12 Year Old Gets Lapband

[Marimaru 7]

There is a recipes threads in the food forum, but if you are going to post more than a couple of your recipes (please?) you could start your own thread there. There are MANY recipe threads there, and no one will mind more ideas, I promise.

[zuchinno 4]

Okiedokie!

[zuchinno 4]

Here it is:

http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f9/zuchinnos-cook-bookie-39822/#post543462

I'll be adding stuff regularly. I've got some stuff up now.

[skyeblu79 0]

Here is the Diane Sawyer interview....

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story? id=3481336&page=1&GMA=true

12 to me just seems to young. I could see 16 or maybe even 15.

One of my bestfriends was overweight in elementary school and by maybe 7th grade she was at a normal weight. She was a lot more active in middle school and joined sports.

[zuchinno 4]

Thanks! I was looking for that interview on google but couldn't find it.

[Beka 0]

If MY child got to 200 plus pounds, it would have been MY fault. As the parent of an 11 year old, I know that *I* am the one who feeds him, gives him money and watches what he does and eats. It would be MY fault.

There is no way in hell I would have him have Lipo, a Tummy Tuck, then a lap band because I am a pathetic parent and cannot help my child make healthy choices, and provide him with the types of food and activities that a growing child needs.

The mother in the the article is just like my mother. Given the chance my mother would have had me have lipo, a tummy tuck and a lap band, and still would have fed me crap, and expected this quick fix to work.

Parents are responsible for what their children do. As children they don't have the reasoning power to understand long term effects. That's why they have parents to guide them.

And cancer is cancer. Obesity is obesity. The two are in no way comparable. In no way at all.

Yes obesity is obesity and cancer is cancer and I don't intend to put them in the same category but it is a researched fact that people who are obese are more likely to DEVELOP cancer.

And I was an obese teen and no it wasn't my parents fault - I stole food, I snuck everything that I ate and they in turn tried everything they could to help put me on track but because I was not with them 24/7 it is easy to sneak the food in. So I would never blame my parents for my obesity they did everything they could except lock me up.

[mbeckett1 0]

I support this girl's decision to have the surgery. Unfortunately we are talking about her eating what she shouldn't.....didn't we? And we are adults?? It isn't always the parent's fault. She may be sneak eating to deal with severe emotional issues. We've all been there & felt what it is like to be an outsider & feel like the biggest person in the group. If my son were that obese I wouldn't want him to go through his young years with those feelings. I just think that before we point the finger at what this little girl & her mom should or shouldn't be doing we should really look at ourselves & realize that we were not in control & we had severe issues even in our adulthood & maturity. Best of luck to everyone who is on this journey!

[zuchinno 4]

Surgery should come after therapy for severe emotional issues, considering that

surgery creates more emotional issues. When it's a kid that young, being overweight is absolutely reversible, especially since she was within 20lbs of being a healthy weight for her height and build. she needs counseling, not to be cut open without a psych-eval.

[Chickie 15]

Yes obesity is obesity and cancer is cancer and I don't intend to put them in the same category but it is a researched fact that people who are obese are more likely to DEVELOP cancer.

And I was an obese teen and no it wasn't my parents fault - I stole food, I snuck everything that I ate and they in turn tried everything they could to help put me on track but because I was not with them 24/7 it is easy to sneak the food in. So I would never blame my parents for my obesity they did everything they could except lock me up.

I had a huge reply typed out. But what's the point?

Maybe this woman thinks that by having her banded, and encouraging band induced bulimia she is doing the right thing. I don't know. But I know that looking from the outside in, I don't think this woman has done a dammed thing to help her child at all.

She has just taught her to look for quick fixes.

As someone who has lost a huge chunk of their maternal side to various cancers, I cannot see that cancer and obesity are in anyway the same. Sorry. And as a point of interest, they were all thin women in their early to late 30's & 40's that died. So thin people get cancer too.

[Marimaru 7]

I support this girl's decision to have the surgery. Unfortunately we are talking about her eating what she shouldn't.....didn't we? And we are adults?? It isn't always the parent's fault. She may be sneak eating to deal with severe emotional issues. We've all been there & felt what it is like to be an outsider & feel like the biggest person in the group. If my son were that obese I wouldn't want him to go through his young years with those feelings. I just think that before we point the finger at what this little girl & her mom should or shouldn't be doing we should really look at ourselves & realize that we were not in control & we had severe issues even in our adulthood & maturity. Best of luck to everyone who is on this journey!

