by Childrens Hospital Boston staff on May 23, 2012
By Vivian McNeeley
Angela
When I gave birth to my daughter, Angela, in the summer of 2005, she was a perfect, healthy, happy baby and we were thrilled to welcome our first daughter into our family.
As Angela grew she amazed us in every way. She was outgoing, smart, funny and not at all shy. She had a way about her that was all her own. I was a little concerned that she seemed to be a tad clumsy and unsteady at times, but figured that was just another part of the person she was becoming. When I asked her pediatricians about it they said not to worry, but as time went on there was no denying that her funny little swagger had turned into a noticeable limp.
After being referred to an orthopedic doctor at Boston Children’s Hospital, Angela was diagnosed with developmental dysplasia of the hip, which means she had a problem with formation of her hip joint. She was 5 years old at the time.
By most standards, 5 is still very young, but when it comes to catching and correcting hip dysplasia, it’s considered quite late. If identified between infancy and the baby’s first birthday, doctors can usually treat it with special harnesses or casts, but for a child Angela’s age, treatment is much more difficult and often involves multiple surgeries.
Tonight at 8 pm, HBO will debut a four-part documentary series, The Weight of the Nation, an unflinching look at the severity of the obesity crisis in America, and its crippling effect on our nation’s health and economy.
HBO and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences have joined forces to bring together the nation’s foremost experts on weight and weight loss for a frank and educational look at obesity in America. The series explains how weight became such an issue in this country and provides answers for how we can get to a healthy weight by overcoming the forces that drive us to eat too much and move too little. Full story »
Dr. Claire McCarthy is a primary care physician and the Medical Communications Editor at Boston Children’s Hospital. Along with her blogs here on Thriving, you can find her at the Huffington Post and Boston.com. Follow her on Twitter @drClaire.
My latest (by no means the first, and certainly not the last) embarrassing parenthood moment happened two weeks ago.
It was the evening of the district-wide art show. This is a semi-big deal in our town; the art teachers pick their favorite projects from the school year, from all the grades, and put them on display for everyone to see. There is an opening reception when all the families and friends come to look at all the wonderful art, eat hors d’oeuvres, and do all the appropriate oohing and aahing. Full story »
A new study that looked at which diets work best for kids found that compared to portion control and low-glycemic index (GI) diets, low-carb diets work just as well for weight loss, but are more difficult for kids to stick with long-term.
The study also showed that low-GI diets, which promote foods like fruits, vegetables and whole grains yielded similar weight-loss success, but showed greater long-term compliance a year later. This diet is part of the innovative clinical research conducted by David Ludwig, MD, MPH, director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention CenterBoston Children’s Hospital, and its Optimal Weight for Life (OWL) Clinic.
Since long-term habits are the foundation of healthy living, Ludwig and his colleagues focus on choosing the right combination of foods to limit hunger and overeating, rather than encouraging people to eliminate entire classes of nutrients, like carbohydrates. Ultimately, this method makes it easier for a child to accommodate his or her personal and cultural preferences, allowing the diet to more easily become a lifestyle.
“When you line up biology and behavior, you can accomplish greater results with less work,” says Ludwig. “On a bicycle, if you’re in the wrong gear, you can pedal a whole lot and still not get very far. When you find the right gear, however, suddenly that effort pushes you forward more efficiently.” The same is true for choosing the right weight-loss plan for a child. Full story »
Dr. Claire McCarthy is a primary care physician and the Medical Communications Editor at Boston Children’s Hospital. Along with her blogs here on Thriving, you can find her at the Huffington Post and Boston.com. Follow her on Twitter @drClaire.
As a pediatrician I am embarrassed to admit this, but my 6-year-old son has a terrible diet.
Well, not terribly terrible. He doesn’t live on chips and soda. But it’s remarkably lacking in the things I always tell my patients to eat, like fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy and whole grains.
It’s not for lack of trying on my part. I serve these foods to him regularly, including in the snack I pack him for school. As I encourage parents in my practice to do, I pack things like grapes and string cheese—which often come back uneaten. I think it was out of sheer exasperation that he wrote the note to us (in his best kindergarten spelling) that I found in his backpack. Full story »
Dr. Claire McCarthy is a primary care physician and the Medical Communications Editor at Boston Children’s Hospital. Along with her blogs here on Thriving, you can find her at the Huffington Post and Boston.com. Follow her on Twitter @drClaire.
It seemed like such a great idea.
We need kids to be more active. With a third of US kids overweight or obese, and studies showing that childhood obesity leads to adult obesity, getting the recommended hour a day of activity is more important than ever. Problem is, kids aren’t doing it. For all sorts of reasons, some good and most bad, our kids are turning into couch potatoes.
I was getting really frustrated with my inability to get my patients moving. Then I heard about active video games, like Wii Fit and Just Dance and Dance Dance Revolution, and I thought: this is perfect. Kids love video games. Full story »
Every month the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) publishes an article called Clinical Crossroads, where a patient case is presented and medical professionals are invited to share their thoughts on how they might treat that person. A few weeks later the case is presented again, this time with commentary from an expert who specializes in the medical condition profiled in the article.
Unlike typical medical case studies that focus on diagnosis and treatment of acute illness, Clinical Crossroads often takes into account the ethical, emotional and economic issues related to the patient’s health and treatment. All three of these elements figure heavily in Ms K’s story, making it ideal for the Clinical Crossroads treatment.
But as Ludwig himself would tell you, overcoming childhood obesity isn’t just the job of pediatricians and their patients; parents play a vital role in helping children achieve and maintain a healthy weight and lifestyle too. With that in mind, we are presenting Dr. Ludwig’s Clinical Crossroads piece to you on Thriving and asking for your input as parents.
Given the following situation, what are some ways Ms K and her parents could work as a team to help her live healthier? If you were her mother or father, what would you do to support her efforts?
Ms K is an obese 14-year-old girl who is struggling with weight loss. She lives in the greater metropolitan Boston area. Ms K began to gain weight at age 8 years. Over the past 7 years, her weight has gone up by 20 to 30 lb annually … She reports trying various weight loss programs but either she did not follow through or they did not work. She has never lost more than 5 lb with any focused effort. Full story »
Dr. Claire McCarthy is a primary care physician and the Medical Communications Editor at Boston Children’s Hospital. Along with her blogs here on Thriving, you can find her at the Huffington Post and Boston.com. Follow her on Twitter @drClaire.
Have you seen the anti-childhood obesity ads from Georgia?
With 40% of the kids in Georgia overweight or obese (only Mississippi is worse), health advocates decided that it was time for “a wake-up call.” So the Strong4Life campaign and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta have released print and TV ads with obese kids and slogans like “It’s hard to be a little girl when you’re not.”
Ouch. I mean, really. Imagine being on a playground and having some kid point at you and say, “You look like the fat girl on TV!” What were they thinking?
Actually, I get what they were thinking. It’s a desperate-times-call-for-desperate-measures thing. Full story »
Do you have a Children's Hospital Boston story you'd like heard? By sharing your Children's story you can be a great source of inspiration and encouragement to families who are going through similar situations. And it’s a great way to find support by connecting with others. Share your story today »
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