CNN
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The latest guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics on the treatment of obesity urge the immediate use of behavioral therapy and lifestyle changes, and say surgery and medication should be used in some young people.
The guidelines, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, are the first comprehensive update of the Academy’s obesity treatment guidelines in 15 years. They provide guidance on treating children from age 2 through her teenage years.
The guidelines acknowledge that obesity is complex and linked to factors such as access to nutritious foods and health care.
Treatment for younger children should focus on behavioral and lifestyle treatments for all family members, including nutritional support and increased physical activity. According to the AAP, the use of weight-loss medications, in addition to health-behavioral therapy and lifestyle treatments, is appropriate for children over the age of 12. According to the guidelines, severely obese teens over the age of 13 should: , should be evaluated for surgery.
Dr. Sandra Hasink, author of the guidelines and Vice Chair of the AAP’s Clinical Practice Guidelines Subcommittee on Obesity, said: statement“The goal is to help patients make lifestyle, behavioral, or environmental changes in a sustainable way and involve families in decision-making at every step.”
Miles Faith, a psychologist at the State University of New York at Buffalo who studies childhood eating behavior and obesity, said the causes of childhood obesity are complex and that treatment must be a team effort. I commended this new report, which acknowledged that
“It’s not one cause for all kids,” he says. “There are no reports of this kind to say that there are more options and that the possibility of medication should not be automatically downplayed and the role of surgery should not be downplayed. For some families, it should be considered. It could be that,” said Faith, who was not involved in creating the guidelines.
According to AAP, more than 14.4 million children and adolescents are living with obesity. Overweight or obese children are at increased risk of asthma, sleep apnea, bone and joint problems, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For a child and her teenager, overweight is defined as her mass index above the 85th percentile and below the 95th percentile. Obesity is defined as a BMI above the 95th percentile.
The new guidelines do not address obesity prevention. This will be addressed in another of his AAP policy statements going forward, the company said.
