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Surgery for Obese Children?: Pediatric Gastic Bypass
New York Times ^ | 2/15/2010 | Laura Biel

Posted on 02/16/2010 8:23:20 AM PST by Badabing Badablonde

HOUSTON — One callous question turned Brittany Caesar into a medical pioneer: “Why do you eat so much? It’s not normal.”

At that moment, she was in the Campbell Middle School cafeteria, sitting down to her usual lunch: two cheeseburgers, two orders of fries and a Coke. She knew she weighed too much. Her whole family weighed too much. But her world revolved around food, and she could not imagine any other existence.

“Food was my best friend,” she said. “It was always there for me.” Somehow, her classmate’s taunt, back in 2003, wounded her in a way the usual fat jokes never had. She fled to the bathroom and wept, vowing to lose weight. Her salvation did not arrive until more than a year later when, at age 14, doctors at Texas Children’s Hospital performed a gastric bypass that left her stomach the size of an egg. On the day of surgery, she weighed 404 pounds.

Ms. Caesar, now 20 years old and 175 pounds, was the first teenager to undergo a gastric bypass at Texas Children’s, but more quickly followed. Today, it maintains one of the busiest bariatric practices for adolescents in the country, performing one or two bypasses each month. Although the procedure is still considered experimental for children, it is fast becoming the next front in the battle against pediatric obesity.

“I honestly believe that in 5 to 10 years you’ll see as many children getting weight-loss procedures as adults,” said Dr. Evan Nadler, co-director of the Obesity Institute at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
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To: Badabing Badablonde

I’m just frustrated to see us turning into a culture where people take a pill or have a procedure rather than change their behavior.


21 posted on 02/16/2010 8:43:57 AM PST by A_perfect_lady (I miss having a First LADY.)
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To: gimme1ibertee

I will also tell you as a chronic pain sufferer, that food is a physical aid also.

If I am having a painful day, something like a cup of hot chocolate will literally physically decrease my pain.

Think of all the people you know in chronic pain who have had an accident or illness or such and gained a lot of weight while recovering. People love to blame the sudden inactivity, but I have a theory that eating certain foods is actually a painkiller.


22 posted on 02/16/2010 8:45:47 AM PST by I still care (A Republic - if you can keep it. - Ben Franklin)
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To: Badabing Badablonde

Care for the child....tell him/her what is right or wrong...the parents wants and desires no longer matter...they have kids and the kids COME FIRST.


23 posted on 02/16/2010 8:46:06 AM PST by Dallas59 (President Robert Gibbs 2009-2013)
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To: PrincessB
Pretty much (although we don't know that what you suggested wasn't tried first)

Gastric bypass lap bands and other surgical options are (or should be) only one facet of a weight management problem.

You want to avoid surgery whenever possible, diet and exercise do work for some people, counseling works for some people, drugs/hormone adjustment work for some people.

It's just a matter of finding the least intrusive method that works.

(So says the fat guy)...

24 posted on 02/16/2010 8:47:05 AM PST by null and void (We are now in day 390 of our national holiday from reality. - 0bama really isn't one of US.)
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To: Badabing Badablonde

I guess teaching self-discipline is out of the question?


25 posted on 02/16/2010 8:49:44 AM PST by SumProVita (Cogito, ergo...Sum Pro Vita. (Modified Decartes))
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To: nmh

That’s what so fascinating about Jillian Michaels on the Biggest Loser...she breaks the trainees down with intense exercise and forces them to start coming to grips with the emotions and behavoirs driving their over eating..

Generally speaking...exercise, diet and counseling are far better options for weight loss than surgery.


26 posted on 02/16/2010 8:50:08 AM PST by Skip Ripley
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To: Badabing Badablonde

All that money Michelle Ma-Bell is spending to fight childhood obesity could pay for a lot of gastric bypass operations for the most extreme cases of childhood obesity which in turn would save a lot more lives that her silly feel good waste of money. Just Sayin....


27 posted on 02/16/2010 8:51:12 AM PST by GraceG
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To: Skip Ripley

I agree ... .


28 posted on 02/16/2010 8:52:51 AM PST by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
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To: Skip Ripley
Generally speaking...exercise, diet and counseling are far better options for weight loss than surgery.

Yes, if they work. They fail in a vast majority of cases.

29 posted on 02/16/2010 8:54:55 AM PST by ccmay (Too much Law; not enough Order.)
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To: nmh

Only a portion of these problems are thyroids. There are other things that have obesity as a side effect.

I know a family that struggles with polycystic ovarian, all the girls are overweight and losing hair. They didn’t even know they had it until I mentioned it to them and they went to the doctor. They thought they were just a “fat family” that couldn’t get it together because their thyroids read normal. Painful for the psyche.


30 posted on 02/16/2010 9:09:38 AM PST by I still care (A Republic - if you can keep it. - Ben Franklin)
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To: Badabing Badablonde

Yikes how can a female ever eat that much at once? Why not just cut down to one of each and then to 1/2 of each to lose weight, or better yet learn to pack your own lunch?


31 posted on 02/16/2010 9:13:09 AM PST by chris_bdba
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To: Badabing Badablonde
I grew up in a small, cotton-mill village in north-central Georgia. We had an elementary school there - Grades K-7...out of all of the 250+ kids in that school, there was only one fat kid.
<
This poor guy (I'll call him Wilber) had a father who, himself was obese and he would not allow "Wilber" to come out and play with the rest of us...he had to sit on the porch, with his dad, all day, every day. His deadbeat dad was afraid "Wilber" would "overheat" if he got out and ran with us...so "Wilber" remained the only fat kid in school.

