QOTD: WLS for Kids under 18 yrs old?

Everyone, I was reading on another board that a Mom allowed her daughter to have WLS at age 15 - she was/is the youngest patient with the Dr they chose.  So, my question is - knowing what you know about WLS - the good, the bad and the ugly, if your child was overweight and you had tried other options, at what point would you suggest or consider WLS for them and at what age?  Looking forward to some lively discussion!

It would depend on what we tried in terms of managing the weight.  15 is a little young but if it were warranted I would.  About the only thing I regret about my 2 surgeries is that I didn't do them sooner in life.

Wow 15 is very young but how fat is the kid.

If my kid was mature enough to understand and fat enough to have her weight affecting her health then I would maybe consider it at 17 but I think fat kids should have surgery if they can understand what it really means and have someone in their life that has been through it.

I don't think I would allow my child to have WLS until the age of 18, and at that point it is their decision.  I'd be willing to discuss surgery as we exhaust other options until my child is of legal age.  Not only is the body still physicaly growing and changing, mentally/psychologically they are as well.  I'd want my child to to be a the point where they could be more able to understand the changes in store for them lifelong.

The only way I think I'd be willing to change my thinking oon this subject is dependent on whether or not co-morbidities were present.

I have to agree with your stament.

Great minds think alike dontcha know

First pray for me folks that my daughter does not log on today and read this. 

My daughter had wls at age 20, I think. If I could have predicted at age 15 she would pass 300 lbs I'd have got her into the O/R in a heart beat.

Like all of us, there are several reasons for her obesity.  We tried working on the emotional through therapy etc., but it did not get her there.  We tried to address the edocrinology issues, but they were not properly diagnosed until she was in college and already near her peak weight.  Just like with adults, disorders that lead to obesity are dismised in kids too.  The assumption is always it must be just overeating. 

Also just like adults she dieted.  Meatless, vegetarian, vegan, seafood only, everything except low carb.  The family supported her 100% and we food shopped and ate in compatible ways.  At times she lost very well and other times very little.  She tried otc diet pills and bulemia when I was not looking.  She also tried near starvation at 600 calories a day.  Just like with adults, the weight returns, always with extra friends in tow. 

Throughout her life she's been active, popular and attractive.  She has many friends and is a social butterfly.  Fat never slowed me down so thankfully she never thought of obesity as imposing limit.  But, a year out on her wls, although she has lost a lot of weight, she is still technically morbidly obese.  If surgery at 15 would have spared her this ardous journey today, as long as she was willing, I would have been as well. 

I want her to revise her VBG to RNY.  It will be a hard sell since ironically, she started out wanting a bypass and decided on restrictive only; while I refused a bypass initially and ended up having one.

I've seen four youths under 21 weighing between 400 and 800 pounds on programs chronicaling their wls.  Two were still in high school.  One was a home school graduate. One was in college. 

Three of the four were failing academically at some point mainly because of obesity related issues.  The college student's struggles were increasing and she was nearing that breaking point of giving up.  All of the parents had the same goal.  Get rid of the fat so their kids can be healthy enough to complete their educations and live productive lives.  They all feared their kids becomming house bound, eating in bed all day.  One 19 year old male was already there, moving only from bed to recliner to bathroom. The other parents were not such enablers, but they knew it was still possible. 

I have gone over and over everything I could have done differently and due to the complexity of her obesity I don't think any one action would have made a profound difference.  I took her to a renoun specialist at Yale University Hospital only to get a copy of the old 1970's weigh****chers diet. She had abnormalities on the glucose tolerance test and in certain genetic markers and all anyone could tell me for my hard earned money was eat less and exercise more.  Well she already worked out at the gym and swam almost daily so I passed on driving an hour for her to attend a gym class at Yale. 

So now I'm rambling but this brings back all of my frustration with the medical community.  Fat kids are treated no better than fat adults when it comes to addressing obesity.  If a parent can find a solution for their kids I say take it.  I only wish that medicine could truly understand obesity as a collection of individual factors and address each component to treat the whole.  If this was done with my daughter, especially the endocrine issue which persist to this day, perhaps she would never have hit that 300 lb mark or that 200lb mark or that 150 lb mark. 

Putting soap box away now. 

I'm glad my daughter didn't have weight problems when she was young even though she was a 9lb 6oz baby.  I don't know what I would have done in this case but at 15 she was a pretty smart kid.  I meet a teenager a few years ago that had surgery and her mother had passed on surgery to get the teenager surgery first.  As you can guess their insurance change an Mother had to find another way for her surgery. Oh yeah and while waiting on getting her weight she was in the hallway eating candy.  The thought of eating candy had me feeeling yukky. But I think if I had the decision to make at that age and all the other weigh lost attempts failed I would have let her have the surgery.
Yes the good the bad and the ugly in the last month I have gone though lots of stress.  And ate things that have ate me back and I've been sicker than I've been in the last 2 years.( I've been wanting to and but only had the bad feeling and nothing but hanging my head in a bucket.  It's a lot of work to stay on course and if your tools are not keep you in order like not letting you eat sweet. starch etc. the road is even harder. MY TOOL HAVE BEEN MY FRIEND THIS MONTH THE STRESS HAVE REALLY GIVEN ME A RUN FOR MY WEIGHT.  thank GOD my weight have not moveeeeed up at all.

What a coincidence!  Check out Survival of the Half Ton Teen, 2:00 am EST on TLC.  About this very topic, it chronicles the wls process for two of the four teens I mentioned previously. 

I missed the 2 pm showing of the Half Ton Teen but, I did watch it at 1 am.  I will tell you the stories were kind of sad.  Unfortunately, I do not remember the kids names but, I will refer to them as the white teen and the black teen.  (Hope this does not offend anyone)  Well, neither of them had the 'correct' support from their families.  The white teens mom was an enabler - after he got home, she was doing everything she did before i.e. serving him from his beside and feeding him hotdogs?  The black teen was at home with 2 jars of candy next to his bed.  I wonder if either of them really were able to be succcesful with Gastic Bypass with the diets they consumed?

I have mixed emotions on this.  I definitely think that any teen who undertakes WLS MUST have 100% support of their families.  Perhaps an education program for parents/families of teens on what to do - before, during and after would have really helped these teens and their families. 

On my own weightloss journey, I had the power to say no to certain food experiences - mostly out of fear that my eating the wrong thing would make me extremely sick.  Even 15 months out, I would not eat hotdogs on a daily basis - right out of the hospital.

I posted this to get ideas from you all.  I had an overweight son, who actually lost 75 lbs by changing his eating habits and via exercise - Thank God this worked for him.  I believe he got some inspiration from me losing some weight.  I have watched him make better food choices and stay away from fast foods.  Interestingly, while watching the 1/2 ton Dad - this guy actually ate from fast food dollar menus on a daily basis - hence how he gained the weight.  One of the main reasons, I do my best to not eat fast foods too often.