Childhood Obesity - Now a test in schools

March 16, 2009

Are you overweight? What if your school gave you a test a school to find out if you were? Well, in some states, now they do.

The first state to do this was Arkansas. The school measured every student's weight and height and did a math formula called the Body Mass Index or BMI. It's a formula that tells if a person is too thin or too fat. Then they mailed the test score to the student's home. Parents used this score to ask the child's pediatrician to give them a referral to a child weight specialist. Now Massachusetts schools will start the same program.

The reason these states want the schools to test kid's BMI is because obesity in kids is on the rise and it leads to disease that usually only happens to adults. Diseases like diabetes (high blood sugar), heart disease, high blood pressure, and increased fat cells called cholesterol in the obese children's blood.

Some kids have the opposite problem - they diet so much that they are too thin - a problem called anorexia. Even though they are thin, they think they weigh too much and try to diet even more. It can be just as dangerous as obesity and damage their kidneys and heart, make their blood pressure too low, make their bones brittle and their joints swell.

The schools will test the kids in private so they won't feel embarrassed. It's not about how you look - it's about eating healthy and exercising for healthy living. You might like the HealthRock® music video Phat Fat Rap. Check it out at http://www.healthrock.com/cartoons/phat-fat-rap