An irreconcilable divide between the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and therapists and groups treating childhood eating disorders highlights the convoluted problem of childhood obesity amid a society where junk foods are cheap and plentiful and nutrition education is scarce. The AAP’s new guidelines are meant to advise doctors on stronger treatments for obese child patients,…

New guidelines on treating childhood obesity from the American Academy of Pediatrics call for early and aggressive treatment—including weight loss drugs for children as young as 6 and bariatric surgery for youths as young as 13—instead of what they call “watchful waiting or unnecessary delay of appropriate treatment of children.” The guidelines immediately stirred controversy,…

The path to childhood obesity begins before birth and gets more complicated as children become the targets of food marketers who promise delicious fun with processed foods made with questionable and even disease-causing ingredients. Parents—many victims of the same influences—may hope schools and governments will educate and protect their children, but the reality is that…

In January, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued its new clinical practice guideline for the evaluation and treatment of overweight and obese children and adolescents. The health of an estimated 14.4 million U.S. children and adolescents is affected by obesity and the trend is escalating. In 1963, five percent of children and adolescents were…

For the first time in 15 years, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended that doctors prescribe weight-loss drugs for children with obesity, saying that early and proactive intervention is needed for the increasingly common problem. In a set of new guidelines released on Jan. 9, the organization noted that pediatricians now have more evidence…