Recent news by the American Academy of Pediatrics seemed to perfectly tee up September as National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month. The AAP recommendation advocates the use of BMI report cards to notify parents if their child is overweight or obese.
Referred to by some news outlets as “fitness grams” and by others as the less-friendly-sounding “fat letters,” the recommendation has stirred up controversy.
But in a month that is dedicated to raising awareness around the childhood obesity crisis in the United States, perhaps a little controversy isn’t such a bad thing if it gets people talking about what’s contributing to the current health of our nation’s youth.
You can read the recommendation by the American Academy of Pediatrics here. We like the recent post on the topic published on the Thriving Schools blog.
If you are looking for ways to recognize and promote Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, Healthfinder.gov has a host of resources. The website features health guides, personal health tools, and links to helpful resources offered by the CDC, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Let’s Move!, the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition, and others. For even more information, check out the Weight of the Nation for Kids documentaries, and get your own quick-start guide to move from screening to action on Community Commons.
The Center for Total Health has a touchscreen exhibit on healthy schools – in it, many people share their opinions, ideas and success stories around ending childhood obesity and building healthier behaviors for children as well as the adults who teach them. You can see it in person — schedule a visit to the Center for Total Health here.
