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BODY MASS UPSET

Controversial 'Fat Letters' Notify Parents of Their Kids' Alleged Obesity

Some laugh it off, while others worry it's a form of 'fat-shaming'

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by Dain Fitzgerald

Staff Writer t

Image: akronchildrens.org

It's a fine line between fat-shaming and, well, fat-informing, as parents in Massachusetts can attest.

Select students in the city of Andover, a bit north of Boston, are seeing their Body Mass Index tracked, and their guardians notified by mail if state officials deem the number to be dangerously unhealthy. The so-called "fat letters," however, aren't going over well with some parents, who not only disagree with the claim that their children are fat, but resent the recommendation that they schedule a visit with their kid's pediatrician. The letters, a result of a "BMI Initiative" launched in 2009, are part and parcel (if you will) of the Bay State's goal of mitigating its obesity-related health troubles.

"Honestly, I laughed," said one parent of a child involved in both sports and martial arts who was nonetheless dubbed a chub. Others worry about the possible stigma felt by kids singled out by the scarlet letters:

"Some of these children laughed at these letters because they know it's ridiculous, while others become upset, depressed and ashamed, even though they are far from obese."

Via Patch.
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Are these letters a form of punitive fat-shaming, or simply helpful?

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Comments (view in Forum)

  • mudzangandoro
    !
    One could say high costs in healthcare spending is as a result of Obesity. Bulging 'love handles' are causing my premiums to go up.
  • stepped_in_it
    !
    Poltix, ya never said we can call for a story venue change at any time. Jeez, I wanna talk about the upcoming alignment of the planets.....
  • Denizen_Kate
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    "Fatties and Christians are fair game in Obama Nation." Fatties have always been fair game, and Christians have always been annoying. Quit blaming Obama for everything. He's not a god; he doesn't have a fraction of the power you seem determined to assign to him.

  • View all 6 replies >

  • martydotcom
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    In Ma, which already has Obamacare in place, they've proven preventive care is far less expensive than treating impending disease. Fat kids have a far greater propensity to develop diabetes > wound healing > limb amputations high blood pressure, high cholesterol> low self esteem > heart issue > early death.
    If the parents are too dumb to care about their child's health at least the state tries.
    http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/childhood-ob...
  • martydotcom
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    @marine1 If My taxes pay for an obese kids health care insurance it's all of our biz that parents act in a responsible fashion

  • View all 23 replies >

  • Smallz87
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    The BMI scale they are using is not accurate. You can look at a child and tell if they are obese, chubby, or skinny. There are people failing weigh ins because they have enough muscle to put them over the limit of calculated BMI.

    I think it is a great idea to inform parents but it should be a letter sent home to the parents and the child does not need to know. The parent or guardian is the one who should be ashamed, not the child.
  • Dan_Tien
    !
    I am 6'1' tall and was told by my doctor not long ago that my ideal weight according to the BMI calculation is 139 lbs. As a young man, I competed as a middle-weight at 175 lbs. I would look like a concentration camp internee at 139 lbs, I think.
  • stepped_in_it
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    @Dan_Tien So true. My max BMI weight should be 155 lbs! I was once that weight (after a divorce and "running around trying to "find" myself). I was told I looked like an Ethiopian refuge. Now at 175 lbs, I feel (and look) so much better!
  • Pragmatist
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    @Dan_Tien I agree that BMI is a really rough estimate measure. However, I think you doctor should have said 139 lbs the lowest possible weight you can be without being classified as "underweight" since the BMI range is 18.5-24.9. I agree that athletes who weight train can easily exceed 24.9, but those people typically know who they are. I think a better test would to have a child be regular requires to complete a mile in under 15 mins or something like that.

    As much I enjoy physical exercise... I think the major problem for overweight children is not just exercise... but proper diet and portion control - which often their parents don't understand themselves (or are too busy to pay attention to).
  • Pragmatist
    !
    @Pragmatist Should have said that at 6'1" and 18.5 (the lowest BMI considered healthy) your weight would be 140 lbs. At 25 BMI, you weight would be 190 lbs, which I think is a reasonable range for anyone who isn't doing weight training.

