Well some parents would literally have to force feed their children healthy foods and keep them locked up 24/7 to keep them away from junk food or too much food. And THAT would be child abuse.

Are some parents greatly responsible for their children's obesity? Yes.

Are all parents? Absolutely not.

It is a shame though, that our society and of course this is a great generalization, doesn't take obesity more seriously. It should be approached as a preventive, NOT an after the fact. Everybody needs to get on board though. The schools, the parents, and yes the government. There should be warning signs on restaurants and menus and processed foods, just like cigarettes - proceed with caution.. this can be detrimental to your health.

Commercials and magazines glorifying huge portions and unhealthy foods should be banned.

This, 1000 times this.

I think everyone here knows my oldest daughter is obese, so I'm not really objective on this topic.

My dd's "skinny" friends have a horrible diet, processed microwave food, unpronouncable ingredients, huge quantities. I bet nobody is sending home letters to those parents.

There is more involved in being healthy than BMI.

Healthy food for kids is so important, whether at home or at school.

For some kids, the only food they get is at school.

Other kids have parents who would never let their kids buy school food and pack healthy lunches every day.

Both sets of parents are probably doing the very best they can with the resources they have.

Are schools doing the best they can within their own budgetary restrictions? Some probably are. I know my school district is talking about shutting down classrooms next year to save money. How does nutrition rank compared to open classrooms?

Until our kids are a priority in society, until the schools are well-funded to provide warm classrooms (there are classrooms in my state that are NOT heated right now), low student-teacher ratios, working equipment, salaries for art and music and PE teachers, and whole, healthy foods in the cafeterias, our kids are going to continue to have barriers to health and learning.

What kinds of decisions are your elected government leaders making?

My son goes to an elementary school in a poor area in town. (My MIL teaches there and it is a wonderful school). There are kids without jackets, kids without breakfast, kids without school supplies. Many kids in our country live in poverty.

There are several comments on here that schools who send notes should also offer solutions. There is at least one comment that the government should stay out of it and let it be a family issue.

From a public health perspective, should a school (nurse hopefully, but since they are underfunded, the BMI might be computed by a health aid) identify a problem it is unable to address? Is obesity on the same level as a vision problem or a dental problem or a speech problem?

"Obese" is a clinical term, not a judgement or an insult or a hint that a girl is not beautiful.

Anyway, lots of ramblings from me and not many solutions.

THere is a neat program at my kid's school where a nutrition educator comes into the classroom once a month. She initiates some exercise with the kids and teaches them about food. Sometimes they have "tastings" where they try different varieties of, say, cheese or tomatoes. Sometimes they cook whole meals that reflect cultures from around the world. The made a tomato sauce once, that they had with whole grain pasta and a salad. They've made black bean tamales. They send home workbooks/recipes books so the kids can share them with their families. Kids who know HOW to cook will already be ahead of the game. How many posters here on 3FC start to learn to cook so they can address their weight issues?

I read an article this morning that states that 15% of families in my state rely on food banks.

Is it fair to identify a problem without being able to offer a solution? Is the solution the responsibility of the family? The school? The public who votes for people who decide how much money goes to schools? Do we address obesity as a public health problem or is it an individual's own personal business and the individual or parent should be the one to address it?

Maybe a parent will get that letter and think, Ok, let's walk every night after dinner.
Maybe the neighborhood is safe. Maybe the kids have jackets. Maybe not.

When San Francisco tried to ban toys in fast food meals, I read a thread (not on 3FC) that mocked the idea of "food justice." I think the ideas of "food justice" and "health justice" and "learning justice" are very real and very intertwined.

So I'd say it's important to support ideas that work (like the nutrition educator at my kid's school), advocate for funding for schools, and try to address the issues of poverty and justice that are rampant in our societies.

Haha. Piece of cake!

I didn't read all the replies yet (about half) and I homeschool, so this is a non issue for me. But.. my opinion... I think the schools are messing up by sending home 'fatso letters' (as I've heard them dubbed). We know that most kiddos growing up with weight problems also suffer from real self esteem issues. I do NOT think these letters are helping them any. In fact by singling them out to get a 'fatso letter' can make things MUCH MUCH worse. Not all schools are handling this respectfully either. My neice brought one home from school (as opposed to it being mailed), and it was handed to her IN CLASS. Everyone knew what they were.

I agree with some of the PP I did read (and I'm going back to read them all). If schools TRULY care about the health issues prevalent in our children today, then they will change THEIR part in it. Healthy menus, no snack and soda machines, etc.

You know the goverrnment could get involved on another level and ban advertisements of unhealthy processed foods that are loaded with fats and sugar from children's or family time television shows. Someone should do something about "super size" menu items where one meal is more than a whole days fat and calories.
Unfortunately school systems, state and federal programs have spent a ton of money to educate kids in "just say no clubs" to discourage drugs and alcohol use. While they have been around long enough now that the results are in for the past twenty years or so they show they don't work. As many young people have alcohol and drug problems now as they did in 1990.
I'm terribly worried about the explosion in weight problems in children and adults. I wish someone could figure out a solution. There are so many causes.
Has anyone thought that perhaps a letter from the school saying a child is obese may result in negative behavior from defensive angry parents towards the child. Parents don't need logical reasons to be abusive. My normal weight mother of 1 fat kid (me) and 4 skinny kids used to torment me about my weight because I think it embarrassed her. I look at pictures of me now and I may have been heavier than my sibs but I was nowhere near obese. Yet I felt like a fat kid and always identified with being fat. I look at those pictures from grade school and I think why did I feel so fat? Maybe because I was treated like I was fat.

I would still feel the same way. I do not feed processed foods to my children for that reason. I also do not own a microwave, gave it up 5 years ago.

The little boy is constantly eating twinkies and drinking pop.These are also the same neighbors that thought it was odd that my daughter didn't know what a twinkie was. Then proceeded to tell me I am too strict when I asked them, kindly, to not give anything like that to my kids again.

I am happy that my own daughters eat healthy. If given a choice my 5 year old will choose a bottle of water over a can of pop. One because I talk about nutrition with her and two because I don't buy junk to begin with.

I understand some children have other underlying factors besides nutrition causing weight gain but the majority is caused from what they eat. The parents are buying the groceries so they are at fault.

But that is my point. If the kids are skinny, you (not you, the population as a whole) assume that they aren't eating junk or too much of it. If they are obese, the assumption is they are eating junk. Again I have my experience is mine but I too never had soda. Only time I had soda was sometimes when we ate out (very rare) or when I went to college, I drank soda and even then it was rare I drank a non-diet soda. I weighed 300 lbs when I went to college. So even eating a healthy diet with minimal junk didn't save me from obesity.