Think of the Children: Better Body Image

The 5 Day Pouch Test: Express Study Guide

"It occurred to me that while I work on my body image perhaps it would be a valuable time to actively engage in encouraging the young people I know to accept their bodies. Perhaps if I modeled positive habits for them they may be spared years of torment and insecurity." Kaye Bailey

In this previous post about National Child Health Day (today) I talked about the sensitive nature of the parent-child relationship when weight management is an issue. As people recovering from obesity with bariatric surgery we bear many responsibilities. For me, I think one of the most profound stewardships I have is helping the next generation stay off the surgery table by finding smart and consistent ways to manage their body weight. Part of that involves body image: ours and that of the young people we influence.

This is an article from my syndicated collection addressing body image in our children:

When a Parent has Weight Loss Surgery:

Building Better Body Image In Our Children

One of the biggest mental struggles we have, before and after weight loss surgery, is body image. It's not uncommon for a person to reach goal weight with WLS and upon receiving a compliment they say back, "Yeah, but my [fill in blank] is a real mess, ugly, still fat" etc. Have you heard yourself respond that way to a compliment? It is a painful challenge to nurture a healthy body image because often a negative body image originates in childhood.

I recently learned of a 9-year-old girl who refuses to wear her coat this winter. Why? "It makes me look fat." She is not alone. According to Linda Smolak a psychologist and Kenyon College 40% of elementary school girls and 25% of elementary school boys report dissatisfaction with their bodies. Dr. Smolak said, "These unhappy and self-conscious kids report more frequent feelings of depression, insecurity and anxiety."

That describes how I often felt as an overweight child and teen. Can you relate?

It occurred to me that while I work on my body image perhaps it would be a valuable time to actively engage in encouraging the young people I know to accept their bodies. Perhaps if I modeled positive habits for them they may be spared years of torment and insecurity.

Prevention Magazine suggests these ways to instill a healthy body image in children:

Uncover media myths:
Media images present an unrealistic message about what is beautiful and desirable. Adults should look for opportunities to explain that ultra thin young actresses or super muscular athletes are not realistic for most of us. Focus on healthy eating and active living.

Give Alternatives:
When hearing children criticize someone's body as fat adults should respond by explaining that although overweight can be unhealthy "dieting" usually isn't the solution. A solution to build a healthy body is eating nutritious foods and being physically active each day.

Listen to yourself:
It has been said children learn not from what you say but what you do. Listen to yourself - are you saying "I look fat today" or "My thighs are enormous" or "Look at this ugly excess skin"? Children have observed our weight loss, probably with great curiosity. If we can learn to say, "Wow! I love the power of my healthy weight body" or "This healthy dinner was just the ticket to boost my energy" then we are sending a positive message. Healthy bodies are good. Rather than focus on the flaws we are celebrating good health. And so may our children.

Wouldn't it be awesome if we became the last generation of self-loathing people? We can do it, one child at a time.

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National Child Health Day: Helping our Kids

The 5 Day Pouch Test: Express Study Guide

On this day, the President invites “all agencies and organizations interested in child welfare to unite on Child Health Day in observing exercises that will make the people of the United States aware of the fundamental necessity of a year-round program to protect and develop the health of the children of the United States”.  ( 36 U.S.C § 105 )

Since 1928 when President Calvin Coolidge signed the bill this country has observed Child Health Day on which the welfare of the nation's children is the focus of concern. These days a great deal of attention and concern is given to the so-called obesity crisis as more children become overweight. In the weight loss surgery community we don't need to be reminded of this painful issue. Many of us grew up as overweight children or adolescents. And it's possible many are parents or grandparents to children who are struggling with weight management. The issue becomes more complicated when a parent loses weight and an overweight child feels hurt and resentful.

Today I share this article from my previously released syndicated articles that addresses the sensitive issue of parent and child relationships after WLS.

When a Parent has WLS: What to Tell Our Chubby Children

We know that children are becoming obese at an alarming rate. We know fat kids become fat adults. We know that obesity is the second leading cause of preventable death in this county. We know that obese children will be faced with huge health risks that will compromise their quality of life as adults. We know that obese children are the target of hate and ridicule by other children. We know that fat children are shunned by their peers. And we know it is the parent's responsibility to make sure their children do not become obese dooming them to lifetime of disease, heartache and suffering.

One of the most painful things about obesity is we seem to get it from our parents and pass it along to our children. I know a woman, Diane, who could not celebrate her bariatric success because she had a teenage daughter who came home from school day after day to hug a giant pillow and cry - her classmates called her "Fatty-Cathy". Cathy is overweight, or as her parents like to call her "stout." Racked with guilt Diane asked "How in the world can I celebrate my weight loss when my own daughter is suffering? I feel pretty guilty about it. I'm her mother. I have fed her and taught her bad eating habits. I've actually written notes to excuse her from physical education classes. I gave her my genetic background, then I made the worst of it."

