Posted on 05/21/2006 5:41:21 PM PDT by FairOpinion
Primary schoolchildren are to be weighed regularly and their parents told if they are too fat under a Government drive to reduce obesity.
Children aged four to 10 in England will be put on the scales this term to help prepare an obesity "map". From next year, parents of any obese four- to 10-year-old can expect a letter telling them that their child faces long-term health problems unless they live a healthier life.
Yesterday, the Department of Health rejected suggestions that the Government was "policing" the size of children and increasing the risk that some children could be stigmatised or bullied if they were identified as being obese. A spokesman said tackling childhood obesity needed to be taken very seriously.
According to current trends, it is set to become the greatest cause of death in the UK. Obesity has trebled over the last 20 years, and a health survey in England in 2001 found that around 24 million adults in England were overweight.
It is rising among children too. In the past 10 years it has doubled in six-year-olds (to 8.5 per cent) and trebled among 15-year-olds (to 15 per cent).
The National Audit Office says that by 2010 the cost of treating obesity and related illnesses in England will be £3.6 billion. The tests will be carried out with children wearing "light clothes".
Parents can refuse permission for their child to be tested and can ask not to be sent the results next year.
Caroline Flint, the junior health minister, believes that parents are the "first and foremost" influence on their children and have a key role to play in tackling obesity.
You'd have to blind to not see the handwriting on the wall here.
What price liberty?
The next step is they charge the parents of fat kids with child abuse, Social services take the kids and the parents are sent to Dachau. Wait that was a few years back. Well !!wherever it is that the British socialists decide to send them.
And will only cost the taxpayer about $150 per kid "processed" -- really a great value for those taxpayers with no kids in school.
Usually if a kid is obese in grade school, it's not a closely guarded secret.
Eons ago, when I was in grade school, the school nurse would come around with her scale once/yr. Our report cards would be marked with whether we were too fat or too skinny.
I don't think there is any law against it.
But it shouldn't be the government mandating it.
Nanny state ping.
It's always for the kids. Not for their health, although that line sounds good.
It's for the kids so we can condition them to having every aspect of their lives montored and inspected at a whim.
School kids who sit idly by while dogs judge whether or not they have had contact with illegal substances.
Kids who freak at a lit cigarette and run shreiking from the room as if the black of death itself has entered the room.
Kids who turn in percieved illegal behavior of their parents to teachers and councilors that have nothing better to do than tell others how to live.
So now we will have more stats to add to their permanent health records on their new national id card.
It's a brave new world out there, are you wearing your safety googles & helmet ?
The state gov't mandated it when I was a kid. That's only slightly better than if the Feds do it.
I'm truly of mixed emotions about this one. We know there are abusive parents and some recent cases have been of parents starving their children. Teachers don't dare to report suspected cases of abuse anymore, because they can be sued.
What's a better way to find cases of child abuse?
This is the UK..............but don't think the Nanny Statists aren't working on it here in the US........and in fact they've started it in several places.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1563271/posts
Healthy People 2010
Excerpt:
Focus Areas at a Glance (28)
* Access to Quality Health Services
* Arthritis, Osteoporosis and Chronic Back Conditions
* Cancer
* Chronic Kidney Disease
* Diabetes
* Disability and Secondary Conditions
* Educational and Community-Based Programs
* Environmental Health
* Family Planning
* Food Safety
* Health Communication
* Heart Disease and Stroke
* Immunizations and Infectious Diseases
* Nutrition and Overweight
* Injury and Violence Prevention
* Maternal, Infant, and Child Health
* Medical Product Safety
* Mental Health and Mental Disorders
* Occupational Safety and Health
* Oral Health
* Physical Activity and Fitness
* Public Health Infrastructure
* Respiratory Diseases
* Sexually Transmitted Diseases -STD
* Substance Abuse
* Tobacco Use
* Vision and Hearing
>>>>What's a better way to find cases of child abuse?
Oh, that will be a great indicator! /sarc
This is already one of the initiatives being implemented in the USA.
The 'for the children' is only the public introduction because the adults are already incorporated in the initiatives.
From the CDC
Adult BMI calculator:
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/bmi/adult_BMI/english_bmi_calculator/bmi_calculator.htm
Child and Teen BMI calculator:
http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/dnpabmi
This is absolutely bogus.
There is no place to input whether you are male or female in the adult calculator.
There is no place to input body type like ectomorph, mesomorph or endormorph. It is a one size fits all.
So please, let's use this as an indicator of child abuse!
The first steps of the intro:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1561077/posts
Animal Tagging and SCHOOL LUNCHES???
ping
When my daughter, who will be 8 in July, stands next to her best friend, who turned 8 this month, you would think there was 2-3 years difference in their ages. My daughter's friend is a good 6" taller and at least 60-70# heavier than my daughter.
Which one should the teacher turn in for "issues," the child with a weight problem or the pipsqueak skinny minny child?
Both children are happy, healthy and very active. I see it on a regular basis when they are at my house, and also on the ball field because both girls are in Little League.
Feeding these 2 girls is no picnic. Heaven help me and the other mom when they become teenagers. Granted as most kids their age do, they go through their fair share of mac and cheese.............but between me and the other mom, we go through pretty close to 10 pounds of carrots and celery a week, just in snacks. Gotta love a kid that loves veggies!!!!!
Oh, I know.
You and I have always been on the same page here.
You're absolutely right. None of the "statistics" mean a thing. But what do you do about, say, a third grader who weighs 40 lbs.? Something is wrong, but without a gov't standard, the teachers and school admin. can't say anything.
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