I think the issue that most people have is that she's having band surgery AFTER having had Lipo and a Tummy Tuck before she was even a teenager. And in the interview, her mother basically said "She's a compulsive eater, it's not her fault, but with the band, if she eats too much it'll come back up", which says to me that there has been no discussion about the need to AVOID PBing as much as possible. Like others have said, she's looking for a quick fix, and we all know the band takes work, and I don't think this girl has been prepared for it in any way. I believe this girl has been told that to lose weight she just needs adjustments and that will control everything for her.

[Beka 0]

Oh to be the perfect parent and person that I could pass harsh judgement on what a mother does or doesn't do to her daughter. In the end I doubt any of us know enough about their lives to pass condemnation (sp?) and I only hope nobody would harshly judge me and my parenting based on seeing a snippet of my life on TV (which I am sure hasn't been edited for shock value - yeah right!). And if there is any chance that the young girl shown in this clip is reading this website (usually rather supportive from what I have seen) I wish her and her family all the luck with the highs and lows she will face on her journey - the same one many of us are on

[fabfatgrl 10]

I would be totally fine with many morbidly obese 12 and 13 year olds getting Banded if I believed that:

1) They understood the surgery and the requirements

2) They had a supportive and understanding family.

I would have been a good Banding candidate at 16 or 17 rather than waiting until I was 30-something. Would have saved me many years of pain.. as well as preventing my obesity from getting to the morbid point.

Weighing over 200 pounds at 12 to me says that this girl is only likely to get more obese as time goes on. However, I have serious concerns about a family (and a surgeon) that encourages a Tummy Tuck (!!!) and liposuction as weight loss tools... when any cosmetic surgeon will tell you that they are not for that purpose. I hope the girl is successful in spite of her family.

As for blaming the parents... I don't think you can do that at 12. At two, yes... but twelve, no. Twelve year olds are usually pretty independent in their food choices/decisions.

[justbeingme 1]

Well, I guess I am in the minority here. I think that it was a great idea to be banded. The girls mother may be clueless of some of the aspects of the surgery, but the girl seems to know what she is talking about. I was also young when I had my own band placed. I was fourteen but everyone says I am way more mature than that. Anyways, I think that this was one of the best things I have ever done. It changed my life. I was a healthy eater and I was on the basketball team. I was getting excercise atleasts six days a week. I didn't go around my parents to get food. I ate at meals and I was fine. Even though I did all of this, I couldn't lose weight. I was tested for thyroid problems, yet they found nothing wrong. They said my thyroid uptake was slow but it wasn't significant enough to be medicated for. I was never actually teased to my face about my weight and I had great friends. When I talked to the doctor, he asked me why I wanted to do this. My reason was that I wanted to be a better, faster, smaller, healthier basketball player. This was one of the reasons that he thought that I was ready for the surgery. I didn't want this surgery to look good or to fit into cute clothes. I wanted to be healthier. This is what I think makes the difference between teenagers.

Woah, I am not quite sure what my point is here. I just got kind of defensive over the younger surgeries. I think that it is good for us. More time for us to become healthier. But I do agree, you need to be mature enough to understand what is going on and be willing to work WITH the band.

[travelgirl 3]

I guess I'll weigh in....

I think this was an awful idea. I don't think that a 12 year old is ready for the changes that this will force on them. I have read WAY TOO MANY posts on this very board (by adults that KNOW BETTER) that say that they aren't losing weight because they can't eat the right foods comfortably, so they eat the easy foods, which are typically NOT healthy foods. This CHILD who probably DOESN'T KNOW BETTER) could SO easily resort to eating crap because that's what's easy (not to mention what's available at school).

I have a 12 year old niece who is overweight, and when I was on my pre-op liquid diet, her mother and I were talking about it, and the fact that I'd lost 11 lbs in 5 days, and my niece said, maybe I should go on a liquid diet...... She didn't understand that a liquid diet might not include milkshakes, juice, pop, capuccino.... We started talking about calories, weight loss, exercise, etc... and it was very clear to me that while she's very intelligent in many areas, this whole concept was beyond her grasp, even though she's been watching as her mom has been participating in a contest through her work loosely based on "the biggest loser" where she's managed through a SENSIBLE diet and EXERCISE to lose 60 lbs.

I just think this is a BAD idea.