Schools need bigger furnitire--so that they can accommodate obese students

[CMdeux]

Obese children outgrowing school furniture.


I'm so appalled by this that I'm virtually speechless.  Firstly, how can schools possibly not see the obvious-- that the longer they keep chucking cupcakes and candy at kids, THE FATTER THEIR STUDENTS ARE GETTING??


Secondly, why is it that

Being set apart from peers by sitting in a different chair means "their peers recognize them as large, different," said Dr. Phil Wu, a pediatrician who leads Kaiser Permanente's pediatric obesity prevention and treatment effort.

"At all ages, kids don't want to feel different," Wu said. "They get ostracized by the peers in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. It's more of that social psychological impact that's insidious in a way that's more profound than what the child might experience than sitting in a standard seat."

It's not okay for a kid whose own CHOICES (mostly) have placed them in that position to feel "unhappy" and "excluded" by peers...
No, that would be WRONG, since it would by pschologically harmful to do that to a child...


but it's just fine and dandy for food allergic children (whose own behavior DOES NOT lead to their circumstances) to be systematically excluded and ridiculed by activities which are mostly not even educationally relevant to START with??!!?

WOW.  Irony, much? I mean, this is freaking surreal. The amount of cognitive dissonance needed to do this particular sleight-of-hand on the part of educators is truly... mind-boggling in scope.

Maybe if you are morbidly obese... you should feel a bit motivated to do something to change that, yes?  That's not the same thing as being hobbled by rhuematoid arthritis, struggling with a learning disability, or being legally blind.

If schools were routinely contributing to any of those latter three conditions, there would be a tremendous public outcry DEMANDING that it cease.   Obesity?  Not so much, apparently.     Apparently kids should just "say no" to cupcakes if they are already eating too much and moving too little.  Heaven forbid that Mrs. Feelgood, the junk-food pusher masquerading as an over-the-top class mom or teacher, should be told "stop it" for ANY reason...  or that instead of food, we encouraged physical activity in kids as a reward.   

I just have to wonder where the disconnect is for educators in this country.  It's disgusting on so many levels that it's hard to even articulate.   

[YouKnowWho]

Haven't you heard?  Food in schools does not make kids fat, duh.

[CMdeux]

I might buy into those studies a lot better if the WHOLE school environment were looked at systematically.

Because I don't think that the ultimate problem is that kids are buying doritos from vending machines rather than eating apples during lunchtime.

-- and that is what those studies all seem to focus on.  Either that or a lack of PE and recess; now, agreed, this is a problem, but the fact remains that most people simply can't EXERCISE their to a healthy weight while routinely scarfing down 700-1200 extra calories daily in empty calories.

GGA, there is an elephant in the room, and they keep looking for mice in corners or making statements about "structural flaws" in the subflooring.... 

How many extra calories are getting shoveled at kids in the AVERAGE classroom during an AVERAGE month...  that parents don't even know about, that researchers aren't learning about because they don't get officially tallied ANYWHERE??   How many calories in all that "reward" candy?  How many from "math activities?"  How many from birthday cupcakes and class parties??


And ultimately, why on EARTH is it okay for schools to systematically be teaching kids UNHEALTHY ways of relating to food??  This is nuts.

[Carefulmom]

Obese children outgrowing school furniture.


I'm so appalled by this that I'm virtually speechless.  Firstly, how can schools possibly not see the obvious-- that the longer they keep chucking cupcakes and candy at kids, THE FATTER THEIR STUDENTS ARE GETTING??


Secondly, why is it that

Being set apart from peers by sitting in a different chair means "their peers recognize them as large, different," said Dr. Phil Wu, a pediatrician who leads Kaiser Permanente's pediatric obesity prevention and treatment effort.

"At all ages, kids don't want to feel different," Wu said. "They get ostracized by the peers in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. It's more of that social psychological impact that's insidious in a way that's more profound than what the child might experience than sitting in a standard seat."

It's not okay for a kid whose own CHOICES (mostly) have placed them in that position to feel "unhappy" and "excluded" by peers...
No, that would be WRONG, since it would by pschologically harmful to do that to a child...


but it's just fine and dandy for food allergic children (whose own behavior DOES NOT lead to their circumstances) to be systematically excluded and ridiculed by activities which are mostly not even educationally relevant to START with??!!?

WOW.  Irony, much? I mean, this is freaking surreal. The amount of cognitive dissonance needed to do this particular sleight-of-hand on the part of educators is truly... mind-boggling in scope.

