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While I don't believe that a BMI should be on a report card, and I definitely believe that parents have some responsibility, I also believe that the school holds some responsibility too. You also forget that some children have medical issues that have led to their obesity. I have two overweight children. They are both severe asthmatics as well. Any intense cardio sends them into asthma attacks and each of them are on prednisone a few times a year, which puts on the weight FAST. We eat very healthy at my house. I pack their lunches and include a low fat sandwich with diet/high fiber bread, a salad, a fruit and a low fat drinkable yogurt. They buy school lunch occasionally. However, I am continually getting bills from the school because my son buys something from the "snack cart" every day, even if I haven't put money in his lunch account. He buys cookies, ice cream, etc. He also connives junk from his friends. Addmittedly, they are with their dad half the time and HE doesn't give them healthy food ever. Their lunch when they are with him consists of a sandwich, cookies and chips. He always has chips and cookies sitting on the kitchen counter, along with chocolate cake and other assorted goodies. It's like a junk food buffet constantly. He insists that my son isn't "fat", he's strong. Well, he's not, he's fat. My daughter has been trying very hard to eat healthy and is very slowly losing weight, but it's very slow without the intense cardio she really could use. Each time one of them is on prednisone, they gain a huge amount in a few days and it doesn't go away.
I have talked to the school about my son's snack cart habits and they say that they simply can't police it. I have gotten them every type of active indoor toy I can find (DDR, a pogo stick, a treadmill, hula hoops, these moon shoe things that they can bounce around in) but they are definitely limited in what they can do outdoors in our climate. I am trying really hard, but face a lot of obstacles. I also am concerned about their self esteem. Once you have a self-image of being 'fat', it's difficult to rid yourself of it. I was an overweight child but was in a good weight range in high school. I still considered myself "fat", even when I weighed 130 pounds and looked darn good, I thought I was a cow. When I look at pictures of myself in high school now, I think "What was my problem?" I had been put on extremely strict diets as a child and learned that way to "sneak eat" and binge when I could get my hands on the good stuff. Those are very difficult habits to break once they are ingrained. I live in fear of creating those problems in my own children.
So, we are trying very hard to live a healthy lifestyle, exercising and eating right at MY house. They have too many other influences.
Oh yes, and school snacks! In the early grades of elementary, I was asked to send an a.m. snack, p.m. snack and a snack for latch key. So, in the 9 hours they were at school, most kids would eat 2 meals and 3 snacks! I would send healthy things, but I know that sometimes they managed to mooch cookies, chips, etc. from friends who didn't eat much.
It is easy to say it's all the parents (and I admit, their Dad is terrible and I've talked to him and even had the pediatrician talk to him), but there's so much more to it than just that.
Dee
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