There are some surgery centers that allow people under the age of 18 to be patients, and get surgery. Though I had to wait until I was 18. I started the process when I was 17 just so I could get surgery when I turned 18.  I wish you the best of luck!

i am extremely interested... i called the office 4 times.. twice day and left messages and no one has called me back  ...is there anyway u could see to it that i get some info on ur hospital...thanks in advance sarah :D

Hi Cathy,
There certainly are good multidisciplinary weight managment programs out there for kids, but they can be hard to find!

Depending on the part of the country you live in, I can make suggestions.

Most programs will not likely consider surgical options for a child as young as 9 but there are very real issues at this stage that need to be considered. A 9 yo for instance needs to take advantage of the best non-surgical interventions available, and have results documented accurately. Often at age 9 we see success without surgery. But if down the road he is still extremely overweight, payors will look for documentation of prior attempts and their succcess or failure before escalating treatment to the next level.

We are in the process of updating surgical guidelines for adolescents now, but some very good recommendations can be found on our website (www.cchmc.org/weight) or at www.guidelines.gov.

Many thanks for your query.

Tom Inge, MD
Surgical Weight Loss Program for Teens
Cincinnati Children's Hospital

My name is sarah and i am 17. i cant find a doctor who will pefrom a gastric bypass surgery on me ...according to my insurance i need to be on a diet for 6 months and see a dietician and i am starting that this week...but the thing is no doctor will do the surgery for me b/c of my age///i have dieted before and nothing worked..but im trying again...and need some help..if you know a docotor who will accept bc/bs of ill ppo..please let me know...im 400+lbs and feel i am in desperate need of the surgery... thanks ..sarah :(

This message is for young people who are considering WLS .....there is the lapband, the RNY and now the VSG.... have your folks check out the VSG....its a very good option for young people since it is more permanent than the Lapband and doesnt involve the re routing of the intestines. I have had one and it is working fantastically for me, I have a teen son who if we dont get a handle on his weight will also be having this surgery. I know they have a WLS program at Stanford for Teens now, that is where I got my surgery. For awhile it was considered a surgery that they didnt have enough data on but more and more insurance companies are covering it now.....I have BlueCross and they covered it completely.  There are other choices ......