CNN
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The latest guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics on the treatment of obesity call for the immediate use of behavioral therapy and lifestyle changes, and say some young people will need surgery and medications.
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. The use of weight-loss medications, in addition to health-behavioral and lifestyle treatments, is appropriate for children over the age of 12, the Academy said, according to the guidelines. young people should be evaluated for surgery.
Dr. Sandra Hasink, author of the guidelines and Vice Chair of the Group’s Obesity Clinical Practice Guidelines Subcommittee, said: statement“The goal is to help patients make lifestyle, behavioral, or environmental changes in a sustainable way and involve their families in decision-making at every step.”
For children and adolescents, overweight is defined as a body mass index above the 85th percentile and below the 95th percentile. Obesity is defined as a BMI above the 95th percentile.
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 every child,” he said. “There are no reports of this kind to say that. For some families, it might be something to consider,” said Faith, who was not involved in developing the guidelines.
The new guidelines do not address obesity prevention. This will be addressed in a separate policy statement in the future, the American Academy of Pediatrics said.
Rebecca Carter, Ph.D., pediatrician at the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital and assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said: email on Monday.
“In addition to these recommendations, several new medication management strategies that have proven highly successful in treating obesity as a chronic disease in adults are now available in children and adolescents. It is recommended for use,” Carter wrote.
She added that the recommendations are “a big step forward” in helping parents and health care teams “take responsibility” for the long-term health risks associated with being overweight and obese in children.
“They have ways to treat these conditions, there are subtle causes for these conditions that go beyond simple solutions, and there are things that certainly take our focus away from outdated or unhealthy diet strategies. We provide a variety of tools to help families empower themselves to do this,” Carter wrote.
While the new guidelines are designed for health care providers, Carter said parents should talk to their child’s doctor if they have concerns about weight and discuss strategies for optimizing health and monitoring changes. said.
“It is also appropriate to do this in a child-focused manner, being careful not to make the child prejudiced or disgusted with their own body, but empowering them to feel they have the tools they need to keep them healthy.”
The new guidelines are “a much-needed advance” to bring holistic care in line with current science, said Jennifer Wu Baidal, Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatrics at Columbia University in New York City and director of the Childhood Obesity Initiative. said in an email on Monday.
“The adoption of new guidelines can reverse the childhood obesity epidemic,” she wrote. , will be needed to moderate policies and practices that widen socioeconomic disparities. While the guidelines support the advocacy efforts of pediatricians, we, as a society, are committed to promoting healthy living for our nation’s children. We need to demonstrate our support for a safer environment.”
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, over 14.4 million children and teens are obese. 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.
Another study published last month in the journal of the American Diabetes Association diabetes caresuggests that if current trends continue, the number of people under the age of 20 with type 2 diabetes in the United States could increase by nearly 675% by 2060.
Last month, the CDC announced updated growth chart This can be used to track severely obese children and teenagers.
A growth chart is a standardized tool used by health care providers to track growth from infancy through adolescence. But as obesity and severe obesity become more prevalent in the past 40 years, in 2017-2018 he said more than 4.5 million children and her teens had severe obesity, the agency said. says.
Growth charts used since 2000 are based on data from 1963 to 1980 and never exceeded the 97th percentile. New expanded percentiles incorporate more recent data and provide a way to monitor and visualize very high body mass index values.
According to the CDC, existing growth charts for nonobese children and adolescents won’t change, but the expanded growth chart will help health care providers treating patients with severe childhood obesity.
“Prior to today’s release, growth charts have not grown enough to plot the BMI of increasing severely obese children. help optimize the care of said in a statement“Providers can work with families on comprehensive care plans to address childhood obesity.”
