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Yup, standards. Got a luv 'em.
So I get a letter on Saturday that has me giggling and angry at the same time. It's about Markis. They checked his BMI at school and sent me home a form letter to tell me my son *may* be overweight or obese. It's based on percentiles. I'm not sure what pool the percentile encompasses. Global? National? State? Or perhaps just his school. Who knows. However, he's near the 90% for his age group for his BMI. If you are over 85% or under 5%, then you should be concerned. (I'm not sure why there is a 15% spread at the top and only a 5% spread at the bottom)
Have you seen Markis lately? He's a stick. He's all bones and muscles. The boy never slows down. He eats like a horse, but burns calories like a bonfire. When you pick him up.. Whoa, is he dense.
So here I have this stick of a son and they are warning me he might be overweight or obese. I feel like picking up the phone and yelling at someone...
2010-03-15 02:07 pm UTC
One of the many horrible features of the Atkins diet is that people in the first phase are losing weight because they are losing muscle mass. Their body composition is changing for the worse, in health terms, but the BMI is getting lower because their weight is getting lower. This is tied to the whole erroneous thing about weight loss being necessarily a good thing for most people. In most cases, the improvement needed is a change in body composition, not weight (ie more muscle, which is heavy, and less fat).
2010-03-15 02:35 pm UTC
I have, for both my boys, sent snippy notes into school because a teacher with no degree or experience in nutrition or medicine decided to comment about what I *should* be sending in with them for a snack. I know you are a teacher, so please take no offense, I know that they are getting pressure to monitor all sorts of things that I consider the purview of parents.
However, I choose snacks for my kids very carefully, and they are almost always some form of protein (usually cheese) with a little bit of non-sugary carb (pretzel, cracker), because we have a family history of reactive hypoglycemia. What the teachers want, being a piece of fruit, is filled with simple, albeit natural, sugars that will make their blood sugar spike and then crash like a bad NASCAR driver. I'm trying to prevent my kids from turning into cranky, lethargic lumps, thanks so much for playing. I even had a French teacher tell me that my older son gets too much salt because he eats pretzels for his snack! Can you tell this is a pet peeve of mine? ;)
In Markis's case, hopefully this is just a standard form letter that you can file appropriately (in the circular file), and that will be the end of it. However, from experience, I would be a little concerned that the school might take it upon themselves to try to actually *do* something about it, in which case, a letter from your pediatrician stating that is body composition is quite normal and healthy for his age should take care of it. BMI is a stupid measure, it's no better than those height/weight charts that they used to use (and in fact, BMI is *based* on those charts). The only real measure of fat percentage is to do a body composition test.
I do understand why many people choose to homeschool....
2010-03-16 12:08 am UTC
The note didn't include any learning opportunities for parents to improve their kids diet, and given the amazing amounts of pure crap they sell in the cafeteria, they have no right to look at anyone's BMI without improving their offerings first.
2010-03-16 12:15 pm UTC
2010-03-17 10:45 am UTC