Please help me help my 14 year old son

I am a mother of a 14 year old boy who has a bmi of about 45.  I am very concered about his health.  I have had a weight problem my whole life, but in July of 2008 I had gastric bypass surgery and have lost 110 lbs. I have been trying long before my surgery to help him because I do not want him to have the high school life I had. I was miserable, people made fun of me and when all my friends were out on date, I was home stuffing my face because nobody ever asked me out.  I have tried going to nutritionist with him, not having junk in the house and I have recently got him into the OWL program at Childrens Hospital in Boston. It is a great program, but they only see you every 6-8 weeks and he needs more support than that.  Please does anyone have any other ideas?  Even if you know of a website that will give me a meal plan that I can use. I am really afraid that my child is going to have severe medical problems if he does not get a handle on this now.

Thank you
Jane

I completely understand what you went through and what your son will go through I'm 15 and its deffinetly not easy. Why dont you look into have WLS for him? If you've done everything you can and havent had much results I would say look in to it. Instead of Gastic bypass why not the lap band? I agree that he deffinetly needs more support than that but I find my support on OH through my state message board its like a big family there.  Maybe you should make a post and ask for some help over on your state message board. You wont find much help on this board its very inactive now.

Good luck, if your son has a facebook or myspace and he wants to talk to someone I wouldnt mind talking to him. Just message me if you want my info.

Thank you so much for offering to talk to him.  I will definately see if it is something he would like to do.  I see you have a ticker, have you had WLS or are you just trying on your own? 

I had WLS after many years of trying and failing at diets and exercising now that I have a band its easier to lose the weight and I'm so much more motivated to exercise and eat right because I know that because I have the band I have help and it will be hard but not AS HARD.

How did you get the band only being 15?

Alot of Doctors look at teens when they get about 14/15 thats when my doctor agreeded to see me but because of insurance problems I had my surgery in Mexico.

Hi Jane,
I wanted to write to you because i also have a 14 year old son who has a bmi of 42. I am considering lap band surgery for him during summer vacation. There are a number of surgeons in Mexico who will operate on teens. I was surprised at how many people go to mexico for wls. The prices are very reasonable as well. I would not consider doing something like this unless I truly believed that there was no other way for my son to lose and maintain weight lose. He has been unable to participate in organized sports for the past several years because the weight prevents him from being able to run fast enough or for any prolonged period of time. He used to play hockey, baseball, soccer etc. But now he becomes short of breath so easily. And of course being unable to participate in these activities just makes the situation worse. He has also put up with alot of teasing at school because of his weight. Its painful to watch all of these things happen. I think wls will give him a chance to improve all these areas of his life. I would love to hear back from you. And with one in every five usa kids being overweight , I know we are not the only ones confronting this problem. Thanks, jelizabeth

I took my daughter 4 yrs ago to mexico for the lap-band it has slipped twice and now on slip #2 it has a pin hole, not fun we are returning to mexico to Dr. Almanza on july 5th to have the band replaced with the sleeve it will be worth the 6,500 for you it would be 5,500 we have to pay 1000 more due to revision. Good luck my daughter is very excited as she has gained her weight all back this past year with the pin hole..

I am a mother of a 15 year old girl who had sleeve gastrectomy at age 14.  In the just over three months since surgery, she has lost 100 pounds.  It was the best thing I have ever done for her.  Our insurance wouldn't pay for it, so I borrowed the money to have it.  It was $16,000, it might be her car money, but this is better.  She is very mature and ready for surgery.  I would think really hard about whether a young person could handle the restrictions, but it has been a wonderful thing.

so it wasn't hard for her to recover or anything?
i'm fourteen years old and i want to get it done, but i'm scared and i'm doubtful of a surgeon that will actually do it.
i have a lot of questions, and ijust don't know where to start.