Identification and treatment of obesity as a standard of care for all patients in children's hospitals.

Obese children and adolescents have unique needs for specialized medical equipment while hospitalized and might require special diets and physical activity options as part of their medical treatment. It is important that patients with a diagnosis of obesity be identified on admission so that appropriate equipment and resources can be provided. We examined what components a healthy hospital environment should include and sought to determine if children's hospitals provide a healthy hospital environment that offers these components.

Obese adolescents show impaired meal responses of the appetite-regulating hormones ghrelin and PYY.

Ghrelin and peptide YY (PYY) stimulate hunger and satiety, respectively. The physiology of these hormones during normal meal intake remains unclear. This study was designed to compare the responses of these two hormones to meal intake between lean and obese Hispanic adolescents.

Feasibility of a hospital-based, family-centered intervention to reduce weight gain in overweight children and adolescents.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of a hospital-based, family-centered lifestyle program (Kids N Fitness) on weight and health in overweight 7-17-year-old children.

Design: The Kids N Fitness program consisting of up to twelve 90-min sessions was conducted in an outpatient setting. The program comprised interactive nutrition and exercise sessions with behavior modification.

Improvement in risk factors for metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance in overweight youth who are treated with lifestyle intervention.

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of risk factors that are associated with the metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance in overweight youth and to determine the effect of a short-term, family-centered, lifestyle intervention on various associated anthropometric and metabolic measures.

Methods: Overweight youth who were between 8 and 16 years of age participated in a 12-week, family-centered, lifestyle intervention program. Anthropometric and metabolic measures were assessed before the program in all participants (n = 109) and after the program in a subset of the participants (n = 43).