Posted on 04/13/2008 9:31:39 AM PDT by billorites
DOZENS of children as young as six and seven have become so obese that doctors are being forced to put them on ventilators at night to keep them breathing while they sleep.
The children, whose breathing difficulties are blamed on overeating rather than any medical conditions, have been judged by the National Health Service to be morbidly obese - weighing as much as four times the normal weight for their age.
The excessive weight bearing down on the chest, together with deposits of fat around the throat and neck, mean the children need ventilators to help them to breathe while they sleep.
Doctors have revealed that the problem, previously witnessed only in obese adults or children with medical problems, is spreading to children of primary school age as the latest consequence of the childhood obesity epidemic.
Many of the children will need to sleep attached to a breathing machine every night for the rest of their lives and doctors warn that they are at “huge risk” of dying because they cannot get enough oxygen.
Those affected include Regan Taylor, 7, from Conisbrough near Doncaster, who weighs 11 stone and is so obese that he has to wear adults’ clothes. He has had to sleep attached to a breathing machine ever since he was admitted to hospital for resuscitation four years ago.
One consultant warned that some children aged just six or seven may need to be considered for stomach-stapling surgery, usually restricted to adults, to reduce their weight and allow them to breathe properly.
Dr Jerry Wales, a consultant paediatric endocrinologist at Sheffield children’s hospital, said: “We have some children who are on nocturnal ventilation while prepubertal, and their life span is going to be limited because of that. This is happening in mid-childhood.
“You could make the argument that the only treatment that has any possibility of saving their lives is [stomach] surgery.
“Noninvasive nocturnal ventilation is a common treatment in adults and is getting more common in children. There is some fat round the airway narrowing it. The chest is also heavy and more difficult to move [when breathing].”
The children are suffering from a form of sleep apnoea caused by their obesity. Paediatric respiratory physicians previously diagnosed sleep apnoea in children with conditions such as enlarged tonsils but say that an increasing percentage of their patients now have the condition because they are morbidly obese.
Dr Rob Primhak, a paediatric respiratory physician at Sheffield children’s hospital, said colleagues in America had told him that obesity was the cause of the sleep apnoea in up to 50 per cent of their patients. Primhak said he was seeing an emergence of the same trend.
Respiratory physicians in London also say that an increasing percentage of their patients have obesity-related breathing difficulties.
“I saw the first case five years ago but we are much more aware of it now,” Primhak said.
“We have had three or four children whom we have had to treat for obesity-induced sleep apnoea.
“So far none of the obese patients I have treated for this have got better.”
Regan, who is one of Primhak’s patients, uses a device called a continuous positive airways pressure (CPAP) machine, which holds the airways open. Some children need more powerful noninvasive ventilators.
Regan’s mother, Paula Taylor, is considering putting locks on her cupboards to prevent her son eating all the time. She also has to shop for groceries on a daily basis to reduce the quantity of food available at any one time.
Taylor, a support worker for the elderly, says she has tried hard to curtail her son’s overeating but believes he has a genetic condition that stops him being able to control his appetite. Tests carried out on Regan have, as yet, failed to identify a known genetic condition, but doctors say that he could suffer from an as yet unknown defect.
“I worry about Regan’s weight. I cut down my hours at work so that I could be at home more to keep an eye on him,” Taylor said.
“The doctors have said Regan will always need the ventilator until they control his weight. If his weight comes down he will no longer need it. They tried him on slimming tablets but they didn’t seem to do anything.
“They are now going to put him on tablets to suppress his appetite. As a last resort they will consider surgery.”
Patient groups say the increase in children needing ventilators is evidence that the obesity epidemic has got out of control.
Tam Fry, chairman of the Child Growth Foundation, said: “We are seeing this now because we have failed to monitor the growth of our children and these children are being allowed to become morbidly obese. This kind of case confirms we have a horrendous obesity problem that we have not yet faced up to.”
There are about 1m obese children in Britain, according to the British Medical Association. Estimates indicate that, if current trends continue, at least one fifth of boys and one third of girls will be obese by 2020.
