The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recently released new guidelines for the treatment of childhood obesity for the first time in 15 years, as previously reported by The Dallas Express. These new guidelines recommend “aggressive” and early treatment options for cases of childhood obesity and advocate for the use of bariatric surgery as well as weight loss drugs.
An AAP study suggests that weight loss surgery is safe and effective for children.
The study noted that procedures such as Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and vertical sleeve gastrectomy result in significant and sustained weight loss and provide solutions to complications caused by obesity such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, and cardiovascular disease risk factors.
This change in guidelines came just weeks after the CDC expanded BMI index charts to account for recent data, which show more children qualifying as severely obese.
As previously reported in The Dallas Express, Texas has long been one of the worst states as far as childhood obesity goes, and the problem has been getting worse in recent years. The Lone Star State ranked 10th for childhood obesity rates in the United States in 2021, with roughly 21% of children between the ages of 10 and 17 qualifying as obese.
Criticism of these new guidelines has focused primarily on the potential long-term consequences associated with both drugs and the prospect of surgery.
Bindiya Gandhi, M.D., a board-certified family medicine physician, said other solutions should be considered before resorting to the newly championed methods.
“There are many interventions that can be done before bariatric surgery in [the pediatric] population, including adhering to appropriate lifestyle changes from changing up diet, adding more exercise, supporting sleep and mental health,” said Gandhi.
“The solution to the problem is absolutely not to put a band-aid on obesity by giving a pill,” said Joel Warsh, M.D., a pediatrician at Integrative Pediatrics and Medicine in California. “It’s to figure out why so many kids are obese and do something about it,” he continued.
However, some in the medical profession are in favor of the new guidelines.
Mary Savoye, a clinical dietitian at the Yale Stress Center, whose research was included in the new guidelines, recognized that while there are multiple factors contributing to obesity, the solution is more complicated than other remedies can solve alone.
“Childhood obesity is not simple,” said Savoye, according to the Washington Post.
“People think you just need to teach people to stop eating so much. But it’s so much more complex than that,” she continued.
Grace Kim, an endocrinologist at Seattle Children’s Hospital, also noted how the progression from a prediabetes stage to full-blown diabetes could take a decade or longer in obese adults, while in children, the pace is much more rapid, happening in as little as two years.
Matthew Haemer, an obesity specialist at Children’s Hospital Colorado, said that the old approach clearly did not work, with data showing that 80 to 90% of cases continued until adulthood.
“There were real medical harms and quality-of-life harms for something we could effectively treat,” he said.
“One of the things we know for sure is that as children with obesity get older, they get bigger and bigger and sicker and sicker, and their medical problems get worse,” said Ann O’Connor, a surgeon at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio.