How do you feel about kids under age 18 having WLS? I hate to see kids growing up obese, suffering bullying and health problems and social problems, but I'm not sure I was mature enough as a kid to make all the lifestyle changes that WLS requires. What do you think?

That's just so wrong. Now a days a Teacher would be sued for something like that. I could not begin to imagine making the same journey I made then in these modern times. I was a School Kid in the 70's and 80's long before Internet and social media. Kids today have so many resources to utilize in their bullying tactics.

I have a (normal weight) coworker whose obese daughter is taunted and bullied at school every single day. According to the daughter, kids do that in front of teachers and the teachers do nothing to intervene.

You know what's funny? My first year of junior high, the gym teacher started doing exactly that. I flat out REFUSED to get on the scale. She tried to demand on get on- I told her that she wasn't my doctor or my parent so it wasn't her business what I weighed.

Of course, she called my parents to complain. Thankfully, my dad totally stuck up for me. He told her it wasn't any of her or the school's business what I weighed and that she needed to back off me.

I never did get on the scale year at school- or any other year.

My dad was (and still is!) so awesome

Give your dad a big hug for me!

I've been thinking about this a lot... after consideration, I think any WLS surgery for someone under 30 years of age isn't the best option. Exercise, dieting and making an sincere effort to shed the pounds should come first.

WLS is still in its infancy. Professionals have no valid data to support how someone will be 30 or 40 years out from a WLS surgery. Earlier procedures have resulted in problems, especially for early lap-band recipients. I personally know people who have had all three popular surgeries, and some have had serious problems as a result. Any MAJOR ELECTIVE surgery should be considered a LAST RESORT. We all know that WLS is not a bandaid or instant cure-all for our weight problems. I would be worried about the long-term health effects for someone at that young of an age. At my age, I had little to lose.

NYU Langone is doing a trial of support for teens. Not sure what's involved, but I think it's more that a regular adult surgery...

I am not opposed to younger people having the surgery. Ever read the article The Fat Trap a few years ago in the NY Times? The author gives some compelling data that once you're overweight, your body DESPERATELY tries to keep you that way, making it nearly impossible to keep weight off through diet and exercise alone.

Reading this makes me think that once you're fat, it's hopeless to lose weight and keep it off forever, without some sort of help like WLS...

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-trap.html?pagewanted=all&

"The data generated by these experiments suggest that once a person loses about 10 percent of body weight, he or she is metabolically different than a similar-size person who is naturally the same weight.

"The research shows that the changes that occur after weight loss translate to a huge caloric disadvantage of about 250 to 400 calories. For instance, one woman who entered the Columbia studies at 230 pounds was eating about 3,000 calories to maintain that weight. Once she dropped to 190 pounds, losing 17 percent of her body weight, metabolic studies determined that she needed about 2,300 daily calories to maintain the new lower weight. That may sound like plenty, but the typical 30-year-old 190-pound woman can consume about 2,600 calories to maintain her weight â 300 more calories than the woman who dieted to get there."

All my life I was on the heavy side. If they had lapband when I was 16 If my parents were able to afford it I think my parents would have opted for it. My mother constantly had me on a diet and I never lost weight. Now I know what starvation mode is because I was literally starving myself living on such a low calorie diet that my body was hanging onto my calories and storing them as fat.as a teen I did pills, shots and everything else. So, I think as a teen if I were sent to learn about the lapband and how it worked it would have been a blessing. I think kids have to also understand nutrition and fully understand how WLS works.

A girl I met on this site got banded at 19. Sure she wasn't mature, but she worked the band and lost the weight, and it changed her life. She went from being the one that guys walked all over, and the one that people would treat like crap, to being confident, happy and sure of herself, whose confidence shone through. I wish I'd had the option of arresting my weight gain at a young age, so I don't feel like my healthier, fitter self only came into existence in my late 30s.

I think if there's been a history of not being able to lose, and the prognosis is that the teen would likely be overweight all their life, then I think helping them sooner rather than later would be beneficial to them. Because it's obvious from this site that age and maturity isn't what makes you prepared for the band.