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MPs’ calls for children’s Body Mass Index to be measured annually as part of a drive to combat obesity have been rejected by school nurses, writes Craig Kenny.

A report by the House of Commons health select committee suggests that children’s BMI ought to be measured in school and the results sent confidentially to parents in a bid to prevent overweight children being stigmatised.

Along with the child’s BMI results, parents might also be sent advice on how to modify diet and exercise patterns, the report says.

‘Given that research indicates that many parents are no longer even able to identify whether their children are overweight or not, this seems to us a vital step in tackling obesity,’ says the health committee report.

Research suggests that almost a quarter of children under four years old in the UK are overweight. One London consultant told MPs about a three-year-old child who died of heart failure as a result of a complication of ‘extreme’ obesity.

But Pat Jackson, professional officer for school health at the Community Practitioners and Health Visitors Association, said that measuring a child’s BMI would not work in isolation.

“School nurses don’t have a large workforce and have just got rid of a lot of historical screening programmes,” she said. “To turn them into screeners again would take them away from other preventative work in public health.

“And what follow up would there be for the large number of children with raised BMI?” she concluded.