The scientists believe that an obesity is a serious disorder and the treatment obese children should be targeted not only a weight loss but the lifestyle changes. The healthier food choice and more physical activity could help obese kids not to be fat after treatment.
When the Norwegian Institute of Public Health issued in 2016 summary of research on childhood obesity and methods of its treatment, it showed that relying on lifestyle changes is one of the crucial aspects of such treatment. The kid shouldn’t only lose their weight, they should stay healthier. Consequently, children who were taught to change their lifestyle — Norway’s current treatment approach— were on average just one BMI point lower than those who were not treated at all.
“Norway’s current treatment for obese children does not work,”
said the lead author Jøran Hjelmesæth who is the head of the Centre for the Morbidly Obese at Vestfold Hospital. But there is a different point of view because the results from treating obese children are very bad.
“If the goal of the treatment is that everyone will reach a normal weight, very few succeed,”
explains Bjørn Magne Jåtun from the Children’s and Youth Division at Ålesund Hospital. So far, it is still unclear what the goal of Hjelmesæth method – normal weight or the less obese kid? Jåtun says that when obese kids come to the hospital, their parents are not expected to come into a normal weight range – to promise them such a thing would be lying.
“We have more than enough of so-called resourceful families who do not manage to master this challenge,”
he added. So far, the Norway’s approach works for many, but unfortunately not for all obese kids.
