N.H. weighs students to monitor for obesity

Schools across New Hampshire have yanked junk food from the vending machines and reduced the fat in cafeteria lunches. Now, nearly half of the state's schools are measuring, by the pound, whether students are eating healthier.

In more than 230 schools statewide, from kindergarten through high school, students step on a doctor's scale twice a year, as part of a growing effort to combat childhood obesity. Volunteers calculate each child's Body Mass Index, a measure of body fat based on height and age, to see who's overweight or obese.

New Hampshire is taking the unusual step of tracking children's weight in school because the state's percentage of overweight children is greater than the national average. Researchers hope to weigh students and test their physical fitness in all 500 schools in the state within two years; some schools began the weigh-ins as a pilot last school year.

While some health professionals and parents like the idea, some students aren't thrilled about stepping on a scale in school.

''We're trying to do this to show them their fitness level and deemphasize their body shape and size," said Dr. Walter Hoerman, a pediatrician who led efforts in the Rochester, N.H., school system to improve children's health.

Rhode Island is the only other state using the same approach, said Tamara Martin, a University of New Hampshire professor and chairwoman of the state's Healthy Schools Task Force, a spinoff of a national effort.

Next month the Massachusetts Legislature is expected to take up a bill that would ban unhealthy food from vending machines in schools and require more physical education. But the state has no plan to start weighing students, said public health and school officials.

At the Rochester Middle School, students line up in the gym each fall and spring for their turn at the scale. They also do sit-ups, push-ups, and pull-ups as part of a battery of physical tests to measure their strength, endurance, and flexibility.

Students' weights are attached to identification numbers, not names. But some students say they're self-conscious about the process, because classmates become competitive.

''Other kids had to stand 5 feet away from the scale, and sometimes some of the kids have good eyesight where they can actually read the thing," said Sarah Prantis, a sixth-grader at Rochester Middle School. ''All the kids were asking: 'How much do you weigh? How much do you weigh?' But I didn't want to tell."

Prantis said the experience made her realize that she was out of shape and that she needed to lose weight. She took swimming lessons over the summer and has joined a swim team.

She also signed up for a daily health class elective, in which students learn about food groups and go on neighborhood walks. Instead of coming home to eat, she now plays soccer with her three dogs, because she has more energy.

Parent Terry Desjardins, whose 10-year-old daughter will enter Rochester Middle School next fall, said she is grateful that the schools are making her children's health a priority.

''I know there are people who would say that's not the place of a school system, but I feel this is a teaching moment for a lifetime," said Desjardins, who enrolled her two daughters in a nutrition program sponsored by a local hospital. ''If we can get our kids to think about not just today but healthy habits five years from now, I'm all for that."

Hoerman, a father of three teenagers, said the middle school was careful not to put adolescents in an embarrassing situation and debated using calipers to measure students' body fat. The school decided against it, because the results are not always accurate, he said. In addition, an adult would have to pinch children's skin to take the measurement.

Obesity contributes to 300,000 deaths nationally every year, Hoerman said. Childhood obesity can lead to problems later in life, including diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, and certain cancers, he said. Obese is a label applied to someone whose weight is about a quarter more than the maximum desirable for his or her height.

According to New Hampshire data collected since last school year, 18 percent of girls and 22 percent of boys in kindergarten through high school are overweight or obese, compared to the national average of 16 percent. Health professionals say that only 5 percent of US youth should be labeled obese or overweight.

School systems nationwide are starting to reexamine their food offerings and fitness programs, said Jean Schultz, a health specialist with the National Middle School Association. They've tweaked their fund-raisers, cutting out bake sales and candy sales. But she warned that schools should tread carefully when it comes to weight.

''Some districts have tried to include a letter home saying, 'Your son or daughter is X number of pounds over the norm,' and that has not been well received," Schultz said. ''Parents were offended because they thought the schools were being invasive and not kind to their children.

''The interest of the schools was to raise awareness at home, but kids who are in the middle level, like adults, are sensitive about how they look and how much they weigh."

Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com.