As if "normal" teen-parent relationships aren't difficult enough, imagine having a mother beside herself with guilt and a daughter angry and jealous over her mother's weight loss. When I asked Cathy how she felt about her mother's new figure and improved health she was angry. She said, "How do you think I feel? She is wearing the cute clothes my friends wear and I have to order fat lady clothes from a catalog. I wear my dad's old raincoat because we couldn't find a cute coat in my size. How do you think I feel?" she wept.

Even though she has pleaded earnestly to have surgery, Cathy's parents are strongly opposed to the 16-year-old having bariatric surgery. They believe the family can learn from Diane's life-long battle with obesity and make small steps to improve Cathy's health, ultimately resulting in weight loss.

They are cooking healthy meals together and monitoring portion sizes. They are learning to read nutritional labels. There are no more late night pizza deliveries and "super-size" is off limits. Diane and Cathy have identified that they are emotional eaters. Now they are talking about their negative emotions rather than fostering them with high-calorie, high-fat out-of-control eating. They are working to improve physical fitness as well, walking together three nights a week. Diane doesn't want bariatric surgery to be Cathy's last and only hope. "I want to make things better for her, I don't want her to suffer like I did all those years. I want to correct what I've done wrong by feeding her too much of the wrong things. I don't want her to go through surgery. "

Cathy has reluctantly made lifestyle changes along with her parents. After three months of improved eating habits and exercising she is down 10 pounds. Her BMI is 39, she started at 41, just at the cusp of qualifying for surgery. Dad has joined the fight against fat as well. He's lost almost 20 pounds. "I'm proud of her," said Diane, "and I tell her everyday. I think we are getting closer. I want so much to save her from feeling the pain."

We know that children are copycats: they are more likely to do what their parents do, not what their parents tell them to do. Given that, Cathy's parents are doing the right thing for her by adopting a new family lifestyle that will ultimately improve the quality of life for all of them. Bad eating habits are not impossible to break and exercise is not impossible to incorporate into our daily lives. Diane's surgery was simply the catalyst this family needed to overhaul years of destructive habits.

Cathy's parents have realized, by way of their own health crises, that eating is one of the most fundamental health-related behaviors that can be controlled. They are working together to improve the quality of life for the entire family.

As for the emotional issues: Diane's guilt and Cathy's jealousy; they are doing their best to work through those issues on their own. But Diane admits it is stressful at times and family counseling may be in order. "Years down the road I don't want us to be a mother and daughter who never speak to each other because we didn't resolve these issues. I think there is a chance here for us to become closer."

Copyright © 2005 Kaye Bailey - All Rights Reserved.

Article Source: When a Parent has WLS: What to Tell Our Chubby Children

Good news in fight against childhood obesity

As reported in the New York Times on 12/10/2012:

Obesity in Young Is Seen as Falling in Several Cities

By SABRINA TAVERNISE

PHILADELPHIA — After decades of rising childhood obesity rates, several American cities are reporting their first declines. 

The trend has emerged in big cities like New York and Los Angeles, as well as smaller places like Anchorage, Alaska, and Kearney, Neb. The state of Mississippi has also registered a drop, but only among white students. 

“It’s been nothing but bad news for 30 years, so the fact that we have any good news is a big story,” said Dr. Thomas Farley, the health commissioner in New York City, which reported a 5.5 percent decline in the number of obese schoolchildren from 2007 to 2011.

The drops are small, just 5 percent here in Philadelphia and 3 percent in Los Angeles. But experts say they are significant because they offer the first indication that the obesity epidemic, one of the nation’s most intractable health problems, may actually be reversing course. 

The first dips — noted in a September report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation — were so surprising that some researchers did not believe them. 

Deanna M. Hoelscher, a researcher at the University of Texas, who in 2010 recorded one of the earliest declines — among mostly poor Hispanic fourth graders in the El Paso area — did a double-take. “We reran the numbers a couple of times,” she said. “I kept saying, ‘Will you please check that again for me?’ ” 

Researchers say they are not sure what is behind the declines. They may be an early sign of a national shift that is visible only in cities that routinely measure the height and weight of schoolchildren. The decline in Los Angeles, for instance, was for fifth, seventh and ninth graders — the grades that are measured each year — between 2005 and 2010. Nor is it clear whether the drops have more to do with fewer obese children entering school or currently enrolled children losing weight. But researchers note that declines occurred in cities that have had obesity reduction policies in place for a number of years. 

Though obesity is now part of the national conversation, with aggressive advertising campaigns in major cities and a push by Michelle Obama, many scientists doubt that anti-obesity programs actually work. Individual efforts like one-time exercise programs have rarely produced results. Researchers say that it will take a broad set of policies applied systematically to effectively reverse the trend, a conclusion underscored by an Institute of Medicine report released in May. 

Philadelphia has undertaken a broad assault on childhood obesity for years. Sugary drinks like sweetened iced tea, fruit punch and sports drinks started to disappear from school vending machines in 2004. A year later, new snack guidelines set calorie and fat limits, which reduced the size of snack foods like potato chips to single servings. By 2009, deep fryers were gone from cafeterias and whole milk had been replaced by one percent and skim. 

