Uzma Mir: How we can teach our children to have a healthy attitude to their weight

A shiver ran down my spine when I read that the dreaded school scales will return to England. The results of the lockdown appear to have resulted in the children’s weight being turned up again. Online schools, less exercise, and easier access to snacks have made their weight a priority for some children over the past year and a half, and the government is keen to take action. But are cradles and the resulting effects on children and their parents really the most helpful way forward?

My own weighing in at P6 was certainly one of the most miserable experiences of my childhood and resulted in a lifelong struggle with food. My parents, who came from relatively poor backgrounds in Pakistan, saw plenty of food as a sign that they had made it into their new life in Scotland. So there was always delicious home cooking, rice, chapatis and every curry known to mankind.

In the style of “being integrated”, we have included desserts such as apple pie, vanilla pudding and chocolate snacks as delicacies alongside an abundance of fruit and vegetables. For nine glorious years, my mom and I had no idea that my cheeky chops, triple chin, and wobbly belly were anything other than “cute” and a sign that my parents were doing well for their four children.

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The day of the weigh-in has burned into my brain: the slow realization, as the weights were called out loud, that not only would I be heavier than the heaviest boy, but there was a clear and present danger that I could be heavier than him very slim teacher.

I wanted to scream that I was tallest in the class by a country mile and a descendant of the Kashmiri mountain people – all six feet tall and built like giant sequoias – but instead my seven and a half stones were plotted on a bar graph amid giggles and Sidelong glances in class – the shame was real, the stigma was real and a lifelong fear for my weight was born.

The arguments against weighing revolve around the very public nature of these weighings and yes, that could be deeply harmful. Children who start too early to think about their weight and body image and compare it to others may not be good for them psychologically.

But weighing has changed since 1975. You are no longer standing in front of the whole class and the shameful evidence is not drawn on a bar chart on the classroom wall for the longest three months of all time. Nowadays the data is collected privately and no child is identifiable when the data goes for analysis. The focus is on helping and advising parents.

However, some argue that even just focusing on children’s weight and the inevitable comparisons of children could cause some children to be adversely affected by the experience, leaving them and their parents feeling “fat ashamed” and embarrassed.

But the reality is that Scotland has some of the highest obesity rates in the OECD. Almost a quarter of P1 students in Scotland are at risk of being overweight or obese and are likely to remain obese into adulthood, resulting in health problems such as type 2 diabetes, asthma, cancer and poor mental health associated with well-being and self-esteem throughout their childhood brings years.

The cost to the NHS in Scotland is estimated at £ 363 million to £ 600 million. We need to overcome a little embarrassment if we are to have an honest conversation about how we can improve the health of these children.

My own “fat embarrassment” experience was that I was forced to talk to my mother about my weight and then she realized that there might be a problem. But at the end of the 1970s, doctors were not ready for this. Our friendly but stout GP weighed me and laughed out loud, which wasn’t exactly helpful.

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There are nutritionists, action plans, and other expert advice available these days for those in need of help. While it’s true to say that I’ve never managed to get the weight problem under control, have been yo-yo dieting up and down my entire life, and generally had a pretty dysfunctional relationship with my weight, it does definitely raised me when it came to my own children.

I learned from my parents’ mistakes. I didn’t feel the need to fill their plates with as much as possible to prove the food was plentiful – there was a bit of control over the portions from the start; I have made an effort not to use chocolate and other snacks as treats or treats, and never – as my mother did after the weight problem was revealed – did I lock such goodies away as if they were a scarce and valued resource.

I’ve taken on my mother’s habit of always cooking homemade food, even when I was exhausted after a long day at work. An event was and is a rare event. Finally, I made a pact with myself that, although I thought of little else, I would never comment on my weight or weight to them, which was very difficult for many other young mothers, including those who were not overweight.

Despite being descendants of giant Kashmiri hillmen, they didn’t have to fear the school weigh-ins, public or not, but as for their mother … the diet definitely starts next week.

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source https://dailyhealthynews.ca/uzma-mir-how-we-can-teach-our-children-to-have-a-healthy-attitude-to-their-weight/