Childhood obesity on Discovery channel

Camy

Camy

New member
Hey,
today I watched this show on the Discovery HOme and health about "the world's fattest kids".
They showed one Boy who at 15 (or 16) was 360 ish pounds and he was sent to the academy of the sierras (which I knew about through here! yey). He seemed like a good kid and he really wanted to get healthy and thin. (I did not watch until the end, I am taping the second half).

But now what I wanted to comment about was the second kid they showed, a 13 year old girl who was 320ish pounds. She stated "I have tried it all, I have tried all diets but I just can't lose weight" and wanted a lipo, which some crazy doc would give her if she got her iron up (I am a medic and it is outrageous that someone would offer this to a child).
Now the mom to help her lose some weight (I guess in order to get her healthier so she could have the lipo) cooked her a steak and made some salad and the kid looked disgusted, replied she had never eaten anything like that before and almost threw up when she tried to eat a tomato.

So what was it she had "tried it all" before, if she had never eaten veggies? And why did the lipo doc not send her to a nutritionist to solver her issues. A lipo would bring little if she continued eating burgers et al forever!
Does anybody understand??
Camy
P/s: I am NOT generally against lipo, and I have no problem with adults who get it done, but I cannot understand how you would suggest that to a 13 year old!!!
 
Morning,

I think a lot of it comes to to:

a.) Wanting the "quick fix"
b.) Parents not enforcing healthy choices

When you're an adult, you have to take ownership of your own decisions and actions. When you're a child, you should do that too, of course, but most likely you'll also be guided by what your parents compel you to do. And if your parents don't set guidelines for eating/exercise/etc., it's really tough NOT to fall into super-bad habits.

Sometimes it's much easier to complain than to say, I've had it, I'm going to change.

Parenting - it's a hero's journey.

Data points,

Barbara
 
i cant believe how retarded some people are. Those parents should be done for child abuse and have their kids taken off them.
 
I had read about the academy of the sierras here on the boards ages ago (I was a lurker), and seen the website.
It is a brilliant idea and I also think it should be implemented in more places. I also think however that parents should have a "talk" in kindergarten or primary school about what is good and what is bad for your kids (maybe showing them the size and worries a 300 pound teenager has, that ate loads of fried chicken and no vegetables). I am not sure it would bring 100% of healthier children but at least some parents would maybe try to do it better.

I grew up with parents who were not "concerned" about what we ate but we never had chocolate spread, neither did we have anything sweet. I was allowed 50 pence worth of sweets on sunday, and we eat salad as a side dish every meal. Everybody is skinny in my family except for me and I started ballooning when 1.) I became sick and 2.) I started to live on my own, chosing the wrong food and doing no exercise (I am not having excuses I am perfectly aware that overeating and failure of exercise were what made me fat but the malabsorption due to the disease in my intestines surely didn't help).
I think if we are taught how to eat correctly as small children we will be less inclined to go down the route of greasy fried food (it won't completely eliminate it, but it will certainly help!).

I cannot understand parents who know they are feeding their children rubbish feeling complete in their role as a parent. And sure McD once a month, in a otherwise healthily fed child won't spoil it all, but everyday??
I work in a family (I am nanny-dogwalker) where one of the 4 kids eats mostly cheese and pasta. he doesn't like fish, he doesn't like meat, he doesn't really like vegetables, but eats a cup of broccoli or cucumber or corn every day, however smothered in ketchup or ranch dressing... I think to yself (without telling the parents) that this boy should be "forced" to eat whatever is on the table, by not giving him the option of cheese and pasta whenever he doesn't want fish or meat. I think they should say, you can't have cheese 3 times a day, you need to eat your fish and if he can't, well he won't have anything. Nobody gets born hating certain foods, I believe.
And veggies with a tiny bit of olive oil and salt taste as good or better than veggies in ketchup! INterestingly this boy is the only of 4 sbilings who is clearly overweight, while hi less fussy sister and brothers are normal, even skinny!

Oh well I could ramble on and on and on about this, it is one of my favourite topics and before deciding to go into OB/Gyn I really really thought about becoming a pediatric nutritionist, but felt I could not deal with it.
Ok enough for tonight, Camy
 
Camy said:
I started to live on my own, chosing the wrong food and doing no exercise (I am not having excuses I am perfectly aware that overeating and failure of exercise were what made me fat but the malabsorption due to the disease in my intestines surely didn't help).
Click to expand...
What disease did you have? I would have thought Malabsorbtion would contribute to weight loss rather than gain. But im always interested to hear of any (if there are any) diseases that cause weight gain.
 
I have what was suspected as IBS, then misdiagnosed as Crohn's disease and finally (I think correctly) diagnosed as coeliac disease. I was also quite amazed to see that even though I had diarrhoea virtually every day and threw up a couple of tims a week I would still gain weight.
My docs said it could not be celiac disease because I was not "celiac skinny".
Now that I have been tested and diagnosed I found several people with the same problem. Many of them have also been failed to be diagnosed. A recent study shows that about 50% of celiac patients are overweight (which is higher than the normal population and "strange" because they suffer from very extreme malabsorption and frequent diarrhoeas, reference: ).

So I think that helped me gain weight but was not the main causant at all!
Camy
 
maleficent said:
http://weight-loss.fitness.com/weight-loss-media/18010-ths-investigates-diet-fads.html

the television show had a girl who's parents got her lipo because "nothing at all worked" for her weight issue...

I don't understand the parents - i don't understand the doctors...
Click to expand...

By the by, after she had some 6 liters of fat lypo'ed off for the emergency medical reason of "I want my dad to see me skinny in a dress." She went to Mexico and had lap band surgery because she still didn't think she was thin enough (and no doctor in the US would do it).
 
Camy said:
I have what was suspected as IBS, then misdiagnosed as Crohn's disease and finally (I think correctly) diagnosed as coeliac disease. I was also quite amazed to see that even though I had diarrhoea virtually every day and threw up a couple of tims a week I would still gain weight.
Click to expand...
Cheers, your link didnt work but i googled about and found out a fair bit. :)

Out of curiosty, who paid for this kid to go to mexico and get fat sucked out? Most doctors i know wont use lipo for weight reduction, only for shaping and contouring.
 
I always wonder how people manage to let their kids get up to as much as 300lbs at such a young age - i know that i was chubby, but my parents made sure that i had enough nutrients and when i went to the dr he always informed my parents that I was overweight for my age and they should watch my diet.

This has got to be a form of abuse or negligence, and letting her have lipo suction isn't giving her the right message about food or a healthy normal way to live, or even discipline - its telling her she can do what she wants and the problem will just go away and she doesn't have to deal with the consequences. Grrr it makes me angry - but just shows how little knowledge some people have and just how easy it is to do so much damage you your body.
 
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