A Florida mom of four is not happy with a letter one of them brought home from school recently regarding her weight and I'm with her 100 percent! In the letter from the county health department, Kristen Grasso was told that her 11-year-old daughter, Lily, is overweight. Problem is she's anything but overweight. At 5-foot-5-inches tall, she's definitely taller than most kids her age, but with a weight of 124 lbs., slender would be the way to describe her athletic daughter, according to Grasso.
Now the mom is worried about the kind of message letters like this one send to our already vulnerable daughters.
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As the childhood obesity problem has gotten bigger and bigger, health screenings at school have become more common. Some counties swear by these so-called "fat letters" saying they have made a huge difference in the battle against this epidemic.
While there's no denying that's a great thing, Grasso's point can not be ignored. Imagine what a letter like the one Lily got would do to a pre-teen girl who already suffers from low-self esteem and hates the way her body looks. Such a letter would only give her more ammunition to take an unhealthy route to lose the pounds that are supposedly making her overweight.
School officials have said parents have the option to opt out of the health screenings, but Grasso didn't because she thought they would only measure vision, hearing and development. She never imagined the screenings would include weight too.
Although my daughter's still too young to be worried about her weight and her looks, this story makes me realize that I need to be on the lookout for these future health screenings so that I can opt out and prevent any kind of potentinal problems. If my daughter has a weight issue, her pediatrician and I will work together to make the necessary changes.
Image via fox4now.com