  • View all 8 replies >

  • mudpike
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    Oh no , it's the leftie socialist plan for mo money . No such thing as bullying or embarrassment from them . It's what 'Aunt Esther' wants to do as 1st lady , so it's OK.
    Have you ever seen the size of those Wal-Mart whales riding around in those motorized fat carts & buying $800 dollars worth of food & junk paid for by Welfare ?? Pay with an Access card , fancy hair-dos & nails - then get out of the wal-mart limo & wheel their food out & put it into a $60,000 dollar Escalade with $4,000 dollar wheels ? Since the taxpayers pay their bills - start with them & get off our asses. Make sense ?
  • PNWest
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    Right now conservatives across the country are on the run. It should be the dawn of a beautiful new liberal day. Then you get some politically correct stuck up a$$holes pulling a stupid stunt like this. We don't need these do-gooders sending out these kinds of stupid letters to parents regardless of how fat their little lardass is. This is the kind of crap that gives liberals a bad name. This makes me so mad I'm going down to the 7/11 and getting a 52oz. Big Gulp to drown my sorrows.
  • stepped_in_it
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    What I find amazing is that stupidity knows no party. Assuming that either Conservatives or liberals are smarter is similar to assuming that everybody learns from their mistakes. I say the deeper one gets into the political machine, the more brain cells wither and die.
  • miketost
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    So the government in this case( the school administration ) can insult and in a way and bully a child that does not fit their profile is an insult.Spend a little more time educating should be their goal responsible productive Americans come in all sizes skinny fat short and tall.What next color?
  • stepped_in_it
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    I call waste, as in a waste of time and paper! IMO, an obese child generally has an obese parent! I know I will here it from you parents, but, obesity is learned from YOU, the parent. Not being encouraged to exercise (shut off that Playstation and go out and play) comes from YOU, the parent. Having (and not controlling) unhealthy snacks in the home comes from YOU, the parent. Unhappiness (a possibility cause for over eating) comes from YOU, the parent. Responsibility for acknowledgment of obesity should never come from a school, but, from YOU, the parent.
    This letter most likely be thrown in the trash OR eaten by the parent....at least those will be empty calories!
  • jessejaymes
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    Those hogs in the grocery store line with the basket full of chips and colas and ice cream and 50 billion more calories have kids throwing fits for candy at checkout. And get them. Those kids are porkers too. Every time. Fat breeds fat. So I'm not surprised the parents are outraged.
  • jessejaymes
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    @stepped_in_it This nation is the fattest nation one earth. We don't even begin to dominate in sports like we used to do, we don't play sports beyond video games and we don't (on average) walk a consecutive quarter mile in an entire week. That should tell you something. I'm sick of fat people whining. THEY'RE KILLING THEIR CHILDREN.
  • stepped_in_it
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    @jessejaymes Average Life Expectancy for Obese People =(white people) 13 yrs for men and 8 for women.(black) men was 20 yrs and five for women. AND, this is just early death, not QUALITY OF LIFE years lost. Also doesn't include the cost of diseases related to obesity....include certain forms of cancer--including breast, colon and prostate--heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis and depression.
    So, you parents keep complaining.....it is the American way (but, please chew and shallow your food before opening your mouth.....that's disgusting talking with your mouth full)

    http://www.ehow.com/about_5470667_average-lif...
  • Smallz87
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    By a parent rearing a heavy child, they are punishing said kid to struggle with obesity for the rest of his or her life. It makes me sick to see people eating like hogs and feeding their kids like little piggies. With all the information we have about eating healthy and the benefit of working out, there is no excuse for pushing an unhealthy lifestyle onto our children. It makes me both sick and sad that obesity is such an epidemic here in 'murica.

  • View all 6 replies >

  • AntiPorcheria
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    "Michelle Obamas comments last week about the First Daughters’ Body Mass Index are becoming somewhat of a weighty issue, with eating disorder specialists and nutritionists holding forth on what constitutes the best way to get the message of good nutrition to kids."

    http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/michell...