Maybe if you are morbidly obese... you should feel a bit motivated to do something to change that, yes?  That's not the same thing as being hobbled by rhuematoid arthritis, struggling with a learning disability, or being legally blind.

If schools were routinely contributing to any of those latter three conditions, there would be a tremendous public outcry DEMANDING that it cease.   Obesity?  Not so much, apparently.     Apparently kids should just "say no" to cupcakes if they are already eating too much and moving too little.  Heaven forbid that Mrs. Feelgood, the junk-food pusher masquerading as an over-the-top class mom or teacher, should be told "stop it" for ANY reason...  or that instead of food, we encouraged physical activity in kids as a reward.   

I just have to wonder where the disconnect is for educators in this country.  It's disgusting on so many levels that it's hard to even articulate.   

I googled him and he is at a Kaiser in Oregon.  Maybe you should email him and point out the double standard he is encouraging.  You make some really good points.
http://www.healthgrades.com/physician/dr-philip-wu-39kmx

[CMdeux]

I would, but I actually agree with his statement.  It is wrong to make children feel self-conscious or alienated in an educational setting.



My beef is with the broader system.  It's an entire industry that doesn't seem to see the forest for the trees.   

[CMdeux]

Why is it so hard for kids to lose weight?

Her efforts are working. At a time when approximately one-third of American children are overweight or obese, McDonald's kids are at healthy weights.

So why is every day still a struggle for the blogger and mother of five?

"I have had to deal with teachers who hand out Skittles, candy bars, lollipops and giant frosted sugar cookies to the children in class ... before 10 a.m.," McDonald says. "I think this is setting kids up for failure and un-teaching the healthy habits I have instilled."

The fact that doughnuts and cupcakes are given out as a reward after soccer practice or dance class is a paradoxical hurdle in the fight against childhood obesity. As doctors and parents struggle to encourage healthy behaviors, our sugar-filled, sedentary surroundings resist every step.

Think about it, says Dr. Stephen Daniels, chief pediatrician at Children's Hospital Colorado. Every day kids are exposed to advertising about fast food instead of home-cooked meals. They're surrounded by vending and soda machines at school. They have hundreds of channels on TV, own three video game systems and live in neighborhoods that were built without sidewalks.

Good.  FINALLY someone besides parents of diabetic and FA kids is starting to notice just how horrifying these practices are.  Notice that the physician (typically) misses the boat, though?  He still thinks that it's about WHAT kids are eating... and their activity levels...  not that adults in their lives are constantly SHOVELING junk food at them.   Someone should tell him to listen to parents like Mrs. McDonald, since she obviously sees into a relative blind spot for him.  No amount of sidewalk installation is going to make up for candybars and sugar cookies being incessantly used as operant conditioning tools.   

[Mfamom]

the title made me laugh...I couldn't see the whole thing until I opened the thread.  My poor kid (not obese) has been too big for school furniture since about 4th grade.  In 5th, he was 5'7" and seriously couldn't use a regular desk. 
Middle school furniture small too!

I hear you though.  I always crack up at the attempts at Wellness Education, but everytime you turn around, theres a food fest in the classroom or a bake sale going on in MS etc. 

[Janelle205]

On the other end of the spectrum...I was still swinging my feet as a senior in high school.  Couldn't touch the floor.


One of my larger classmates got stuck in a desk in middle school.  I felt so badly for him.

[lakeswimr]

I think you make a good point that it is funny that people are worried that larger children will feel singled out but the same people might be sending in cupcakes to classrooms with FA kids.  I don't agree with you about your opinion on obesity in anyway.  If it were that simple to not be overweight or obese everyone would be thin.  No one wants to be overweight (or very few do, anyway).  It isn't simple to lose weight even for adults, never mind children.  My son has struggled with being too thin but my good friend's child is overweight.  She tries her best, I can attest.  It would not be easy for anyone to help that particular child to lose weight.  It is certainly not a simple thing in any case.   I don't ever seem to lose those 10 lbs I would like to lose (shrug) unless I have huge stress in my life.  Not easy for me.