Change has been slow. Schools made money on sugary drinks, and some set up rogue drink machines that had to be hunted down. Deep fat fryers, favored by school administrators who did not want to lose popular items like French fries, were unplugged only after Wayne T. Grasela, the head of food services for the school district, stopped buying oil to fill them.

Read Full Article in New York Times: Childhood Obesity Rates Decline

Salt, Soda and Obesity

Salty snacks equal soda-guzzling, heavier kids
Study suggests cutting back on salt, even a pinch, could curb obesity
The Associated Press
updated 3:12 p.m. MT, Wed., Feb. 20, 2008

DALLAS - Kids who load up on salty meals and snacks get thirsty, and too often they turn to calorie-filled sodas. So maybe cutting back on the salt is a good way to cut the calories.

That is the idea coming from a British study published Wednesday in an American Heart Association journal.

Salt is "a hidden factor in the obesity epidemic," said Graham MacGregor, a co-author of the study by researchers at St. George's University of London.

And researchers say all that salt is not coming from the salt shaker: About 80 percent comes from manufactured food.

"Most people think that sodium comes from the salt shaker. The salt shaker contributes less than 10 to 15 percent," said Dr. Myron Weinberger, a professor of medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine.

"Fast foods, for example, are just loaded with sodium. Processed foods are all very high in sodium," said Weinberger, who wrote an editorial related to the study published in the online journal Hypertension.

Benefits go on
Not only could less salt translate to fewer soft drinks and therefore fewer calories, but a modest reduction in salt has already been shown to lower blood pressure, which increases the risk of later-in-life heart attack and stroke, researchers say.

Also, several studies have shown a link between sugary soft drinks and obesity in children.

Reducing salt in manufactured foods can be done gradually, without the public even noticing, said Dr. Feng He, lead author of the study and cardiovascular research fellow at St. George's. She said a 10 to 20 percent reduction in salt is not even detectable.

"It's important for the food industry to make a reduction," she said.

The study suggested that cutting in half the amount of salt British children consume — a decrease of about half a teaspoon a day — would lead to an average reduction of about 18 ounces of sugar-sweetened soft drinks per week.

The study was based on diet data from Great Britain's National Diet and Nutrition Survey. Researchers looked at 1,688 British boys and girls — ages 4 to 18 — over a seven-day period in 1997.

They noted that the amount of salt eaten might be underestimated in the study because it did not include salt added during cooking or at the table. The researchers also found that more than half the fluids drunk by the children were soft drinks, and more than half of those were sugar-sweetened.

The United Kingdom began a government-led campaign to cut salt consumption in 1996 and researchers say more recent studies show that salt intake has already decreased.

Proposal to cut back on salt
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration is taking public comment until March 28 on a consumer group's proposal to restrict the amount of salt in processed foods, among other options. And the American Medical Association has urged the government to require strong labeling of high-salt foods because if salt's connection to high blood pressure and heart problems.

MacGregor said that parents should look at food labels. And they should make sure children eat more fresh fruits and vegetables without adding salt, which stimulates the brain to want more fluid.

"Thirst is one of the most basic instincts. When you get thirsty, you have to drink," MacGregor said.

Too Young for WLS?

We hear a lot about the obesity crisis in children. The media calls it an epidemic and the government calls it a grave social problem. I often receive letters from parents asking for advice on when children should be able to have WLS.

I don't have a definitive answer. The argument psychologists make is that children are not emotionally old enough to handle WLS. The medical community argues that you should not alter the organs in a body that is still maturing.

It seems to me that children and teens are too young physically and mentally for the surgery. But you know, looking back, if I could have undergone WLS and the following transformation at age 18 or 19 it would have spared me years of physical pain and emotional torment. Of course we can all play the "what might have been" game. But one cannot help but wonder what different paths our life would have taken. Was I emotionally ready at 18 or 19 to be the fat girl in a skinny world?

CNN reports on a new government study being conducted on teens who undergo WLS. An excerpt from the article reads:

"Surgery has been effective in treating extreme obesity in adults. Researchers want to find out whether adults and adolescents who have the surgery have significantly different health problems and whether there is any benefit to having the operation earlier in life.

"The researchers are responding to the growing problem of extreme obesity among the young.

"We know bariatric surgery is effective for weight-loss. We just need to carefully document how teenagers respond," said Dr. Thomas Inge, associate professor of pediatrics and surgery at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, which is leading the study.

Read the full Article: Researchers study benefits, risks of teen weight-loss surgery

Just about a year ago we discussed this topic in the LivingAfterWLS Neighborhood: Too Young for WLS. With this new study announced I feel it is time to revisit this topic. Are you in favor or against WLS for teens? Has your view changed due to your own experience with WLS? What are your current views? Do you know a teen who has had or wants to have WLS?

It is important to evaluate the effect of obesity vs. surgery when considering surgery as a tool to treat obesity. We have two informative webisodes that address the toll obesity takes on the body and lifestyle of those suffering from this illness:

The Hidden Costs of Obesity and
Obesity and Your Health: How WLS Can Help