• Home
• About PAMED
• FAQs
• Site Map
• Contact Us

• CME
  • CME Activities
  • CME Tracker: The CME Organizer
  • Meetings and Seminars
  • Requirements and Accreditation
• Government
  • State of Medicine 2007
  • Capitol Insight
  • Contact Legislators
  • Laws Affecting Physicians
  • News from Harrisburg
  • PAMPAC and Political Support
• Newsletters
  • Capitol Insight
  • Consult
  • Converge
  • intouch
  • Patient Connection
  • Studies in Patient Safety
  • Vital Lines
• Patient Care
  • Disease Management
  • Family Health and Wellness
  • Find-A-Physician
  • Patient Safety
  • Public Health
  • Patient Connection
• Practice Management
  • eHealth Technology
  • Health Insurers
  • HIPAA
  • Medicare/Medicaid
  • Meetings and Seminars
  • Running a Practice
  • Vital Lines
• Resources
  • Affiliates & Sections
  • Board of Trustees
  • County Medical Societies
  • Endorsed Vendors
  • House of Delegates
  • JobBank
  • Media
  • Member Directory
  • Membership
  • Specialty Societies
  • Staff Directory
• Multimedia
  • Podcasts
  • RSS
  • Video & Webinars

One-Minute Advice for Providers

For children with a normal BMI
Encourage the child to:

• Limit TV/video to one hour per day and read more.
• Eat five helpings of fruits and vegetables each day.
• Limit soda, fruit juice to one small cup per day.

For children with a BMI between 85-95 percent and children crossing percentiles

1. Engage the child and parent
   • Can we take a few minutes together to discuss your child’s health and weight?
   • (Child) What do you think about your weight?
   • (Parent) What to you think about your child’s weight?
2. Share information
   • Overweight children are at increase risk for heart disease and diabetes. What do you make of this?
   • Some ideas for weight management and good health include increasing physical activity and better nutrition: What are your ideas for working towards a healthier weight for your child?
3. Make key advice statement—I would strongly encourage you to:
   • Decrease TV/video watch to one hour per day (or incremental decreases).
   • Limit soda, juice and whole milk.
   • Maintain current weight, don’t gain more weight (except for group with co-morbidities).
4. Arrange for follow-up:
   • Would you be interested in some information on ways to work towards a healthier weight?
   • Let’s make an appointment with an MD, RD, or other clinician.
   • Let’s recheck weight in one month.

For children with a BMI above 95 percent or children with a lower BMI and obesity-related co-morbidities
Review above plus:

• Screen with fasting serum glucose, insulin, HgbA1c, AST, ALT, and lipid panel.
• Consider behavioral modification techniques such as contract and rewards.
• Referral to an obesity treatment program if available and patient demonstrates a readiness to change.

References

1. Obesity Evaluation and Treatment: Expert Committee Recommendations
   Barlow, S. and Dietz, W.
2. Prevention of Pediatric Overweight and Obesity
   American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement
   Pediatrics, 112:2,424-430
3. Preventing Childhood Obesity: Health in the Balance
   Institute of Medicine Report, 2005
4. Effective Communication with Families
   Gee, S.; Ravel, J.; Roberts, S.; and Wylie, A.
   Regional Health Education-Kaiser Permanente Northern California
   (http://nature.berkeley.edu/cwh/PDFs/CCOC_05_PDFs
   /S_Gee_effectivecommunication2.pdf)

[Top]