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Posted on 04/09/2006 10:44:57 AM PDT by SittinYonder
EVERY schoolchild will have to undergo an obesity test in their first year at primary school, in the latest controversial attempt by ministers to force Scots to improve their health.
Five-year-olds will be weighed and measured by health workers to assess whether or not they are clinically overweight. Advert for The Scotsman Digital Archive
Those who fail the test could be referred to a dietician for instructions on what to eat, while parents will be told how to prepare food to reduce their children's weight.
Ministers claim that in order to shed Scotland's tag as the sick man of Europe, they need to intrude ever further into children's personal health and the private lives of families.
But the drastic measures were attacked last night as the latest attempt to dictate to parents how they should bring up their children.
Scotland on Sunday can also reveal that ministers are considering plans to ban junk food in packed lunches, and calling for parents to be instructed on what food to give their children to eat at lunchtimes in school.
The move to check children's weight has been introduced by two health boards, Borders and Lothian, following the publication of a report into child obesity last year, Health for all Children 4. Every other region will follow suit by the end of 2007.
The latest figures reveal that obesity levels in Scotland's schools are soaring, with 20% of 11 to 12-year-oldsnow grossly overweight compared with 16% five years ago.
The Health for All Children 4 report suggests that all children should be tested for their body mass index, the standard measure of obesity.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Executive said that the scheme was designed only to monitor "the impact of public health interventions".
But the report states that parents will also be offered support to help them control their children's weight if they are identified as being at risk.
Public health sources say that, in extreme cases, children will be referred to a dietician.
A separate report, by the public health agency NHS Health Scotland, has recommended a ban on junk food in packed lunches and calls for parents to be instructed on what food to give their children.
NHS Scotland's Developing a Healthy Weight Action Plan, which is backed by 83 health experts, warns that simply providing information to the public about healthy eating and exercise is "insufficient".
Along with the ban on junk food, the report suggests schools lay out to parents what snacks they can give their child to take to school.
Primary school pupils should also be banned from leaving school premises at lunchtime, the report suggests.
Mary Allison, head of health topics at NHS Health Scotland, said: "This is about parents having to look at the circumstances in which they are preparing the packed lunch. Is it something that gets thrown together at the last minute? It could be something that is done the night before, with the child helping."
Adults are also targeted by NHS Health Scotland. Civil servants, hospital staff, council workers and teachers might also face weight screening programmes.
Those found to be overweight could be put in workplace weight management groups, or offered tailored health checks and referrals to 'lifestyle coaches'.
GPs will also be urged to help patients lose weight by assessing it in a similar way to how they deal with their patients who wish to stop smoking.
Allison added: "We would be encouraging GPs to check their patients' activity levels and, if you are completely inactive, you will get advice about doing more exercise, such as walking.
"Questions about physical activity would become as routine as questions about smoking or alcohol intake when patients register with a GP."
But the measures have drawn criticism from some experts and politicians, who believe that health officials are attempting to exert too much control over people's lives.
Conservative health spokeswoman Nanette Milne said: "Obesity is a huge problem that will not be tackled overnight, but we must draw the line at dictating what people should and should not do. Parents themselves have got to take responsibility for their children's health."
Professor Mike Lean, a nutrition expert at Glasgow University said: "There is little doubt that children are getting bigger on average, but many of those who are considered to be obese as children are not when they become adults.
"It is the obese adults who put the most pressure on the NHS and its resources, so we should be concentrating on addressing their problems and the causes of their obesity."
Under national healthcare, no aspect of life remains uncontrolled by the government.
The NHS in Scotland has banned cigarette smoking in public places and in private homes and now they're going to tell you what to feed your kids.
We dodged HillaryCare in the 90s, but the effort is still on to bring national healthcare to our country. And then we will go from being serfs of the government to slaves.
Government telling kids what to eat ping
The State is Mother and the State is Father...
Our school system can decide that my children are sick and send them home from school. However, my kids have to have a doctor's note if I keep them at home because I (and all other parents in our school system) are unfit to determine if a child is too sick to go to school.
Imagine how bad the nanny state could get if we had national healthcare.
They ran out of smokers to persecute, apparently. Now they are going after the obese. Just like we said they would.
The more government treats people like cattle, the more they will act like sheep.
Typical Lib BS. I would imagine that it would be obvious which children were in need of testing, but hey, let's test them all so the fatties won't feel bad.
But banning public smoking was for the public good...
My daughter at age 6 was seen by a new doctor. Her height and weight were recorded along with blood pressure etc. When the doctor came in, before even looking at her, he said that according to statistics she was seriously overweight, not obese. He spoke for several minutes on the dangers of obesity etc, recommended increased excercise, and lower calorie intake. He asked her how much she ate, and she told him honestly. He told her that she ate too much and needed to eat only 4 or 5 small meals each day. The problem was that she was a gymnast. she conditioned heavily 3 days per week. She was solid muscle and weighed much more than most 6 year olds. She is 13 now and competes at a national level (level 7) She still doesn't have an ounce of fat, which I have been told by doctors (because it has delayed puberty).
She still remembers what the doctor told her, and since then we have had a difficult time getting her to eat enough to sustain her conditioning level. She has worried constantly since age 6 about being overweight.
Kids are all different and a government official using height and weight charts to determine obesity can cause all kinds of other serious problems. This seems like a really bad idea.
The government needs to know how much everybody weighs. It's really important. Well, maybe not. But it does give government bureaucrats something to do when they are not doing drugs or pondering their genitals.
That's exactly right. The left's blueprint for expanding government control over our lives is laid out before us, and we even have the example of Scotland and other nations in case we couldn't guess.
There are numerous horror stories about the NHS including the story of Baby Charlotte
Did they also tell you what to eat?
The food Nazis continue goose-stepping right along.
CONSIDERING making a new ping list, expected to be insanely high volume (duh).
Freepmail me if interested.
A better idea is to give the obesity test to the health care workers every year in order for them to keep their jobs -- and then all the rest of the problems will take care of themselves.
I'm not feeding the kids again until the government tells me what to feed them! I might give them too many carbs! Too much sodium! Too much monounsaturated, or saturated, or polyunsaturated fat!
The Berlin wall wasn't torn down, it was relocated.....
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