Obesity - Do You See It?

[Guest jenpercy]

With the government stating that almost one in 10 children starting reception are overweight or obese - I must say that I have not seen this myself. However, as we don't have many reception age children, I'm asking you. I would do a poll but don't know how. I certainly don't see the one in 5 in year 6 but again I don't have a very big sample.

 

as far as I can see it is like most statistics and would require there to be at least one school somewhere with the majority overweight. AND The Sun hasn't found it yet!!!

Edited December 31, 2010 by jenpercy

[AnonyMouse_5458]

I've wondered this myself - if anything we have children who are little, don't eat very much at all. There's 1 child out of our 80 on the books who I would consider overweight and I guess when I look over the fence at the school probably 1 or 2 out of the 400 odd.

 

It must be specific areas of the country which affect the overall statistics?

[Guest]

I think the term "overweight" is also discretionary........

 

A parent recent told me her child was overweight (the doctor told her) but when looking at the child I did not percieve an overweight child at all.

 

We have one VERY obese child in our school.

I would say morbidly obese.

 

When he was in reception class he weighed more than my then 13 year old son!!

Its a very sad thing to see.

Parents were advised to see a dietician when the child was 2 years old and they refused...........

[AnonyMouse_3139]

I havent seen much of it either. The nurseries I went to in the poorer areas possible have some but overall, not that you'd notice, not 1 in 10 anyway.

The biggest I've noticed are probably secondary school age, but I think even that can be attributed to hormones maybe in the mid teens, because there doesnt seem to be a massive increase in obese young adults, certainly not amongst my son's friends. One of my lads lost loads of weight when he reached about 15/16.

[AnonyMouse_3735]

also did not see many who you would call obese when looking at them, less than one a year..

 

BUT on weighing /height and using those charts for BMI used I do suspect if several could end up being classed as such.

 

How many parents have we seen on TV complaining about 'the letter' from school with a skinny child sat next to them.. think it is all a bit one sided to a guide chart without any view to actually looking at the child as a whole rather than the figures.

 

My son would have been classed as obese by today's chart. but was not in reality... and could not have been more active if he tried! All his mates have been the same.

 

Plus how many parents does it get offside just by telling them they are doing wrong for their child..

[AnonyMouse_4544]

Yes we often see very overweight children both in nursery and reception. So much so they have difficulty moving about and struggle to sit on the floor and once down there have great difficulty getting back up. Lots of "builder's bums" on display both boys and girls

[Guest jenpercy]

Yes we often see very overweight children both in nursery and reception. So much so they have difficulty moving about and struggle to sit on the floor and once down there have great difficulty getting back up. Lots of "builder's bums" on display both boys and girls

 

It would be interestig to find out where these reports are coming from if you don't mind

[AnonyMouse_8466]

It would be interestig to find out where these reports are coming from if you don't mind

Are you asking out of general interest, jenpercy or are you doing a research project? If its the latter perhaps you could tell us more about it?

[AnonyMouse_1195]

This may help you jenpercy

http://www.ic.nhs.uk/statistics-and-data-c...-10-school-year

[AnonyMouse_29641]

Of the fifteen children in my care, I know one got 'the letter' and I expect three others either got one, or will get one. Only one of these children has any 'pudginess' about them. These children are 'heavy', but also the most active children and very, very dense with muscle. The child with the letter has a parent who is highly and appropriately qualified. He followed up the measurements and found that height for weight the child was overweight, but when density was taken into consideration the result was that the child was a healthy weight.

 

I think it is important to gather this sort of information so that advice can be targeted at higher risk groups, then each case examined individually.

 

Honey

[Guest]

What makes me cross is that (in my area anyway) the school nurses now only do height/weight checks in Reception (and then Year 6). They no longer do sight and hearing checks.

 

Firstly, so many of our children over the 7 years I've been teaching have had sight problems (and a few with hearing problems) initially identified at these checks in Reception. If these things are not picked up early on, the children lose out as it will in turn affect their development in all areas - and particularly with regard to hearing/recognising letters/sounds. Very few children seem to have sight tests nowadays - and I work in a very middle class area. My TA actually told me she has never had her eyes tested and her children (now in early secondary school) have only ever had their eyes tested at their school nurse appointment in YR - was quite shocked at this.

 

Secondly, the whole point of the YR and Y6 height/weight checks are to identify/monitor the 'obesity crisis' - but parents can opt out so I would imagine many parents of truly obese children would do so! Plus, I would imagine in some areas, even if children actrually are very fat and unfit/inactive, being told that isn't actually going to chnage anything. So what's the point?!

[Guest jenpercy]

What makes me cross is that (in my area anyway) the school nurses now only do height/weight checks in Reception (and then Year 6). They no longer do sight and hearing checks.

 

Firstly, so many of our children over the 7 years I've been teaching have had sight problems (and a few with hearing problems) initially identified at these checks in Reception. If these things are not picked up early on, the children lose out as it will in turn affect their development in all areas - and particularly with regard to hearing/recognising letters/sounds. Very few children seem to have sight tests nowadays - and I work in a very middle class area. My TA actually told me she has never had her eyes tested and her children (now in early secondary school) have only ever had their eyes tested at their school nurse appointment in YR - was quite shocked at this.

 

Secondly, the whole point of the YR and Y6 height/weight checks are to identify/monitor the 'obesity crisis' - but parents can opt out so I would imagine many parents of truly obese children would do so! Plus, I would imagine in some areas, even if children actrually are very fat and unfit/inactive, being told that isn't actually going to chnage anything. So what's the point?!

 

this is general interest. It's just that the government keeps pumping out these statistics and I wondered if I can't see it can others, or indeed are there areas in which 50% or more are overwight.

[Guest]

I've probably got one child in my class who is overweight and one who is going to head that way considering the amount of chocolate he gets stuffed with every night. However in general I certainly don't see a lot of overweight children either in my current school or my last school. Last year I was in a very deprived area and out of nearly 200 children I would say there was 3 obese children, all girls, two were sisters. There was also one boy in year 6 who was a bit podgy but he was the best sportsman in the school so I'd hardly say he was unhealthy. I'd actually say the crisis in that school was mal-nourished undergrown children, I really noticed the significant difference in size when I came to my current much more middle class school.

[AnonyMouse_1490]

Yes Kariania I only usually have 1 child in a pre-school of 70 that is obese. I also feel more concerned about children that are obviously underweight, claim to have not had breakfast or lunch. I have seen underweight children grow up to be adults that are overweight. When I look at pictures of myself as a young child I was very chubby but on reaching my teens up till now have never been overweight.

[Guest]

this is general interest. It's just that the government keeps pumping out these statistics and I wondered if I can't see it can others, or indeed are there areas in which 50% or more are overwight.

 

Jenpercy - just to clarify, my 'so what's the point?' comment in my previous reply was to the government's 'fuss' over obesity at the expense of other areas of development - not to your thread - hope I didn't offend you with my rant.

[Guest]

We have a few obviously overweight children each year, not one in 10 though, more like 1 in 30. However we have had a rapid increase in the number of children with genuine difficulties with food entering school each year, we have had at least 5 a year for the last couple of years who have been receiving guidance from hospital nutritionists because they eat so little. This seems to be a different thing from the 'using food as a tool to manipulate parents' that is usually transient, but a more deep-seated difficulty which gives rise to a lot of anxiety around children staying at school full-time and school dinners - a joy at new intake time!

It is an interesting mismatch between what we are being told we should see and what we actually observe!