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medpundit |
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Tuesday, August 05, 2003Here we go again. This one takes the cake. The American Academy of Pediatrics is now recommending that physicians treating children take serial measurements of BMI so that they can pick up early increases in growth that might indicate obesity. Please. How stupid can you be? Shouldn't a pair of eyes and common sense be sufficient to tell whether somebody's getting a little chubby? This is not rocket science. And then here's the ultimate question. What are they going to do about it? When the AAP comes up with a fool proof plan of treatment of obesity or prevention of obesity, that will work for the vast majority of patients( and let's face it, we all know that telling patients to eat less, exercise more, and carefully pick the kinds of food you eat, does not work ), then maybe perhaps it may be useful, though even then I doubt it. I will tell you what it will do though. It now provides the attorney with a hard number that can be used in court to sue or blame physicians for the their patients' obesity. I can just hear it now, " Doctor, you did not measure the BMI in this poor, unfortunate, roly poly child, who is harassed in school , in the playground, and I can't even describe, what happens to her in gym?" "Doctor, here is a picture of this child at 2, 3, 4, etc, you measured her BMI and didn't successfully treat her obesity?" What this pathetic recommendation is , is a feeble PR response on behalf of the American Academy of Pediatrics to all the press regarding the so called obesity epidemic, because let's face it they can't do anything more meaningful for this problem, than p*** in the wind! Never fear. Turns out they have a treatment plan up their sleeves. They're coming up with guidelines for pediatric weight loss surgery: "Gastric bypass surgery has long been a dramatic solution for obese adults, but more doctors are operating on teen-agers, too. Now the first pediatric guidelines are due out soon, and they'll urge doctors to put more limits on teens' surgery than on adults' -- because nobody yet knows the long-term outcomes of such a radical operation on a still-developing body." This is a most worrisome trend. Here you have a group that is particularly vulnerable to other people's opinions feeling pressured into a drastic surgery to change their appearance. What will their feelings be when they're young adults with dumping syndrome, nutrional deficiencies, or compression fractures from osteporosis thanks to their teen-age surgery? Very angry, I'm guessing. And the most ludicrous aspect of the whole thing is the reliance of the guidelines on oracles, er, I mean "experts" to predict who is best suited for the treatment: Once patients recover, they must follow stringent rules: They eat small servings, carefully counting to get enough protein. They take vitamins and calcium to counter nutrient deficiencies, including bone loss. Such changes are hard enough for adults. So the pending pediatric guidelines stress having experts evaluate if a teen is mature enough to follow the rules before surgery is offered. Why is it that you never hear about these "experts" being sued? posted by Sydney on 8/05/2003 06:58:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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