    It starts at the top and trickles down.
    Parents, shame your kids into an eating disorder.
    It's fun to watch them cry and it saves money.
  • DARSB
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    If your kid is at the 95th percentile and you don't have your pediatrician do an evaluation then you might be a negligent parent. And if your BMI is over 30, see your doc, too.
  • jessejaymes
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    This isn't about anything more than fat kids generally have fat parents and the fat parents know they themselves would have to make an effort to help their kid no become even more obese so they cry and howl about "parental rights" and ":shaming". Some parental obligations need to be observed and the shame is on the parents more often than not. Of course they're going to howl. I'm just surprised most of them aren't oinking.
  • DARSB
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    @jessejaymes "I'm just surprised most of them aren't oinking." And now I have to go to the liberal gym to work off the liberal calories I just added to my flabby commie pinko soul from finding this hilarious! Thanks, now I have to go listen to an hour of Glenn Beck's Greatest Hits.
  • u
    Realthinker
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    @g4me Quite a few, including some close family members who absolutely feed their egos by butting into the business of others in order to feel superior. To be very specific, liberalism is immaturity, cloaked with the pretense of moral and intellectual superiority.
  • o
    g4me
    !
    @Realthinker Family doesnt count, silly. Didnt anyone tell you that? I have conservative family members that are total azzhats on the subject of politics, but I dont judge all conservatives by their opinions. I dont think you know any liberals outside your family.
  • u
    Realthinker
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    @g4me I said including family. I also reject the notion that family doesn't count. Liberals are liberals, whether they are co-workers, neighbors, family or classmates.

  • View all 19 replies >

  • Devon_Brooke
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    I haven't been my "ideal" weight since the seventh grade! I was so tiny you could see my ribcage! A letter like that came home from my daughters school and she's bulimic!
  • jessejaymes
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    When is the last time you heard a parent say "I'm a bad parent. My kid gets no parenting at all"? It doesn't happen. Child hood obesity results in people living 20 years or more less than they would had they not been obese as children and it tends to follow the person in their future kids. So you people worry about your personal parental rights (which obviously few are practicing to any serious degree) and you worry about your kids "feelings". I'll worry about their lives. i support this measure.
  • Zazziness
    !
    A much better solution is wellness education starting early in school and continuing through to graduation. Then not only will the kids understand how eating right and exercise can make them more fit, it's very possible they'll bring the information home and share it with parents who may not be as aware.
  • jessejaymes
    !
    You're advocating an end run around parents and the nanny state once again. Why shouldn't parents be responsible for their children. Jesus H Christ on a Harley isn't it enough we have to pay for their education until the day we die and feed them and give them subsidized housing and free medical? NOW we have to sneak around and force a 'wellness' program on them along with the 'gays are great' and the political correctness classes? At what point are you willing to agree that the purpose of school should put a priority on READING AND WRITING?
  • jessejaymes
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    @Zazziness Waste of money if the parents refuse to support it and clearly according to this article and what we see every day in our society they will not support anti obesity. You don't.
  • Zazziness
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    @jessejaymes On the contrary, parents would also benefit from their children's wellness education. Many the parent has stopped smoking because their kids nagged them into it after they found out in school how unhealthy the habit is. It is the same with healthy eating and exercise. You were crabbing about "no one plays sports" so you want kids to have access to PE classes, don't you? That's one of the places wellness is taught.
    I know you hate obese people so much your solution is to cut them off from medical care so they die. You'll have to forgive society if they embrace less bloodthirsty solutions instead.
  • jessejaymes
    !
    @Zazziness Never once have I suggested cutting fat people off from medical care. I do support charging the obese more unless they agree to enter a program to lose.. Motivation to lose. PE classes were mandatory in my school days. They are not today. But you cannot simply mandate clasess in schools and do an end run around parents. This article outlines a program that allows for parents to become involved and look at their reaction? You mandate without their participation and it gets worse. The solution is to call it what it is. An epidemic and either you get in a program or you pay double what everyone else pays for everything obesity related.

  • View all 8 replies >

  • ST_Louie_Sue
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    Oh boy. Then it's ok for a parent to write letters about gay teachers they don't want teaching their kids, atheist teachers, fat teachers, biased teachers, etc. and any other thing a parent could object to.
  • Zazziness
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    ? No, but maybe they should write letters home with the scoop on what the sentence "You are comparing apples to oranges" means.
  • u
    woodway
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    Mrs.Obama is such a racist why did she not pick a cause close to her own family's roots? Unwed mothers having children by multiple men. I surely think that does more to harm a childs potential than a few Little Debbies.
  • o
    g4me
    !
    Since when is promoting healthy eating "racist"? I find your post rather racist, but hey, its your Constitutional right to spew nonsense on the internet, isnt it?
  • u
    woodway
    !
    They're not promoting healthy eating. They're singling out kids because Mrs.Obama has made this her cause. Do you think sending home a letter will do any good? It won't. If the schools feel it is their business have them give classes,hire dieticians and personal trainers. We have so many children who mainly get meals at school. I think that's a much bigger problem than the ones that may get a little extra to eat.
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