept, but still.

 

Do you have any idea why the schools are having to take over these "jobs"? For one, you can't educate a child who is literally starving, so you must feed them. Another reason, is that the parents who don't care for their kids properly are the first ones to sue the schools for "not educating their children". Schools have to protect themselves. Ask any teacher, they would love to be able to simply teach and not deal with kids who are hungry every day. Whose mom and dad kept them up all night because they were fighting, the child who is being abused by a neighbor or family member. The reality is, not every child comes to school able to learn, and many times it isn't something that is their fault. It would be ideal if every child did their homework each night and had a parent who cared enough to check that work. But until that is the reality, schools have to deal with social issues as well.

 

Big fat ditto. And if the school doesn't step up, who suffers? The kids. I'd much rather have my kids' school provide free or low-cost lunches than have kids go hungry every day.

 

Sad but true. I've heard for a lot kids, the meals they get at school are pretty much their only meals. We live in a fairly (if not mostly) poor community and I know many of my own kids classmates are hungry. You would think that obesity shouldn't be a problem .. but ironically it is.

 

I wish every parent felt like you do!!! I work in a Title One school. At my school we have about 68% free and reduced lunch. This means that many of our students come from low income homes. In a poverty situation often times there is little intervention from Dr. or healthy lifestyles within the home. I wish I could focus on just teaching reading, writing and math, but like a pp mentioned, it is hard to teach a child who is hungry or hurting or in need of basic necessities.

Back to the post...I am sure the school would be sending me a letter. My little 5 year old step out of the shower telling me that she weighs 63 lbs. WHAT? Who weighed you? My teacher with my pumpkin was her answer. I know my little darling is big (my guess about 55 lbs) but my Dr. feels that her height is in line with her weight so he has no issue. I do monitor almost everything my kids eat too! My kids are just big (tall and broad, not fat)!!!
YOUR KIDS ARE PERFECT!!!

 

Only my opinion and not judgment of anybody else's:
This (the children are starving, feed them; the children don't get taken to the doctor, screen them) it such a frustrating thing. You know the expression "throwing good money behind bad?" That's where I see us being with these social welfare programs.
I know that there are examples of people who enter the welfare system and receive aid during times of need. I (as I've shared) have received WIC for my girls. My roommate (and later, best friend) in college was on welfare in high school. In my limited experience (Fayetteville, NC and Greenville, NC) the majority of the recipients of social welfare are not in a difficult period of their lives, they've not encountered an incident that has set them back. Instead, they are actively taking advantage of the system as it exists now.
To focus my thoughts on the topic of this post- my husband teaches and the first four years of my five in college were spent in the middle grades ed program. Teachers are asked to do so much more than what they are paid or qualified to do. This obesity screening is a great example. The parents that this program is truly helping, the ones who do not take their children to the doctor (not because they are uninsured, but because they choose not to visit the health department) are not going to analyze the results of their child's screening and adapt their lifestyle! These are the kids, like those as my husband's school, who are sent home with canned food on Fridays as well as a CAN OPENER. It's not that the parents don't have food to cook; it's that they don't cook it! They aren't even opening the cans for the kids.
Do I want these children to starve? No! But somehow the giving of hardworking citizens’ money and resources has to be curtailed. I don’t know the solution, but I know I’m not comfortable with the status quo.

 

Holy broad generalizations and assumptions. Wow. :woah:

Even if this program only helped 1 kid it would be worth it.

 

We're living it, though. It's hard not to get upset. We've paid taxes and contributed to programs that we don't qualify for by as little as two thousand dollars a year. My husband teaches kids who, at 7 and 8, are mimicking the criminal behavior of the adults in their life.

To clarify, I'm not saying to throw kids out on the streets. I've said this to friends and family when discussing things (which is why this forum is difficult to speak up in, everybody doesn't know all of anybody's views or reasons for them and I am NOT as well spoken as many of you): I would support paying the same or, even, higher taxes for a period of time if that time could be spent in active reform. I'd do it for 10 years. 15 if that's what had to happen. But we can't continue rewarding (again, based on the people we are exposed to here) the absolute abuse of the system and disregard for the kids damaged by it.

My best friend is a NICU social worker at our hospital- she has had teen mothers acknowledge that they knowingly got pregnant because the state had taken her two youngest and she would no longer have received her full benefits! These things have shown me that the system is broken and it needs a major overhaul.

And that the burden of raising children, instead of focusing on educating them, should not be placed on teachers.

 

I think in any system there is abuse, but that does not mean that the majority of people receiving these benefits are abusing the system, and to classify it as such is very ignorant. It's really easy to sit on the outside and judge (based on your post the other day, I think you have recently been the recipient of such judgment). I can't imagine that is a fun feeling. But the truth of the matter is the only people that know the entire circumstance, are the people living it. There are plenty of people trying to make a better life for themselves and/or their children, and if they need a hand up I am happy to help. Even if that means that a select few people abuse it.