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My daughter: five percentile points away from being overweight.
Years ago I wrote about what happened when Jake came home from school with a letter saying that he was obese. A few days ago I wrote about it again, because this nonsense is again making news in NYC.
And yesterday, my daughter came home from school with her BMI report.
My daughter, who is fit and lean and has far better eating habits than I ever will.
My daughter, who never stops moving.
My daughter, who for years told me she was fat.
She’s been out of that phase for a while now, but I’m always watching in case she slips into it again. There’s a history of eating disorders in our family (not from me, unless you call eating 20 Twizzlers in one sitting a disorder). I don’t want Fiona to go down that path.
Whenever she brings the topic up, I remind her that she’s the most active girl I know. I mean, she dances while she watches TV.
I remind her that she eats good food most of the time, doesn’t eat mindlessly, and always stops when she’s full (something I never learned how to do).
And I remind her that she’s still growing and needs lots of nourishment.
And then yesterday she brought home the letter from school, the one listing her BMI in the 80th percentile.
When she handed me the paper she frowned and said “This isn’t good news.”
Actually, it was all good news. She did great on all of the assessments (strength, endurance, etc.). And the letter said “You have a healthy weight.” But what she focused on was how close the little mark was to the “overweight’’ category.
The dreaded report
I tried to explain to her why this number didn’t mean anything. I have no idea if she eventually understood, or just said she did so that I would stop talking. But one thing is for certain: these BMI reports do more harm than good.
If the Department of Education is going to insist on sending them home – and I do think there is some good information in there, aside from BMI – then they should be mailed. They should not be put into students’ hands. I don’t need my ten year old daughter thinking that a mark on a piece of paper means she’s close to be overweight when she is anything but.