From Your Health Journal…..”A very educational article from Time magazine written by Bonnie Rochman entitled Is Self-Help the Secret to Reducing Childhood Obesity? Childhood obesity is growing all over the world, and in the United States, one in three children are considered overweight, while one in seven are considered obese. Along with this, obesity related illnesses are up – including weak joints, heart disease, asthma, cancer, and type 2 diabetes. Education is a key ingredient to reducing childhood obesity, but some families do not have access to this! Studies at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine indicate that a self-help treatment program for overweight children and their parents, guided by clinical experts, may be an effective solution to help children lose weight. The researchers state parents can help their kids lose weight without such costly and time-consuming intervention by relying on a self-help “coaching” method that requires only bi-weekly guidance from a pediatrician. Please visit the Time magazine web site (link provided below) to read this complete article. It was very interesting, well written, and well thought.”

From the article…..

There is no shortage of strategies to lose weight, but which work best for children?

One in three U.S. kids weighs too much, according to the latest government statistics, but parents don’t have too many appealing options when it comes to helping their children slim down. The gold standard treatment for childhood obesity that’s typically endorsed by weight-loss specialists involves six months of weekly clinic visits lasting 90 minutes each during which families learn the basics of nutrition and are introduced to ideas such as ”stimulus control” — or bringing only healthy food into their homes lessen the temptation from more calorie-ridden, unhealthy products. But many parents can’t afford the time or money that requires.

Now researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) say parents can help their kids lose weight without such costly and time-consuming intervention by relying on a self-help “coaching” method that requires only bi-weekly guidance from a pediatrician. In a study published in the journal Pediatrics, the scientists found that using the self-help model resulted in a 12-year-old of average height losing five pounds over the five-month study period compared to children who received no guidance about weight loss. Those kids who got no treatment during the study period actually gained weight: a 12-year-old of average height put on five pounds. “We saw significant losses in the guided self-help kids while the control group continued to gain weight,” says Kerri Boutelle, lead author and a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at UCSD.

The more flexible approach — which reduced face-to-face treatment time from about 36 hours over six months to less than five hours over five months — could potentially help more families and broaden the reach of childhood-obesity treatment, say the study authors. “This is the first time this kind of model has been tested and it looks promising,” says Boutelle.

To read the complete article…..Click here