12 Year Old Gets Lapband

[StacyinDE 0]

The Nemours (A.I. Dupont) Children's Hospital here in Delaware is creating a Lap-Band program through their Weight Loss Clinic. I found out about this because my son is a patient there. They apparently are partnering or being funded in some way for a research study with the FDA to do lap bands on 13 year olds - that is the age group specified for them to work with. The Dietician I spoke with about this said the children do have to be at least 100 pounds overweight to be considered and there is extensive counseling and nutritional education to be involved. She brought it up to me at our last visit a few weeks ago.

My son is not a candidate, though he at 8 years old has asked if he can get a "rubber band" around his stomach too so he can lose weight like mommy. He is currently about 60 pounds overweight at 4'9" and 136 pounds.

I disagree with the generalization that having an overweight child is because you are a "bad" parent. I am in no way a bad parent and I have an obese child. My son's weight gain is from medication (anti-convulsants, anti-anxiety/psychotic medications, steroids and corticosteroids) and from his chronic severe health conditions. He has permanemnt damage to his lungs resulting in chronic asthma (which is also exercise-induced) and he has damage to his brain (bands, and bands of damaged tissue throughout his brain).

He was a normal weight and proportionate until he was 3 years old and started on the anticonvulsants. Even with the steroids and corticosteroids his weight was maintanable and in a normal range until then - he has been on them since birth. He has been under the care of multiple doctors since his birth and I was warned about the weight he would gain because of the medications he is on and his limited ability to exercise and be active because of his severe asthma.

Will he be a candidate at age 13 or more? I don't know. Would I consider it for him at that age, again, I don't know. The determination will be his physical and mental health (because of the epilepsy and brain damage he has a mood/behavior disorder) and if the benefits of the surgery would outweigh the risks. As a parent of a child in this situation, and having been banded myself, it is comforting to know that it *might* be an option for my son. I am hoping that we can continue to manage his weight through diet and exercise but that has not been working as well as we would like. His conditions are chronic and he will be on these medications for the rest of his life. Losing the weight he carries in his abdomen would absolutely help with his asthma and breathing difficulties not to mention his self confidence. Kids can be very cruel and they don't understand that he is different because he cannot help it, not by choice. He doesn't look "sick" so they, like the rest of society tends to do, just assume he has no self control and eats and eats and eats and has a weight problem.

It's a difficult situation for any child to be in and whatever reason put them there, my heart goes out to all of them.

[Daisalana 33]

I can't view the video at work.. but in all honesty, if I could have had the lap-band when I was 12, it would have been the best thing my parents did for me!

[green 6]

The Nemours (A.I. Dupont) Children's Hospital here in Delaware is creating a Lap-Band program through their Weight Loss Clinic. I found out about this because my son is a patient there. They apparently are partnering or being funded in some way for a research study with the FDA to do lap bands on 13 year olds - that is the age group specified for them to work with. The Dietician I spoke with about this said the children do have to be at least 100 pounds overweight to be considered and there is extensive counseling and nutritional education to be involved. She brought it up to me at our last visit a few weeks ago.

My son is not a candidate, though he at 8 years old has asked if he can get a "rubber band" around his stomach too so he can lose weight like mommy. He is currently about 60 pounds overweight at 4'9" and 136 pounds.

I disagree with the generalization that having an overweight child is because you are a "bad" parent. I am in no way a bad parent and I have an obese child. My son's weight gain is from medication (anti-convulsants, anti-anxiety/psychotic medications, steroids and corticosteroids) and from his chronic severe health conditions. He has permanemnt damage to his lungs resulting in chronic asthma (which is also exercise-induced) and he has damage to his brain (bands, and bands of damaged tissue throughout his brain).

He was a normal weight and proportionate until he was 3 years old and started on the anticonvulsants. Even with the steroids and corticosteroids his weight was maintanable and in a normal range until then - he has been on them since birth. He has been under the care of multiple doctors since his birth and I was warned about the weight he would gain because of the medications he is on and his limited ability to exercise and be active because of his severe asthma.

