This is very difficult and often not successful. Management consists of a low-calorie diet, increased exercise and family therapy. The whole family needs to be educated about healthy eating and lifestyle behaviour. The goal is to lose weight and then maintain a normal weight. A motivated child and parents are essential if the management is [...]
There is still no internationally accepted method of defining obesity in childhood. However, the clinical diagnosis can usually be made on simple inspection of the child as these children appear very fat. A body mass index for age above the 97th centile is regarded as obesity in older children and adolescents. The diagnosis of obesity [...]
Children are usually considered overweight if their body mass index is between the 85th and 97th centile. These children also look fat. A child is not considered overweight if the weight for age is above the 97th centile but the body mass index is normal. These children are simply big for their age. The definition [...]
It is better not to use weight alone to decide whether a child is overweight as some children are heavy because they are simply big while others are heavy because they are fat. Usually the body mass index for age (i.e. weight in kg/height in m2) is used to decide whether a child is overweight [...]
