As I was growing up we just the old charts for measuring height and weight. Under the old system adjustments were made for bone structure. We fell into three categories which meant that allowances were made for women with big bones. However, by the 21st century a new system called the Body Mass Index is being used exclusively to measure who is to be considered obese. Ever since its introduction I have thought of this measurement as being nothing more than junk science. On top of that I believe that it is detrimental to the health of children and to families in general that their children are being measured using BMI and that they are being told that the children are obese when it is clearly not the case.
Stories coming out of the U.K. about the interference of the NHS in family life and of the incompetence of the NHS have been mulitplying. The latest story to catch my eye is that of a girly by the name of Libby. She is a fit and healthy girl who is very active but the NHS have sent home a letter to her parents claiming that the child is borderline obese. The Mail Online has the story about Libby which you can read here. Please keep in mind that this is a 7 year old who has probably not even begun her real growth spurt!! The picture shows a little girl who looks healthy, without the ghastly all-bones look that seems to make people using the BMI happy.
She is a budding gymnast and table tennis player who often comes home with bruises on her knees after rough-and-tumble games with her friends.
So Libbie Boardman’s parents were shocked to be told that their active, healthy seven-year-old had been classified as ‘borderline obese’.
She and her classmates had their height and weight measured by NHS staff to calculate their body mass index as part of a scheme aimed at cracking down on childhood obesity.
But several parents have reacted with outrage at the results, saying they are clearly misleading – and could result in their children developing eating disorders.
Libbie’s father, Paul Boardman, said: ‘I do not know how they can be saying that she is overweight.
‘You just have to look at her to think, “Where the heck have they got that from?”’
For adults, BMI is measured by dividing weight in kilograms by height in metres squared.
The calculation for children begins the same way, but the result is then compared with those of others
Looking at how they calculate the table for children, it really does seem to be flawed. The reality is that no one human being is the same as another human being. This is particularly true of children. We come in different sizes, especially height wise. A child can be tall for his or her age, or can be short for his or her age, that would mean that comparison with other children has the potential of giving a false reading because it does not take into account a child’s height or bone structure. A child with bigger bones but who is short is going to weigh more than an average height child or a taller child.
Under the old system for measuring weight, one had lots of latitude which took into account things like bone structure. This was definitely a far better way of determining whether or not a person was bordering on being obese.
The real problem in the UK (and I am not sure if it is happening elsewhere) is that the authorities are removing children from their families because the parents are being told that they are “bad” because the child is being measured as “obese” as a result of using this flawed BMI scale. This is extremely bad for the children concerned. To be taken away from the family on such a pretext is reprehensible. The government has no right to be interfering in families in this manner.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the BMI as a measurement for obesity is in fact extremely flawed. It produces angst among families, and it has the potential to turn children into anorexics. As such the BMI should be dropped and we should return to using the old measurement standards because these were far more accurate in determining what should be correct weight for height and age.
Posted by Aussie 
Aussie
