Teenage Obesity (long)

[kukukajoo, LPN]

I know this is a touchy subject. Those who want to crucify me as a parent for making my kid fat need not respond, I need help and encouragement for this one, I punish myself enough already. I am afraid for my child and she has been in for regular check-ups constantly with her doc, and we just switched her from a pedi to a family practice (where I go and my grandma too).

You see, my daughter is 16 and has a very serious weight problem. All her workups and tests come back normal despite cushings like symptoms. Adrenal probs run in my family as do thyroid probs, bust still nothing on the results has ever been remarkable. This started when she was young very slowly and it seems like the last year she has just balloned out of control. She is going in Friday for a new lab workup and diabetes is suspected now.

She is at about a BMI of 47 and if 18 would be a good candidate for bypass surgery. Doc won't try meds even though we have worked on a diet for some time now to no avail.

Her vitals are very normal on the low side for BP, and cholesterols were fine too.

We are waiting for an appointment from a nutritionist (I hope they call tomorrow). Hoping for a referral to a counselor to help her deal with some of the emotional aspects of being heavy as well as a possible reason for this.

How have others dealt with this with both patients and family? Any great successes or failures?

I am tempted to look into a "fat camp" but the prices are WAY out of my league being a student with two other kids in college, and she is refusing to go. Stigma I guess.

Thanks, and mods, please don't delete, this is not asking for medical advice, but information on a serious condition affecting millions of kids and becoming epidemic- this is an attempt to educate myself and maybe a few others in the process.

[I_am_Julia]

support her, exercise with her and don't enable her by buying junk food. if she is having self esteem issues, work on that as well. maybe shopping can be a reward for losing weight. set small goals. eliminating things like rice, potatoes, bread will help greatly.

best of luck.

[AggieQT]

I have battled with weight most of my life, all 22 years of it. For the past few years however my weight has been at a normal level and I have kept it that way. The BIGGEST help for me was for my ENTIRE family to support me and to not make it easy for me to eat junk food and be lazy. My mother and I went into the kitchen one day and literally threw away 9 bags of junk and unhealthy food. We focused on HEALTH not loosing weight. We found ways to make veggies taste good (steam with special seasonings) and good healthy snacks to eat. It really helped that everyone supported me and the entire family benifited from it. I lost over 40 lbs over a years time and it was done simply but moving more, eating better, and portion control. No magic, no quick fix but it worked.

I will be praying for you and your daughter. Good luck!

[Imissthefall]

I saw a show in TV about a mother/teenage daughter who joined weight watchers together and really lost a lot of weight by motivating eachother.

The best of luck to you and your daughter.

[Blee O'Myacin, BSN, RN]

Seeing our children suffer is difficult. No matter the cause. Get her moving. Take walks with her after dinner. A healthy lifestyle is taught, putting a 16 year old on a diet may be necessary at this point, but she needs to learn to maintain a healthy, active lifestyle. Why not join her? I wish the two of you luck.

((hugs))

Blee

[Cattitude]

I saw a show in TV about a mother/teenage daughter who joined weight watchers together and really lost a lot of weight by motivating eachother.

The best of luck to you and your daughter.

I lost 95 lbs and counting on Weight Watchers. It's a simple concept and cheap. You don't have to buy special foods either just normal, healthy stuff. I bet if you ask the Dr. they will give the ok as most Dr's actually recommend WW'ers.

[TazziRN, RN]

I agree with the others, exercise with her and join WW.

Counseling might be an option also, to find out if there are outside influences for the weight gain.

Good luck.

[Ariesbsn]

Has she been checked for polycystic ovarian syndrome?

Why does she have to be 18 for the surgery? I saw something about teens (15 year olds ) having the surgery on TV not that long ago.

[Sisukas]

maybe a weight loss camp would be an option she'd consider if you joined her. some camps give deep discounts to moms who are camp nurses.

[RN BSN 2009]

surgery is just a quick fix.. if the underlying problems are not taken care of, the weight will come back on

[casi, ASN, RN]

I’ve always been the fat kid in school. It’s never been a pleasant experience, but as a mom it sounds like your doing an amazing job with trying to get resources for her and your family.

Meet with the nutritionist and find where your family is lacking and over eating. Change the diet so the entire family has to change. Limit junk food in the house and when you do buy junk food, buy the small single sized servings of things. It might be more expensive, but it sets limits. I doubt there is a person who can honestly say they haven’t sat down with a bag of chips and have eaten WAY more than necessary. Don’t push though. I’ve known that more than once my mother has made comments that she didn’t necessary mean as bad, but touched me as that way. Instead of trying to change my eating habits became worse. I’d hide my eating or I’d skip meals which doesn’t help my metabolism AT all. Also make a lot of little changes, you don’t have to go from fried chicken every night to just salad. Make the little cuts like changing by buying some of the low-fat foods. A lot of this stuff is actually really good. Instead of frying foods, throw it on a cookie sheet with a bit of oil spray. When baking cookies cut the sugar, use lower fat oil, and an egg substitute.

Exercise at her size is going to be really hard. Not because of just the physical exertion, but the self esteem issues as well. When I’ve been actively trying to lose weight I hated going out walking during the day, because I was afraid everyone was looking at me. Stupid fear, but that was my lack of self esteem catching up with me. I found I loved walking early morning, at dusk, or at home on the treadmill. Try to find something you two enjoy doing together and make it a habit. Also maybe look at a program like Curves. They have a lot of mother/daughter deals and it’s made to go at your own pace. I joined up a couple of summers ago and it was an AMAZINGLY supportive environment.

I’d encourage the two of you not to ‘diet’, but make lifestyle changes. Diet implicates an untasteful change in foods that is only temporary. Keep giving her your support and make the changes as a team and a family.

Also the idea of getting her in to see a therapist is awesome. There are so many self esteem issues surrounding weight it’s rough to take on your own. A therapist may also be able to help if there’s a sort of eating disorder going on or if motivation is needed to make lifestyle changes.

[wildmountainchild]

Have your daughter keep a food diary. There are some good ones available on amazon.com that really help lay everything out in an easy to analyze forum. I've been keeping one for about a month now and it has been very enlightening. I never knew how many calories were in portion sizes before, I was eating waaaay more than was necessary.

Also the act of keeping a food diary inspires me to eat better. I don't want to put down that I pigged out, so I tend to eat healthier now that I'm keeping track.

Switch to non-fat milk. Go to turkey bacon. Keep absolutely no junk food in the house at all. If it has trans fats in it it doesn't belong in your home. Cut out soda, even diet sodas, drink water instead. I buy the Smucker's brand diet juices (grapefruit, cranberry) and water them down b/c I've become so sensitive to overly sweet flavors. Now a huge glass of juice only has 20-30 calories whereas before it had over 200. NEVER eat another fried thing. I try to visualize my arteries clogging w/ gunk when I get the urge for crappy food. That, or the pt who is dying the miserable drawn out death from CHF.

Get a treadmill for in the home and set it up in front of the TV. Have your daughter start out walking until the first commercial. Build up the time she spends on the treadmill just walking until she walks an hour a day (this will take some time). A nutritionist will do wonders.

Consider that your daughter may be hoarding food, or bingeing while you are not around. If the tests are all coming back negative, then the only logical explanation left is that she is taking in more calories than she expends. People ALWAYS underestimate the calories they consume. This is why a food diary is so essential, you begin to learn what is really going into our body.

Good luck. There is a long road ahead of you, but eating healthy and putting health first will be a benefit to the whole family. Look at this as an opportunity for your family to grow closer and become better.