Will he be a candidate at age 13 or more? I don't know. Would I consider it for him at that age, again, I don't know. The determination will be his physical and mental health (because of the epilepsy and brain damage he has a mood/behavior disorder) and if the benefits of the surgery would outweigh the risks. As a parent of a child in this situation, and having been banded myself, it is comforting to know that it *might* be an option for my son. I am hoping that we can continue to manage his weight through diet and exercise but that has not been working as well as we would like. His conditions are chronic and he will be on these medications for the rest of his life. Losing the weight he carries in his abdomen would absolutely help with his asthma and breathing difficulties not to mention his self confidence. Kids can be very cruel and they don't understand that he is different because he cannot help it, not by choice. He doesn't look "sick" so they, like the rest of society tends to do, just assume he has no self control and eats and eats and eats and has a weight problem.

It's a difficult situation for any child to be in and whatever reason put them there, my heart goes out to all of them.

Thank you for writing about your son. Certainly he has had a rough time and of course you yourself have been sharing in his troubles. It strikes me that your child is now stuck in a place where he has a number of factors working against him with respect to weight control. He has severe breathing issues and this will interfere with his level of physical activity. He is also on a number of drugs which cause weight gain. (I was briefly put on an antipsychotic and watched, with horror, my weight skyrocket.) It also seems that you are a bandster member because you yourself have weight issues due to the beautifully efficient metabolism, the very tool which was so useful for survival in primitive times and which, ironically, causes modern folk to end up with the problems of excess weight. This is also something which is hereditary. Your son may have inherited your metabolism along with his other hassles, the ones which lead him to suffer from weight control issues. Who knows?

Certainly your child is in a very different situation from that of the young girl who has been the topic of discussion on this thread or, indeed, from the case of any pre-teen or child who is only just entering into her teen years with a weight problem that is neither hooked up with other medical issues nor a case of serious morbidity.

In the case of your child his weight issues are both the cause of pre-existing medical conditions and the result of these; and your son's weight problem will seriously erode his health if this is not checked at some future point. All of my heart goes out to you and your boy. He sounds like a champ - I love the "rubber band'" request - and you sound like one, too.

It certainly sounds as though the Nemours Children's Hospital will have criteria in place which ideally will assess the medical needs of the child and the maturity of the family before deciding whether the child should be banded or not.

I am sure that none of us who were engaged in discussion prior to your post had no intention of dissing people such as you or your son or, for that matter, those young people who are morbidly obese. Weight issues of this nature are medical issues. We were more concerned about this particular kid who had already undergone a year of liposuction/liposculpture while she was still a preteen. Now she has hit the news again because she has been banded at the very young age of 13. The kid is nowhere near 100 lbs overweight and neither she nor her mother seem to have a firm fix on the bandster's role in responsible food behaviour. It was at this point that a couple of other bandster mums waded in to say that all good mothers do insure that their kids learn proper nutritional habits.

Knowing proper nutritional habits is never a guarantee that one is going to remain slender, of course. I have superb nutritional habits. My downfall was Portion Control. I was a healthy fatso, eh. :heh:

[purplegirl1818 1]

so i first read this, and people saying it was dumb and i was offended, because i was banded last wednesday and im only 16. then i watched the video, what an idiot.

the mother saying she can only eat so much? bull... we all know we just have to drink a lot when we eat, it will send everything down the stomach and nothing will matter. and that kid is never going to learn anything with that kind of mother, i mean you have to address the compulsive eating before anything else.

and to the lady with the 13 year old, there are 7 centers though out the US that have the special FDA thing. i know two are in new your city, ones in ohio, and I am apart of one that is in Chicago. they are all awesome programs and they wont let you be banded unless you have changed those eating habits, because they know the band doesnt do anything but put yuo in danger if you over eat persistantly (sp?)

[Chickie 15]

I disagree with the generalization that having an overweight child is because you are a "bad" parent.

If a parent is giving the child garbage to eat, and not encouraging exercise, yes, they are a bad parent. It is a huge part of a parents job to foster good eating and exercise habits.

[esummersett 0]

The real concern is that a girl (or a boy for that matter) at the age of 12 is not emotionally or physically mature. I would be concerned with the long term growing patterns in these children realted to them having a lapband placed, as well as the effects of their obestiy. I speak as an overweight adult and an overweight child, the lapband is not a quick or simple fix.

This mother is sending messages to her young daughter that ANYWAY to get thin is the way to go. This child has already had liposuction, that sounds like it was really effective for her weight huh?!

