School Letters About Fat Kids Bring Changes

[The Straight Story]

School Letters About Fat Kids Bring Changes

POSTED: 3:59 pm EDT June 1, 2006

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- It's been two years since Arkansas schools started sending letters home to parents with their kids' report cards -- letters telling them if their children were fat.

Plenty of parents weren't happy. But a lot of them did something about it.

Suddenly there were more visits to the pediatrician for talks about weight problems. Fitness class attendance is up. Diet pill use by high-schoolers is down.

And more states are following Arkansas' lead, including California, Florida and Pennsylvania, which have adopted similar programs.

Dr. Karen Young, medical director for the pediatric fitness clinic at Arkansas Children's Hospital, told of a mother upset when she got word from school that her child was overweight. The mother wanted a second opinion from Young, but in the meantime, she cut sweets from the family diet and slimmed the child down before the appointment.

http://www.local6.com/health/9307011/detail.html

[FSogol]

1. They are just all big boned. n/t

[hashibabba]

2. It's just baby fat n/t

[juajen]

3. This is a slippery slope! A note home is no way to help an obese child.

I believe this is very harmful. Most schools around here have cut out PE and some have unsupervised recess (or just minders, not PE teachers).

The money being spent on sports needs to be used for the benefit of all students. Gently guiding and providing the tools for these children is the ticket. I cannot remember any fat students in my elementary school, and not many in my high school. We got out in the streets and played sports with each other; we walked everywhere, or rode bicycles and there were no fast food places.

Good PE teachers can enthuse kids; and restricted sales of sugar and starch at lunch and breakfast is an additional way to help these kids. Sending a note home to depress the child and parents is not the way to go, IMHO. Bill Clinton did a great thing when he started using his clout to reduce soft drinks in schools. We all need to get behind our schools and encourage more and better exercise and better food for our children and grandchildren.

[donco6]

4. I don't see anything wrong with it.

And the schools are doing a lot of the things you mentioned:

Schools are reacting, too. Following state Board of Education guidelines, schools in the last two years have banned using food as a reward, are offering more fruits and vegetables on lunch menus, have removed deep fryers and increased low-fat and low-sugar drinks and snacks.

Huckabee and former President Bill Clinton -- known for his Big Mac excursions while Arkansas governor -- helped announce this year that soft drink manufacturers had voluntarily agreed to remove sugary sodas from school vending machines.

Childhood obesity, Huckabee said, is "a real serious health and economic issue."

[elehhhhna]

5. children are always growing, thus it's pretty easy w/ proper nutrition

only (NO "DIET")to drop excess weight.