Comments on Cranky Fitness: Generation BMI

Peripatetic said it, but I would also like to reit...

2009-11-14T01:37:03.945-05:00

Peripatetic said it, but I would also like to reiterate is the importance of calories. Sure eating healthy is an important concept and inevitably leads to less calories, but it took me 35 years to realise that more important than anything was watching the number of calories I eat. In other words, not eating too much. Our society is focused on big portions and this is what made me a bigger kid growing up and into my adult years.

I am not suggesting that kids need to count calories, only that if we focus on teaching them the importance of not eating too many calories we would be way ahead.

At the high school where I work, students can take...

2009-11-12T21:52:08.726-05:00

At the high school where I work, students can take phy ed online! Sure, part of it involves setting up and participating in a fitness plan, but no one checks to see if they actually do it.

What a fabulous post! Thank you, Gigi, for bringi...

2009-11-12T17:36:06.637-05:00

What a fabulous post! Thank you, Gigi, for bringing this issue to the forefront.

I don't think this is a good idea. Like a lot of ...

2009-11-12T17:17:20.761-05:00

I don't think this is a good idea. Like a lot of the commenters, i think more focus should be on teaching kids healthy habits (and parents) and get better physical activity programs in schools. Checking a kids BMI and telling them they are "overweight" probably isn't going to help the kid much. Might make it worse.

Wholeheartedly agree with what Fab Kate said!!!! S...

2009-11-12T15:59:13.903-05:00

Wholeheartedly agree with what Fab Kate said!!!!
Schools feed out kids crap, cut out phys ed and recess, and then complain when the kids are heavy, unhealthy, and/or have no attention span.
Also, if schools want to PROMOTE bullying, this whole BMI thing is a GREAT way to do it!
I was a "normal-sized kid. After I hit puberty, many people, including teachers, made inappropriate comments about my body and my weight. Guess what? I was bulimic by the time I got to college, and anorexic in grad school.
Schools need to leave kids' bodies alone,

Looks like plenty of other folks have said what I ...

2009-11-12T13:31:01.761-05:00

Looks like plenty of other folks have said what I say..

#1: BMI is stupid and not a measure of true health.
#2: A growing kid doesn't need the pressure
#3: If you're going to torture kids with this, at least pick up the ball and teach them *how* to be healthy. Starting with cafeteria reform.

If that was my pediatrician you were talking about I'd be picking a new one in no time flat. And letting the old one have it. Unless it's been a consistent problem, or a sudden huge swing, i doubt it's an issue. And use some tact. Kids are pretty darn smart.

As others have said: • Teach healthy eating • Mod...

2009-11-12T13:10:36.926-05:00

As others have said:

• Teach healthy eating
• Model healthy eating by getting rid of the sugar vending machines
• Model healthy eating by serving nutritious, tasty meals
• Teach lifelong activity skills
• Bring back physical education
• Teach parents about healthy, inexpensive eating and physical activity through community events, PTO, etc.

Haranguing kids about their weight won't do it.

BMI is a highly questionable measure of health eve...

2009-11-12T12:13:59.706-05:00

BMI is a highly questionable measure of health even for adults. When you try to apply it to kids, it's going to be even more of a mess. My little brother was a skinny kid, a fat roly poly adolescent, and now he's a 6'1" beanpole. My mom wisely never got on to him about his weight during his teen years because she knew he was just going to grow the way he was going to grow. I would be very angry if a school butted in with comments on my child's weight when they know nothing about my family's genetics and eating/exercise habits.

I don't have a black and white position on this, b...

2009-11-12T12:12:58.818-05:00

I don't have a black and white position on this, but I've got one foot in the school's circle here.

Childhood obesity is on the rise because they are developing more unhealthy habits than before. More & more studies are suggesting an awful lot of dangerous/deadly consequences for these kids' futures. Many of us in the weight loss blogging community come from a childhood of being overweight and have to unscramble our brains from years of bad eating and fitness habits that usually started at home.

Parents should be free to parent. But life for a child is not experienced in a vacuum. Parents aren't perfect. Neither are schools. But because schools usually have these kids in their care and custody during the majority of their waking hours, it is unrealistic to expect that there shouldn't be some flow of communication between the schools who are charged with looking after the best interest of the kids and the parents.

It is not simply a health issue between a physician and family. If that were the case, I wouldn't have gotten glasses until years later (and would have continued to have bad grades....who knows how this would have impacted my future education and career) because my folks certainly didn't notice I was squinting and had bad eyesight. I was embarrassed about the glasses and teased, but it was for the best.

Parents aren't perfect and never will be. Therefore, schools should play a role in a child's physical and educational development. I can't envision a functional system where they aren't involved.