I give cudos to the specialists doing the RESEARCH into this growing epidemic and trying to understand what is the right age for someone to be banded. My educated guess is that 12 is too young, but I think it depends on the person. I also belive that pyschological evaluation is paramount for these kids.

I feel bad for this child, as her mother is defining her by what she physically looks like.

I have a lapband and want to be healthy, not just THIN!

[StacyinDE 0]

If a parent is giving the child garbage to eat, and not encouraging exercise, yes, they are a bad parent. It is a huge part of a parents job to foster good eating and exercise habits.

Chickie,

I do agree with you completely on this.

I know our situation is different but my son is well aware of calories and what they are and how you "burn them up" and understands what that means. He knows about Portion Control and how much is too much and he is well versed in all of the food groups and what foods are healthy and what foods are not. Most kids his age don't have a clue, even the ones with weight issues.

Many kids think nothing of using their lunch money to buy multiple sodas, Desserts and candy with. I've seen it as a lunch mom time and time again, but that is a whole other issue with what kids have access to in the school cafeteria. Though I have to say there's usually always a healthy alternative offered though not necessarily chosen.

[StacyinDE 0]

Thank you for writing about your son. Certainly he has had a rough time and of course you yourself have been sharing in his troubles. It strikes me that your child is now stuck in a place where he has a number of factors working against him with respect to weight control. He has severe breathing issues and this will interfere with his level of physical activity. He is also on a number of drugs which cause weight gain. (I was briefly put on an antipsychotic and watched, with horror, my weight skyrocket.) It also seems that you are a bandster member because you yourself have weight issues due to the beautifully efficient metabolism, the very tool which was so useful for survival in primitive times and which, ironically, causes modern folk to end up with the problems of excess weight. This is also something which is hereditary. Your son may have inherited your metabolism along with his other hassles, the ones which lead him to suffer from weight control issues. Who knows?

Certainly your child is in a very different situation from that of the young girl who has been the topic of discussion on this thread or, indeed, from the case of any pre-teen or child who is only just entering into her teen years with a weight problem that is neither hooked up with other medical issues nor a case of serious morbidity.

In the case of your child his weight issues are both the cause of pre-existing medical conditions and the result of these; and your son's weight problem will seriously erode his health if this is not checked at some future point. All of my heart goes out to you and your boy. He sounds like a champ - I love the "rubber band'" request - and you sound like one, too.

It certainly sounds as though the Nemours Children's Hospital will have criteria in place which ideally will assess the medical needs of the child and the maturity of the family before deciding whether the child should be banded or not.

I am sure that none of us who were engaged in discussion prior to your post had no intention of dissing people such as you or your son or, for that matter, those young people who are morbidly obese. Weight issues of this nature are medical issues. We were more concerned about this particular kid who had already undergone a year of liposuction/liposculpture while she was still a preteen. Now she has hit the news again because she has been banded at the very young age of 13. The kid is nowhere near 100 lbs overweight and neither she nor her mother seem to have a firm fix on the bandster's role in responsible food behaviour. It was at this point that a couple of other bandster mums waded in to say that all good mothers do insure that their kids learn proper nutritional habits.

Knowing proper nutritional habits is never a guarantee that one is going to remain slender, of course. I have superb nutritional habits. My downfall was Portion Control. I was a healthy fatso, eh. :heh:

Green,

Thank you for your kind words and compassion. We have a daily struggle in a number of things, but his weight and the issues related to it are prevalant at this point, which is why this situation strikes so close to home for me.

I agree that neither this little girl nor her mother seemed to really understand the behavioral or psychological changes associated with having the banding surgery. I just can't imagine a mother not only allowing but encouraging her to undergo these procedures as her mother has done. And, the mother was very flip about the preop testing and especially the psychological testing needed prior to banding. She seemed more concerned about the cost to her rather than the importance of making sure her child was fully prepared for this life changing procedure.

I think we are going to see a rise in teens and preteens wanting this surgery for a quick fix and not fully understanding the consequences and the hard work and diligence involved in living with your band. Sadly, I think there will be many more stories similar to the one about this little girl.

[Chickie 15]

My 11 year old wouldn't have a clue what a proper portion size is, nor what a calorie really is, or how it breaks down in his body. It's my job as his parent to give him what he needs to fuel his body for the day.

