A Healthy 9-Year-Old Girl is Labeled Overweight By School Officials

[eridani]

And we wonder why there is so much disordered eating?

http://www.care2.com/causes/a-healthy-9-year-old-girl-is-labeled-overweight-by-school-officials.html

Gwendolyn Williams is 9 years old and finishing up third grade at PS 29 in Staten Island, New York. She enjoys playing softball and riding her scooter. She is a ball of energy and, according the New York Department of Education, overweight.In November, as part of the city’s fitness and health assessment program, Gwendolyn was one of the more than 870,000 New York City K-12 students who received an annual health assessment. The Fitnessgram looks at the students’ aerobic capacity, muscle strength, muscular endurance, flexibility and body composition. As part of the body composition, they look at the height and weight of the student, as well as measure their body mass index (BMI) on a scale that is based on their age and gender.

As originally reported by the New York Post, Gwendolyn’s BMI percentage was 19, which put her squarely into the overweight category for nine year old girls. At 4 feet, 1 inch tall she is one pound over the “healthy” weight. She tips the scales at a whopping 66 pounds.

<snip>

Meaning, it’s much easier to be considered overweight today than it was in 1986.

The irony of all of this is that neither Quetelet or Keys meant the formula to be used in such a manner. Keys stated in his landmark 1972 paper that the BMI should not be used for individual diagnosis as, at the time, the formula ignored age and gender, as well has an individual’s overall health. It also ignored body type and muscle mass. The BMI was meant as a way to estimate the body fat of a large group with diverse body types – not label an individual.

It should definitely not be used to label a 9-year-old girl.

The NY Department of Education says that the Fitnessgram is just one indicator in the health assessment. Gwendolyn’s mother, however, believes that sending these kinds or reports home with the kids can affect their self-esteem. When Lisa Bruiji Williams spoke with the principal, she was sympathetic. The principal pointed out that the kids were not supposed to look at the easy-to-open assessment (because telling a nine year old to not do something always works). In the end, the school agreed to look into the matter – by sending home the assessments in sealed envelopes with report cards next year

[Oilwellian]

1. Here's a pic of the girl

If this looks overweight to anyone here, I'll eat my hat. Ridiculous.

[LittleBlue]

3. Another victim of the BMI

That shit has got to go. It never made sense.

[yeoman6987]

4. Education System get out of this

Educate the kids. Leave the weight of children to the doctors. I think we are really on a slippery slope here.

[cyberswede]

2. That is utterly fucked up.

I get wanting to look out for the health of students, but they need to use different criteria.

[winter is coming]

5. I had a new pediatrician rag on me because the She-Beast was at the 95th percentile of weight

for her age. I pointed out that she's at the 99th percentile for height, and that's pretty much where she's been since she was two months old. After flipping back through the records, I got a vague "oh", followed by a canned lecture on how my kid needs to be more active.

[cyberswede]

7. My 13 y.o. son is big (over 6'1" and #200), but he is quite active...

He plays multiple sports and does weight training 4 mornings a week - in the summer. His clothes are soaking wet when he comes home from weights, baseball, or pick-up soccer with his friends.

He could probably eat a little better (he's not a fan of vegetables), but I just think you can't pigeon-hole kids into specific statistical categories - particularly BMI, which really doesn't measure fitness.

Our school has a wellness program, and there's been some activity related to a "farm to table" program, but I don't think they send notes home like that.

Those height/weight charts that doctors use are meant to be looked at over time - as you pointed out with your daughter being at the top for height her whole life. The charts are really only useful if there's an unexpected change that deviates from how the line has progressed over time - the new doctor should have been aware of that.

Oh...and "She-Beast" made me LOL!

[winter is coming]

9. Let's just say it hasn't been one of my more rewarding days as a parent. :-) n/t

[laundry_queen]

10. I had something similar

with my 2 oldest daughters. My oldest was very thin - had been from birth - and very small boned. Her head was pretty big though, which wasn't surprising given her dad had a ginormous cranium. The ped FREAKED out on me. Her weight was below the 25th, as was her height, but her head was in the 90th percentile. He was convinced she was starving to death (she was exclusively breastfed at the time, at 6 months old). I explained her output (pee and poop) was totally normal, she was just super active (once she figured out the army crawl...look out!!) He still insisted I supplement with formula and give 3 meals of solids. I didn't, BTW. My daughter dropped further on the growth chart - to just 5th percentile by the time she was 3 years old. Yet, she was extremely healthy. By then I had a new doctor that didn't blink, because she was so healthy otherwise, and her height was still 25th percentile. My (now ex) husband had been a super skinny kid, so I wasn't worried.

However, with my second daughter, we had the opposite problem! She was well over the 100th percentile by the time she was 6 months old (also exclusively breastfed). By the time she was 3 years old, she was in size 6X clothes. I had comments from doctors that I needed to watch her fat intake and make sure she was more active, and so on.

To this day, my oldest daughter is thin - she's a size 2, maybe 4. She has very small bones and is, what I would call, 'weak' meaning she has to work to get muscle tone. She is a couch potato and eats tons of junk food now that she's a teen and has a job of her own. Just tonight, she brought home cookies and a tub of frosting. Yet she's insanely healthy. We get sick for a week, she's over it in 2 days. She does walk to work a couple times a week (and to school during the school year) so she gets a small amount of exercise.

My second daughter is still big. She's very athletic, very muscular, super strong (she's who I get to help me move furniture, LOL), is always on the go, and enjoys going for walks and bike rides. She's in multiple sports. She walks to school. She's the pickiest eater ever. She rarely snacks and is trying to eat healthier to make her hair grow faster (lol she looked that up...she has baby fine hair). She's easily a size 10-12. She's also taller than her older sister by 3 inches.

My other 2 daughters are variations in between the older 2. My older 2 daughters are what convinces me a lot of weight is simply genetic. I know even people here on DU say it isn't, but when you have 2 kids from the same 2 parents who are both born at the same weight and exclusively breastfed and are on opposite ends of the growth charts, you know it has to be genetics. I do get upset when I hear doctors use growth charts without checking out history, or asking questions about the parents' childhood build. My ex-husband was super skinny and slight as a kid and teen. I wasn't - I wasn't pudgy but that was because my mom strictly controlled my eating (she was naturally thin, I wasn't). I was very sturdy, muscular, athletic and strong. Our kids were just variations of our own builds.

[rock]

6. Bananas anyone?

Yeah, the New York Department of Education.

[jeff47]

8. The best part about this BMI stupidity

is people who are "overweight" according to BMI live the longest.

Little hard to claim you have "ideal" in the right place when "ideal" people die sooner.