Obese children face weighty problem

Sultan Chowdury, 9, weighing between 50 to 55 kilogrammes, wouldn’t attend school or classes until his breakfast  is packed with a beef burger or fried chicken nuggets to eat with his buttered or cheesy sandwich. Weight gain and obesity among youngsters in the capital consuming foods like hamburgers, pizzas and sweetened soft drinks in excess are a continuing trend, alarming doctors, who continuously warn that more children are at risk if precautions are not taken. In an effort to contribute to knowledge and innovation in the field of paediatric medicine, experts from the Children’s National Medical Centre and its Sheikh Zayed Institute for Paediatric Surgical Innovation, both located on the Sheikh Zayed Campus for Advanced Children’s Medicine in Washington, DC, covered key issues related to children’s health in the region at the second annual World Health Care Congress Middle East (WHCC) which took place in Abu Dhabi recently. During the Congress, a panel of experts from Children’s National held a discussion on innovations in paediatric chronic diseases. They highlighted challenges — shared by the UAE and the US — on common children’s diseases, including obesity, asthma and diabetes. Dr Evan Nadler, Co-Director of the Obesity Institute at Children’s National and a principal investigator in the Sheikh Zayed Institute, covered current trends in adult and childhood obesity in the US and Middle East. Approximately 35 per cent of high school-aged children in Washington, DC, are overweight or obese, while recent data suggests that the prevalence of children with obesity in the UAE is at least 14 per cent. Dr Nadler mentioned how diet and behaviour modification can help a minority of adolescents who are obese, of which the vast majority go on to become obese adults. He provided a rationale and prerequisites for surgical intervention, evaluated the options for surgical procedures available to children today and shared the progress Children’s National has made in establishing better clinical interventions for children with obesity. Children are the most traumatised victims when it comes to seeing a doctor for  complaints — be it a respiratory disorder such as asthma, allergies, cough, or cold. A child below five or 15 making several trips to the hospital is nevertheless frightened. “Medical interventions can be very unpleasant,” said Ms Ahmed Ali, whose 12- year-old son, obese with a weight of 60 kilos frequently suffers from depressions and panting while atsports. “The problem is he does not like visiting doctors or indulging in sports or exercise,”  she added. “Medication or surgery is necessary, but children do suffer some sort of trauma while being treated. They tend to regard medical treatment as a threat and suffer psychological stress and it pains to see him suffering so,” lamented Ali. Meanwhile, cases of students bringing oily, fried and junk food from home continues despite school canteen rules. Some of the teachers who travel with the students in the buses said that many students ate their breakfast in the school bus and avoided the canteens, not wanting to consume the vegetables such as cucumber, salads and boiled mutton, chicken or beef in hamburgers. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated the UAE prevalence of diabetes as 19.5 per cent, the second highest in the world. Additionally, the combination of obesity and Type 2 diabetes is a leading cause of cardiovascular disease in the UAE, the US, and the world over. Dr Fran Cogen, Director, Childhood and Adolescent Diabetes Programme at Children’s National, outlined the trends in medications and device technology that control diabetes symptoms in children. This includes: Insulin pump therapies, Continuous Glucose Monitoring Systems, Artificial Pancreas (a marriage of the insulin pump and the continuous glucose sensor) and the application of smart phone technology (such as Calorie King, Carbohydrate Counting with Lenny, BMI tool, Pocket A1c and communication between the caregiver and child via text messages etc). “Washington, DC, has one of the highest rates of childhood obesity anywhere, and so does the UAE. We also share challenges in asthma and diabetes,” said Dr Peter Kim, Vice-President of the Sheikh Zayed Institute at Children’s National, who moderated the session. Another member of the Children’s delegation, Dr Denice Cora-Bramble, Acting ExecutiveVice-President for Ambulatory Services and Senior Vice-President of the Goldberg Centre for Community Paediatric Health at Children’s National Medical Centre, said: “Promoting and encouraging healthier lifestyles for adults and children is a challenge that crosses the physical boundaries of individual countries and the invisible boundaries of culture and community.” Virtually every country is struggling to find ways to reduce the number of people suffering from diseases like asthma, obesity, and diabetes, he added.