PARENTS angry their healthy children have been branded overweight are to meet the health official overseeing the controversial scheme.

Donna Husband, health improvement practitioner for Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust, has agreed to discuss letters sent out to parents, categorising children’s weight as healthy or unhealthy.

Several parents have come forward complaining their five-year-olds have been deemed overweight just because they are 1lb more than the NHS guideline of 3st 4lbs.

As we reported on Wednesday, the scheme has seen 11,000 reception year children, aged four and five, and year six children, aged 10 and 11, being weighed and measured at county schools.

Their height, weight, age and sex was then analysed to decide if they fell within a “healthy range”.

Disgruntled parents across the county have hit out at the generic letters, which they said were scaremongering, insensitive, and did not consider issues such as lifestyle and exercise.

Many have claimed their children were labelled overweight even though they were a normal size for their age.

The letters warn of the health risks in later life of cancer, heart disease and high blood pressure.

Bryan Graves, 61, from St Francis Court, off Hollow Way, Cowley, Oxford, was told his five-year-old daughter was overweight despite her being just a pound over the top ‘healthy range’ limit of 3st 4lb.

He said: “I thought it was a waste of paper and effort. She’s as skinny as a beanpole.

“If we didn’t have our marbles it could have caused a panic – we would have gone straight down the doctor’s.”

Mother-of-three Lynn Banerji of Ouseley Close, Marston, Oxford, whose five-year-old daughter Safi was also classed as overweight at 3st 5lb, said: “It’s a joke. I feel extremely angry.”

Lise Harris, 34, from Finstock near Chipping Norton, said her daughter Siena, five, was also told she was overweight, being 1lb over the healthy range.

She said: “It is absolute scaremongering. It has caused a huge amount of upset and distress.”

Ms Husband will meet parents at St Peter’s CE Infants’ School in Alvescot, near Carterton, on June 2 at the request of headteacher Sam King.

Mrs King said: “I do feel the way the letter was worded was quite shocking.

“Unless I can be assured the communication to parents is done a lot more sensitively, I am not prepared for our children to take part in the scheme.”

Oxfordshire PCT confirmed Ms Husband’s meeting and said she would be willing to meet other parents.

A spokesman said the trust was following a national programme, but insisted responses from parents would be fed back to national organisers.

A Department of Health spokesman said the letters had been extensively tested in focus groups, and added: “In all cases it is vital that parents have the information and support they need to make the best choice for their child’s health.”

ghamilton@oxfordmail.co.uk