The website of WLS in Chicago is reporting that the state would being tracking children’s body mass index through the Michigan Care Improvement Registry. This is an attempt by the state to combat the growing problem of childhood obesity.

The article reports:

The tracking system would encourage pediatricians to calculate patients’ BMI using height and weight measurements, and report these numbers to the state through the existing immunization tracking system, the Michigan Care Improvement Registry. The numbers would be reported anonymously, meaning that the child’s identity would not be connected to his or her BMI in state records.

The hope is that having doctors track height and weight in this way would encourage more discussion among parents, kids and doctors about the dangers of being overweight, says Geralyn Lasher, director of communications at the Executive Office of the Governor.

Even though the results are not supposed to be connected to a specific child, does anyone doubt that some time in the future the results will be connected to the specific child and that the state will get involved in some way. On July 14, I posted an article that included a story of a child who had been taken from her family in California because she was obese. She was returned to her family after two months in foster care when her weight did not change. It was later discovered that there was a genetic element to her problem.

If you are serious about fighting childhood obesity, how about putting recess back in the schools and allowing children to play tag and dodgeball? That might be a good beginning.