Many new parents are obsessed with tracking and measuring their child to make sure they are meeting all the milestones at the right time, but as all parents quickly find out, babies and kids develop and grow at vastly different rates.
While the average four-year-old weighs about 4o pounds and stands at about 40 inches tall, 38-year-old mother-of-two Kim wasn’t concerned that her 4-year-old daughter, who turns five in a month, was a few pounds heavier since she has a well-balanced diet full of fruits and vegetables and is very active.
Gracie James-Coggins loves to swim, take gymnastics classes each week, and play outside on her trampoline almost every day, however, after being weighed at preschool one day, the council sent home a letter explaining that at 48 pounds she was obese and at risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and ‘low self-esteem’ because of her weight.
Kim was understandably furious at the school since her little girl is just four-years-old and is perfectly healthy. “Anyone looking at her can see she is a healthy young girl,” Kim said. “As a mum you always try to do your best to make sure your child is healthy, so to be told this is very upsetting. She plays on her big trampoline every day and is constantly running, skipping and cartwheeling and doesn’t get out of breath. On Saturday she completed a two-mile route doing Race for Life.”
“I feel this really needs to be stopped – labelling children as obese because an out-dated chart says that they shouldn’t be that weight. Me and her dad are quite tall, so to compare Gracie to a child who might have shorter parents and be a smaller build just seems ridiculous.”
“I’ve always battled with my weight so I was really conscious with Gracie that I didn’t want her to go through the same thing I have,” said Kim, who has chosen not to tell her little girl about the letter because she knows how damaging this title can be on a young girl’s self-esteem.
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Mom Is Furious At School For Fat-Shaming Her Healthy 4-Year-Old is an article from: LifeDaily