![]() ![]() The health care system at large, too, may not be the best tool for addressing the socioeconomic, racial and other inequities that the AAP authors describe. The guidance, which was published in the AAP's scientific journal Pediatrics, also acknowledges a pervasive stigma against children in bigger bodies by the very providers that treat them.īut some critics say the guidelines may end up adding to the same stigma they call out, and that pediatricians are ill-equipped to carry out the AAP's recommendations for treatment without causing more harm. In short, the new guidelines discuss obesity as a disease with biological, socioeconomic and environmental factors, as opposed to the stigmatizing idea that obesity is a "reversible consequence of personal choices," as the authors write in the clinical practice guidelines. Kids as young as 12 years old can be prescribed medications for weight loss, which are growing in number, in tandem with other care that should address the long list of social determinants of health that can influence the size of a child's body. Bariatric or metabolic surgery may now be recommended for some children aged 13 and up. The AAP updated its guidelines for pediatricians to include new information and recommendations for weight-loss treatment, including drugs and surgery in some cases. The new guidelines also build on the medical community's precedent for treating obesity as a chronic disease, which has divided expert and public opinion on what it means to have a higher body mass index, as well as whether treating it as a disease lessens the burden on children or piles onto the bias against bigger bodies that already exists in their schools, at their pediatricians' offices, on TV and even in their homes. This constitutes a dramatic shift away from the "watchful waiting" approach that delayed medical treatment for weight loss and encouraged more lifestyle monitoring by health care providers. In January, for the first time in 15 years, the American Academy of Pediatrics released treatment guidelines for obesity in children, recommending earlier intervention, including obesity medications and surgery in certain cases. Photo by Natalie Wilson, courtesy of Sean Rutherford Sean Rutherford, photographed in their home state of Louisiana. ![]()
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