Some Lee students getting heavier, others underweight

Lee County third-graders who met one national average this year weren’t filling in standardized test bubbles. They were stepping on a scale.

According to Body Mass Index data collected for the second time this year by the Lee County School District, 16 percent of children in that grade were judged to be overweight, joining more than 9 million kids nationwide who health officials say are too heavy.

Though kids in first- and sixth-grades, the two other age groups for which the district tracks BMI’s, fell short of that mark, it wasn’t by much.

Statistics show 12 percent of first-graders and 15 percent of sixth-graders in Lee County were overweight this year — increases in both cases from last year.

Conversely, another statistic is on the rise. The percentage of underweight children also grew in all grades. It is most prevalent in first grade, where data shows 7 percent of students weren’t heavy enough.

As coordinator of health services for the Lee County School District, it is Sharon Warnecke’s job to look at the figures.

What do they mean?

“I think we have a problem that needs to be addressed,” she said. “I think both problems can be attended to if we teach better nutrition.”

Not just locally, but as a country.

Photo by MICHEL FORTIER, Daily News

Peyton Turregano, right, strains while competing in a defensive wall sit, trying to outlast the boys in a friendly competition against the girls at the Cypress Lake Middle School’s Health and Strength camp Tuesday in Fort Myers. Children at the camp focus on a different sport each week. For more information on the camp, call (239) 481-1533 during normal school hours.

Nationally, 16 percent of kids 6 to 11 are overweight, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That amount has more than doubled since 1980, when just 7 percent of students that age were classified as heavy and has quadrupled from 1970, according to the department.

The most recent federal data shows areas of particular concern for certain ethnic groups.

According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, 23 percent of black girls are overweight, as are 27 percent of Mexican-American boys.

Velma Adame, food manager for Redlands Christian Migrant Association, which provides early childhood programs for thousands of children of migrant farm workers and rural, low-income families in Lee and Collier counties and across the state, said its young charges are screened when they enter.

If they come in overweight or underweight, a staff member visits the home and talks to parents about buying groceries wisely.

When not enough food is available in the home, workers direct parents to government resources like the Women, Infants and Children program.

They also work carefully on the menu for the more than 70 centers where kids attend classes, well aware that it might be the one chance that day for children to get a balanced meal.

“A lot of families are migrant workers,” Adame said. “Sometimes the only food they get is the hot lunch, snack or breakfast.”

That same balance is sought at Lee County schools, where 56 percent of lunches and 83 percent of breakfasts served are to kids eligible for free or reduced-price meals.

The district is using the data it collects to make decisions like modifications to its new wellness plan, which goes into effect next year, and to its lunch menu, where cafeteria classics like corn dogs and pizza are retooled to meet the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s nutritional standards.

With the rollout of the district’s healthy choices vending machines, where kids choose from low-fat cheese, milk, water and other carefully selected items, sodas and candy bars are scarce in the hallways.

But the district doesn’t have a say about what kids eat at home.

Parents don’t always react well to hearing their child’s BMI falls outside the norm, Warnecke said.

Next year all parents of those students tested will get letters home reporting the results, she said. This year, just those students who were classified as overweight or underweight got the message, as well as a cautionary note.

The district urges parents of children who fall into either category to talk to their family physician about the results.

Some adults might be surprised to find out that their big-boned or muscular child has a high BMI, she said. Others might think their kid will grow out of it.

And, Warnecke said, the idea of baby fat isn’t entirely off base.

Children can emerge from a chubby period if their height catches up to their weight, she said.

Because good nutrition is needed for those growth spurts, most doctors caution against diets for young students who want to lose weight and instead recommend they increase activity.

That’s the idea at Cypress Lake Middle School this summer, where Health and Strength Camp started Monday.

Maura Bennington, a sixth-grade math teacher who headed up the first week of the camp, said Cypress Lake Middle’s principal wanted to give students a chance to get active and explore sports like yoga, tennis, basketball and swimming — all in the same day.

They also get nutrition advice from a Lee Memorial Hospital dietitian, Bennington said, plus a healthy lunch and snack.

At lunch time Tuesday, the camp’s 38 kids trooped in from a morning of basketball drills with coach Andy Baker, to a lunch of baked chicken, rice and fruit.

It’s not what incoming sixth-grader Amelia Walker would have chosen.

The 11-year-old is a self-proclaimed junk-food-aholic.

If she’s ordering a drink, she’d rather have anything but water, she said.

But the lithe gymnast knows the importance of staying active.

Seated at a table with fellow campers Amber Evans, Alexa Galawaski and Peyton Turredano, all 12, she added that sport to the list they rattle off of their chosen sports: basketball, softball, volleyball, soccer and lacrosse.

Alexa, who is going into seventh grade at Cypress Lake Middle, pulled a yogurt from her bag and said students learn about what’s good to eat in home economics.

The message seemed to be sinking in, for boys as well as girls. After a morning filled with yoga and basketball, by the time lunch rolls around Sam Denholtz said he was hungry enough to eat pretty much anything on the menu.

BMI results of Lee County students

First grade

2005-06:

Percent overweight 12 percent

Percent underweight 7 percent

2004-05:

Percent overweight 11 percent

Percent underweight 4 percent

Third grade

2005-06:

Percent overweight 16 percent

Percent underweight 6 percent

2004-05:

Percent overweight 12 percent

Percent underweight 3 percent

Sixth grade

2005-06:

Percent overweight 15 percent

Percent underweight 3 percent

2004-05:

Percent overweight 9 percent

Percent underweight 2 percent

Source: Lee County School District