Detecting overweight children in primary care: do national data reflect the typical urban practice?

Primary care physicians can easily identify overweight in children aged < 2 years using body-mass index. There is no consensus on the appropriate way of identifying overweight before age 2 years. However, the primary care physician should be alert if the body-mass index of a child < 2 years of age is significantly higher then those published (as a guideline) in this paper.

Obese children who are referred to the pediatric endocrinologist: characteristics and outcome.

Objective: The objective of this study was to characterize a population of obese children who were referred to a pediatric endocrinology clinic and to analyze the outcome of the referral.

Methods: Children who were referred for obesity and seen at least twice between January 1984 and July 2003 were included in this retrospective study. Demographic, clinical, and, when available, laboratory (fasting glucose and insulin, random cholesterol, and liver function tests) and bone age data were abstracted from the medical record at the first and last endocrine evaluations.