Posted on 10/27/2019 6:15:40 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Even some severely obese preteens should be considered for weight loss surgery, according to new recommendations.
The guidance issued Sunday by the American Academy of Pediatrics is based on a review of medical evidence, including several studies showing that surgery in teens can result in marked weight loss lasting at least several years, with few complications. In many cases, related health problems including diabetes and high blood pressure vanished after surgery.
While most of those studies involved teens, one included children younger than 12 and found no ill effects on growth, the policy says.
“Safe and effective is the message here,” said Dr. Sarah Armstrong, a Duke University pediatrics professor and the policy’s lead author.
Armstrong said children who have not gone through puberty may not be mature enough to understand the life-changing implications of surgery but that age alone shouldn’t rule it out. She doesn’t do surgery but works at a center that offers it; the youngest patient was 14.
It’s not a quick fix, she said. “It’s a lifelong decision with implications every single day for the rest of your life.” …
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Dietary change is much preferable to surgery. Cut carbs.
Human anatomy hasn’t changed over the last 100 years.
Surgery is treating the symptom, not the cause.
We should be asking what has changed over the last 100 years that is causing kids to be fat.
Just teach them to eat properly. Teach the parents, because good lifelong habits start with them.
Beware of any liberal mandate on children because someone has their hand on your wallet.
Just a 100 years ?
Fat kids were much more rare when I was younger. Let them eat all they want and sit around all day and they get fat. Surgery isn’t the answer, and won’t even be a temporary fix if behavior isn’t corrected. If behavior is corrected, surgery wouldn’t be needed.
One of our TX FReepers died due to complications following weight loss surgery. Left behind a husband and children.
And therefore, children should be allowed to make this decision? Or someone should be allowed to make it for the child without his consent?
Are children competent to make “a lifelong decision with implications every single day for the rest of your life," or not? If they are, what decisions are they NOT competent to make?
I guess they’ve never seen a fat kid have a growth spurt. Idiots.
Of course the other option is to simply get them off carbs, but that doesn’t help the ‘medical community’ or the ‘animal rights community’ or the ‘global warming community’.
“We should be asking what has changed over the last 100 years that is causing kids to be fat.”
For starters, the type of wheat we eat (highly modified from what we were designed for), and thus our body’s reaction to it.
From the article: surgery in teens can result in marked weight loss lasting at least several years
Underwhelming recommendation.
“One of our TX FReepers died due to complications following weight loss surgery. Left behind a husband and children.”
Man, that bites. I also wonder if this type of surgery has even been proven as relatively safe for growing kids. The medical profession seems to have a habit of applying adult ‘solutions’ to kids, without giving a crap if they’re safe./
“Are children competent to make “a lifelong decision with implications every single day for the rest of your life,” or not? If they are, what decisions are they NOT competent to make?”
Apparent the decision to take an aspirin or a midol is too much for our kids...but not the decision to abort a baby, that’s just fine (per the Left, of course).
Our medical experts should be saying what you just posted. A pox on them for taking the easy way out. $$$
When I was a kid, I was threatened with Military School if I became too much of a “lardass”.
I was always a heavy kid, (at least by 1980s standards - not by today’s standards) but those threats were enough to keep me active enough that it didn’t get anywhere NEAR the level of the average kid today.
I’ve seen 12 year old kids so fat the blubber keeps their eyes closed. Its astounding.
“Moderation, Lean Protein, Fresh Vegetables”
Or the decision to “change” sex.
Regarding the medical establishment’s opinions, in both cases, follow the money.
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