Obesity Guideline for Youth Draws Global Interest

The new obesity care guideline for youth from the American Academy of Pediatrics is drawing global interest. On BBC World News, Geeta Guru-Murthy asked ConscienHealth’s Ted Kyle about this guideline and the need for medical care in young persons with obesity. Click here or on the image above for this brief video.

The response to this new guideline and the interest in them is extraordinary. People who live with and care for pediatric obesity are thrilled. These folks struggle every day with blame, shame, and a dearth of help with this complex chronic disease.

On the other hand, we are hearing from other folks who have no clue about the medical needs of those young persons and their families. They would deny these children care because they seem to see a moral hazard for misuse. Sigh.

On balance, the global interest in this new guidance for medical care of youth obesity is an encouraging sign. The misguided folks who seem not to have read the guideline and think they can judge the medical needs of kids they’ve never met will eventually become irrelevant if they cannot find more empathy for these young persons and their families.

For more perspective on this developing story, click here and here.

 
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January 12, 2023