| Gastric Banding for Young People
Although the percentage of overweight and obese children and teenagers is alarming, bariatric procedures, such as gastric banding bypass, are not advisable during infancy and adolescence to avoid interference with growth and development. In fact, surgical procedures at an earlier age can permanently hurt a child, unless your doctor recommends performing a particular surgery to prevent, cure or correct childhood medical problems.
In addition, body chubbiness of both kids and teens has continuous changes over the years as they are growing, making it hard to determine if they are developing obesity or just a temporary period of being overweight. Furthermore, many young people have episodes of being overweight followed by underweight particularly during the transition from childhood to adolescence, making it impossible for gastric banding.
Changes continue also within sexes, making boys and girls differ in body fatness as they mature. The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics has published a clinical growth chart that reflects modifications in children based on this format:
- Infants, from birth to 36 months, length-for-age and weight-for-age, plus head circumference-for-age and weight-for-length.
- Children and adolescents, from 2 to 20 years, based on stature-for-age and weight-for-age and BMI-for-age
- Preschoolers, from 2 to 5 years, considering weight-for-stature
Plotting on gender specific growth charts, a professional health care can determine if a child or teen is overweight or obese. According to those charts, underweight BMI-for-age is ranked less than 5th percentile and young people at risk of overweight BMI-for-age ranges from 85th percentile to less than 95th percentile, and being overweight BMI-for-age over 95th percentile.
Because statistics in the United States reveals that 1 in 5 children are overweight or obese, according to the National Institutes of Health, a gastric banding procedure may apply to prevent morbid obesity, a leading condition to other serious health risks. Moreover, it is estimated that children who are obese by age 12 have more than 75% odds of becoming obese adults.
However, for a young adult the major problem related to being overweight is self-esteem. Obesity causes social and psychological problems that can be prevented with healthy diets and exercising, which promotes proper growth of children under 18. After an evaluation, a doctor or pediatrician can provide bariatric surgical care, basically, for adolescents.
Gastric banding involves changes that, although they can be reversed, mean a life-altering procedure, that should be evaluated carefully before deciding, providing parents with all the pertaining information, including benefits and risks, as well as nutritional education if the surgery proceeds.
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