Childhood Obesity Clinic | Children's Health and Fitness

From NECN?..

Gabriel Omans wants to run faster, play harder, make the teammates in his youth baseball league proud. The 8-year-old Anniston boy has high hopes for next season: racing around the bases, running faster than people who used to leave him in the dust.

But at 4-foot-4 and 130 pounds, Gabriel is obese. His weight slows him down, his mother Lisa Omans says. It keeps him from running fast, Gabriel says.

?It keeps him back . and I know it?s not healthy for him,? Lisa Omans, 47, said as she and Gabriel sat in the living room of their Anniston trailer on a recent morning. ?But he?ll eat and 10 minutes later, he?s like, ?I?m hungry! I?m hungry!??

It?s a struggle for Omans ? trying keep the pounds off her son. But she?s hoping that an Anniston pediatrician?s plans for a local children?s obesity clinic will help Gabriel get back to a healthier weight ? and help her learn techniques for keeping Gabriel fit in the process.

?I would love for my baseball players to see me be skinnier than last year,? Gabriel agreed. ?I would like to be shortstop.?

Gabriel?s pediatrician, Dr. Lewis Doggett, has for years wanted to open a clinic to address the growing problem of childhood and teenage obesity in the Calhoun County area. Now, with the support of other doctors in his practice, Anniston Pediatrics, and nurse practitioner Linda White, it finally looks like the clinic will become a reality. Doggett hopes to get the clinic up and running by the end of the summer.

The Children?s Hospital in Birmingham runs a similar clinic, but local health care providers say a number of factors prevent local kids from participating in that program. It?s hard to encourage parents to make the road trip, they said, and there?s often a waiting list to get into the program.

?So we had a vision for setting something for this community, starting something on our own here,? Doggett said.

Preliminary plans for the local program include providing educational and medical support classes for area children and families who struggle with weight issues. Doggett said the clinic will be open to children as young as four and as old as 18 and will offer education components for parents, too.

That?s important, pediatric experts say, because if parents are overweight, it?s more likely their children will be, too.

?You have to elicit from the kids what they are willing to change, and then the same things from the parents,? said Dr. David Collier, director of the Pediatric Health Weight Research and Treatment Center at East Carolina University?s Brody School of Medicine.

For that reason, ?this is going to be an immense project,? Doggett said.

Nevertheless, it?s one that Doggett hopes to have started within a couple of months. It?s important to get it working, White said, because the problem of childhood obesity isn?t going away. In fact, it?s growing: A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show obesity rates in Alabama high schools are among the highest in the nation. That study concluded that 32.8 percent of Alabama high schoolers were overweight or obese.

To read the full story?..Click here

Source: http://www.lensaunders.com/wp/?p=2901

dwts sean hannity bobby petrino fired buffett rule lollapalooza lineup joss whedon ronnie montrose