Yes 17 is borderline adult. But I dont think ANYONE should get the surgery until some serious therapy, counseling etc has been done.
To think that a teenager could have this surgery that will affect the way they have to eat for the rest of their lives ...makes me shudder.
If they are that obese at that age, there are issues beyond what surgery can fix, and if those issues arent dealt with first you are just asking for a lifetime of trouble.
Coming from a family where the problem was definitely with me and NOT with the rest of my family, I can say that sometimes despite what parents try to do, the child will find a way if they want to eat. I've been at least slightly overweight ever since I was around 7, and I know that my mother tried everything she could. She didn't buy junk food, she encouraged snacking on healthy veggies if I was hungry and had already had enough, etc. However, I would sneak food when she wasn't looking and get fat off of the "healthy" food in the house (it all still has calories.. heh). I could even say that it went so far as to be a defiant action whenever she got desperate and started locking up the pantry.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, I can understand how some teenagers and their parents could be frustrated enough to follow through with WLS. Personally, though, I think that if that route is taken, lap-band surgery would be the better option. Gastric bypass would NOT be the way to go, considering it is a lot less forgiving/reversible.
I see the success that families have with their kids on shows like National Body Challenge and Honey We're killing the kids... and I wonder if people really would put in that kind of effort before trying to get their kids surgery.... i would like to think so, but I do wonder.
My opinion: unless there is a severe, life-threatening weight-related health issue (and I don't mean a higher risk of heart disease at age 45...I mean "you'll die in less than a year if you don't have this surgery" severe), then optional surgeries for children are an absolute nono.
I was always a fat teen. I was over 200 pounds before I even got to high school. I'm positive I was over 250 by the time I graduated high school (I think I was about 265 by the time I started my first semester of college). No one can tell me anything about the life of "a fat kid" that I haven't already experienced firsthand--the days of coming home crying because you feel left out, unattractive, etc.; the days of having to decide how to deal with others making fun of you; the days in gym class where you're doing state physical fitness testing, and you know you can't do any of it, and you're horribly embarassed; the days of watching your friends share clothes and go shopping together in the "popular" stores while you sit alone on the sidelines...it is HARD. It is lonely, it is frustrating, and it at times feels hopeless.
But I still would never have had the surgery. I was told I was pre-diabetic around age 16. I have knee caps that are shifting outwards from years of playing softball with my oversized body. i didn't have a real boyfriend until I was 21 years old. And yet, I still never would have had the surgery. It's just plain wrong for someone so young. I even think there are too many adults who jump into it and too many doctors who allow them to do so. I'm 24 right now and have been overweight for about 20 years, but I still don't think I'd be ready to have a voluntary surgery. I had to have surgery once to remove multiple (including one that was 10 inches in diameter) ovarian cysts removed, and the recovery from that required surgery was ****--why would I ever opt to go through that again? And I certainly wouldn't want my (or anyone else's) child to have to go through it, either.
Jilly, you brought back a memory for me from gym class. They had those days where they tested your body fat using calipers on the upper arm. Those calipers didn't even fit my upper arm because I was already nearly 300 lbs at that time.
And regarding parents not doing anything, I will say that my mom tried. I went to doctors about my weight for over 10 years. I saw nutritionists, I saw doctors, I went to the gym, I was actually a pretty active kid, but I ate too much and maybe an undiagnoses PCOS didn't help. I went to one doctor for over a year, every week taking a food diary. I think I lost 20 lbs in that period over a year. She also tried to encourage me by saying that if I lost the weight, my insurance would pay to remove the excess skin. I was even part of a track team for a couple years. I'd do the running drills with them but I was shot put because I was too slow for running.
At one period of time, I was exercising 2 hours each day and not eating very much, I ended up losing 30 lbs but then it finally got to me and I gained the weight back.
The life of a fat kid does suck and I am grateful that I "only" gained 60 lbs after high school and during high school I didn't gain any weight.
Well...like the girl in the article, I am nearly 250, 16 years old, and over 100 pounds overweight.
My highest weight that I know of in my life has been 255 pounds and I'm 5'5". I am about 246 now, which isn't that much of a difference...
If I had the choice of the surgery and the lap-band...I would say NO!
My reasons for this are because...I am somewhat a more mature teenager than most teens my age, and I would abuse that lap-band. If I got it and lost a bunch of weight, it would be because I was starving myself...and I would never get the right amount of nutrients. The fact of the matter is...most teens DO NOT know what healthy eating is...and most wouldn't care for it even if they did know what they were doing to their bodies with all the fast food and processed foods.
It's simply that...surgery of any kind is a tool, not a cure. You can always gain after you get the surgery, and I think it is a pity that surgeries have to be done on kids my age and younger. It's not because they can't eat better or anything...it's because the family isn't adapting, there are multiple temptations of going off the path, and the truth is they don't WANT to eat better...because they don't understand how much better they'd feel and look with eating healthier foods.
I understand how large we can get by eating as we did/still do...but surgeries of any kind don't solve anything...and going on a healthy diet, learning self control, fixing those MENTAL problems with the child is far better than a band or surgery.
Eating problems are usually very mental and emotional. If we fix those problems, the physical will follow and help us improve all those aspects of our life.
Today...maybe for the first time...we had pizza from Dominoes in the kitchen and I went into my room and said to myself, "That doesn't look very good at all. Very greasy and I don't want that." So I made a little pizza from the freezer and when was cooked, (and mind you it was many many calories lower than the fast food), I said: "Well, this doesn't look very good either! It looks disgusting!" And I took a bite of it, figuring that I eat anything and like it, and it was just like "drinking a bottle of grease". And I said, "I could eat all of this...I could...But I really don't want to because it looks both bad and it tastes bad...and there's no reason I should eat this when I can eat something that looks and tastes better and is surely better for ME!"
I felt very proud...I DO have self control...and I am enjoying my soup very slowly and am indulging in more because I get more for my calories.
And it's the first step of self control...and as a 250 pound girl with past issues of binging...I am NOT hopeless, and I *CAN* change my eating habits one step of a time.
I would rather earn my weight loss through my own efforts than to not appreciate my weight loss because I got it the easy way.
I even have a aunt who almost died from Gastric Bypass Surgery...if anyone thinks I am being presumptuous. But I simply must say to leave those surgeries to the people who intend to change their lifestyles sincerely, and realize what they are getting themselves into.
And a teenager simply doesn't realize the importance of it.
Self control and moderation are the greatest tools we have for ourselves. I personally think those will make me the 130 I wish to be...even if the rest of world around us are coming at us with even worse foods to have.
I do believe that WLS should be available, and heck there might even be a few extreme cases where it could be appropriate for some people under 18, but it seems that WLS and cosmetic surgeries for adults and children are a lot more common with a lot less consideration than ever before.
My mother-in-law brings up WLS for my husband and I almost every time I talk to her. My husband is dead set against it in principle, and I am so susceptible to staph infections as it is, that I would not consider it for myself either. She doesn't seem to understand, despite the fact that I explain it to her every time, that it is dangerous surgery, and that with my respiratory and immune problems I would be an extremely high risk patient. Being very fat can be miserable, but not so much that I'd rather be dead.
I think you said it all...