[CMdeux]

Actually, I'm definitely not harboring holier-than-thou feelings about kids and/or obesity.  My best friend was a "fat" kid, and I'm currently well over 50lbs over my ideal weight.  She struggled mightily with her weight all through junior high and high school, never managing to be thinner than about a BMI of 28-29 no matter WHAT she did... and it wasn't for lack of physical activity on her part or mine, I assure you-- we probably got 70+ minutes of aerobic activity daily.  The difference that strikes me, looking back on things, was that at my house, we had "meals" and there was little snacking outside of them.  Food just wasn't used that way.  At her house, it was constant 'nibbling' and no real meals, and binge eating was given tacit approval as a way to comfort or celebrate.  My DH's home was similar, btw.  No coincidence that both of them struggled with excess weight much earlier than I did, I think.  Now, she tried desperately to "eat right" but it isn't easy when food is constantly there as a temptation and the environment promotes deeply DISORDERED eating.  Oh, sure, it would be fine if people ONLY ate because of "hunger."  But they don't.  I'm not convinced that we're programmed that way as a species, honestly.  Food is about social activities and acceptance and comfort, and I think that may all be pretty hard-wired on some level.  Even breastfed children will feed for comfort rather than hunger. 

My DH and I both have genetics that mean that we ALWAYS struggle to keep our weight under control as adults.  Not "ideal"--  under control.  It's hard, hard work.  For me, that is related to physical activity, which I dislike.  For him?  It's disordered eating.    Weight management that needs hard work is almost certainly going to be DD's eventual reality, too, as thin as she is NOW (and she is).  I feel absolutely ill for kids that are already fighting like that when they are not even teenagers, because by the time they are my age?    Holy cow, the effort and time needed is going to be unimaginable-- it gets harder as you get older, frankly.

I just think it's phenomenal that educators REFUSE to see the connection between a food SATURATED environment that encourages kids to eat continuously and to BINGE on high-sugar, high-fat treats regularly, and a greater and greater percentage of kids who are actually obese.    It's as though they are being willfully ignorant of reality itself, on some level.

[maeve]

It's as though they are being willfully ignorant of reality itself, on some level.

I'd have to say that you hit the nail on the head.  These are the same administrators who are ignorant of the risks of food in the classroom to FA kids and ignorant to the impact that repeated exclusion has on these students.  I've always been astounded that it has never seemed to dawn on teachers and administrators the serious negative impact to the trust an FA student has with a teacher when the teacher chooses to support food in the classroom and how this impacts learning (would you want to go the extra mile for someone who is not entirely supportive of you?).

[kouturekat]

What I find a joke is the "Wellness" policy.   The foods on the approved school lists (which feel by the wayside about 2 years after it was implemented) are somewhat questionable.  Many of the foods are high in sugar, some high in fat.  High in junk carbs too.  So much for wellness.  A policy created by some subgroup of people that probably don't really have a clue about nutrition.  Or maybe the nurses gave input and were shot down.  That happens. 

A child at 300 lbs?  This is morbidly obese.  That was at age 14 or 15, right?  Unless there is an underlying medical condition, is this not neglect?  What is the opposite--starvation?  Two extremes, but really.  These kids need larger desks?  How about an after-school program for "at-risk" youth.  They are indeed at risk for HBP, diabetes, among other things.   Kids, and their parents, could use intensive training on nutrition, portion sizes, and proper food ratios.  Like that is ever going to happen.  Wishful thinking.  It's going to be very hard on these kids as they enter adulthood.  I wish there was a magic bullet, but there isn't one.  It going to be a hard life for these kids in the long run.  A larger desk is the least of their problems.

I look at parents bringing in cupcakes, cookies, and junk.  Then the teachers who encourage the junk.  Many are not the picture of health and normal weight.  It's really a shame that, for some kids, their parents and teachers set terrible examples.  So unfortunate.

[ajasfolks2]

It's as though they are being willfully ignorant of reality itself, on some level.

I'd have to say that you hit the nail on the head.  These are the same administrators who are ignorant of the risks of food in the classroom to FA kids and ignorant to the impact that repeated exclusion has on these students.  I've always been astounded that it has never seemed to dawn on teachers and administrators the serious negative impact to the trust an FA student has with a teacher when the teacher chooses to support food in the classroom and how this impacts learning (would you want to go the extra mile for someone who is not entirely supportive of you?).

Needing Halleluja chorus right now!!   

[CMdeux]

This is really powerful.  My only complaint is that I don't think it includes a sufficien number of birthday cupcakes in classrooms.  But I do like that the 'treat for good work' was featured. 


Stop the Cycle

[maeve]

That is powerful.  I am glad that they did include a teacher handing out candy as a reward.