I NOTE your report on a call for the routine weighing of primary school children (“Fat checking pupils will help tackle obesity, insists charity”, The Herald, December 6). When I first started work in the School Health Service more than 30 years ago that is exactly what myself and school nurses did.
We saw all children in Primary 1 and again in Primary 7 to pick up problems on entry and exit so that parents, staff and GPs could be advised of any concerns or special needs/chronic health conditions that might need support or treatment/monitoring.
Those with a growth or weight problem were followed up and dieticians even advised parents and school catering staff so that suitable meals were ordered.
Much of the work done was of benefit, but was rubbished in the reports produced by the likes of Professor Sir David Hall, formerly president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, and others who advised the reduction of these checks on the grounds there was no evidence base. Health boards eagerly followed the advice, no doubt seeing reduced staffing and costs with glee.
It is sad to think how much potential medical data has been lost over the intervening years. Maybe the likes of the National Obesity Forum would have reacted a lot sooner instead of now considering "wielding a big stick".
There is a saying that “if you stay around long enough what goes around comes around", but of course all the bright young things think they have had a light bulb moment. Meantime there is no acknowledgement of child health policies and health care being partly to blame.
Dr Betty Wilson (retired paediatrician),
10 Ellergreen Road,
Bearsden.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here