What we *have* taught him is that to grow up strong and healthy, he has to eat his veggies, Pasta and Protein (we are vegetarian) and NOT drink fizzy crap. We have taught him that he has to move his body every day (for example, walking to school, or the shop to do the shopping, or to the library rather than driving)

A great way to set kids up for obesity, and eating disorders is to put too much pressure on them to be thin. And by forcing a *child* to comprehend the workings of a calorie, how to burn excess energy off, and all that sort of thing, we are setting our kids up for paranoia and failure. Children are children for a reason. At 8, 9,10, 11, or even 12 years old they are still children, and still need their parents to guide them. Children can be incredibly mature, and still be a child.

Society treats children like mini adults, and it's not right. They are children.

As for the school lunch thing... Well, the simple solution to school lunches is to send along a healthy lunch. Not just give the kid money and expect that they will make the healthy choice. Because children do not have the reasoning power to understand that a packet of chips, and a can of coke are a crap choice, and will leave them feeling like garbage half way through the day, but the salad sandwich and skim milk will keep them feeling fantastic, fuel their brain and help them have a better day at school. That is why the parents should ultimately responsible for what the child eats.

I am not attacking, just trying to explain my point of view.

[green 6]

I was raised on healthy food and skim milk. I never tasted soda until I was in my late teens because when I wasn't at home I was in boarding school, another junk food-free zone. When I finally did try it I was really shocked; I thought it tasted horrible. This proved lucky. I never acquired the addiction to the stuff that so many people seem to have.

I was also really late having my first Big Mac experience. I was 35 when I ate my first Big Mac and fries. Now, those I enjoyed.

I am inclined to believe that when parents raise their kids on good food the kids will often carry on with this style of eating in adulthood. Both of my brothers along with myself continued to prefer quality food as adults. One of them went on to become a superb cook. Two of us had problems with weight because we were so very fond of what was on our plates and because our genetics favoured weight gain. (This is why I love my band.)

I suspect that sometimes children are not properly fed because their parents run out of time and energy by the end of the day, possibly because they themselves are not eating healthily. It takes time and good organisational skills to make good food for dinner and to pack good lunches for the kids to take to school. I also suspect that most people know very little about food and nutrition.

I have always preferred good food but I have learned a helluva lot since being banded. This is because I now scrutinise the nutritional content list on all prepared foods. This is a real learning experience and often not in a reassuring way. One of the things that I have learned is that most vegetable Soups and Pasta sauces are pretty much devoid of vita C as well as just about every other nutrient. :omg: Learning how to eat properly is a challenge. I think that this should be taught in schools but more importantly, no junk food should ever be available in a school cafeteria. I think that all parents should lobby their local school boards about this.

[zuchinno 4]

Here here! I could not agree with your bolded statement more, green. My mother taught me to be a good cook, and I brought the cookbook I made for post-surgery to my dietitian and she was amazed. She said the recipes looked amazing and really tasty and not a one was out of line for losing weight.

I definitely have my mother to thank for that.

[green 6]

I bet that a lot of us would be interested in reading your cookbook, Z. Have you posted any of your recipes here?

[zuchinno 4]

Nah, Not yet but I was thinking about it! You think I should? I'm not sure which part of the forum would be the right place to...

[green 6]

Nah, Not yet but I was thinking about it! You think I should? I'm not sure which part of the forum would be the right place to...

I'm thinking that this would be a fabulous idea. I know that there is a food section on the site....

:help: Do any of you other posters have any ideas as to where would be the best place for Z's wonderful recipes? ?? Write right now! :ranger:

I sure do want to read your recipes and maybe we will get some suggestions as to the best way to present them on this site.

I am also thinking that you could create your own website for these and then create a link, part of your signature perhaps, which would allow all of us to enter into your recipe book. I am old and blonde which = cyber stupid and so I will leave my suggestions up to you and you can figure out if they are of any use. :heh::heh::heh::heh::heh:

[zuchinno 4]

Wellll... my boyfriend is a tech genius so I'll see what we can doooo... Maybe I'll get 'em typed up this weekend. There are quite a few, compiled from research on the internet, and from my family as well. I'll keep you guys updated. Most of them are really easy and fast, but add a whole lot of flavor to the "meat, then veg, and a small carb" thing they tell us to eat.