The rest of us were outside all the time, running, playing games, hiking in the woods, swimming at the riverm riding our bikes, and even though we ate all the time - tons of peanut butter, "sugar biscuits", "syrup biscuits", sugar cane, candy bars....BUT you could count every rib we had we were so thin...we ran it all off staying outside all day.

True, we didn't have "video games", but we did have TV; however, our parents did not allow us to sit for hours on end watching it.

When we weren't playing hard, we had chores to do.

We came in from a hard day, took a bath, ate supper (that's "dinner" to you northern folk), got our homework and went to bed. If we lucked up and got a snack, it was a couple of cookies and a glass of milk. A pack of Oreos would last over a week, as we were not allowed to "gorge" the whole box at one sitting.

The point is, I hear that gastric bypass (or any stomach surgery) is very painful; why put a kid through that to keep him from sweating a little?

I realize there are certain exceptions, but one the gate is opened there will be a flood. But, a bypass without an exercise regimine will usually not do much good.

So we've come up with Ritalin to replace discipline, and now gastric bypass to make up for laziness...what next for these little buggers?

32 posted on 02/16/2010 9:18:09 AM PST by FrankR (Those of us who love AMERICA far outnumber those who love obama - your choice.)
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To: chris_bdba
"...Yikes how can a female ever eat that much at once?..."

This is Billy Robbins, a.k.a. the Half Ton Teen. In this pic, he's 19 yo. He was the subjet of a Discovery Health episode. He topped out at around 840 pounds. Not quite a half ton but close enough. It's pretty easy to deduce what it took for him to achieve his title.


33 posted on 02/16/2010 9:18:55 AM PST by NCC-1701 (ZEROs FAVORITE SONG -- I, ME, MINE -- BY THE BEATLES)
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To: Badabing Badablonde

No matter what the comments on this thread say, we do not know for sure what made her eat that much. Because of some neural quirk she may have felt starved all the time.

We don’t really know. We can speculate. We can blame her for having no self control but our guesses are based on *our* experiences not on hers.

OTOH I hate to see tax money spent on this while cutting Medicare for the elderly.


34 posted on 02/16/2010 9:25:49 AM PST by ladyjane
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To: I still care

I have thought that while watching my Dad over the last few years. Food soothes him. Sadly, he eats massive amounts of the worst kinds of food CONSTANTLY. I swear his years of strong pain meds have wrecked his brain...he doesn’t seem to realize just how many calories he is consuming.

His doctors are at the Mayo Clinic and they cannot manage his intense, chronic pain (over 30 years worth). I feel as thought my Mom is watching him eat himself to death.


35 posted on 02/16/2010 9:36:07 AM PST by Spudx7
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To: Badabing Badablonde

Habit, boredom, loneliness, sadness.

Same reason people drink alcohol, or smoke.


36 posted on 02/16/2010 9:42:54 AM PST by Ro_Thunder ("Other than ending SLAVERY, FASCISM, NAZISM and COMMUNISM, war has never solved anything")
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To: Badabing Badablonde
There are several holistic ways one can relax, and unwind from the stress that causes overeating. There are also good foods (ask Michelle!) to eat that encourage activity. If the girl in the story had an apple instead of the second cheeseburger, and dumped the fries altogether, she might of had a boost of honest energy that would have encourage her to do something active. I'm constantly battling the bulge, myself, but surgery is not the answer, for any age IMO.

Oils from God
37 posted on 02/16/2010 10:06:01 AM PST by mlizzy ("Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person" --Mother Teresa.)
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To: NCC-1701

Oh my I’ve not seen that show. That is so sad. Like one of the prior posters said, as kids were were sent outside to play and weren’t allowed to be unbderfoot inside all day unless it was too cold and raining. On those days we had a basement and rollerskates I just don’t understand how a parent can’t see that their child is too big and do something about it. We weren’t allowed to eat whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. I don’t think I got into the frid on my own until I was 14 and even then we asked or were told what was there for lunch.


38 posted on 02/16/2010 10:31:20 AM PST by chris_bdba
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To: nmh
Wow.... Gastric BP...can be very dangerous. And it's hard to reverse..if at all.

Personally...I'd just pay a dentist to wire my mouth shut.

39 posted on 02/16/2010 10:34:09 AM PST by Osage Orange (Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Anyone Who Threatens It)
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To: I still care
That just proves my point about turning to food for comfort and/or solace. Who doesn't agree that a decadent chocolate brownie after a mentally exhausting day at work eases the mental stress and lifts the spirit a bit?
As far as being incapacitated by injury or illness,the mere fact that a person cannot return to their daily duties-picking up after toddlers,rushing kids to school,jogging up and down stairs or running for a taxi,whatever they may be-will cause a person to not only gain weight,but eat simply to comfort themselves or out of boredom or frustration.
While it is certainly true that that cup of hot chocolate has feel-good stuff in it,but also the smell,the taste and the warmth of it is in itself very soothing to the psyche.
40 posted on 02/16/2010 10:48:31 AM PST by gimme1ibertee ("In a time of universal deceit,telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act"-George Orwell)
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