BMI registry for MI kids

[Simon Bar Sinister]

read about it here:

http://www.thonline.com/news/national_world/article_94e62fc0-de92-11e0-8151-001a4bcf6878.html

[taysteewonderbunny]

read about it here:

http://www.thonline....1a4bcf6878.html

First, I'm highly relieved that it is anonymous. Yet, I'm concerned that physicians are asked to do this without first obtaining parental consent. I understand where that may be necessary in the case of immunizations, but obesity is not contagious.

Lastly, I'm worried that BMI might not be the best index for measuring a child's health/weight. I know I've met some kids whose physical structure would completely buck traditional measurements. At four years old, this one child I babysat was sixty pounds--of pure muscle! He was a highly active and very muscularly developed kid who would have likely been reported as "fat." I mean, BMI can be a misleading measure of ADULTS' fat percentages and ideal weights.

If our concern is, also, preventing unhealthy preoccupations with body image, this approach might backfire. I'm thinking it might be helpful in the more extreme cases, but that in most, a concentration in increasing education and awareness in whole families in regards to activity levels and diet choices is probably still best.

[torn asunder]

BMI is a completely motherfucking worthless piece of shit scale and should be thrown out. there are so many ways to approximate BF%, which is really the thing we should all be concerned with.

[taysteewonderbunny]

BMI is a completely motherfucking worthless piece of shit scale and should be thrown out. there are so many ways to approximate BF%, which is really the thing we should all be concerned with.

So you understand my concern! PJ wasn't a fat kid. He was a powerhouse, but BMI would have indicated that he needed to have his calories restricted. This would have been devastating to his healthy development. I don't know what's wrong with these people! Don't they understand that we are not all the same?

[torn asunder]

i've got buddies who are competitive bodybuilders, and their BMI classifies them as obese.

BMI is fucking stupid.

[Destroit]

Yeah, while the childhood obesity problem REALLY needs to be dealt with as it's seemingly spiraling more and more out of control as time goes on, but I'm not sure if this is effective (to our budget and the actual problem) or the best way to get it taken care of. And I agree, BMI is useful somewhat as a loose gauge to an individual (i.e. I know clearly, by feel, I'm not pure muscle so I wouldn't be in the "extreme bodybuilding" category), but to build a database from statistics measured using it is a wee-tad stupid.