mmm. Well, my knowledge is purely anecdotal, but when I was expressing concern about my kids' weight a while back, I was told not to worry about it, and they are in fact quite slender as young adults. My son actually had to work at building muscle mass. That said, there may be a range which is likely ok, and maybe they are within it....you do see kids who are clearly more than a little overweight.
But I can think of many ways to address this that might be more effective, starting with the vending machines in schools, the quality of school lunches, nutrition outreach groups in schools and local clinics, asking obese and diabetic patients whether they have children, making it possible to use food stamps at farmers' markets, addressing the lack of grocery stores in low-income areas.... off the top of my head. And hey, teaching nutrition in health class, if they don't already do it. But kids may or may not get a vote in what the family eats, depending on the family. I am not saying it's not a problem. I am questioning whether the proposed solution comes anywhere close to solving it. The article says they are collecting anonymous data -- there's a belly laugh there, for a start -- in hopes the doctors will have a discussion with families that may need it. There's no requirement that they do so and all the incentives work against them actually doing so, is what I am saying. And that's without getting into whether any government knows how to keep secure and anonymous data. On Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 5:19 PM, Cameron Childress <[email protected]>wrote: > > I still think it's important to keep tabs, potentially with an > understanding that kids may grow at uneven rates at times. I'm not any > sort of expert in pediatrics, so sure perhaps there is more wiggle room > Body Fat for kids. Maybe there sin't - I have no idea. > > But, given responsible guidelines, I think what I'd look to avoid would be > the type of cases of extreme malnourishment and obesity found in many > children today as well as educate those same kids with the vital life > skills that they need to become a healthy adult. > > Childhood obesity is increasing at a very fast pace. Childhood diabetes if > increasing as well. This is definitely not just an adult problem. > > -Cameron > > On Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 7:57 PM, Dana <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Sure, it's a lifelong skill. But my point is that reporting BMI may not > be > > the best measure of whether the skill needs work, particularly in > > pre-adolescents. Apart from the examples given in the article, some kids > > are skinny for a while then fill out, and others are chunky for a while > > then have a growth spurt, and including either of these groups would, it > > seems to me, distort what the reporting is supposed to measure. > > Questionnaires on diet might be better, perhaps *associated* with > BMI...but > > if the goal is to have a conversation with the parents of certain kids, > > then why not just have it? > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:345371 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
