Parents of Sporty 5-Year-Old Furious with Results That Daughter is Overweight

The parents of a 5-year-old girl are enraged with the National Health Service results tagging their sporty child as "too fat." They claim that their slim and healthy kid is nowhere near the description that the England's healthcare system gave.

Daily Mail said that couple, Alex and Hannah Jackson, were stunned with the NHS letter telling them that their daughter Harriet is overweight. Their kid's measurements were reportedly taken in February at the Little Melton Primary School in Norwich.

"These results suggest that your child is overweight for their age, sex and height," NHS letter read. It further stated that their child had a high risk of becoming overweight as an adult, given that the child is considered overweight at an early age. 

As a response, Alex said that Harriet is not the kid described in the NHS results. "My daughter is slim and very happy. She's bubbly and vivacious and it's quite ridiculous that we got this letter," he noted.

He also claimed that the BMI may not be a reliable tool to measure a kid's health. The father said it would have been better if the NHS had a consultation with the teachers and parents of the students for more accurate results.

For her part, Hannah, who is a nurse by profession, explained that obesity in the country is becoming a problem but "this certainly isn't a constructive way of addressing it." Both parents said they feel responsible for the negative results that Harriet got.

The United Kingdom, as per The Guardian, is bent on fighting the obesity crisis in the country. One of the recent moves in this campaign is the plan to impose a 20 percent sugar tax. The move is part of its aim to reduce childhood obesity in the UK.

Royal Society for Public Health chief executive Shirley Cramer said this is just one of the ways the UK has thought of to solve obesity. "There is much in this initiative that the government can and should take heed of when it comes to delivering its own obesity strategy," Cramer said. She further notes that the key to this strategy lies on putting emphasis on "delivering financial incentives and environmental changes" instead of leaving it up to education.