This would include dealing with childhood obesity. While I agree that the BMI is a flawed gauge, it's at least a start, a tool toward what should be a common goal. Of course, education about good eating and physical fitness should be included. And all schools should get rid of soda and junk food vending machines and serve healthier meals.

And while getting a letter may be embarrassing for an obese child, I hardly think it is the worst type of embarrassment he or she is going through. It's not like obesity is a hidden condition, as the other kids who tease that child about it demonstrate. A letter isn't going to make it worse.

I say not to BMI before puberty. I agree with your...

2009-11-12T11:30:43.869-05:00

I say not to BMI before puberty. I agree with your though on the possibility of a child's height just hasn't caught up with their weight yet and that in the end it will self correct in most cases.

I think schools need to focus more on what they are serving at lunch and other meals they may be providing. There is a ton of room for improvement on their end in that area.

i remember when my son's BMI was "over the chart",...

2009-11-12T11:25:17.034-05:00

i remember when my son's BMI was "over the chart", and it's like.. he was a tall fit lil boy for his age, and how DARE the doctor, who had to be over 300 herself, sitting on a stool you couldn't even see was telling me my child was obese. you don't see ab definition on an 8 yr old if he's obese lady... sorry.

i wish those "normalcy" charts would just go away! they base health and life insurance rates on them, and it's bs in my opinion.

I'm reading so much on obesity and our society. W...

2009-11-12T11:17:44.343-05:00

I'm reading so much on obesity and our society. We want to blame the individuals and yet turn a blind eye to the way the food industy is producing food -and encouraging the consumption of bad food.

We need turn a hard eye back on the sources of what children are eating.

BMI is just a number. And numbers, in this case, are not the canaries in the coal mine.

I agree that it would be a lot more effective for ...

2009-11-12T11:06:14.221-05:00

I agree that it would be a lot more effective for schools to support adequate phys ed and nutrition (and stop contributing to the problem with junky food in school lunches), rather than singling out kids with high BMI.

Lots of great points people are making, I'm really enjoying the discussion!

It is nonsense! Like you said they have taken away...

2009-11-12T10:34:42.908-05:00

It is nonsense! Like you said they have taken away phys ed and most recess time. The lunch lines are filled with pizza, cookies and fried chicken sandwiches. What child is going to chose broccoli and grilled chicken over those other options! I was overweight the majority of my life until last year when I made a commitment to get healthy. I WISH I would have learned more about nutrition and fitness while I was in school so I would not have been so lost when I started the “healthy lifestyle” journey on my own. Ugh- and to think about how much this would affect those children’s self confidence makes me VERY sad…

I don't have any objection to measuring the BMI of...

2009-11-12T09:45:37.802-05:00

I don't have any objection to measuring the BMI of children in school on condition that parents are only contacted if their child is obese. This is because I feel that BMI has it's inaccuracies, as well as the fact that they're still growing, but obesity may indicate a problem.
This said, I would like to see schools spending more money on school dinners, so that they only offer healthy meals with plenty of fruit and veg.
And assuming that schools are going to have to spend some money to provide these BMI values, I would suggest that they spend the money on school lunches instead.

Hmmm... A few thoughts. 1) Kate, the schools fe...

2009-11-12T09:34:08.780-05:00

Hmmm...

A few thoughts.

1) Kate, the schools feed their kids breaded, fried garbage because the federal stipend for school lunches is $2.25 per child. And while they could probably give the kids a nice salad, their parents have not taught the kids to eat salad at home, so the kids won't eat it. At $2.25 a kid, you can't afford to hire a chef to make healthy food more kid-palatable.

2) BMI is garbage, for all the reasons cited by others here.

3) Really? The problem is that kids don't run around anymore. We can blame that on a couple of things: Our culture of irrational fear means that we don't send out kids out to play in the neighborhood anymore, because we're convinced that some psychopath is waiting around every corner to snatch our little darlings; communities refuse to properly fund school systems, so they have to cut physical education, so even when these kids *do* go outside, they haven't learned the rules to the games that we all grew up with; and No Child Left Untested has our school systems in such a tizzy about proficiency tests that our children are getting assigned hours o homework every night and they don't have TIME to go out and play after school.

Oh, and just for good measure, I'll blame video games.

I like the approach of this - Being a chubby teen ...

2009-11-12T09:32:43.901-05:00

I like the approach of this - Being a chubby teen I really hated having my weight talked about in front of me like I wasn't there.
It would have done me much more good to teach me healthy eating habits. I was a reallya ctive kid, I jsut ate WAY too much. All I knew was that I was fat, but didnt' ahve any way to fix it. Occasionally my Mom would help me go on a diet, but as soon as I stopped I'd gain it back because I didn't know what to do when the diet was over.
BMI is not a good indication of health, and I think that it would be dangerous to a child to label them as fat before they're done growing.
I think teaching ALL kids healthy eating and activities would go much firther to helping kids figure out what they need. Most of them (and me back then too I think) would have leveled off to a healthy weight in the end once we grew up and levelled off...
I would be more interested to know if kids with high BMI vame from families with hig BMIs. THAT would be an instance where things needed to be taken further...but to just measure BMI, state fault and walk away does not address the problem.
Not at all...