Dittos. When I was young, Mom was there 24/7 to keep an eye on what was consumed. We were allowed a light snack after school and a light snack in the evening. Even dinners weren't a free for all, either. They included moderate helpings of meat and vegetables and hardly ever dessert. Now kids are left alone with no one to supervise what is consumed and they eat continually.
I have one granddaughter aged 12 who is slightly overweight, but she has grown three inches in the past year, and is all boobs, butt and legs. She is maturing fast, has a tiny waist this year, is the tallest in her class, and will only get taller. True honey-colored hair, blue eyes, and golden skin. She is breaking hearts as we speak, and is completely unaware of it. She weighs 140 and is 5’6” tall.
She still likes her computer war games, going down to the creek and building a dam, swimming at the community center year round, planting flowers, and wants to start mowing my lawn for money. I think I’ll let her.
Kids get slightly heavy just before and around puberty in my family. I guess they’re storing up for the growth that overtakes them...13 yo grandson is 5’11” skinny as a rail.
In all of these articles about fats kids from the UK, I have never seen any mention of any classes in Phsy Ed. Does the British school system have that as part of the curriculum or not??
Don’t touch the cookies” the parent means it. “
Agreed-— But the parent bought or baked the cookies.... Eliminate them and learn to tell your kids NO and mean it.
Put SUBWAY JARED in charge.....
a light snack in the evening.
Popcorn is still the most used evening snack with all my brothers.
Several things regarding the Taylor woman and her child jumped out at me. She is working fewer hours so that she can be home to keep an eye on the kid??? He is 7 years old ... she is leaving him unattended while she is at work? And she is not storing food at home so that the kid will have access to less food??? Why is it so difficult to teach the child that he can not eat whatever he wants, whenever he wants? Wonder if she ever considered keeping a stockpile of raw veggies and fruits around for the unattended child to devour.
I was in line (at WalMart) behind a woman driving the cart ... she was 450 lbs. easy. Her teenage daughter was walking, even though she was at least 200 lbs. already. They were purchasing sodas by the case and had boxes and bags of Little Debbie and Hostess donuts. When I got home, I discovered that a full bag of their junk had been left on the carousel and ended up in my buggy. It was two bags of Hostess donuts, one powdered and the other chocolate covered. My husband asked me what I was going to do and I told him that I was doing them a favor by eating the donuts myself. Still experiencing guilt though.
“Gillian McKeith, pick up the white phone, please!”
I watch “You Are What You Eat” while running on the tread mill...excellent motivation! It is amazing what those fat Brits eat in a week, and not a vegetable to be seen. (However, Gillian’s hummus recipe does look awful.)
You can talk till you’re blue in the face to these obese people and nothing sinks in.
One of my husband’s friends had a staggeringly obese son and the two came over for a country breakfast one Saturday a.m. I made sausage, biscuits and gravy, hash browns, scrambled eggs, grapes and of course oj and milk.
He wouldn’t eat the biscuits because I make them lumpy, he wouldn’t eat the sausage because I chopped onions in it, didn’t like the hash browns because I put bell peppers and onions in them, didn’t like the scrambled eggs because they had mushrooms in them. No oj cause it would give him a stomach ache, and no grapes because they made him choke.
I am serious.
He wanted me to make pancakes for him, when I said I was going to sit down and eat, he looked at his dad as if his father would “make” me, then at my husband, and said, “I’m going home. My mother will toast some waffles for me. There’s nothing good to eat here.”
His father let him go...I think in that household, he had little to say. He was a very fit man, he had married a tiny woman who proceeded to give him a son and then to blow up into a balloon, along with the son.
A decade later, the son was tall, fit, and slim like his dad. I guess he finally broke the apron strings, and grew up.
I used to have sympathy for them. Not anymore.
I think that sounds like aGREAT idea!
My son wants to rake leaves for $$$...he does a great job...we’d just have to tell the neighbors to pay him by the job not the hour...he might forget what he was doing and start shooting the imaginary enemies with his imaginary weapons...
LOL!
