I am going to be slammed by some of you on this but here goes...
When 67% of the ADULT population in United States are either overweight or obese -- it tells us that MOST parents are incapable of taking care of themselves.
And wouldn't you guess -- they pass their bad eating and exercise habits over to the kids.
Today's kids are getting fatter and fatter...
My god... for those of you who want everyone to ignore or keep silent on this dangerous subject... it is like ignoring a bull in the china shop.
And that is right... the main purpose of the school's BMI grade is to embarrass the adults to accept some responsibility for themselves and everyone else in the household
So don't get pissed off at me or the school -- YOU got yourself fat.
And usually the ONLY way to make changes in an unhealthy environment is to get angry.
Take charge here -- you're the adult. Insist on healthy foods at home. Throw out the junk food and sodas. Take daily family walks around the park.
Just do something...
Exactly!
I homeschooled. Plenty of time for exercise, and I supervised the kitchen. Also, there were no babysitters to pacify the kids with food and TV.
I suggest that parents who now at the point of deciding between government institutionalization for their kids, or the natural environment of their home, that they take a good long look at the fat kids waiting for the government school bus. Is this really, what you want for your child?
Personally, I wouldn't care one way or the other if the school put my child's BMI on some sort of report and sent it home. First of all I already know it and secondly, I'd store up any other information with what I already know about her and make a determination about its validity. It's just information, not a life or death sentence, a proclamation from on high or a set path to follow forever. It's a number. If a parent doesn't like the number, then ignore it or change it, but shooting the messenger won't change the fact that the child may or may not be overweight.
In my child's case, her BMI places her on the very edge of normal/overweight. But since she is an athlete (and wears a size 6 or 8 pants) I'm just not too worried about that number. Athletes with their muscle mass aren't accurately represented on that scale. Like I said, it's a number, it's information, she and I can use it how we see fit
I won’t slam you, because I basically agree with you - however, my problem is with the use of the BMI and the change of the definition of the words “overweight” and “obese.”
That is why I object to the schools doing this.
USE of BMI winds up putting star athletes into the overweight and obese categories, when nothing could be further from the truth.
I live in a primarily agricultural community and many of the kids I know would be considered overweight or obese in an urban setting based on their BMI, but these kids are not sedentary and they are not living on junk food. These kids are tending chicken houses, small farmettes, and even larger farm fields. They eat hearty because they play and work hearty and many do so from a very young age.
Until some folks around here really got to know our family they wondered if I actually fed my 8yo daughter enough, because she’s a little bit of nothing........then when they got to know us all, they realized that is just the way she is because she will eat everything on her plate and go back for more. Her best friend is a very big girl and actually outweighs me by 10 pounds, which means she outweighs my daughter by 50-60#.
Yesterday afternoon they asked me if they could take a break from filling seed start pots - a very sedentary thing to be doing.........they then both proceeded to work on perfecting their cartwheels and somersaults in the side field. After that they raided the vegetable drawer in the fridge for carrots for a snack.
I find BMI to be a very deceptive form of determining if one is unfit, overweight or obese.