I think the emphasis in schools needs to be on hea...

2009-11-12T09:29:03.253-05:00

I think the emphasis in schools needs to be on healthy eating, exercise, and education. It will all work out with this approach!

BMI is a tool, one which can be used correctly or ...

2009-11-12T09:16:44.734-05:00

BMI is a tool, one which can be used correctly or incorrectly, like so many others. it should never be the only measure of whether a child needs to work on weight.

In my experience, unfortunately, I was one of the ones that got "chubby" at the onset of puberty, which meant I stored estrogen (excess weight can do that) which ground my growth spurt to a halt.

Translation: I have not grown any taller since the age of 12, when I grew wider at menarche.

This whole topic of childhood obesity needs to be handled with sensitivity and grace, by parents who love the child, a pediatrician who cares and approaches it from the health standpoint, a school that supports a healthy lifestyle (recess, PE, healthy food in the cafeteria), and a society that promotes health over fashion and beauty.

Hmm, tall order.

I understand that obesity is a huge problem, but s...

2009-11-12T09:15:46.973-05:00

I understand that obesity is a huge problem, but seriously do not think that testing a child's BMI is the way to go.

Perhaps burning down all the fast-food joints would be a better place to start.

(Disclaimer - not that I am advocating this, of course.... it was merely a suggestion!)

Great post and comments. I agree that BMI at this ...

2009-11-12T09:08:03.947-05:00

Great post and comments. I agree that BMI at this stage in life is not relevant (and would argue it's relevancy in general). Schools should be introducing more wellness programs into their curriculum: one that includes teaching about proper diet and exercise. And while everyone can see who the visibly overweight kids are, I daresay that the percentage of unhealthy thin kids is just as high, due to unhealthy eating and dieting. Especially due to the various peer pressures you face at that age.

Honestly? There are a lot of parents who maybe th...

2009-11-12T09:06:20.268-05:00

Honestly? There are a lot of parents who maybe think that restricting calories before puberty is a mistake. If something is in place to alert them to the idea that it isnt so much about "restricting" calories as eating the right number of them in the first place, it could save kids a lot of physical and emotional stress down the road.

I agree that schools shouldn’t test kids’ BMI for ...

2009-11-12T09:05:26.754-05:00

I agree that schools shouldn’t test kids’ BMI for multiple reasons. First, most kids (I know, not all) are weighed by their doctor at least annually, and he/she as a medical professional is more equipped to determine if the child’s really obese or just hasn’t hit a growth spurt yet. But on top of that, there’s been so much talk recently about BMI not being a good indicator of health anyhow. Many athletes would be considered obese if we just looked at BMI because they’re all muscle, which weighs more. Also, what’s the point? If a child is truly obese, will a random number make that much of a difference to a family who hasn’t had a problem with it yet? On top of that all, being weighed in front of other kids—and having to face the inevitable “What was your number?”—is mortifying no matter how fat or skinny you are.

That said, I do think there are kids out there who aren’t “just a little husky.” I know one who is in elementary school and is obese, has high cholesterol, and high blood pressure. Really. When our 10-year-olds are getting these medical conditions, there’s reason to worry. Their long-term health (a recent study said kids who have high cholesterol are at an increased risk for a heart attack as a teen, not a thirtysomething!) is at risk. The number of people with type 2 diabetes is getting larger—and for the first time in decades it’s an epidemic in kids, too.

Great question. I am not a fan of the BMI as an in...

2009-11-12T08:53:24.383-05:00

Great question. I am not a fan of the BMI as an indicator of fitness for anyone. As we know, muscle is denser than fat, professional athletes could be considered obese by this standard.

Let's work on reinstating physical education programs and recess instead.

Our school hasn't cut recess or gym, but does send...

2009-11-12T08:49:59.721-05:00

Our school hasn't cut recess or gym, but does send home a BMI reading -- in the same letter they tell us the results of our kids' vision tests. I don't think the kids see what's in those letters unless we parents choose to share.

My issue is with BMI itself. When a professional athelete has something like a 3% body fat and a BMI that's obese (and yes, there is one. At least one.), there's an obvious flaw with BMI. There is no way that particular man is obese.

We need another, better scale by which to judge -- ourselves and our kids. And yes, more emphasis on healthy eating and activity would be nice.