Your granddaughter sounds lovely!
A REAL BEAUTY not a stick!
:-)
You can see my son on my profile...the pudgy one is on the right..
He’s only 8 though...and in the 100th percentile in weight and somewhere between 95-100th in height...
He certainly doesn’t LOOK pudgy until you see him without his shirt!!!
That kid has a BELLY!
His BMI says he’s overweight...the doctor shook his head and said not to worry about it...keep doing what you’re doing...he’s fine....
Try to get him to keep growing taller before putting on anymore weight!
:-)
Two years ago my daughter went over to Germany for a month, in the Black Forest Area. We also had a young lady stay with us for about the same time. My daughter, while in Germany lost appox. 15 lbs (yes she is on the heavy side).
At the same time the very petite German girl was distressed that she had gained some weight.
The problem is the Germans appear to be eating ALL the time. Not good stuff either. Sausages, cheese, breads, pizza, cake, all the time. While daughter was over in Germany, she is telling me that the favorite fast morning food was to spread Nutello (cake icing basically) on toast!
I'm telling you all, overeating the wrong foods might be part of it, but it's not the whole story. Something else is at work here.
The doctor is right—he’s fine! Looks completely normal to me.
Seriously, obesity can be seen, it’s no mystery. If people look overweight, they are.
Especially the sodas. They were a once or twice a week treat when I was a kid, and then only an 8 oz bottle. Now I see people having them one after another all day long.
Well...I DO worry though...the belly!
LOL!
I’m overweight myself...and it’s MY GOAL that HE never be!
His dad (who is NOT overweight) is the arbiter on all things food related!
Dinner portions...2nds....candy...etc...
I’m trying to feed my sons the way HE remembers being fed...
Which, ironically, includes many, MANY more “Treats” than I EVER had as a child!
My mother was a healthy food nut..in the 70’s!
WOW!
Anyway..
We’re off for the day...
Swimming and riding bikes!
:-)
M0sby, I hope you and your fine sons have a great day. God bless!
I believe the distress people feel is excessively punitive in its expression--you see it on every "fatso" thread here on FR. I believe this expression of hostility to the obese in counter productive and keeps us from finding solid answers and treatments.
Anyone who has seen a scrawny teenage boy stand at the refrigerator and inhale a hundred dollar's worth of groceries knows that whatever is causing this is far more than just "calories in, calories out." And the rapid increase in the numbers of the obese in the past decade has to mean that something has changed in our human organism that we need to FIND OUT.
It MIGHT be this--we may be getting so fat because we've become so healthy.
Think about a farmer who wants his livestock to grow and gain weight. He doesn't just feed the calves--he makes them healthy. He looks after the cows in gestation to maximize calving. They get hormones and antibiotics and vaccines (just like humans do)--and the farmer is rewarded for his husbandry by large, prospering calves who have big appetities.
Sick livestock won't eat. It's the first clue that you have a sick horse when he goes off his feed.
Maybe the answer lies in agriculture--rather than censorious dietitions.
It's not a common sight to see an obese child in Italy, France or Spain. Adults may be overweight, but a whole family? Hardly ever. Fat families are a commonplace here in the states.
No bias there...
You complain that the "fatties" didn't have the following in their shopping carts:
NOT ONE fresh fruit...an orange or apple, no grapes, not a one...No frozen fruits...Not even the pre-cheesed frozen broccoli...no flour...not even biscuits that you have to bake.
Each and every high-carbohydrate item listed here causes high blood sugar, which leads to diabetes and weight gain in the 'fatties' (Endomorph to the non-ignorant).
The snacks, candy, and sugar-water (soda) you also mentioned are even worse, but why would you want a couple of Endomorphs to eat food that makes them fatter?
Yes, in an earlier thread I stated that I am a bigot about fat people. I have a prejudice against them. I have no problem with that, and if you do, I don’t care.
Fresh fruit does not cause “high blood sugar” in a healthy person, and it does NOT cause diabetes. Fresh fruit contains nutrients and fiber that help prevent deficiency diseases as well as a whole host of other ills.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.