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 weight-watching in kindergarten 
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Last Wednesday during lunchtime I saw one of my kindergartners eating a weight-watchers yogurt for lunch. She said her mom made her pick out a flavor the night before. Pressure to be skinny is hitting people younger and younger. I could not believe that this five year old was already starting to try to lose weight. Is this something you address in the classroom? to the parents? At such a young age I don't know how you would teach about it except to talk about liking ourselves the way we are.

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Megan Wright


Tue Apr 28, 2009 12:53 am
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that makes me sad that the student was that young and already eating weight watchers. i would be hopeful that the mom bought the yogurt for herself and just let her child pick it out. i'm glad that the mom cares enough for her child to eat healthy and not giving her fruit roll-ups instead. some parents give their children whatever they want and creates a style of eating junk food all the time with sedentary activities.
since the student is so young i'm not sure of a good way to bring it up to her or her parents. maybe if you notice that her eating was like that everyday, where she never got enough to eat and she was noticeably thin for her age and size, you could call the parent to talk with them about the eating but otherwise i'm not sure you can say anything. since she was in kindergarten, you could teach healthy eating as part of the curriculum.
i guess it just goes to show our society's crazy attraction to unrealistic thin-ness that not everyone can achieve.

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amy butler


Tue Apr 28, 2009 1:10 pm
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It could be that this mother thinks the weight watchers brand is healthier or that this brand was on sale when they went shopping. It is sad that the pressure to watch your weight is hitting children at such a young age, but it's even more sad that the obesity rate of children is so high. I don't think students should be told to loose weight or that they are too big, however, I do think healthy eating habits should be taught. A lot of students eat a school lunch and fast food for dinner. Not many children are going to choose the apple option over getting the fries unless their parents make them. However, if they learn in school that maybe they should get apples one night or get a salad every couple of meals then the weight problem might begin to fix itself.

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Katelyn McMillan


Tue Apr 28, 2009 2:15 pm
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I think that if the child's health is in danger, then yes, they should lose weight. I wouldn't want my kid to be unhealthy just because I was worried that someone might think they are too young to lose weight...but its all about choices, and too many times parents let kids have excess candy, or whatever. But if they are having the child lose weight just to be skinny, then that is unhealthy, if not more so than being overweight. There has been a lot more attention to overweight children, and we're seeing a lot of changes to cafeteria foods, and probably will see a lot more as we begin teaching.

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Crystal Brooke Ritchie


Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:29 pm
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